MUDEC in Milan presents Matisse: The World in a Room , a scientific and systematic exhibition project exploring the relationship between Henri Matisse (Le Cateau-Cambrésis, 1869 – Nice, 1954) and the cultures he encountered during his studies and travels beyond European borders. For the first time, without oversimplification, the exhibition addresses a central and long-underestimated question: how African, Islamic, Russian, Pacific, and Chinese art shaped Matisse’s artistic language from within, redefining the very boundaries of Western modernism.
Produced by 24 ORE Cultura – Il Sole 24 ORE Group and sponsored by the City of Milan – Culture, organized in collaboration with the Musée Matisse in Nice, with Unipol as the main sponsor and support from Turisanda1924 – Alpitour World, the exhibition is curated by Ellen McBreen and Chiara Gatti.
The exhibition is divided into six sections and brings together approximately 100 works, including paintings, works on paper, and sculptures from prestigious international institutions: the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation Collection in New York, MoMA, the Musée de l’Orangerie, the Musée Picasso, the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée du Quai Branly, the Bargello in Florence, the MUDEC, and others. Also on display is a collection of objects and textiles—crucial elements in Matisse’s work—on loan from the Musée Matisse in Nice, the Museo delle Civiltà in Rome, and other institutions, which trace the threads of Matisse’s dialogues with art and design from other parts of the world.
Special attention is given to decorative projects and artist’s books: the monumental diptych *Océanie*, the famous illustrations for *Jazz*, Mallarmé’s *Poésies*, Montherlant’s *Pasiphaé*, and drawings of the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, the culmination of Matisse’s polytechnic exploration. The exhibition is enriched by period photographs, including previously unpublished shots taken by the artist himself in Morocco.
Matisse: The World in a Room It serves as a point of reference in the critical reevaluation of the concepts of otherness, primitivism, and Orientalism. Its strength lies in its philological precision: unlike exhibitions that have evoked the “East” in a generic way, this exhibition highlights hybridization—Islamic arabesques and the geometric patterns of Romanian clothing, Yoruba Gelede masks and medieval Russian icons—bringing to light the ambiguity and complexity of a creative imagination that drew inspiration from distant worlds to construct one of the most original visual languages of the 20th century. This reflection invites us today to reinterpret Matisse’s appropriations from a postcolonial perspective.
