NEW YORK, NY.- Acquavella Galleries is presenting Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony, an exhibition featuring over fifty paintings, works on paper, and sculpture by Henri Matisse on loan from museums and private collections. On view in New York from April 9 through May 22, 2026, the exhibition traces Matisse’s investigation of form in two and three dimensions, from paintings and sculptures made at the start of the 20th century through the next five decades of his career.

Although Acquavella has dealt in exceptional works by Matisse for over sixty years, this marks the gallery’s first exhibition devoted to the French artist since 1973.

While Matisse is widely celebrated as unparalleled in his mastery of color—having revolutionized modern art with his luminous palette and lyrical color harmonies—his exploration of form was equally central to his practice. For Matisse, the relationship between color and form was essential, and throughout his career he worked to refine his approach to form and the figure. Simplified, rhythmic shapes, often inspired by the flowing lines of the arabesque, were integral to Matisse’s lifelong pursuit of harmony and balance in his art. As he wrote, “A work of art must be harmonious in its entirety: any superfluous detail would replace some other essential detail in the mind of the spectator.”

In search of what he called a “clarity of expression,” Matisse often worked through his subjects across mediums—painting, sculpture, and drawing. Of the more than eighty sculptures Matisse created, more than half date to the first decade of the 20th century—a radically innovative chapter of the artist’s practice during which he undertook an extensive series of figure studies alongside his explosive and unprecedented explorations of color. Turning to sculpture to work through formal concerns he encountered in painting, he was able to more thoroughly consider and simplify his approach to the figure. A conversation emerged between the two disciplines in Matisse’s work; the same poses appear in his paintings and sculptures, as each medium encouraged formal developments in the other.

This dialogue is particularly evident in Matisse’s treatment of the female form. While working on the ambitious Large Seated Nude (1922–29), Matisse also worked through this dynamic, cantilevered pose of the figure in two dimensions. The exhibition includes more than twenty representations of the nude, presenting the figure in fluid poses in both two and three dimensions.

In the 1930s, Matisse largely stopped working in sculpture as a new technique began to inspire his approach to form. While working on a large-scale mural commission for Albert Barnes, he began using paper cutouts to map out his compositions. By arranging and rearranging shapes cut from painted sheets of paper, he developed a more immediate and flexible way of orchestrating form and color. Appreciating the bold and expressive potential of these cut chapes, this method inspired a shift in Matisse’s paintings toward simplified forms and flatter planes of vivid color.

Refined to its essential rhythms and forms, Matisse’s art conveys a sense of effortless grace and spontaneity that belies its complexity. As he reflected, “I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me.”