Jeff Koehler, MATISSE IN MOROCCO

About the remarkable and little-known story of Henri MATISSE AND HIS GROUNDBREAKING TIME IN MOROCCOABOUT THIS EVENT In winter of 1912, Henri Matisse—forty-two, nearing mid-career, and yet to find lasting critical acceptance, public admiration, or financial security since exploding to the forefront of the avant-garde in 1905 with his iconoclastic Fauve paintings—was struggling. Once the vanguard leader, the Parisian avant-garde now considered him passé. His important early collectors, including Gertrude and Leo Stein, had stopped buying his work and were fully championing Picasso, and he had exhibited little in the last few years. In the face of Cubism that was now dominating the art scene, Matisse needed to get away from Paris in order to advance his distinctive artistic vision. Almost on a whim, he went to Tangier. Matisse had already been profoundly inspired by Islamic art, and was primed for his arrival in the Moroccan city where such art was integrated into everyday life. Despite the challenges of rain, insomnia, depression, and finding models, the sojourn was such a success he returned the following winter, which would lead to even greater artistic triumph. MATISSE IN MOROCCO tells the story of the artist's groundbreaking time in Tangier and how it altered MATISSE’s development as a painter and indelibly marked his work for the next four decades. Through KOEHLER'S RESEARCH AND TRAVEL, we experience MATISSE'S TIME IN TANGIER, the paintings and their subjects, his relationships with his wife Amélie and his two important collectiors, and then come to understand the impact MOROCCO—its light, colors, culture, and artistic traditions—had on his art. From LANDSCAPE VIEWED FROM A WINDOW , to ZORAH ON THE TERRACE , from KASBAH GATE to the dream-like tableau MOROCCAN CAFÉ , these works from Morocco are now recognized as some of the most significant and dazzling of Matisse’s illustrious career. _*JEFF KOEHLER__ is the author of ten books, including __The Spanish Mediterranean Islands Cookbook__ , __The North African Cookbook__ , __Where the Wild Coffee Grows__ , and __Darjeeling: A History of the World’s Greatest Tea__ . His titles have been named __New York Times Book Review__ Editors’ Choice, paperback of the week in __the Guardian__ , won a James Beard Award, and included in “best of” roundups in the __NYT__ , __NYTBR__ , __WSJ__ , __Le Monde__ , __Science__ , __Nature__ , __Smithsonian__ , __Mother Jones__ , and __Entertainment Weekly__ . Koehler’s writing has appeared in the __Washington Post__ , NPR, __WSJ__ , __Times Literary Supplement__ , __Tin House__ , __South China Morning Post__ , __Vogue Arabia__ , __Food & Wine_* , and many other publications. Born and raised near Seattle, he has lived in Spain since 1996, and divides his time between Barcelona and Menorca. Instagram @jeff_koehler Pre-order your copy of M ATISSE IN MOROCCO here. Also check out other Arts events in Seattle [https://allevents.in/seattle/art] , Literary Art events in Seattle [https://allevents.in/seattle/literary-art] , Fine Arts events in Seattle [https://allevents.in/seattle/fine-arts] .