UCCA Beijing, UCCA Edge

Matisse by Matisse
Public Practice Programs

2023.7.15 - 2024.2.18

UCCA’s Public Practice team has curated a series of public programs structured around the theme of “Matisse by Matisse,” each exploring historical, cultural, and social issues covered by the exhibition. These activities include guided tours led by inspiring special guests, discussions, workshops, performances and screenings, and will be presented on weekends during the exhibition period.

UCCA Beijing will present six weekends of public programs exploring Matisse’s artistic career, art and history at the turn of the twentieth century, and the artist’s influence on the Chinese modern art movement. Programs include conversations, workshops, film screenings, and a performance. The performance “The Unfinished Battle of the Two Xus,” will explore how modern Western art sparked debate when it was first introduced to China. The presentation also touches upon questions of professionalization and cultural modernity in contemporary art education, drawing from historical texts to rewrite and reenact history. In addition, the theme “The Eve of Modernity” will explore the social background and development of modern art in China in the first half of the twentieth century from the three perspectives of urbanization, popular and consumer culture, and art history.

Inheriting the richness of the Beijing programs, the Shanghai series will take the audiences on a journey through Matisse's creative life over five weekends, investigating how western modernist art (led by Matisse) has influenced Chinese literature and art over time. 

Additional special programs will be held throughout the exhibition period. For the most up-to-date information on events, please refer to announcements on UCCA’s official website and UCCA Edge’s official WeChat account and other social media platforms.

Shanghai(2023.11.4 – 2024.2.18)

I Starting from the Exhibition

2023.11.4

Inspiring Guided Tour

Screening | The Adventurers of Modern Art, Episodes 1 and 2


II Isolated-Island and Swing

2023.11.25

Inspiring Guided Tour

Conversation: Western Painting Movement in the “Isolated-Island” Period: A Re-reading of Hei Shaluo's Solo Exhibition (1940)

Screening |  Australia's Lost Impressionist - John Russell

 Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse 


III Formalism Debate

2023.12.16

Inspiring Guided Tour

Conversation: Formalism Debate

Screening | Chagall-Malevich


IV Look Out of the Window

2024.1.13

Conversation: 1929 National Art Exhibition

Paper Cut-Out Collage  Workshop

Screening | Matisse Live


V  On the Eve of Modernism

2024.1.27

Screening | The Impressionists

Civilisations, Episodes 1 and 7

Beijing(2023.7.15 – 2023.10.15)

7.15 – 7.16

Week 1  Matisse in Art History

7.15 Opening Conversation | Becoming Matisse

7.15 Candle Workshop | The Burning Icarus


7.22 – 7.27

Week 2  To Matisse

7.22 Conversation | To Matisse: Notes of a Painter

7.22 Handmade Book Workshop | Bookmaking Quartet

7.23 Flower Workshop | Greeting Nature

7.27 Cinema Arts | Australia’s Lost Impressionist - John Russell


8.5 – 8.13

Week 3. The Eve of Modernity

8.5 UCCA × C for ABC | Matisse is Everywhere

8.6 “The Eve of Modernity” Conversation Series | Matisse, Fauvism, and Modern Chinese Painting

8.12 Cinema Arts | Civilisations, Episodes 1 and 2

8.13 Cinema Arts | Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse


8.19 – 8.20

Week 4  The Modern Chorus

8.19 Cinema Arts | Civilisations, Episodes 3 and 4

8.20 Cinema Arts | Matisse Live

8.20 Fabric Workshop | Le Chant du Rossignol


9.3 – 9.17

Week 5  Portraying People, Portraying the World

9.3 Cinema Arts | The Impressionists

9.16 Cinema Arts | Civilisations, Episodes 5 and 6

9.17 Cinema Arts | Chagall-Malevich

9.17 “The Eve of Modernity” Conversation Series | Between Trends and Eras: Modernist Female Painters in Early 20th Century China 


9.23 – 9.30

Week 6  Enlightenment from Nature

9.23 Cinema Arts | Civilisations, Episodes 7 and 9

9.24 Cinema Arts | The Adventures of Modern Art, Episodes 1 and 2

9.24 3D Book Workshop

9.30 Fabric Workshop | The Natural Muse



10.6 – 10.15

Week 7  An Avant-Garde Age

10.6 “The Eve of Modernity” Conversation Series | “There Is Properly No History, Only Biography”——The Life of the Author and Modern Chinese Literature

10.11 Performing Arts | On the Eve of Modernism

10.15 Candle Workshop | Matisse’s Palette