Le Désir De La Ligne Henri Matisse Dans Les Collections Jacques Doucet

Exhibition at the Musée Angladon, Avignon, 2 June - 9 October 2022

"One must always seek the desire of the line, the point where it wants to enter or die." (Henri Matisse).

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) set a seemingly simple but complex goal for his art: "the desire of the line" must come first, before the desire of the artist. Matisse's work is about life and death, entry and exit, both literally and metaphorically.

This exhibition catalogue seeks to reconstruct and explain the links between the couturier, collector and patron Jacques Doucet (1853-1829) and Matisse, through the study of works by Matisse acquired by Doucet, purchased directly from the artist or donated to institutions that perpetuate the couturier's memory, the current library of the Institut national d'histoire de l'art and the Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet.

The book focuses on Matisse's prints and compares them with those of other artists also collected by Doucet, thus offering a new point of view on the entire career of the artist who was one of the major representatives of early 20th century art.