AKU-2020-018

Capital Cut Collective, Berlin

The Circle (After Matisse)

2019

Oil on canvas

210 × 210 cm

Acquisition

Purchased, 2020

Curator’s Note

Six figures in identical dark business attire dance in a closed ring against a flat green ground, directly quoting the formal arrangement of Matisse's La Danse (1909). The faces are individuated and rendered with sufficient specificity that three of the six were identified by name in a 2020 article in Die Zeit, prompting a letter from counsel. The painting was acquired by the AKU the following month.