Godon in the steps of Matisse

  • Dated: Octo­ber 2017
  • Media: L’avenir – Le cour­rier de L’Escault – Belgium

Godon in the steps of Matisse

Using colour, new tech­niques, 3-​D, the artist Alain Godon has fol­lowed in the foot­steps of Matisse: an exhi­bi­tion truly for the greater pub­lic.

The “Hauts-​de-​France” region (for­merly the areas of “Nord”, Pas-​de-​Calais” and Picardie – in other words the North of France) is one of the most cul­tur­ally dynamic regions of the coun­try; and close to the Bel­gian bor­der, cul­tural excur­sion oppor­tu­ni­ties abound in this area. So this autumn, the Matisse Museum in Le Cateau-​Cambrésis (25km from Valen­ci­ennes) is host­ing a totally novel expe­ri­ence; an exhi­bi­tion by the French artist Alain Godon staged entirely with works cre­ated just for this occa­sion.

Matisse’s town
Le Cateau, just to remind you, is the town where the painter Henri Matisse was born. Before his death, he bequeathed part of his inher­i­tance to the region. A sec­ond museum would be opened sev­eral years later in Nice, where the painter died. Since its cre­ation, the museum in Le Cateau-​Cambrésis has become an insti­tu­tion of sig­nif­i­cance with not only a per­ma­nent col­lec­tion but also tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions all with a link one way or another to Matisse.

But where is Matisse ?
There isn’t one sin­gle paint­ing by the Mas­ter in the “Matisse, Godon, New York, Tahiti” exhi­bi­tion. On this occa­sion, the museum asked the artist Alain Godon to fol­low the jour­ney taken by Matisse in the 1930s from New York to Tahiti. A French painter and sculp­tor based in Eng­land, Alain Godon started paint­ing as a graf­fiti artist on the pave­ments of Paris and Brighton in the 1980s. His paint­ings, as does his sculp­ture, reflect this. Fur­ther­more, he’s an artist over­flow­ing with imag­i­na­tion, seek­ing new tech­niques – such as the “Bil­doRe­liefo”, Esperanto for a pic­ture in relief – and who wants to “bring hap­pi­ness” going for­ward with his work. Colour, a black line, some­times almost cartoon-​like, he can’t fail but to be com­pletely at ease in the world that Matisse described in the course of his jour­ney through cor­re­spon­dence, pho­tos, and rare doc­u­ments, which are dis­played through­out the exhi­bi­tion.

The eyes of a child
To leave in search of another light is also an inner jour­ney under­taken by Matisse in 1930. This exhi­bi­tion reflects the two great dis­cov­er­ies that the artist was to make: “the” city with New York and the “pure light” of Tahiti. Godon him­self also under­took that jour­ney. He has given us in return colour­ful paint­ings, sculp­tures, and pic­turesque 3-​D instal­la­tions. Between light and shadow, bit­ter and sweet, this exhi­bi­tion is above all faith­ful to the spirit of Matisse, who main­tained that “you need to retain a child’s view”. And for those who want to see some “real” Matisse, they should visit the per­ma­nent col­lec­tion in the museum. They won’t be dis­ap­pointed!


Alain Godon uses mul­ti­ple meth­ods: paint­ing, tapes­try, sculp­ture and also new tech­niques giv­ing a 3-​D relief to his paint­ings. It’s full of colour and warmth.

Marie-​Françoise Ghousse

Other arti­cles…

  • Jan­u­ary 2015
  • Feb­ru­ary 2015
  • Feb­ru­ary 2015
  • ALAIN GODON’S MIAMI EXHIBIT
    March 2015
  • Alain Godon présente une série de sculptures et de tableaux
    Feb­ru­ary 2015
  • Alain Godon, poète moderne
    Feb­ru­ary 2015
  • Barnes Art Exhibit
    Jan­u­ary 2015
  • Faites le tour du monde avec  Alain Godon
    Feb­ru­ary 2015
  • Alain Godon Exhibition
    May 2015
  • GODON AROUND THE WORLD
    March 2015
  • Guide, art incontournable
    Feb­ru­ary 2015
  • Front de mer touquettois totalement inédit
    July 2016
  • Alain Godon
    Sep­tem­ber 2015
  • Le monde est son terrain de jeu
    Jan­u­ary 2015
  • Le Monde vu par Alain Godon
    Feb­ru­ary 2015
  • Le tour du monde en 80 œuvres
    Feb­ru­ary 2015
  • Around the World in Eighty Works
    Feb­ru­ary 2015
  • Alain Godon insolite
    Novem­ber 2015