Works to Know by Heart: Matisse in Focus
Tate Liverpool: Display
Exhibition runs Friday 20 November 2015 – Monday 2 May 2016
FREE
This autumn Tate Liverpool presents one of the most iconic works ever made by Henri Matisse – The Snail 1953. Due to the delicate nature of the work, this is your only opportunity to see The Snail outside of London, as this masterpiece will not tour to other venues in our lifetime.
At almost three metres square, The Snail is one of Matisse’s largest and most significant paper cut-out works. Made by cutting and tearing shapes from paper hand painted by his assistants in a range of bright colours, Matisse began experimenting with this cut-out method in the late 1930s, adopting it wholeheartedly by the late 1940s when ill health prevented him from painting.
Shown alongside The Snail will be additional Matisse works from Tate’s collection that span the genres of portraiture, landscape and still life, encompassing sculpture, painting and works on paper.
Displaying works from 1899 onwards, Matisse in Focus will represent over 50 years of this giant of modern art’s fascinating and impressive career. Not to be missed!
Matisse in Focus is programmed in parallel with An Imagined Museum: works from the Pompidou, Tate and MMK collections to form Tate Liverpool’s autumn/winter season. Works to Know by Heart encourages visitors to re-consider their relationship with the artworks on display, proposing questions around this relationship and exploring what the works mean to them.