Matisse and the Sea. On view at the Saint Louis Art Museum, February 17-May 12, 2024.

FRAME is pleased to provide support for Matisse and the Sea at the Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM), on view through May 12, 2024. The exhibit examines the significance of the sea through Matisse’s art and career from early panoramic marine views on the Mediterranean to his late paper cutouts inspired by French Polynesia in the Pacific.

Simon Kelly, Curator of Modern and Contemporary art at SLAM, explains how Matisse not only loved the sea but everything about it: its light, color, and movement. Matisse’s marine imagery was prolific from panoramic sea views and bathers, to the recreation of life beneath the waves. The exhibition includes a wide range of works in a variety of media, including paintings, sculptures, paper cut-outs, drawings, prints, ceramics, and textiles. Most notably the exhibition includes the Saint Louis Art Museum’s iconic coastal painting, Bathers with a Turtle.  For Simon Kelly, the piece “is the Mona Lisa of the modern collection”.

Learn more on the exhibition.