Matisse/Diebenkorn Installation View at The Baltimore Museum of Art.
Photographer: Mitro Hood.

Baltimore Museum of Art
Matisse/Diebenkorn Artistic Soulmates

By Jacqueline Bell Johnson

Through January 29th

Matisse/Diebenkorn is an exhibition 15 years in the making, ending this month at the Baltimore Museum and opening at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in March.

Reading biographies of Matisse and Diebenkorn side-by-side reveals both to be great students, which lead them to be great artists. They have actively viewed work from both predecessors and peers utilizing these observations in the development of their painting. In addition to looking, Matisse was known for collecting work of his fellow artists, even going into debt for it. Diebenkorn’s stint in the Marines gave him the opportunity to view the collections of Museums in New York, Philly and DC, influences he would use later in his career. Twenty years later he traveled to the Soviet…