Lecture & Book Signing: Matisse in Morocco with Jeff Koehler

About the Talk

Jeff Koehler | “Matisse’s Transformative Winters in Morocco”

In the winter of 1912, Henri Matisse was struggling. Forty-two and nearing mid-career, he had yet to find lasting critical acceptance, public admiration, or financial security since exploding to the forefront of the avant-garde in 1905 with his iconoclastic fauve paintings. He had fallen from leader of the vanguard, and most of his ardent supporters had publicly turned on him. As cubism dominated the Parisian art world, Matisse left Paris to spend two decisive winters in Tangier, Morocco. Jeff Koehler, author of Matisse in Morocco: A Journey of Light and Color, will discuss these groundbreaking trips that transformed the artist and affected his work until the very end.

After the lecture, Koehler will sign copies of Matisse in Morocco, available for purchase at the Barnes Shop.

About the Book

Matisse in Morocco: A Journey of Light and Color

Matisse in Morocco tells the story of the artist’s time in Tangier and how it altered his development as a painter and indelibly marked his work for the next four decades. Through Koehler’s research and travel, we experience Matisse’s time in Tangier, his paintings and subjects, and his relationships with his wife Amélie and two important patrons, and ultimately come to understand the full impact Morocco—its light, colors, culture, and artistic traditions—had on his art. From Landscape Viewed from a Window to Zorah on the Terrace, from Kasbah Gate to the dreamlike tableau Moroccan Café, Matisse’s works from this period are now recognized as some of the most significant and dazzling of his illustrious career.