Henri Matisse – Invitation to the Voyage at the Fondation Beyeler
Henri Matisse is one of the most celebrated and respected Modernist artists of the 20th century. His use of colour and his simplification of form was nothing short of revolutionary.
Henri Matisse is one of the most celebrated and respected Modernist artists of the 20th century. His use of colour and his simplification of form was nothing short of revolutionary.
Explore revolutionary art from a true master: Henri Matisse – Invitation to the Voyage at the Fondation Beyeler Museum
Matisse created artworks that changed how artists used light, shape, and colour. In terms of early 20th-century masters, perhaps only Picasso can rival Matisse in terms of the impact made on the visual arts. Matisse is a genius who transformed the art world in his mission to capture and share his visions of beauty and wonder.
The Fondation Beyeler Museum pays tribute to the great master with the Matisse - Invitation to the Voyage exhibition. On display from September 2024 to January 2025, the Invitation to the Voyage exhibition is a carefully curated journey through every era of Matisse’s artistic oeuvre. The exhibition is essential viewing for those who are well acquainted with the work of Matisse and for anyone who has yet to discover his remarkable masterpieces.
Paying tribute to a giant of the art world
The Invitation to the Voyage exhibition is the first major Henri Matisse retrospective in Switzerland and other German-speaking countries for more than two decades. The exhibition takes the viewer through a fascinating journey through Matisse’s life, travels, and his most famous artworks.
There are more than 70 of the master’s works on display. The artworks are on loan to the Fondation Beyeler Museum from private collections and European and American museums.
Painstakingly curated by Raphaël Bouvier, the exhibition uses Charles Baudelaire’s 1857 poem Invitation to the Voyage as a conceptual starting point. Baudelaire’s words evoke many of Matisse’s key motifs and themes such as his passion for travel. Matisse drew artistic inspiration from his expeditions to countries such as Spain, Italy, Russia, Morocco, the United States and Tahiti. He also repeatedly evoked the words of Baudelaire’s poem, making it a more than fitting title and concept for the exhibition.
Henri Matisse. Formes Libres » National Art Center de Tokyo.
Credit : National Art Center
A journey through Matisse’s entire oeuvre
All stages of Matisse’s incredible career and every aspect of his development as an artist are showcased. The exhibition begins with Matisse’s works from the early 1900’s then moves to his Fauvist revolutionary paintings and his experimental works.
The viewer is then taken through the evocatively sensual paintings of Matisse’s Nice period and onto his work from the 1930s. The exhibition reaches its crescendo with Matisse’s illustrious, renowned late cut-out works of the 1940s and 1950s.
Invitation to the Voyage includes many of Matisse’s most treasured and well-known masterpieces. Major works such as La desserte (The Dinner Table), 1896/1897, La fenêtre ouverte, Collioure (The Open Window, Collioure), 1905 are on display as well as Figure décorative sur fond ornemental (Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground) 1925/1926, Intérieur au rideau égyptien (Interior with an Egyptian Curtain), 1948, and Nu bleu I (Blue Nude I), 1952.
Henri Matisse, « Grand nu couché (Nu rose) », 1935.
Credit : Succession H. Matisse © Photo Baltimore Museum of Art / Mitro Hood
Details of the Matisse – Invitation to the Voyage at the Fondation Beyeler exhibition
The Matisse – Invitation to the Voyage retrospective is being shown at the Fondation Beyeler Museum in Riehen, near Basel, Switzerland.
The exhibition will run from 22 September 2024 until 26 January 2025.
Tickets for the exhibition are available online or at the gallery and are priced at CHF 30 for an adult ticket, CHF 25 for admission IV (disability certificate holders), and CHF 25 for Baselcard holders. Entry is free for people 25 years or younger as well as those who are members of the museum.
Please note that the Fondation Beyeler Museum recommends purchasing tickets online before visiting. Timed tickets for members or concession holders can be purchased via the website. The Museum states that only 19 tickets can be purchased online at any time and groups of more than 29 people must register and provide details of group size and arrival times prior to booking.
Opening hours of the Fondation Beyeler Museum are from 10 am to 6 pm Monday to Sunday. The museum also has late opening hours from 10 am to 8 pm on Wednesdays and from 10 am to 10 pm on Fridays.
