NAHMAD CONTEMPORARY
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HENRI MATISSE & JONAS WOODFebruary 14–March 12, 2023
Tarmak22, Oeystrasse 29, 3792 Saanen, Switzerland
GSTAAD, SWITZERLAND—Nahmad Contemporary is pleased to present Henri
Matisse & Jonas Wood, an exhibition at Tarmak22 in Gstaad, on view February 14
through March 12, 2023, that brings together artworks by the venerated Frenchmodernist Henri Matisse (1869–1954) and the celebrated Los Angeles–based
contemporary artist Jonas Wood (b. 1977) for the first time. Separated by nearly a century
and across continents, the pairing of works illuminates thematic and formal unities as wellas an abiding connection to art history.
Marking the gallery’s first collaboration with Wood, the exhibition will present paintings anddrawings by the contemporary artist, including four new paintings from 2022, alongsidemodern paintings by Matisse. The presentation will also be accompanied by a catalogue,
featuring a text written for the occasion by curator and art historian Helen Molesworth.
A parallel focus is apparent in this display of works, as both Matisse and Wood extract
their subject matter from the quiet moments of daily life. These compositions are populatedwith leisurely quotidian scenes, verdant tropical foliage and potted plants, and casementframed views of the exterior landscape. Yet, realistic illusion was never the intent, as bothartists emphasize aesthetic harmony over pictorial exactitude. Their shared penchant formodernist aesthetics is reflected in the bold interplay of color, space, and pattern thatcharacterizes their respective compositions. In the domestic settings, figuration is given
equal weight to the pulsating, abstracted patterns of wallpaper, textiles, and wood; thegeometric planes of furniture and door moldings; or the anthropomorphic contours ofphilodendra. The palpable relationship between these bodies of works highlights thefundamental impact of Matisse’s stylistic innovations throughout Wood’s practice.
The distinct processes by which these paired compositions materialized reveal theirtemporal and geographical differences. For Matisse, they were sketched and painted fromlife within the realm of his staged, salon-style apartment studio in Southern France, andthe forms and subjects were revisited and reworked throughout his oeuvre. His process
was laid bare upon the surface through a variety of visible brushstrokes, fleshy and tactile
or translucent and loose. Wood, on the other hand, translates his paintings from curated
photo-collages and preparatory drawings. Rather than capturing his subjects in real time,
he amasses snapshots of the people and places familiar to him, interspersed with an arrayof source imagery with which he visually resonates. His use of photo-collage is reflectedin the solid and graphic forms that characterize his aesthetic. Despite differing approaches
and techniques, the artists’ saturated, densely patterned, and compressed depictions areequally the result of a meticulous process of careful selection, construction, and execution.
Spanning the greater part of Matisse’s long and productive career, this selection of theartist’s paintings dates between 1920—after he gained Fauvist notoriety and settled in the
Côte d’Azur—and 1947—just prior to his final, quintessential series of paper cut-outs.
Ranging from more naturalistic renditions to his distinctive sinuous contours of the modeland drapery, the interior scenes feature Matisse’s experimentation with technique, figuralform, and decorative motifs while showcasing his groundbreaking use of color andcomposition. These works exemplify the defining ideas of one of the most significant
artists of the twentieth century who charted the course for modern painting.
Such influence is tangible a century later in the featured works by Wood, created between
2008 and 2022. Matissean innuendos are latent in his interior-exterior views and emphasison the decorative arts. Moreover, he quotes Matisse’s paintings forthright: Mini Red Pot#1 (2016) and Mini Red Pot #8 (2018) transform Matisse’s The Red Studio (1911) andInterior with Black Fern (1948), respectively, as the decorative surfaces of ceramic pots.
Tongue-in-cheek referents to the broader tenets of modern art can likewise be found in
the teetering arrangement of wooden toy blocks set before an Alexander Calder-inspired
drawing in Momo’s Playroom #2 (2012), the cubistic, gray-scaled squares that adorn theback wall of Shio and Robot (2008), and the fractured perspectival views of Calais DriveTwo (2012).
This play on art within art and appropriation can likewise be found in Matisse’s works: aRoman copy of a Greek marble torso is prominently featured in Figure assise et le torsegrec (La Gandoura) (1939), and an embroidered-tapestry imitation of a North African
screen is recast in La Leçon de piano (1923). In addition, Matisse’s interiors wittily extractand dismantle the pictorial elements of a traditional genre originating in seventeenthcentury Dutch domestic interiors and nineteenth-century French realist paintings.
The revered history of domestic painting and Matisse’s outsized role in the trajectory ofmodern and contemporary practice are not lost on Wood. His introspective interior scenes
cleverly lay bare the influence of his artistic predecessors while humbly adopting andreinterpreting a traditional genre for contemporary audiences. He not only acknowledges
but also revels in these recursive art traditions through subtle formal allusions and overt
references, as in his appropriation of Matisse’s meta rendering of the modern master’s
own hallowed art studio.
“Wood is pulling back the curtain and revealing which pictures are underneath his pictures.
. . . he bares himself by making an image of his aesthetic DNA. And surely Matisse
provides a lot of the DNA for Wood,” writes Helen Molesworth in the accompanying
exhibition catalogue. She continues, “both Matisse and Wood suggest that in order tocreate believable pictorial space (be it abstract or mimetic), the artist must be engaged
with the long durée of painting. . . . What makes a work contemporary, modern, or of its
time is the artist’s ability to render the deep time of painting’s history with the everyday
time of the painter’s world.”
The self-referential nature of the artists’ practices is further apparent in their respective
self-portraits on view. Matisse presents himself from behind, seated at an easel andwearing his signature striped pajamas in L’Artiste et le modéle nu (1921), while Woodrenders his figure shirtless, peering in from a pool deck through fractured windowpanes in
Calais Drive Two (2012). Less aggrandizing portraits than records of lived experiences,
the artists’ self-depictions are unpretentious, humble, quirky, and familiar. Importantly,
they portray themselves at work—intensely looking—and, ultimately, demonstrate theresolute dedication to their craft that they share.
The seven modern and ten contemporary works on view in Henri Matisse & Jonas Woodbridge art historical references and transform artistic vernacular into personal expressionsof the artists’ everyday lives. Through a parallel representational theme and common
approaches to composition and color, the exhibition highlights the legacy of twentiethcentury modern painting in contemporary practice.