Henri Matisse "Bathers by a River," 1909-1917, The Art Institute of Chicago, Charles H. and Mary F.S. Worcester Collection, 1953.158 © 2010 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

Get out your timed tickets. Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917 has arrived at MoMA.

The show includes 110 works characterized by strong geometries and stripped of detail.  The show, the first to hone in on this particular period, is the product of a five-year effort by MoMA’s chief curator emeritus John Elderfield, and Stephanie d’Alessandro, the curator of modern art at the Art Institute of Chicago.

They began with a study of the Art Institute’s Cezanne-inspired Bathers by a River, which Matisse worked and re-worked off and on from 1909 to 1917.  Elderfield and d’Alessandro employed digital technologies, laser scanning and ultraviolet illumination to uncover Matisse’s process.  A video tracing Matisse’s steps in producing “Bathers,” and a bronze sculpture titled “Back,” is on display one of the galleries.

Matisse’s grandson, Paul, attended MoMA’s press conference held earlier today.

Elderfield made his remarks standing at a podium. He expounded on Matisse, noting the artist’s emphasis on process and the radical change in his works over time. He praised Matisse’s openness to the influence of a generation of younger artists and noted his espousal of John Keats’ philosophy of negative capability described by the scholarly Elderfield as “the capacity to accept the uncertain” and “live through instinct.”

In addition to the “Bathers,” there is a series of studies and versions of the sculpture, “Back,” as well as a group of Cubist-influenced portraiture. A group of prints Matisse sold during World War I to French collector Jacques Doucet in order earn money to send food rations to French soldiers is on display as well. Each print is inscribed with the phrase: “For the civil prisoners of Bohain-en-Vermandois.”

The show runs July 18 to October 11.

Henri Matisse "Blue Nude (Memory of Biskra)" 1907, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Cone Collection. © 2010 Succession H. Matisse/Artist Rights Society (ARS) New York

Henri Matisse "Portrait of Yvonne Landsberg," 1914, Louise and Walter Arnesberg Collection, 1950. © 2010 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York