From 4 May to 9 September 2024, the Louis Vuitton Foundation will host a revealing exhibition dedicated to Henri Matisse’s The Red Studio (1911) and a new retrospective of the work of Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015) including paintings, sculptures, photographs and drawings. In addition, on the occasion of the Paris Olympic Games and as part of LVMH’s support for this event, the Louis Vuitton Foundation is also presenting a selection of works from its collection related to sport, offering an alternative and poetic vision of this international event.

Matisse, The Red Studio

In partnership with the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA) and the SMK – Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (the National Gallery of Denmark), the Louis Vuitton Foundation is hosting the exhibition Matisse: The Red Studio, focusing on the genesis and history of this masterpiece dating from 1911, which is now one of MoMA’s most iconic works since the museum acquired it in 1949. This enormous canvas depicts the artist’s studio, with its paintings and sculptures, furniture and ornamental objects. The exhibition brings together the works that appear in this painting for the first time since they left the artist’s studio in Issy-les-Moulineaux, as well as archival materials, drawings and paintings related to the painting.

At the heart of the exhibition is the painting The Red Studio itself, accompanied by the six paintings, the three sculptures and the ceramic piece that appear in it and are still preserved. Created between 1898 and 1911, these objects range from family portraits painted by Matisse, such as The Young Sailor (II) (1906), which is back on display in France after 31 years, and lesser-known works by the artist, such as Corsica, Courtyard of the factory in Ajaccio (Old Mill, Corsica) (1898) and objects whose whereabouts have only recently been discovered. Three of these paintings[Bathers ( 1907), Le Luxe II (1907-1908) and Nude with a White Scarf (1909)] are part of the SMK Museum’s pre-eminent collection of Matisse’s works.

The exhibition also includes a series of paintings and drawings related to The Red Studio, such as The Blue Window ( 1913), also from MoMA, and Large Red Interior (1948), from the Centre Pompidou, which contribute to the painting’s complex journey from Matisse’s studio to its acquisition by MoMA. At the same time, a selection of archival documents, such as letters and photographs (shown for the first time in this exhibition) reveal new facts about the subject, the evolution and reception of the painting. The exhibition also includes a video dedicated to the craft of artistic heritage conservation, which presents recent discoveries about the techniques involved in the development of this work.

Henri Matisse, L’Atelier rouge, Issy-les-Moulineaux, 1911

Ellsworth Kelly, Shapes and Colours, 1949-2015

On the occasion of the centenary of the artist’s birth, Ellsworth Elly, Shapes and Colours 1949-2015 will be the first exhibition in France to take a broad look at the work of this figure of the second half of the 20th century, both in terms of its chronology and the nature of the elements present in the exhibition. Organised with the Glenstone Museum (Potomac, England) and in collaboration with the Ellsworth Kelly Studio, the exhibition brings together more than one hundred works: paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and collages. The exhibition has received financial support from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Kröller-Müller Museum, the MoMA in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Gallery and the Whitney Museum, as well as from private collections.

Inspired by nature and the world around him, Kelly created a unique style that revitalised abstract art in the 20th and 21st centuries. Ten years after his death, his works still arouse the same fascination, which goes beyond the usual boundaries of painting. The Louis Vuitton Foundation has the opportunity to witness this every day: the Auditorium hosts the last work commissioned from the artist. Conceived in dialogue with the elements of Frank Gehry’s architecture that make up the building, this work extends from the stage curtain(Spectrum VIII) to the walls of the concert hall, raised and animated by monochrome elements in red, yellow, blue, green and violet.

Ellsworth Kelly: Shapes and Colours 1949-2015 traces the artist’s exploration of the connections between form, colour, line and space in works from key stages of his career. Arranged on the ground and first floors of the Louis Vuitton Foundation, the exhibition includes around one hundred works from the collections of the Glenstone Museum, the Louis Vuitton Foundation and several international museums, notably the Pompidou Art Centre, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Kröller-Müller Museum (Netherlands), the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Tate Gallery (London), the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis) and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York). The Ellsworth Kelly Studio and several private collections have also generously donated important works for this exhibition.