On my recent trip to Paris (pre-Omicron), I visited the Louis Vuitton Foundation, to see the blockbuster exhibit "The Morozov Collection: Icons of Modern Art". Most private collections I have seen in museums are smallish, intimate, and narrowly focused. Not this one! The Morozov brothers were textile magnates in pre-Revolutionary Russia. Starting in 1903, they amassed a collection of French and Russian art that would constitute a museum in itself. Reuniting these works (which were dispersed to state museums following the Bolshevik Revolution) makes for a sprawling, staggering, mind-blowing show that can truly be called "historic".
Much has been written about the exhibit, so I don't want to repeat a bunch of superlatives. Instead, I am writing about just one of the many things that struck me: the range of Henri Matisse. Midway through the exhibit I saw a beautiful still life whose creator I could not identify. As I admired the work and lingered with it, I saw that it was a painting by Matisse. So unlike the Fauvist work he is commonly known for.
Next to it hung another quiet still life, dark in palette, almost reminiscent of Chardin. Surprise, it was another Matisse. I don't know how I have missed these early works before now.
Fast forward a decade or so from these early works, and the exhibit included masterpieces from Matisse's travels in Morocco. Again, much has been written about Matisse's time in Morocco as a turning point in his work. The dramatic evolution in his painting could not be clearer. And surely it reflects what was going on in the art world at the time. Modernism was blowing off old traditions, and forging a new way of seeing and painting.
I was drawn to Matisse's Moroccan triptych, two parts of which are pictured above. In the second painting, I especially loved the way his blue shadow swallowed all the details in its path. Ostensibly about the light and shadow of Tangier, to me this painting is all about the symphony of the blues. Their coolness makes the warmth of the light shine all the more.
One wonders whether this exhibit could have been brought off today, given the diplomatic issues involved, and the requirement that Putin personally endorse certain elements. Such a thought adds to the "once in a lifetime" aspect of the show. If you have a chance--the show has been extended to April 3, 2022. If you can't go to Paris, you can book a virtual tour of the Morozov Collection show online here. FYI, I thought the reproductions in the catalog were not good, but the online viewing is excellent.
PS as of March 4, 2022: With the outbreak of war, I have read this:
Blockbuster Show of Russian Collection Is Still in Paris – A landmark exhibition of the collection of Russian brothers Mikhail and Ivan Morozov remains on loan at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in France until April 3. The show required a colossal diplomatic effort, including Putin’s personal sign off on the loans. But in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, some are asking whether the French state can and should seize the collection, which includes treasures by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Monet, and Picasso. It is one of the most valuable modern art collections in the world, and hadn’t left Russia since the turn of the 20th century. (Artfix Daily, Le Figaro)
But LUXUS reports:
“According to the law in force since August 10, 1994, the French state cannot sequester these paintings, pastels and sculptures because they belong to foreign public institutions,” explains lawyer Olivier de Baecque, a specialist in art law. In addition, a decree of unseizability was taken on February 19, 2021 by the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Culture concerning the arrival of works in France. “Before each exhibition, it is sufficient to promulgate an order of unseizability, and to extend the device in case of prolongation of the event. ”
