MoMA "reconstructs" Matisse's "Red Studio” From May 1 to September 11, 2022, the Museum of Modern Art presents an exhibition that brings together several of the artworks featured in "The Red Studio", one of Henri Matisse's most celebrated paintings. Image:  Henri Matisse. "The Red Studio. 1911. Oil on canvas (181 x 219.1 cm, 71 1/4″ x 7′ 2 1/4″). Museum of Modern Art, New York. 2022 H. Matisse Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Painted in 1911, "L'Atelier Rouge" (The Red Studio) is one of the great jewels of the Museum of Modern Art and the most important Matisse in its collection, along with the first version of "The Dance" (1909). The painting -which depicts the artist's studio in Issy-les-Moulineaux, built in 1909- is immediately recognisable by the intense red colour that pervades the painting. Although the studio depicted is not excessively large, Matisse included in the scene a remarkable number of works of art -both paintings and sculptures- that he had created years before painting “The Red Studio”. Now, the Museum of Modern Art in New York has managed to bring together several of the artworks featured in the painting, as well as archival material and other related works that help to contextualise the painting within the artist's career. The most famous of the paintings featured in "The Red Studio" did not have to travel far to be part of the exhibition. Owned by the neighbouring Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Le Jeune Marin II” (Young Sailor II) is one of the most important works created by Matisse during the height of Fauvism (1905-1906). The National Gallery of Denmark, which will host the exhibition from 13 October 2022 to 26 February 2023, has loaned three works, "Le Luxe II" (1907-08), "Nude with White Scarf" (1909), and "Bathers" (1907). “Now 110 years old, ‘The Red Studio’ is both a landmark within the centuries-long tradition of studio paintings and a foundational work of modern art,” says Ann Temkin, Curator of Painting and Sculpture, MoMA. “The picture remains a touchstone for any artist taking on the task of portraying their studio. Matisse’s radical decision to saturate the work’s surface with a layer of red has fascinated generations of scholars and artists. Yet much remains to be explored in terms of the painting’s origin and history.”

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