The Scuderie del Quirinale Museum in Rome is about to open a new exhibition dedicated to the great French painter Henri Matisse, one of the best known artists of the twentieth century. The show will bring together the most known painter’s works from all over the world. Tate, MET, MoMa, Pushkin, Pompidou, Orangerie, Philadelphia, Washington and, of course, St. Petersburg’s Hermitage, that wards the richest and most important worldwide collection of Matisse’s masterpieces, will share their heritage with the Italian capital for only four months: from March 4th to June 21st. Thus, “Arabesque” will offer to its visitors an incredible and unique artistic journey made of more than one hundred Matisse’s works on display.
The collection will present such masterpieces as “Zorah on the Terrace” (1912), “Moroccan in Green” (1913), “Portrait of Yvonne Landsberg” (1914), “Girl with a Persian Cap” (1915-16) and “The Moorish Screen” (1921).
These and many other exhibited “Arabesque” canvas will be an evocative anthology of vibrant dyes and suggestive motifs borrowed by the painter from Eastern cultures. They will show the way Matisse explores a new theory of colors and space taking advantage of his experience.
Since the last decade of the XIX century Matisse, in fact, started to be involved with that far (at least at that time) and suggestive part of the world. First, at a distance, without moving from Europe, thanks to his teachers at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and due to his personal interest toward Eastern artifacts. He explored the vast Islamic collection of Louvre, Islamic arts at the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, and then, during the World Exhibition of 1900, such Muslim counters pavilions as Turkey, Persia, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt.
However, the real commencement of Matisse’s Arabesque aesthetics started at the beginning... Read the rest of the article and see more pictures on Cultural Italy, San Diego, CA, USA
Text by Maria Novozhilova
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