We urged you to see it when it opened in October, but if you've been too busy complaining about the weather (understandable), let this be our last plea: Go see Matisse: The Cut-Outs at the Museum of Modern Art before it closes on Tuesday. In fact, the MoMA really wants to make it easy for you: they're keeping the museum open ALL NIGHT until 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
NY Magazine's Jerry Saltz was dazzled by the show, which showcases 100 cut-outs of varying sizes that Henri Matisse created towards the end of his life, saying, "Nothing readied me for the visual thunder, physical profundity, and oceanic joy" of The Cut-Outs:
With The Cut-Outs, all we see is the work; only process is present; process and something as close to pure beauty in all of Western art...
Two giant, mural-like works in the show's third gallery from 1946, Oceania, the Sky and Oceania, the Sea (both on loan from Paris for the first time ever), are just white paper on a wide expanse of raw canvas. Huge, minimal, monochromatic, and reduced to essentials, the works are so sensual, it's like we're looking at them with our kundalini. Flying fish fill empty skies, birds dive under invisible waters, surf splashes, seaweed and shells float along some primordial tide. Vantage points toggle from above the waters to below to inside this mystic sea. Continual perceptual shifts between micro and macro scales occur; pinholes and minute surface changes loom large; a pucker on paper takes on the presence of a sun spot; immense forms like the ocean feel intimate. I began to see winged sharks, protozoa, creatures from Pleistocene seas, things that move like eels. Skip The Cut-Outs at the peril of your deepest viewing pleasures and expanded capacities for appreciating great art.
There are also videos showing Matisse working on this pieces (he would make his assistants hold the shapes against the wall for long periods of time!).
This last weekend of Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs has been open since Friday morning at 10:30 a.m., and will close tomorrow, Sunday, February 8, at 5:30 p.m. The MoMA says, "After regular Museum hours only Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs will be open; admission is: adults $12, seniors $10, full-time students with current ID $8; children (16 and under) and members free." If you're a member, you can see the show without a timed ticket; if you're not a member, you'll need a timed ticket.
