When the European Fluxus group disbanded in 1964 after two eventful years, Tomas Schmit (1943-2006), who had participated in the group's actions as a performer, gradually withdrew from performing. From 1966 he devoted himself primarily to writing and drawing. But the idea of the stage as a place where an action is performed in front of and with an audience did not disappear from his art. From then on, Schmit staged "the performance of drawing" on paper. The close interlocking of performance and drawing practice that characterizes Schmit's entire oeuvre will be brought into focus for the first time in the exhibition of the Kupferstichkabinett, which will take place in the fall of 2021, and in the accompanying catalog. At the same time, the project reflects the manifold spectrum of Schmit's nearly 40 years of comprehensive drawing and language art.

"Long live painting!" With this rallying cry, Henri Matisse, greeted his colleague Pierre Bonnard on a 1925 postcard from Amsterdam. Widely considered two of the greatest painters of French modernism, they were united by a forty-year-long friendship and a keen appreciation of each other's work. This catalogue offers fascinating insights into their artistic dialogue. Focusing throughout on their creative exchanges, it highlights their respective contributions to the development of modern art, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of the Second World War. Comprising over 100 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints, the book makes palpable the many intersections between their artistic visions, and investigates their shared interest in subjects such as interiors, still life, landscape, and the nude. Scholarly essays and thematic introductions to their oeuvres provide a wealth of information on the two colleagues and friends gained from their writings and correspondence as well as archival material. Another highlight is a series of iconic photographs taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson, who visited both Matisse and Bonnard at their much-fabled houses in the South of France.