Inspired by Matisse: Selected Works from the Collection

Drawn entirely from the Montclair Art Museum’s permanent collection, this show comprises 53 paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures by 42 American artists. It accompanies and extends the special exhibition Matisse and American Art. From 1905 to the present, Matisse’s work has played a more wide-ranging role for both abstract and representational artists than previously understood. His oeuvre has provided a liberating model for varied explorations of vibrant color, strong fluid lines, and clear compositional structures in the pursuit of artistic self-expression.

Beginning in 1908, Matisse developed a large following among American artists as a result of their exposure to his work in public exhibitions and private collections and as a consequence of his teaching at his Académie Matisse in Paris (1908–11). Among his students were Patrick Henry Bruce, Max Weber, and Morgan Russell, represented in Inspired by Matisse by several boldly stylized works. Matisse’s art offered a variety of options for American artists, inspired by the formal elements as well as its subjects and expressive aspects. His transformative inspiration is revealed by their adaptations of his stylistic hallmarks of color, line, and composition and also through their choice of, and serial approach to, his subject matter—still lifes, landscapes, portraits, studio interiors, and nudes.