Monet, Matisse and van Gogh ‘masterworks’ bound for Adelaide in multimillion-dollar Winter Art series

Fifty seven works from Ohio’s Toledo Museum of Art are making their Australian debut in the first instalment of the Art Gallery of South Australia’s four-year, $15 million ‘Winter Art’ series.

Oct 01, 2025, updated Oct 01, 2025
Vincent van Gogh, born Zundert, Netherlands 1853, died Auvers-sur-Oise, France 1890, Wheat Fields with Reaper, Auvers, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, oil on
canvas, 73.6 x 93.0 cm; Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond
Libbey, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, United States of America
Vincent van Gogh, born Zundert, Netherlands 1853, died Auvers-sur-Oise, France 1890, Wheat Fields with Reaper, Auvers, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, oil on canvas, 73.6 x 93.0 cm; Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, United States of America

The Art Gallery of South Australia has revealed its 2026 winter centrepiece, a new exhibition bringing together works by some of the most celebrated names in 19th and 20th century art with Monet to Matisse: Defying Tradition.

Slated to open in July 2026, the exhibition will feature key showpieces from the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art, including pieces by Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Helen Frankenthaler, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh and James McNeill Whistler.

Claude Monet, born Giverny, France 1840, died Giverny, France 1926, Water Lilies, c.1922, oil on canvas, 200.7 x 213.4cm; Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, United States of America

Once known as ‘The Glass City’ for its booming 19th century glass industry, Toledo’s history of wealthy industrialist-philanthropists — like glass magnate and Toledo Museum of Art founder Edward Drummond Libbey (1854-1925) — has left it with a rich public collection capturing decades of experimentation and evolution from across Europe and America.

“Toledo is in the Midwest, and it’s part of what we now call the Rust Belt, but was a big area of industry and development in the first half of the 20th century – huge amounts of money,” Art Gallery of South Australia curator Tansy Curtin tells InReview.

“What it means is that you have this moment where you’ve got incredible collectors who are establishing a museum for a community. And so it’s this amazing kind of coming together of money and power and philanthropy.”

Henri Matisse, born Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France 1869, died Nice, France 1954, Dancer Resting, 1940, France, oil on canvas, 81.3 × 64.8 cm; Gift of Mrs. C. Lockhart McKelvy, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, United States of America, © Henri Matisse/Copyright Agency, 2025

This Australian-exclusive loan arrives as the Toledo Museum embarks on a major, multi-year renovation project – including its first comprehensive reinstallation in four decades. With the museum set to reopen in 2027, Adelaide has swooped in to serve as a temporary home to some of Toledo’s most prized acquisitions.

While many of the artists represented have also appeared in other recent major exhibitions around the country, Curtin says audiences will still find plenty to appreciate when the Toledo pieces are unveiled.

"It’s this amazing kind of coming together of money and power and philanthropy."

“We do know these artists really well, but I also like to say there’s a big difference seeing a work on a screen and seeing the work in real life,” she says, citing Vincent van Gogh’s 1890 painting Wheat Fields with Reaper, Auvers, purchased via an endowment donated by Libbey.

“What you can’t see is just how incredible the brush work is, and how thick the paint is. It’s not a two-dimensional work, it is three-dimensional, it’s an object. It’s so beautiful to get up close to it, and be able to see that, and to see how the artist really understands colour and plays with colour and form.”

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Paul Klee, born Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland 1879, died Locarno, Switzerland 1940, Villas for Marionettes (Villen für Marionetten), 1922, Germany, oil on wood panel, 29.8 x 22.9 cm; Gift of Thomas T. Solley, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, United States of America

The Toledo works will be complemented by selections from AGSA’s own collection of 28,000 works on paper, including works by Édouard Manet and Paul Gaugin.

“We’ve got a really extraordinary collection of work on paper,” Curtin says. “I’ve been working to really draw out some of the stories with some of our works on paper to tell a deeper story.

“Probably a lot of people wouldn’t even realise that we have many of these great masters in our collection, and haven’t had that opportunity to see them in context.”

Monet to Matisse: Defying Tradition will be the first of four major Winter Art exhibitions to be held from 2026 – 2029. The series was first revealed by Premier Peter Malinauskas in March as the $15 million flagship project of the state government’s new cultural policy. 

“Monet to Matisse is a real coup for South Australia, bringing iconic paintings by artists including Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse to Adelaide for the first time,” Malinauskas said in a statement this week.

Premier Peter Malinauskas announcing the state government’s $15 million backing of AGSA’s Winter Art exhibitions in March 2025. Photo: Walter Marsh

“The Art Gallery of South Australia has cemented itself as a major tourism destination and AGSA’s Winter Art sSeries will see blockbuster exhibitions exclusively in Adelaide over winter for the next four years, driving tourism visitation and delivering tangible economic growth to the state.”

In March, AGSA director Jason Smith said he hoped the series would help make South Australia an “inspiring art destination”, and build the gallery’s reputation outside the state.

Monet to Matisse: Defying Tradition will run from July 11 – November 8, with tickets on sale now.