Two years before his death, Matisse donated the most prized works from his collection to his hometown, forming the core collection of the Matisse Museum in Le Cateau. He even took great care in arranging the display of artworks in the gallery spaces and “the idea was to tell his life of work, research, and discovery,” said Patrice Deparpe, the museum’s director and head curator, in a video speech at the opening.

This inspired the title of the UCCA exhibition Matisse by Matisse, highlighting the role of the master as a “curator”, who himself would tell the audience his work and life.

Unfolded into 11 sections, the exhibit invites visitors to explore how Matisse started as an artist, how he invented Fauvism, what he created after the First World War, what inspiration he gained from his voyage to Tahiti in the 1930s, how he used paper cut-outs as a new medium, how his career culminated in the design of the Vence Chapel, and how his art influenced China’s modern art movement between the 1920s and 1940s.

“Matisse is a figure who constantly challenged and reinvented himself. We know he came to art as an adult. Art was way outside of what had been a very predictable life as a potential lawyer. Throughout his life, he accomplished thing after thing and came up with new styles,” remarked UCCA director Philip Tinari.

Born into a textile family that had been in the business for over 300 years, Matisse studied law in Paris and became a court administrator in his hometown after gaining his qualification. In 1889, he took to painting while recuperating from appendicitis. He went against his father’s wishes and gave up the law for art, with the ambition to make art that was “something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.”