Matisse, a legacy

While the Grand Palais is running the major retrospective Matisse, 1941-1954, the Galerie Negropontes is playing a parallel tune – and free. By inviting Maison Matisse, founded in 2019 by the painter's great-grandson, the design and decorative arts gallery on rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau proposes to explore how the Matisse universe continues to influence contemporary creation. Not painting, but everything else: glass, ceramics, textiles, light, jewelry.

The exhibition is organized around the master's major motifs— the window, bathers, dance, cut-out gouaches, the Mediterranean—and makes them resonate in contemporary pieces. Alessandro Mendini's earthenware vases, fired up to eight times above 900°C, translate Matisse's decorative space into three dimensions. The Bouroullec brothers' installation—terracotta, anodized aluminum, porcelain—transforms the window motif into an architectural landscape bathed in watercolor blues and greens.

Around it, Agnès Baillon's diaphanous swimmers, Perrin & Perrin, Eric de Dormael's luminous cut-out leaves compose an interior vibrant with color and Mediterranean light – a Matisse-inspired living room in three dimensions.

GALERIE NEGROPONTES PARIS
Until July 31, 2026
14-16 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 75001
Metro Louvre - Rivoli (1)
Mon. to Sat. 10am-7pm
Closed on Sun.
Free entry