Fresh from a successful three-month run at the Art Institute of Chicago and currently up at MoMA, the massive “Matisse: Radical Invention: 1913-1917†focuses on an underexamined, oft-dismissed period in the artist’s career, when he was fresh from his inspirational trip to Morocco but before he had departed for Nice. The works feature geometric composition, an emphasis on rich blacks and grays, and a distinct lack of detail; viewed together, they form an intriguing narrative and provide deep insight into the artist’s development and process. But most important, Henri himself would be pleased with the exhibition: He named two of the works on view — Bathers by a River and the The Moroccans — as among his most “pivotal.†Nous approuvons! On view through October 11.
