The exhibition brings together eighty-five artworks (lithographs, drawings, pochoir or linocuts, etc.) by one of the most important creators of modern art: Henri Matisse (Le Chateau-Cambrésis 1869 – Nice 1954). The artist’s spirituality, homogeneous in all his works during his mature period, can be appreciated in them.
The artistic period covered by the exhibition, which began around the time of the Second World War and runs until the artist’s last days, is marked by a great spirituality and the joie de vivre which Matisse wishes to reflect; an explosion of joy and peace in his spirit. Special emphasis is placed on one of the most important works of his last artistic period: the Matisse Chapel in Vence, on the Côte d’Azur, a unitary project in which he was involved in the architectural development and its decoration.
The exhibition is completed by a video on this chapel and a series of photographs that belonged to its author Hélène Adant, which were used to illustrate in 1951 The Rosary Chapel of the Dominican Sisters of Vence, Matisse’s book on this piece, about which he himself acknowledges: “For me, this chapel is the culmination of a lifetime of work and the flowering of a great, sincere and difficult effort […]. A part of this human expression […] will remain alive, capable of bringing together the past and the future of the plastic tradition”.