A journey through Matisse’s life and work in Switzerland

A contemporary home featuring a large glass wall, surrounded by a well-maintained lawn, showcasing modern architecture.

Photo source: Fondation Beyeler

The name “Matisse” conjures a sense of change, of innovation, of inspiration like few others, and if you’re lucky, you’ve seen a handful of his works in person.

Now 80 some works by Henri Matisse (1869-1954), sourced from museums in Europe and the United States as well as private collections, are going on display as part of an exhibition at Fondation Beyeler near Basel, Switzerland. This retrospective, the first on the artist in Switzerland and the German-speaking world in almost 20 years, will take visitors on a journey through his life and work.

The jumping-off point for the exhibition is the poem "Invitation to the Voyage" (1857) by Charles Baudelaire, to which Matisse referred often. “[I]t’s to satisfy your least desire that they come from the world’s end,” Baudelaire writes, as if of the artworks assembled for this exhibition.

The exhibition, supported in part by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) will run from September 22, 2024, to January 26, 2025.