Fondation Louis Vuitton reaffirms its mission of promoting contemporary art to the widest possible audience. Committed to the presentation of landmark works of modernity, the Fondation also undertakes to celebrate artists who, while having a connection with the history of modernity, have proposed new models and disrupted perceptions.

Fondation Louis Vuitton, in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the SMK - Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (National Gallery of Denmark), hosts the exhibition “Matisse: The Red Studio”, focusing on the genesis and history of this famous 1911 masterpiece, one of The Museum of Modern Art’s iconic works since its acquisition in 1949. The large canvas depicts the artist’s studio filled with his paintings and sculptures, furniture, and decorative objects. This exhibition reunites the artworks shown in The Red Studio for the first time since they left Matisse’s studio in Issy-les-Moulineaux. The presentation also includes archival material and related paintings and drawings. “Now over 110 years old, The Red Studio is both a landmark within the centuries-long tradition of studio paintings and a foundational work of modern art”, said Ann Temkin, The Museum of Modern Art’s chief curator. “The picture remains a touchstone for any artist taking on the task of portraying their studio. Matisse’s radical decision to saturate the worksurface with a layer of red has fascinated generations of scholars and artists, including Mark Rothko and Ellsworth Kelly. Yet much remains to be explored in terms of the painting’s origin and history.” The core of the exhibition features The Red Studio alongside the surviving six paintings, three sculptures, and one ceramic depicted in it.

To celebrate the centenary of the artist’s birth, “Ellsworth Kelly. Shapes and Colors, 1949-2015” will be the first exhibition in France to offer a broad overview of the work of this significant artist of the second half of the 20th century, both in terms of its chronology and in terms of the media on display. Organized with Glenstone Museum (Potomac, Maryland) and in collaboration with the Ellsworth Kelly Studio, the exhibition brings together more than 100 works: paintings and sculptures as well as drawings, photographs, and collages. The exhibited works cover the wide range of media used by the artist: from painting to sculpture to works on paper, collage, and photography. Exhibition highlights include paintings from the artist’s youth, such as Tableau Vert (1952), the first monochrome made after Ellsworth Kelly’s visit to Giverny, or Painting in Three Panels (1956), a key example of the painter’s commitment to architecture. Striking works in the exhibition include Yellow Curve (1990), the first in a series of large-scale floor paintings by Ellsworth Kelly, displayed in a specially designed space. Another monumental work is the commission completed in 2014 by Ellsworth Kelly for Fondation Louis Vuitton’s Auditorium, in a dialogue with the architect Frank Gehry.

Matisse: The Red Studio
Ellsworth Kelly. Shapes and Colors, 1949-2015
May 04 – September 09, 2024
Fondation Louis Vuitton
8 Av. du Mahatma Gandhi
75116 Paris, France

Photo: The Atelier rouge by Henri Matisse (courtesy Louis Vuitton)