Matisse on the silver screen

Published Nov 21, 2014

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MATISSE from Tate Modern and MoMA, a documentary by Phil Grabsky and Seventh Art Productions, starts Ster-Kinekor’s second Exhibition on Screen series.

An exhibition showcasing Henri Matisse’s paper cut-outs, which became the most popular exhibition at the Tate Modern, is the subject of the first film.

The series features five films which cover specific exhibitions’ paintings, taking the audience behind the screen to discover how the exhibition was created. What each artwork reveals about the artist and his particular historical period is also interrogated.

Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs ran between April and September this year and became the Tate Modern’s first exhibition to receive more than half-a-million physical viewers.

The Cut-Outs was devoted to Matisse’s colourful and innovative body of work towards the end of his career, between 1937 and 1954.

What we get to see on screen is a private tour of the London exhibition as well as material filmed at the Museum of Modern Art which reveals the New York gallery’s long relationship with Matisse and its prepwork for an exhibition that opened there last month.

Narrated by actor Rupert Young, the documentary features actor Simon Russell Beale bringing insight and emotion to the works of Matisse himself, as well as interviews with art experts, including Tate director Nicholas Serota and MoMA director, Glen Lowry.

Clips of friends and relatives of Matisse are included, as is some rare archived footage of the artist.

Choreographer Will Tucket created a response to Matisse’s Dance cut-outs with Royal Ballet principal dancer, Zenaida Yanowsky dancing to music written by Shostakovich.

• Matisse from Tate Modern and MoMA is 90 minutes long and screens tomorrow, November 26 and 27 at 7.30pm and Sunday at 2.30pm at Cinema Nouveay in Joburg, Durban, Cape Town and Pretoria.

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