MIDTOWN SOUTH— Fans of Henri Matisse have until Monday to catch an exhibit of the French modernist’s illustrations and book projects at the Morgan Library & Museum.
Graphic Passion: Matisse and the Book Arts, which includes work from nearly 50 books that Matisse Illustrated and produced between 1912 and his death in 1954, offers a glimpse into an aspect of his life’s work that is less well known than his more famous printmaking and painting projects.
Matisse’s book work was unusual in that he was much more involved in the projects than other contemporaries who did similar work, taking an active hand in illustrating, pairing images with text, and overseeing layout, according to curator John Bidwell.
“Most of his contemporaries would produce illustrations and leave it to the book people, but he was interested in the book as a product of art itself and supervised every step of production,” Bidwell said.
These are no picture books. Matisse believed in creating art for books that stood independently of the text and vice versa, but he carefully paired art with text that complimented each other, Bidwell said.
“He believed strongly that the artist should not render incidents, characters, or scenery,” Bidwell said. “The work set a mood for what you were reading.”
The Morgan Library & Museum, located at 225 Madison Ave. at East 36th Street is open from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
