Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is one of the most famous artists of modernism. His groundbreaking
work had a significant influence on his time and many later generations of artists to this day.
By liberating color from the motif and simplifying forms he redefined painting and brought a
hitherto unknown lightness to art. Matisse was also an innovator in sculpture and in his late
silhouettes he developed an unmistakable interplay between painting drawing and sculpture. The
Matisse retrospective at the Fondation Beyeler spans all of the artist's creative phases. It
begins with the early paintings from around 1900 continues with the revolutionary paintings of
Fauvism and the experimental works of the 1910s then moves on to the sensual paintings of the
Nice period and the 1930s and finally culminates in the legendary silhouettes of the late
1940s and 1950s. This wealth of important paintings sculptures and silhouettes reveals the
development and richness of Matisse¿ unique oeuvre. The exhibition begins with Charles
Baudelaire's 1857 poem Invitation to the Voyage to which Matisse repeatedly referred.
Following Baudelaire's poem the exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler is thus also conceived as
a journey through the work and life of Matisse in which travel played an important role.
