In autumn 2024, the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen/Basel will hold the first Henri Matisse retrospective in Switzerland and the German-speaking world in almost 20 years. Featuring over 70 works from major European and American museums and private collections, the exhibition will highlight the development and diversity of the artist’s groundbreaking oeuvre. It will take as its starting point Charles Baudelaire’s poem Invitation to the Voyage, 1857. Many motifs and key themes of Matisse’s work echo those found in Baudelaire’s poem. The latest in a long line of unparalleled exhibitions such as Paul Gauguin, 2015, Monet, 2017, and The young Picasso – blue and rose periods, 2019, Matisse – invitation to the voyage will be on view at the Fondation Beyeler from 22 September 2024 to 26 January 2025.

Henri Matisse (1869–1954) ranks among the most famous exponents of modern art. His ground-breaking work has profoundly influenced generations of artists, from his contemporaries up to the present day. In freeing colour from the motif and simplifying forms, he redefined painting and imbued art with a hitherto unknown lightness. Matisse was also an innovator in the realm of sculpture, and in his late cut-outs he devised a distinctive interplay of painting, drawing and sculpture.

The exhibition will span the full range of the artist’s career. Beginning with the early works created around 1900, it will move on to the revolutionary paintings of Fauvism and the experimental works of the 1910s, the sensual paintings of the Nice period and the 1930s, before culminating in the legendary cut-outs of the 1940s and 1950s. The wealth of significant paintings, sculptures and paper cut-outs on display will hold up to view the development and the range of Matisse’s unique body of work.

Curated by Raphaël Bouvier, the exhibition will bring together iconic as well as seldom displayed works from major European and American museums and private collections, such as Centre Pompidou, Paris; National Gallery, Washington; Museum of Modern Art, New York; K20, Dusseldorf; and Baltimore Museum of Art. Key paintings will include The dinner table (La desserte), 1897; Luxury, peace and pleasure (Luxe, calme et volupté), 1904; The open window, collioure (La fenêtre ouverte, Collioure), 1905; Luxury I (Le luxe I), 1907; Bathers with a turtle (Baigneuses à la tortue), 1907/08; Decorative figure on an ornamental background (Figure décorative sur fond ornemental), 1925/26; Large Reclining Nude (Grand nu couché [Nu rose]), 1935; Red interior, still life on blue table (Intérieur rouge, nature morte sur table bleue), 1947; and Blue nude I (Nu bleu I), 1952.

The exhibition takes as its starting point Charles Baudelaire’s poem Invitation to the voyage, 1857, which Matisse repeatedly referred to. Its poetic leitmotifs of luxury, peace and pleasure («luxe, calme et volupté») are guiding principles of Matisse’s work and capture the very essence of his artistic output. Following Baudelaire’s poem, the exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler is thus conceived as a journey through Matisse’s work and life, in which travel played an important part. The exhibition thus invites viewers on a journey through Matisse’s singular work and life, shaped by numerous travels. During his explorations of countries such as Italy, Spain and Morocco or as far as Tahiti, the artist found ever-renewed inspiration in the nature and art of other cultures.