The National Art Center, Tokyo to hold “Henri Matisse – Forms in Freedom” from February 2024

The exhibition “Henri Matisse – Forms in Freedom” will be held at the National Art Center, Tokyo from February 14 to May 27, 2024.

Henri Matisse is known as a central figure of the “Fauvisme” (Fauviste) school, which was characterized by bold expressions free from colors that were faithful to nature, and is also called the “Magician of Colors. He energetically produced kirigami paintings, in which he used scissors to cut out paper coated in various colors.

This is the first exhibition in Japan focusing on Matisse’s paper cutouts, and is fully supported by the Matisse Museum in Nice, France, which holds an important collection of his works, including “Flowers and Fruits,” a huge paper cutout of 4 x 8 meters, and the Rosary Chapel in Vanis, a suburb of Nice, where interior decoration and priest’s uniforms were designed by applying paper cutouts. In addition, approximately 150 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, and textiles will be exhibited.