Reflecting on the show "Matisse and American Art" from 2017

In 2017 the Montclair Art Museum hosted one of its landmark exhibitions, "Matisse and American Art," to viewers in the New York Metro Region.

MAM presented "Matisse and American Art," as its first exhibition to examine this French master’s profound impact upon the development of American modern art from 1907 to the present. His art has provided a liberating model for American artists’ varied explorations of vibrant color, strong, fluid lines, and clear compositional structures in their pursuits of self-expression.

The Montclair Art Museum, who traditionally shows American artists exclusively featured 65 paintings, archival objects, sculpture, prints, and works on paper, which included in a rare occurrence, 19 works by Matisse alongside 44 works by American artists, including Max Weber, Alfred Maurer, Maurice Prendergast, Stuart Davis, Richard Diebenkorn, Robert Motherwell, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Romare Bearden, John Baldessari, Sophie Matisse, Faith Ringgold, and Helen Frankenthaler.

Now, in 2025, the legend of Henri Matisse returns to the Montclair Art Museum in the form of a book talk! On October 14, 2025 experience, "Matisse at War," with Christopher C. Gorham for an exclusive talk and signing. The book explores that, while others fled, Henri Matisse remained in France during the Nazi occupation. This new biography draws from letters and private documents to reveal how Matisse and his family resisted quietly, even as danger grew around them. In the midst of wartime fear and censorship, he produced some of the most radical work of his career.

Get tickets by visiting us at,
https://www.montclairartmuseum.org/ev...