Matisse and decoration, Kimbell's new Bonnard

Episode No. 366 features art historian John Klein and curator George Shackelford.

Klein is the author of "Matisse and Decoration," a new look at how Matisse's interest in the French decorative tradition informed and motivated his work throughout his career, but especially between 1935 and his death in 1954. The book details how Matisse translated decoration into easel painting, as well as into significant commissions for private individuals in the United States and Europe. The book also reveals how Matisse responded to the crisis of World War II and helped participate in France's post-war revival through decorative projects. The book was published by Yale University Press. It is available from Amazon for $39.

On the second segment, Kimbell Art Museum curator and senior deputy director George Shackelford discusses his museum's recent acquisition of a major Pierre Bonnard, Landscape at Le Cannet (1928). The painting, a four-foot-by-nine-foot Bonnardian address of the French decorative tradition, is now on view at the Kimbell.