Concrete Playground

It is often said that drawing is the ultimate artistic skill. It reveals the abilities of the artist to produce an image with the most simple of tools, the marker (pencil, charcoal, graphite) and the blank page.

The new summer exhibition at GOMA ‘Matisse: Drawing Life’ is the most comprehensive exhibition of Henri Matisse’s drawings and prints ever mounted. It reveals that even before he added colour and paint, Matisse could make amazing imagery with merely a brush and a canvas.

This exhibition brings together works from international, national, and private collections to reveal the breadth and depth of the drawings Matisse created. It reveals the style that Matisse developed in his works, and how this evolved.

Alongside the exhibition there is a film program and although Matisse’s engagement with cinema was limited, there are a number of films showing the artist working in his studio.

This is could be one of few chances to see the amazing scope of Matisse’s artistic skill.