The Oasis of Matisse: online ticket sales have started

Amsterdam, 12 March 2015 – With over 100 works on loan from 35 leading international museums including the Tate, MoMA, Musée Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis and the Pushkin State Museum in Moscow, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam presents the most comprehensive survey of Matisse ever shown in the Netherlands. The exhibition occupies half of the ground floor galleries, the hall of honor and the first floor gallery suite to the rear. Covering over 21,500 square feet The Oasis of Matisse is one of the largest-ever exhibitions in the Stedelijk’s history.

For the first time, the Stedelijk is offering visitors the chance to reserve a time slot when they buy a ticket, to ensure that everyone gets the most out of their visit to the exhibition. Online ticket sales kicked off this week. When purchasing their E-ticket, visitors are asked to choose a date and time. Once inside the museum, they can stay as long as they wish. A ticket surcharge applies: tickets cost € 20 rather than the usual € 15. Museum Card holders pay € 5. Visitors pay the surcharge just once (the usual admission price applies to repeat visits). Friends of the Stedelijk have free admission, and can visit as often as they like; they also have access through a special Members entrance.

The Oasis of Matisse

The Stedelijk conceived a unique exhibition concept for The Oasis of Matisse: the permanent collection on the ground floor is enriched with a selection of Matisse masterpieces, creating surprising combinations with the work of his contemporaries, teachers and followers. Visitors discover how, in 1914, Mondrian and Matisse were both pushing towards abstraction but in very different ways, and how raw the work of Matisse is when contrasted with German Expressionists like Kirchner.

After following Matisse’s development on the ground floor, on the first floor, visitors enter the oasis that Matisse created as a mature artist. Where the downstairs galleries revealed how the surface became progressively flatter in this part of the exhibition visitors can admire his world-famous cut-outs in their full glory. At the heart of this presentation is The Parakeet and the Mermaid, which Matisse considered his finest cut-out. This perennial favorite is on display together with other monumental Matisse cut-outs that have rarely, if ever, been seen in the Netherlands such as Memory of Oceania from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Snail from the collection Tate Modern, London and The Sheaf from the Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles. Also featured are seldom exhibited works in textile and stained glass which were inspired by the cut-outs.

The cut-outs: a revolutionary final chapter

As one of the founders of modern art, Henri Matisse (1868-1954) is among the most-admired artists of the twentieth century. His favorite subjects include interiors with Eastern nudes, colorful fabrics, carpets, potted plants and idyllic landscapes. Matisse excelled in blending foreground and background into a dazzling pictorial plane—the sumptuous patterns of a tablecloth overflow into a woman’s dress, or wallpaper. Matisse seeks inspiration in Algeria, Morocco, Nice and Tahiti. There, he discovers a paradise that he evokes in undulating lines and flat areas of color.

Matisse later became an internationally celebrated artist. So it was all the more astonishing when, at the end of his life, he set off in an entirely new direction to make monumental, ornament-like cut-outs. But in surveying Matisse’s entire oeuvre, it is clear that from his earliest modern works until his death the artist sought to evoke a bright, joyous simplicity with the minimum of color and shape.

To learn more about the exhibition, you can read the previous press release here.

The Oasis of Matisse is curated by:
Bart Rutten, head of collections, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
Geurt Imanse, curator visual art
Suzanna Héman, assistant curator works on paper
Maurice Rummens, academic staff member
Ceciel Stoutjesdijk, curator in training
Exhibition design by Marcel Schmalgemeijer.

Catalogue

The Stedelijk Museum is publishing a richly illustrated catalogue in which Matisse’s work is contrasted with that of Chagall, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Picasso, and others. The catalogue also sheds light on the late work of Matisse, including his monumental cut-outs. Included are a foreword by Stedelijk director Beatrix Ruf, an introduction by curators Bart Rutten and Geurt Imanse and essays by Matisse experts Maurice Rummens and Patrice Deparpe that explore key themes and defining moments in the life and work of Matisse. The recollections of his studio assistant Paule Caen-Martin provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the great artist. (In collaboration with Walther König Verlag, 288 pages, 150 plates, Dutch and English, € 25 / € 39.80, ISBN 978-3-86335-728-3)

Essay Abdelkader Benali

Matisse travelled widely, including voyages to Morocco. Especially for the exhibition, writer Abdelkader Benali transports the reader to Tangier, an achingly beautiful city on the Moroccan coast, the essence of which Matisse captured in his paintings. The shapes of the city, and Moroccan culture, influenced the way in which Matisse used color. In Het blauw van the zee en de blauw van de stad Benali reveals the oasis Matisse discovered in Morocco. (In collaboration with Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers, 80 pages, € 9.99, Dutch, ISBN 978-90-295-3895-4)
A film version of his trip, by Mario de Munnik and Els Hoek will be viewable on ARTtube.

