黑料不打烊

Outside of the bourgeoise strictures of the American artworld was Pierre Matisse (1900- 1989), the son of Henri Matisse. Pierre was born on June 13, 1900 in Bohain-en-Vermandois, and had initially dreamed of becoming an artist, studying under Fauvist co-founder Andr茅 Derain. Recognizing his limits early on, Pierre moved to New York to apprentice under the erudite dealer-cum-gallerist, Valentine Dudensing. At the age of 31, Pierre established his own gallery in 1931. Thus transpired the Pierre Matisse Gallery, modestly pocketed within the Upper East Side Fuller Building, thriving until Pierre鈥檚 death in 1989. Pierre novelized art dealership, ushering it into a collaborative terrain. His exquisite sense of collaboration, intuition, and forthrightness marked Pierre relationships with his artists. He carved out a venerable reputation for the gallery, starting out by showcasing artists such as Bonnard, Chagall, de Chirico, Derain, and Rouault. 

Famously, Giacometti made his debut at the gallery in January 1937, participating in a group show with Aristide Maillol, Charles Despiau, and Joan Mir枚. It was a career-setting moment in what came to be a unique partnership. Giacometti once wrote to Pierre: "What a life I have because of you! Nothing better could have happened to me.鈥� Throughout the gallery鈥檚 60- year presence, it exhibited international bulwarks like Alexander Calder, Antonio Saura, Manolo Millares, Zao Wou-ki, Jean-Robert Ipoust茅guy, Reg Butler, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Loren MacIver and Theodore Roszak. By the time Pierre reached the age of 90, his gallery鈥檚 holdings totaled more than 3,500 pieces from these artists. Although the taciturn Pierre privately remarked that he did not seek to impute his collection with any collective aesthetic ethos鈥攄eracinated from what he saw as market constraints, collecting antiquities and old wares alongside myriad Mir贸s鈥攈is bastion institute became its own heteronomous force. For in the throes of Pierre鈥檚 curatorial Weltanschauung, an artist was sure to be affirmed within the avant-garde.

Shin Gallery鈥檚 exhibition draws from Pierre鈥檚 eclectic vision but, rather than merely reanimating his gallery, seeks to pair a number of Pierre鈥檚 choice artists alongside contemporary artists, antiquities, old wares, and twentieth century artists Matisse elided. This is our way of paying homage instead of lapsing into mere adulation, advancing Pierre鈥檚 ethos. Alongside Pierre鈥檚 linchpin, Giacometti, the exhibition sports Roman, Neolithic, and Greek antiquities alongside works by Jean Dubuffet, Man Ray, Roberto Matta, Sam Francis, Paul C茅zanne, Else Alfelt, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Andr茅 Derain, Balthus, Leonora Carrington, Yves Tanguy, Loren MacIver, Andr茅 Masson, Kay Sage, Joan Miro, and Carla Prina. 

The three rooms trace a lineage anchored in the mid-twentieth century, albeit with antiquities and sculptural idolization imputing variegated lineages that end with our contemporary epoch, querying 鈥渨here is the avant- arde today?鈥� The first room pairs Dubuffet鈥檚 idiosyncratic art brut with MacIver's emotive abstractions of everyday life, Matta鈥檚 biomorphic crimson planes, Man Ray鈥檚 study of M茅ret Oppenheim鈥檚 backside counterposed by Cezanne, Francis, and Alfelt鈥檚 ever-increasing experiments with abstraction. Moving through the second room, works on paper by Giacometti and Balthus tether the surrealist pocketing of negative space and libidinal subconscious to Carrington鈥檚 mystic tapestry. The third room unspools the gallery鈥檚 own vision of eclectic discovery and archeological unearthing鈥擯rina, Mir貌鈥檚 studio mate, retrieved to her rightful place amongst Italian abstractionist pioneers. In the third room, Masson, Derain, and Sage recall Pierre鈥檚 importation of Parisian Surrealism to America. Throughout, rather than merely mold the past a muse, the exhibition crafts a catholic curatorial purview, prodding Pierre鈥檚 worldview into curious directions brimming with juxtapositions.