Exhibition Henri Matisse, Jazz, le bon à tirer
From March 18 to April 23, 2022


From March 18 to April 23, the Galerie de l'Institut presents a major exhibition: Henri Matisse, " Jazz ", the previously unpublished printing order for the compositions in the famous book published by Tériade in 1947.

Jazz is a major work in Matisse's oeuvre. It prefigures the last period of his art. Indeed, it was with Jazz that the cut-out gouache was introduced, and from 1948 onwards, it became the artist's preferred means of expression, uniting drawing, color and sculpture. Jazz is a set of twenty color plates interspersed with pages of text. The artist produced the cut-out gouache models between June 1943 and summer 1944. In the book, they are reproduced in stencil using exactly the same gouache. He then wrote the text and calligraphed it in reed and ink in a monumental script drawn in 1946.

The "bon à tirer" (often indicated B. à T.) compositions date from March 1946. They are the last stage before the final proofs are produced. Technically, these are stencils executed after the original models, on which Matisse added, sometimes annotations in pencil, sometimes elements in cut-out gouache paper to cover the shapes whose color obtained with the stencil was not exactly the one he wanted. Finally, the artist signed the indicated adjustments with his initials and annotated the proofs with the traditional "Bon à tirer" or a simple "B". Superimposing cut-out gouache and stencil, these compositions form an exceptional and unique ensemble between the original models, preserved at the Musée National d'Art Moderne, and the book plates.

These "vividly stamped images" are accompanied by an ensemble of works by Matisse, giving the exhibition a real consistency, stretching from the origins of Jazz with the magazine Verve and the extraordinary Chute d'Icare, to the great brush and ink drawings of the 50s, via a selection of contemporary drawings from the " Jazz " years.

Galerie de l'Institut

3bisrue des Beaux-Arts
75006 Paris

Succession H. Matisse