The Swimming Pool

[Matisse's dining room at Hôtel Régina, Nice, 1952, as seen in MoMA's exhibition catalogue.]

At long last, it's here. In the States, at MoMA. This Sunday, Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs, an exhibition I've been talking about for months, officially goes on view. Yet another mention may seem annoyingly excessive but a specific feature over at the Museum's microsite warrants attention.

Back in June, I posted designer Amelia Handegan's use of a Matisse-inspired mural in a Sullivan's Island dining room -- just one of countless examples of the modern master's continued impact. Although Handegan had painter Kristin Bunting do the 21st-century frieze in brilliant yellow with white, rather than Matisse's famous blue, she did juxtapose the mural with a neutral wall, echoing how the pioneering artist set his room-spanning paper cut-out, The Swimming Pool, against burlap-covered walls.

Now, in this video and on this microsite, MoMA's director, Glenn Lowry, conservators and curators discuss the original burlap used in Matisse's dining room in the South of France, the mural's second life at the Museum (MoMA acquired it in the 1970s), and how the piece has been painstakingly installed for the upcoming show.