This week, three major international shows: Claude Monet’s Thames views in London, the Henri Matisse retrospective in Basel and Helen Frankenthaler in Florence.
The former is a gathering of Monet’s views of the Thames—looking from his hotel room at the Savoy— that has just opened at the Courtauld Gallery in London. Ben Luke speaks to the show’s curator, Karen Serres, in the very hotel room where Monet made many of the paintings.
Smoke on the water: Waterloo Bridge, Gray Weather (1900), Claude Monet
Art Institute of Chicago/Art Resource, NY/Scala, Florence
Meanwhile, a rare European retrospective of Henri Matisse’s work has opened at the Beyeler Foundation in Basel. Ben Luke went to Basel and spoke to Raphaël Bouvier, the show’s curator.
Henri Matisse, Poissons rouges et sculpture, 1912
© Succession H. Matisse / 2024, ProLitteris, Zurich Photo: Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence
And this episode’s Work of the Week is Mediterranean Thoughts (1960) one of the paintings in Helen Frankenthaler: Painting without Rules, a new exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. The Art Newspaper’s associate digital editor, Alexander Morrison spoke to Douglas Dreishpoon, who organised the show.
Mediterranean Thoughts (1960), Helen Frankenthaler
Courtesy of Palazzo Strozzi
- Monet and London: Views of the Thames, Courtauld Gallery, London, until 19 January 2025.
- Matisse – Invitation to the Voyage, Beyeler Foundation, Basel, Switzerland, until 26 January 2025.
- Helen Frankenthaler: Painting Without Rules, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, until 26 January 2025.