The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) will host the U.S. debut of a selection of modern masterworks by Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti, and other figures of the postwar European avant-garde, gathered by the renowned gallerist and collector Heinz Berggruen.

The exhibition explores Berggruen’s relationship with the artists, the literary community, and the art-market network with which he was intimately linked in postwar Paris, through his Berggruen & Cie gallery, located on Rue de l’Université. “Picasso–Klee–Matisse: Masterworks from the Berggruen Museum” will open to the public from May 20 to September 13, 2026.

With around 100 works, the exhibition highlights the trajectories of Picasso and Klee, and showcases Matisse’s characteristic cutouts, Giacometti’s haunting and elongated sculptures, as well as paintings and drawings by Paul Cézanne and Georges Braque.

“I am honored to bring to the United States and to Houston these exceptional masterworks from the Berggruen Museum collection in Berlin,” says Gary Tinterow, director and holder of the Margaret Alkek Williams Chair at MFAH.

The work titled “El suéter amarillo” by Pablo Picasso painted in 1939, will be part of this exhibition. Photo courtesy of MFAH

From Henri Matisse, this 1920 work titled “Interior, Étretat” will be in Houston. Photo courtesy of MFAH

“Still Life before a Window, Saint Raphaël” of 1919 painted by Picasso that will come to MFAH. Photo courtesy of MFAH

Henri Matisse was the creator of “Vegetal Elements,” painted in 1947 and that will be in this exhibition. Photo courtesy of MFAH

Between the 1940s and the 1990s, Heinz Berggruen assembled a distinctive collection of hundreds of modern art masterpieces, many of them acquired directly from the artists themselves. As a dealer, he became their best client, shaping his collection guided by his tastes and personal affinities.

“Picasso–Klee–Matisse: Masterworks from the Berggruen Museum” presents more than 95 of the works—paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sculptures—that Berggruen collected. MFAH’s exhibition combines thematic focus areas, including still life, portrait, the human figure, and landscape, with in-depth presentations dedicated to individual artists, highlighting the full trajectory of Picasso and Klee, and showcasing Matisse’s emblematic cutout “collages,” Giacometti’s haunting and stylized sculptures, as well as paintings and drawings by Paul Cézanne and Georges Braque.

One of the exhibition rooms will be devoted to the history of Heinz Berggruen (1914-2007). Born into a Jewish family in Berlin-Wilmersdorf (Germany), Berggruen studied literature at the university and, in the 1930s, began writing about cultural topics for German newspapers. In 1936 he fled Nazi persecution;

after emigrating to the United States, he initially worked in California as an independent art journalist, before taking a position as curator in 1939 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

After World War II, Berggruen returned to Europe and, in 1947, founded his gallery in Paris. The Berggruen Museum is currently closed for renovations, and its collection is touring the world on an international tour.

The Exhibition

Title: “Picasso–Klee–Matisse: Masterworks from the Berggruen Museum”

When: May 20 to September 13, 2026

Where: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH)

More information: www.mfah.org