They were born nearly 50 years and an ocean apart.
A new show juxtaposes works by the Post-Impressionist and the modernist painter he inspired
And while French painter Henri Matisse is a household name in this country, many Americans have never heard of Richard Diebenkorn.
\u201cAnd I\u2019m hoping that will change,\u201d said curator Katy Rothkopf, who hopes viewers see the work of Matisse, the French Post-Impressionist master, and Diebenkorn, the influential but less-known American modernist, side-by-side for the first time.
Now on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the exhibit \u201cMatisse\/Diebenkorn\u201d will travel to San Francisco in the spring.
There are 92 works in the exhibition — 56 by Diebenkorn, and 36 by Matisse.
Curator Katy Rothkopf with correspondent Rita Braver, at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
When asked what are the greatest similarities between the two artists, Rothkopf replied, \u201cThey both loved color. And I think they both just had a magic touch with the paintbrush.\u201d
The two never met, but the similarity was more than mere coincidence. Richard Diebenkorn studied Matisse almost obsessively.
\u201cHe was someone who was a real student,\u201d Rothkopf said, \u201cCertainly there were other artists that influenced him throughout his life, but no one more than Matisse.\u201d
One reason that Richard Diebenkorn is less well-known than other important artists of the mid-20th century is that he lived and worked in America\u2019s West — far from New York, then the epicenter of modern art in America.
A master of contemporary American art, Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) was noted for landscape paintings, thoughtful figure studies, and geometric…
Born in 1922 in Portland, Oregon, and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Diebenkorn began drawing as a toddler, eventually going on to study art at Stanford.
His early work was in the abstract expressionist mode. \u201cHe loved abstraction,\u201d Roithkopf said. \u201cAnd that was certainly the style of the time.\u201d
He first saw a Matisse in 1943, and was hooked — over the years, traveling as far as Paris and St. Petersburg to view the older artist\u2019s work. But Diebenkorn never sought to imitate Matisse.
\u201cHe felt very much that it was important to look to the past,\u201d Rothkopf said. \u201cAnd why would you not look at something that someone else had done? It didn\u2019t mean that you were copying them, it just meant that they were inspiring you.\u201d
Inspired by Matisse, Diebenkorn\u2019s style constantly evolved. Both men produced abstract and figurative works — some with flattened, muted colors; others with vibrant, recognizable images.
Gretchen Diebenkorn Grant is the daughter of the late painter. She described her mother as the artist\u2019s muse, though — as seen in the artist\u2019s 1961 \u201cSleeping Woman\u201d — a \u201clittle tired of posing, perhaps!\u201d she laughed.
Braver asked, \u201cDid you at any time while you were growing up realize that he was, indeed, influenced by Henri Matisse?\u201d
\u201cOh yes,\u201d she replied. \u201cHe had a wonderful collection of art books. And he had more Matisse books than anything else. People would give them to him all the time.\u201d
And on the day she visited the Baltimore Museum of Art, Grant got to meet Sophie Matisse, Henri\u2019s great-granddaughter, for the very first time.
\u201cThey look at the world in a sort of similar way. I\u2019m looking around while I\u2019m saying this, to see the sensibilities,\u201d Grant said.
\u201cYeah, me too!\u201d Matisse added.
\u201cThe work is not the same, but it\u2019s very definitely related.\u201d
\u201cBut they exchange kind of a mystical language between the two of them that I think comes out in this show, that\u2019s just breathtaking,\u201d Matisse said.
The parallels are unmistakable, including their contrasts of light and color.
The exhibition pairs Diebenkorn\u2019s \u201cInterior with Doorway\u201d (1962) with Matisse\u2019s \u201cInterior With a Violin\u201d (1918).
Richard Diebenkorn died in 1993 at the age of 70, nearly forty years after Matisse\u2019s death. Diebenkorn lived to witness his own success, but since he never met the man who influenced him along the way, their relationship would be left to the canvas — and our imaginations.
Braver asked Grant and Matisse, \u201cCould you imagine what a conversation between these two artists would have been?\u201d
\u201cI\u2019m sure that my father would have loved to have met Matisse,\u201d Grant replied.
\u201cAnd how do you know they\u2019re not, like, up there, looking down?\u201d Matisse laughed.<\/p>\n

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