In the summer of 1905, Henri Matisse and André Derain transformed the sleepy French fishing village of Collioure into a crucible of modern art. Under the dazzling Mediterranean sun the pair spurred each other on, pushing their painting to its limits: perspective was abandoned, systematically applied daubs of paint evolved into free-flowing swirls and slabs of spontaneous brushwork, and colors exploded into a palette of complementary tones dictated by emotion rather than representation. When they returned to Paris, they unveiled their radical new paintings at the Salon d’Automne. The general consensus was disgust, and when the critic Louis Vauxcelles declared the pictures were the work of ”fauves” (wild beasts), he unwittingly gave the first avant-garde art movement of the 20th century its name. This exhibition zeroes in on four wildly important years in the history of art. —Harry Seymour