BMA Presents First Exhibition to Show the Influence of Henri Matisse on Richard Diebenkorn

Landmark exhibition will offer an unprecedented view of both artists

BALTIMORE, MD (May 12, 2016)—The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) presents the first major exhibition to explore the profound influence of French artist Henri Matisse on the work of American artist Richard Diebenkorn. Co-organized with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and on view at the BMA October 23, 2016 – January 29, 2017, Matisse/Diebenkorn brings together 92 objects—including 36 paintings and drawings by Matisse and 56 paintings and drawings by Diebenkorn—drawn from museums and private collections throughout the U.S. and Europe. These extraordinary artworks reveal the lasting power of Diebenkorn’s firsthand experiences of the French artist’s work and present a new view of both artists. The BMA is the only East Coast venue for this ticketed exhibition.

“While much has been written about Matisse’s influence on Diebenkorn, this is the first major exhibition to illustrate the powerful influence of Matisse’s work on one of America’s most significant artists,” said Senior Curator of European Painting & Sculpture Katy Rothkopf. “We have carefully selected works by Matisse that Diebenkorn would have known, providing visitors to the BMA’s exhibition with the unprecedented opportunity to discover Matisse through Diebenkorn’s eyes.”

Throughout his long and successful career, Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) was more inspired by Henri Matisse (1869-1954) than any other artist. Organized chronologically through Diebenkorn’s career, the exhibition illuminates how this influence evolved over time through different pairings and groupings of both artists’ work. The exhibition begins in the 1940s with some of the first Matisse works that Diebenkorn saw in the Palo Alto home of Sarah Stein, one of the French artist’s first patrons. Following that introduction, he sought every opportunity to see Matisse’s work. While stationed at Quantico, Virginia, during World War II, Diebenkorn pursued a serious study of Matisse’s paintings in East Coast museums, including The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the BMA. These seminal examples introduced Diebenkorn to the motifs, palette, and techniques that would later have a tremendous resonance in his own paintings and drawings.

The exhibition also features outstanding examples of Diebenkorn’s Urbana and Berkeley abstractions (1953-55) that demonstrate the significant impact of his visit to a Matisse retrospective in Los Angeles in 1952. A rich selection of exceptional paintings and drawings from the artist’s representational period (1955-67) illustrate his shift from abstraction towards identifiable subject matter and are paired with some of Matisse’s own compositions that were of particular relevance. Diebenkorn saw extensive collections of works by Matisse in the State Hermitage Museum and the Pushkin Museum during a trip to the Soviet Union in 1964. This was followed by a visit two years later to a major Matisse retrospective in Los Angeles, where he saw over 300 artworks. Two highly significant Matisse paintings that Diebenkorn saw in the 1966 retrospective are featured in the exhibition.

Diebenkorn returned to abstraction in 1967, soon after moving to Southern California and establishing a studio in the Ocean Park neighborhood of Santa Monica, where he created his most celebrated works—large-scale, color and light-filled abstractions. The exhibition will conclude with nine of these luminous Ocean Park paintings (1968-80) juxtaposed with a selection of Matisse’s most influential works.

Exhibition Organization & Sponsorship

About the Baltimore Museum of Art

Founded in 1914, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) inspires people of all ages and backgrounds through exhibitions, programs, and collections that tell an expansive story of art—challenging long-held narratives and embracing new voices. Our outstanding collection of more than 97,000 objects spans many eras and cultures and includes the world’s largest public holding of works by Henri Matisse; one of the nation’s finest collections of prints, drawings, and photographs; and a rapidly growing number of works by contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds. The museum is also distinguished by a neoclassical building designed by American architect John Russell Pope and two beautifully landscaped gardens featuring an array of modern and contemporary sculpture. The BMA is located three miles north of the Inner Harbor, adjacent to the main campus of Johns Hopkins University, and has a community branch at Lexington Market. General admission is free so that everyone can enjoy the power of art.