moma love

"Bathers by a river" by Henry Matisse

This review of the Museum of Modern Art’s “Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917”(organised by MoMA's chief curator emeritus of painting and sculpture John Elderfield and the Art Institute of Chicago's curator of modern art Stephanie D'Alessandro) makes me really want to be there right now.

Focusing on four crucial years of his career, it's the kind of exhibit I love; specific and thought-provoking, bringing to light revelations (well, to me anyway) I'd never thought about before. Like when the lenses of your camera focus and suddenly there is clarity and sharpness.

Some very impressive (again, to me) technology was used to track the changes made on each work by Matisse and you can see how the work evolve and surmise Matisse's thought process as he went along. A CSI fan like me is predictably excited by this. This interactive feature on The New York Times describes the process better than I do, check it out.

Picture from the Art Institute of Chicago