Paul Matisse

Paul Matisse (born 1933) is an artist and inventor known for his public art installations, many of which are interactive. Matisse also invented the Kalliroscope.

Early life and education

Paul Matisse is the son of famed New York gallery owner Pierre Matisse, (the youngest son of painter Henri Matisse), and Alexina Sattler. His mother later divorced Pierre and married artist Marcel Duchamp, becoming Alexina "Teeny" Duchamp. Thus Paul is both grandson of Henri Matisse and later the stepson of Marcel Duchamp.

In 1954 Matisse graduated from Harvard University, where he once lived in Eliot House.

Matisse studied at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, and worked briefly with Buckminster Fuller.

Artistic career

Matisse worked in product development for Arthur D. Little. In 1962 he set off on his own, inventing (1966), patenting (1968), and ultimately manufacturing Kalliroscopes, which can display the complex and otherwise-invisible flow of liquids.

After the death of his stepfather Marcel Duchamp in 1968, Matisse worked with his widowed mother Alexina "Teeny" Duchamp and curator Anne d'Harnoncourt to implement the posthumous installation of Duchamp's now-iconic artwork Étant donnés at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

From 1977 to 1979 he helped install a full-scale "mobile" sculpture by Alexander Calder (who had died suddenly in 1976) for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The original design in steel was too heavy for display, so a lighter-weight version made with aluminum honeycomb supported from steel bars was fabricated and installed instead. Before his death, Calder had asked Matisse for his assistance in performing these tasks.

Thereafter, Matisse began his own public art career.

Personal life

Matisse currently resides with his wife Mimi and has a workshop and gallery in a former Baptist church in Groton, Massachusetts. His daughter Sophie Matisse is an artist in New York. His son, Alex Matisse, is a pottery artist and founder of East Fork Pottery in North Carolina. His granddaughter is actress Gaïa Jacquet-Matisse.

Selected public artworks

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  Calder Mobile (1977)

  

  Olympic Bell for Athens Olympic Games (2004)

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  Forest Bells (1997)
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  Charlestown Bells (2000)
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  National Japanese American Memorial Bell (2001)
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  Meditation Bell (2012)
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  Musical Fence (1980)
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  Kendall Band (1987)

• Musical Fence (1980) – interactive musical sculpture once located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and now housed at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Another version is at the Montshire Museum of Science in Vermont.
• Kendall Band (1987) – interactive musical sculpture in the MBTA's Kendall/MIT subway station in Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Forest Bells (1997)] – six vertical aluminum bells hanging from the limbs of oak trees on Groton Conservation Trust property in Groton, Massachusetts
• Charlestown Bells (2000) – interactive musical sculpture on the Charles River Dam between downtown Boston, Massachusetts and the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown
• Memorial Bell (2001) – at the National Japanese-American Memorial to Patriotism in Washington, DC
• Meditation Bell (2012) - Chateau LaCoste
• Calder Mobile (1978) - National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
• Olympic Bell (2004) - installation for the Athens Olympic Games