BMA celebrates enduring influence of Henri Matisse

The Baltimore Museum of Art is on a roll.

After opening Amy Sherald’s coveted ‘American Sublime’ exhibition (until April 5th) when the National Portrait Gallery tried to censor her work, the BMA is debuting ‘To See This Light Again’, a breathtaking and thought-provoking new exhibition that combines Henri Matisse’s masterpiece with Louis Fratino’s new paintings inspired by the French modernist legend.

Fratino, who is gay, was born in Annapolis and studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. As an art student, he spent much of his time in the BMA’s Matisse Gallery, the largest collection of his work in the world, containing more than 1,600 paintings, drawings, and illustrations. At just 33 years old, Fratino has had a “meteorous” rise in the art world, said BMA director Asma Naeem, who introduced Fratino at an exhibition preview event last week. Although this is Fratino’s first major exhibition in the United States, he will be featured at the 2024 Venice Biennale and his paintings can be seen at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and more.

The exhibition aims to explore Matisse’s lasting influence by juxtaposing his work with that of Fratino.

“Art shows a certain kind of attention and vision for one’s life, and the idea that it can be a beautiful life despite certain circumstances happening around you,” Fratino said in a statement released by the BMA. “In Matisse’s case, he lived through World War I and World War II. Painting confirms that life is beautiful and worth looking at.”

The influence is clear, from the use of light and pattern to the choice to focus on everyday objects and subjects. And the exhibit is unabashedly queer, with several paintings depicting male couples. Fratino told the Blade that as a man who comes out as gay, it’s important to embrace his visibility.

He describes the “joy of looking” in the male figure in the same way that Matisse often painted female figures celebrating the tradition of nude painting.

In “Tom,” Fratino captured his subject in casual repose, including a bowl and spoon in the foreground. It is displayed alongside Matisse’s iconic “Large Reclining Nude.” Tom’s checkered shirt reflects the blue and white checkered background of Matisse’s work, and the two figures are in a casual, relaxed pose.

“Flatino and Matisse: To See the Light Again” runs through September 6 at the Baltimore Museum of Art (artbeema.org. )

For Matisse enthusiasts, the BMA has another exhibition debuting on March 29th, “Matisse of Vence: Stations of the Cross.” The exhibition features more than 80 drawings that reveal how Matisse “created his late-career masterpiece, the Stations of the Cross mural, for the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, France.”