An Exhibition in Nice Celebrates Henri Matisse’s Maritime Inspirations, Coinciding With The Oceans Conference to Explore Art’s Dialogue With Marine Conservation.
In June 2025, Nice Becomes The Stage for A Historic Global Summit: The United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC), A Landmark Gathering of World Leaders, Scientists, and Environmental Advocates Set to Shape The Future of Our Seas. In Step with this time used, Nice is Launching its sixth Biennale of the Arts, Reimagined for 2025 as “The sea around us” (The Sea Around Us). Blending Art, Science, and Civic Commitment, The Biennale Transforms The City Into A Vast Creative Canvas Dedicated To Exploring Our Deep, Fragile, and Urgent Relationshipship with the ocean.
“Protecting the oceans begins with studying to look at them, perceive them, and really feel the urgency of their preservation. In this mission, artists play an important position: they awaken sensitities, movable the collective creativeness, and lift consciousness,” explains Christian estrosi, Mayor of Nice.
Henri Matisse, Flower Day
For the First Time, The Biennale Exvents Beyond Museum Walls, Spilling Into the Streets of the City. Nice turns into an open-air museum devoted to the ocean, inviting locals and guests alike to have interaction with the ocean as a supply of inspiration.
At the Helm of the Curatorial Vision Are Jean-Jacques Aillagon, Train French Minister of Culture, and Hélène Guenin, Director of Mamac (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Nice). Together, they’ve curated an expansive program that includes 11 exhibitions throughout seven museums, Along with installations at artistic hubs such because the 109, palais lascaris, and villa arson. For the First Time, The Public Can Follow An Art Trail by means of the City, and Along the Iconic Promenade des Anglais.
“The Ocean, Cradle of Life and Thermostat of the Planet, Has Long Remaine A Terra Incognita,” The Curators Note. “Now, as its survival hangs in the balance, these exhibitions offered at Journey through time and imagination.”
Among the Highlights is “Matisse Méditerranée (s)”, A Landmark Exhibition and One of the Biennale’s Central Pillars. It dives into Henri Matisse’s relationship with the Mediterranean, His Muse, His Horizon, and His Home. From his first travels to corsica in 1898 by means of to his a long time dwelling and dealing in Nice (1917–1954), Matisse Drew Endless Inspiration from the Sea’s Light, Color, and Cultural Confluence.
Henri Matisse, the blue villa in Nice
Featuring Over 150 Works, Including 44 Paintings, 90 Drawings and Engravings, and A Rich Archive, The Exhibition Explores How Mediterranean Landscapes, Cultures, and Histories Shaped Matisse’s Visual Language. Through Works Like Red seaside,, The happiness of dwellingand The wavewe see how the motifs of sea, shore, and window Became His compositional Tools, and metaphysical symbols.
Fittingly, Matisse’s Train Studio and Apartment, from the place he Created Many of the Works on Show, Overlooked the Promenade des Anglais, Just Steps from the place a UNOC WILL BE HELD AT THE PORT OF NICE.
PWI198893 The Red Beach, Collioure, Summer 1905 (Oil on Canvas) by Matisse, Henri (1869-1954); 33 × 41 cm; Private assortment; (Add.data.: Painting by Henri Matisse); © Peter Willi; © Succession H. Matisse.
Set Within The Hilltop District of Cimiez, The Museum Matisse Occupies A Seventeenth-Century Villa Surrounded by Roman Ruins and Lush Gardens. Sentce Opening in 1963, it has housed a major assortment donated by the artist and his household – poh of whom awaited the opening on might seventh. This is the First Time the Theme of the Sea has been explored as a devoted exhibition inside Matisse’s work, and Several Pieces on View Have Never Before Been Exhibited in Nice, Including Rare Loans from Moma (New York), the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pompidou.
Among the Most Striking is Batager on the turtle (Bathers with a Turtle), an Ambitious Early 1900s Painting that Reflects Matisse’s Deep, Physical Connection to Water, a Theme that races by means of his work. The Pointillist textures of Luxury, calm and voluptuousnessPainted During A 1904 Summer with Paul Signac in St Tropez, Are Alive With Colorful, Sunlit Vitality. And The violinist on the windowPainted During One of Matisse’s Earliest Stays in Nice, Captures His View, and One of His Favourite Hobbies, from A Studio on the Quai within the United States.
Henri Matisse, bathers on the turtle
One of the Most Poignant Works is The pool. Created in 1952 on the Age of 83, Matisse Covered the Four Walls of His Studio on the Hotel Régina with a Paper Cut-Out Seascape. “I like to look at it because I Always Loved the Sea,” He Said, “and AS I AM NOT ABLE TO SWIM ANYMORE, I SURROUDED MYYLF with the ocean.” That Original Work Now Belongs to Moma, objective to ceramic model, Commissioned by Matisse’s Grandson Claude Duthuit and Crafted by Ceramist Hans Spinner, Lives in Nice. Made of Blue-And-White Ceramic Tiles Over Lava Stone, It Faithfully Reproduces the Dimensions of the Original Room, and invitations you to step into seascape work, Just as Henri Matisse Would Have Experienced It.
As Nice Becomes A Nexus of Cultural and Ecological Discourse This Summer, The sea round us Beauty with urgency models. Calling for us to think about the ocean as legacy, lifeblood, and inspiration.
Matisse Henri (1869-1954). Paris, Musée d’Orsay. DO1985-1; AM1982-96.
Key dates
Nice 2025 Biennale des arts and the ocean
The sea round us
May – October 2025
11 exhibitions, 1 artwork path by means of town
Matisse Mediteranée (s) Exhibition
UNTIL eighth September 2025
Matisse Museum
OPEN EVERY DAY EXCEPT TUE.
www.musee-statisse-nice.org/en/
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Matisse, the Mediterranean, and the Biennale That Brings the Sea to the Streets of Nice