By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN WEST — An X-rayed painting provided the inspiration for the new exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, which viewers a new perspective on a pivotal period of work by the historic artist Henri Matisse.
"Matisse: Radical Invention: 1913 – 1917," which opens at the MoMA on Sunday, explores Matisse’s work in this brief four-year period to reveal it as a significant chapter in his evolution as an artist with most of his work stripped of detail and highly geometric.
"What I hope we’ve been able to offer with this exhibit is to see one of the most significant artists of the 20th century in a new, modern way," Stephanie D’Alessandro, the modern art curator at The Art Institute of Chicago and the co-curator of the Matisse exhibit, said on Tuesday.
Based on X-rayed layers of Matisse’s "Bathers by a River" (1909 – 1917), which he spent eight years on and off painting and repainting, co-curators D'Alessandro of The Art Institute and John Elderfield of MoMA created an exhibition that shows the changes in the artist’s work in a short amount of time.
Elderfield and D’Alessandro used digital technologies, laser scanning and ultraviolet illumination to reveal Matisse’s creative process. A video tracing the artist’s steps in painting "Bathers," as well as a bronze sculpture entitled "Back," is on display one of the galleries.
The exhibition includes approximately 120 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints, primarily from the years of 1913–17, in the first sustained examination devoted to the work of this important period.
"It gives you a sense of how much more there is to discover about Matisse’s work," said Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art.
"From a period that we all thought we knew reasonably well came this large scale exhibition," Lowry added.
In an impromptu speech at MoMA’s press conference for the exhibit on Tuesday, Matisse’s grandson, Claude Duthuit, spoke of his grandfather’s love for New York City, noting that it is appropriate that a Matisse exhibition of this scale be on display in New York.
"Matisse: Radival Invention: 1913 – 1917" opens at the Museum of Modern Art on July 18 and runs through October 11. MoMA is located at 11 West 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