Children's book: The Parakeet, the Mermaid and the Snail

The exhibition is also accompanied by a children’s book written and illustrated by Annemarie van Haeringen. As a child, she was drawn to the work of Matisse and cut-outs inspired by the great artist regularly feature in her own work. In The Parakeet, the Mermaid and the Snail, Monsieur Matisse is a painter with the sun in his belly. His colors make everyone happy. When he wakes up after a serious operation, he longs for color. ‘Bring me brushes, bring me paint!’ (In collaboration with Uitgeverij Leopold, 32 pages, € 14.99, Dutch and English, ISBN 978-90-258-6755-3)

Public Program: The Oasis of Matisse

Sunday 19 April 2015, 7.15 pm
stedelijk|film Matisse: Voyage and Vision in the Art of Matisse
An evening that looks at how Matisse inspired (experimental) filmmakers. Roger Benjamin, professor of art history at the University of Sydney) sheds light on Matisse’s art and travels with the help of early film footage of the countries Matisse visited: Algeria, Morocco and Tahiti. Included is rare material by the Lumière Brothers and F.W. Murnau. Benjamin also reveals new insights about the Matisse masterpiece, the monumental cut-out The Parakeet and the Mermaid.
Language: English
Location: EYE Film Museum Amsterdam
Bookings: click here

Friday 1, 15 and 29 May + 19 June 2015
stedelijk|gallery talks: Matisse through the eyes of experts, artists and curators who give an in-depth guided tour of the exhibition.
Language: Dutch
Speakers to be announced.

Thursday 14 May 2015
stedelijk|forum: Restoring Matisse: Behind The Scenes. Underneath The Cut-Outs
Language: English
Location: Teijin Auditorium
More information to be announced on our website.
 
stedelijk|symposium: Matisse: Orientalism and exoticism in the work of Matisse
Date to be announced
Language: English
Location: Teijin Auditorium
More information to be announced on our website.

Educational program

Family Lab: Henri’s Garden
Throughout The Oasis of Matisse, the popular Rabobank Family Lab will be known as Henri’s Garden. Families can join in and explore their creativity there, and make cut-outs, just like Matisse. Also available is the free Family Trail Bonjour Henri: an active voyage of discovery through the artworks of this great twentieth-century master.

Workshops for children
Children aged between 6 and 12 can enjoy the free workshops every Sunday afternoon. The workshop given by Annemarie van Haeringen on 29 March is sold out, but you have another chance to take part when the workshop’s repeated on Sunday 10 May. For these and other workshops about The Oasis of Matisse, click here.

Blikopeners
The Stedelijk’s young peer educators, the Blikopeners, are also inspired by Matisse. Their Mood App has been expanded with the Spring Fever tour, and takes you through the joyous world of Matisse. The Blikopeners are also producing the video ‘Matties with Matisse’ which takes a look at the techniques he used, and also includes assignments for you to do at home, see ARTtube. Every Saturday from 2—3 pm, the Blikopeners also give free guided tours. You don’t need to book—just register at the Information Desk. On Saturday 18 April and Saturday 16 May, young people can take part in two workshops run by artists.

Activities for Adults, Schools and Colleges
There are also activities for school students, with programs about Matisse for levels from vocational secondary education through to pre-university education (VMBO/HAVO/VWO) such as So you think you can cut? For more information, click here. Adults can dive into the depths with the Stedelijk Academy and participate in one of the join-in guided tours or Walk & Talks. For more information, click here.

Arttube.nl
You can also watch videos about Matisse at ARTtube. Included is the short intro video and a special edition of Abdelkader Benali’s trip to Tangier where he follows in the footsteps of Matisse. Why does Matisse matter so much to him?

Note to editors:
You are welcome to attend the press preview at 10 am on Wednesday, 25 March 2015. Please click here to register.

You can find a selection of images here. For more information and high res images please contact the Stedelijk Museum Press Office at pressoffice@stedelijk.nl.