The Baltimore Museum of Art will open a center dedicated to the study of French artist Henri Matisse on Dec. 12.
The Ruth R. Marder Center for Matisse Studies, named after a longtime BMA supporter, is an approximately 2,500-square-foot space on the first floor of the museum.
The center will have an exhibition gallery, work space, offices, storage, and a study room and library for curators, scholars, and students.
BMA commissioned artist Stanley Whitney to create a set of three large stained-glass windows to be installed in the center.
Whitney will also present an exhibition, “Matisse: The Sinuous Line,” which will open with the center. The show is the first installation in a two-part series.
“With the inauguration of the Marder Matisse Center, we are establishing a new resource that invites research, discovery, and dialogue about Matisse’s significance to art history and his ongoing relevance to contemporary artists,” museum director Christopher Bedford said in a statement.
The center, designed by Quinn Evans Architects, cost approximately $5 million.
BMA’s Matisse collection is the largest public holding of works by the artist in the world, the museum says.
The Matisse collection was first established when sisters Claribel and Etta Cone donated their artwork to the museum in 1949.
The Cone Collection has more than 600 works by Matisse, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, and illustrated books.
The goal of the new center is to dedicate staff time and resources to exhibitions on Matisse and provide students with a place to learn more about the artist, museum director and curator Katy Rothkopf said in a statement.
“We want to inspire scholarship on Matisse’s extraordinary impact from both inside and outside of the institution,” she said.
