Matisse, paires et séries

After a successful Edvard Munch retrospective, the Pompidou Centre turns to Henri Matisse for an introspective exhibition on Fauvism (Matisse, paires et séries), and more specifically Matisse’s role as the ‘first’ Fauvist painter. Throughout his career (1899 to 1952) Matisse’s art was anchored in duplication: From his first etchings to his famous 1950’s decoupages he frequently covered the same subjects over and over; he also used the same motifs and patterns. The ‘Matisse, paires et séries’ exhibition, which contains around sixty paintings, puts this ‘serial repetition’ into the limelight and dissects the creation of a man whose artistic legacy has turned him into a veritable modernist behemoth.