In 2022, a special exhibition of the artworks featuring in The Red Studio by Henri Matisse will be on display in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the National Gallery (Statens Museum for Kunst / SMK) in Copenhagen.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the National Gallery of Denmark (SMK) will bring together for the first time in a century the surviving artworks depicted in Henri Matisse’s The Red Studio painting. The core of the exhibition will feature the large The Red Studio painting owned by the MoMA alongside the surviving six paintings and four sculptures depicted in it. The exhibition Henri Matisse – The Red Studio will be on display at MoMA from 1 May to 11 September 2022 and at SMK in Copenhagen from 14 October 2022 to 26 February 2023. Buy tickets online from Tiqest for the MoMA and SMK.
Henri Matisse’s The Red Studio in the MoMA
In 1911, the French artist Henri Matisse (1869–1954) painted The Red Studio. Matisse is considered one of the great masters of twentieth-century art, and the painting is regarded as a key painting in Matisse’s oeuvre and a foundational work in the history of modern art. Owned by The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the picture is one of the museum’s most important works and a favorite with artists and audiences alike.
The large canvas — it measures a substantial 181 x 219 cm, larger than the average double bed — depicts Matisse’s studio in the Parisian suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux filled with his own paintings, sculptures, furniture, and decorative objects. The most remarkable feature of The Red Studio is Matisse’s decision to saturate the painting’s surface with monochrome red covering walls, floor, and furniture of the interior – a radical move whose significance is still discussed today.
Henri Matisse — The Red Studio Exhibition 2022
In 2022, the special Henri Matisse — The Red Studio exhibition will first in the MoMA and then in the SMK position The Red Studio alongside the surviving six paintings and four sculptures depicted in it. Three of these paintings belong to SMK and are highlights of the museum’s collection: Le Luxe II (1907–08), Nude with a White Scarf (1909), and Nymph and Faun (c. 1911). The latter was acquired by the museum in 2018.
All the works shown in The Red Studio date from the period 1898 to 1911 and the location of several of the objects has only recently been discovered in connection with this project.
The exhibition will also feature a range of other Matisse paintings and drawings closely associated with The Red Studio as well as a rich selection of photos, letters, and documents that reveal new information about the painting’s subject and history.
The exhibition Henri Matisse – The Red Studio will be on display at MoMA from 1 May to 11 September 2022 and at SMK from 14 October 2022 to 26 February 2023. Buy tickets online — around $25 for the MoMA and for the SMK DKK120 (just below $20), or save with the Copenhagen City Card.
The Red Studio in the SMK
In the autumn of 2022, the painting will travel to Copenhagen as part of an exhibition co-organized with MoMA. The ambitious and focused exhibition will offer a unique opportunity to experience The Red Studio in Denmark. Here visitors can scrutinize Matisse’s choice of subject matter and gain rare insight into his working methods at a crucial point in his career.
“A few years ago, a long-held dream came one step closer to coming true when our colleagues from MoMA asked us if we wanted to collaborate on an exhibition centered on what may be Matisse’s most important painting The Red Studio, which only very rarely leaves the museum in New York. This exhibition gives our audience a unique opportunity to see key works from SMK’s large Matisse collection presented around one of the absolute masterpieces of European modernism. It’s going to be huge!” says Mikkel Bogh, director of SMK.
The National Gallery of Denmark (SMK) owns one of the most important Matisse collections outside of France. The collection includes twenty-five paintings and sculptures as well as a large number of works on paper. The scope and significance of the collection are partly due to the fact that in 1928 Johannes Rump, an engineer, politician, and art collector, donated his private collection of modern French art to the museum.
→ See Visit the National Gallery of Denmark for more information on the SMK — bring a child under 18 years along for discounted admission.
