Henri Matisse. Paper Poems

This exhibition of lithographs reproducing Henri Matisse’s famous paper cutouts ran at the Wiktor Ambroziewicz Museum of the Chełm Land from 7 August to 6 September 2026.

Museum of the Chełm Land on the exhibition:

“Paper Poems” offers a unique opportunity to encounter one of the most recognisable periods in Matisse’s body of work. The works on display show how simple forms and intense colours can create compositions of remarkable expressive power that continue to inspire artists, designers and art lovers worldwide.

What to expect

The show ran in the museum’s branch at ul. Św. Mikołaja 4 in Chełm from 7 August to 6 September 2026. What was on display were lithographs - not the original cutouts - reproducing the set published in the Paris magazine “Verve” in 1958 under the title “Dernières œuvres de Matisse” (“Matisse’s Final Works”). It was a touring package: the same set of prints was shown by other regional Polish museums in Dzierżoniów, Ostrołęka, Oświęcim, Krasnystaw and Gorlice in 2025-2026, not a loan of originals.

Context

Henri Matisse (1869-1954), a co-founder of Fauvism, spent his final decade largely bedridden and turned from the brush to scissors and coloured paper, developing the technique known as “papiers découpés” (paper cutouts). The set shown in Chełm consists of lithographic reproductions of those works, published in 1958 in the prestigious magazine “Verve” after the artist’s death. Matisse’s cutouts - today held in original form mainly at the Centre Pompidou and Tate Modern - rank among the most recognisable artworks of the 20th century.

After the show

The museum has not stated where the touring set travels next, or whether a catalogue was published. Currently on show at the Museum of the Chełm Land: Okna Pamięci (“Windows of Memory”) (running to 31 December 2026; no English page yet). Visitors drawn to modern art can also see two related current shows elsewhere in the network: Witold Chomicz 1910-1984 at the Zamoyski Museum in Kozłówka, prints and drawings from the same generation of artists, and Małgorzata Wszołek “Happiness Is High Up” at the Karwacjan Manor in Gorlice, painting and drawing by a contemporary artist.

Museum profile: Wiktor Ambroziewicz Museum of the Chełm Land .