The National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館) has hosted several popular exhibitions this year, but its current "Matisse ? L'emotion du trait, le don de l'espace" stands a good chance of becoming the most popular.
What has drawn the crowds is the comprehensive lineup of 212 sets of works on loan from 33 museums and private collectors worldwide, making it the largest Matisse exhibition in Asia to date. And the theme is distinctive as well: the Chinese artistic ideas evinced in Matisse's works.
Curator and artist Su Mei?yu (
"By just intensely observing Chinese paintings and objets d'art, Matisse was able to understand the major concepts behind Chinese paintings and incorporate them into his works," Su said. His lifelong search for a solution to the problem between lines and colors concluded in a Chinese way. Chinese ink painting's application of lines and colors inspired Matisse to "paint" with paper-cuttings. "That's Matisse's method of creating lines and colors at the same time," said Su.
The encounter with Chinese culture started with his costume and stage design in 1919 for the ballet production Le Chant du Rossignol, which was set in an ancient Chinese court. For the commission, Matisse undertook extensive research at the Louvre and Guimet, whose collections of china, paintings, sculptures and Buddhist artifacts opened his eyes to Chinese art.
Costume de pleureur pour le ballet le Chant du Rossignol, as well as drafts for other costumes in the performance are on show.
Back in 1905, when the term Fauvism was coined in Paris with Matisse as its exemplar, the need to seek inspiration from the Eastern traditions was urgently felt, but the concept of the East was a blurry assortment of Japanese, Chinese and Islamic elements. Unsatisfied with dabbling in "Eastern" thinking, Matisse commenced an intensive study of Chinese art, according to Su.
More significantly, Chinese calligraphy's emphasis on the calligrapher's state of mind coincides with Matisse's own theories.
"When we paint a tree, we should feel like we're growing with the tree" is one of Matisse's favorite Chinese saying.
To achieve this state of mind, Matisse had to study the same subject over and over so that he could recreate it. His 1952 paper-cutting Snails followed repeated studies of one snail until he had condensed the shape of the animal into a symbol.
The equal importance given to subject and negative space in Chinese ink paintings also inspired Matisse. His 1951 Le Platane illustrates that "the intended space between leaves are as important as the leaves themselves," Matisse wrote to a friend in 1943.
Apart from the Chinese influence, the exhibition also includes Matisse's early explorations of colors, his Fauvist phase, and his later decorative works.
Su hopes that "viewers will see Matisse anew, more than as a Fauvist master. His love for Chinese art and his works inspired by it far better define the artist."
In the past six years, the theme of exhibition has become more relevant. "Though some people [in Taiwan] are sensitive to the phrase `Chinese culture,' we must never give up our heritage. If people realize what valuable concepts Matisse's and Chinese art have in common, hopefully they will see Chinese culture from a new perspective," Su said.
What: "Matisse ? L'emotion du trait, le don de l'espace"
Where: The National Museum of History, 49 Nanhai Rd., Taipei (
When: until Feb. 16, 2003
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