OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA.- The story of modern art in France during the first half of the 20th century is on view at The Oklahoma City Museum of Art in a blockbuster exhibition that opened Saturday, June 18. “Matisse in His Time: Masterworks of Modernism from the Centre Pompidou, Paris” includes 100 works of art, including more than 50 paintings, sculptures and works on paper by Henri Matisse, as well as masterworks by his contemporaries – Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Georges Braque, André Derain, Fernand Léger, Amedeo Modigliani, Joan Miró and Maurice de Vlaminck.

Through a selection of works from the rich collection of the Centre Pompidou, along with a few exceptional loans, including four pieces from OKCMOA’s permanent collection, Matisse’s works is being presented in the context of the painter’s friendships and artistic exchanges, caught in a “spirit of the times” as the exhibition moves from his early work to his late-career paper cutouts.

“One of the reasons Matisse is so important is that his development as a painter parallels that of modern art in the early 20th century,” said Michael J. Anderson, Ph.D., director of curatorial affairs. “In this exhibition, we move through time, witnessing the major movements not as a series of -isms, but rather in the context of the friendships and rivalries -- with Matisse always at the center -- that pushed art forward at a really exceptional pace.”

The exhibition begins in the studio of one of his earliest mentors, famous French symbolist painter Gustave Moreau, and continues step by step as Matisse helped define the direction of modern art in the first half of the 20th century. Matisse quickly asserted himself as an artistic authority in Moreau’s studio, where he and his friends created landscapes, still-lifes, and depictions of artists in their studios.

Following this first area, museumgoers will encounter sections on the topics of Fauvism; the influence of Cubism; Matisse’s period in Nice, France; odalisques; “The Dream” and drawing; the studio and the still-life; modernism; and Matisse’s influence on Pop artists.