The topic of creative courage has been swirling around in our brains the past few months, thanks to our friends at SFMOMA, who invited us to host not one, but two events celebrating its springtime exhibit, Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal. Open through September 13, the show looks at one of Henri Matisse’s most famous paintings (and one of the most important in SFMOMA’s collection)—Femme au chapeau (“woman with a hat”).

The vibrant depiction of Matisse’s wife, Amélie—rendered in bold “unnatural” colors—created a scandal when it first debuted in 1905. “A pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public!” said one critic. “A thing brilliant and powerful, but the nastiest smear of paint I had ever seen,” said another. Although controversial at the time, Femme au chapeau eventually helped launch the Fauvist movement, and changed the course of modern art.

The idea of taste (both good and bad), art criticism, flexing creative courage, and being ahead of one’s time were themes present at our live panel in May with kid-lit stars Mac Barnett and Cátia Chien and Kamperett designer Anna Chiu. A few weeks later, we kept these topics pumping through another Matisse-themed gathering.

After a Matisse-inspired brunch at Cafe 5, guests enjoyed a special tour led by Janet Bishop, SFMOMA’s Thomas Weisel Family Chief Curator and one of the minds behind Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal. Together, we stepped back into the recreated 1905 Salon d’Automne, where the painting first shocked—and ultimately transformed—the art world.

Take a look at it all in our photo recap, below!

And, if you’re in the Bay Area, be sure to plan a visit to Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal before it closes in September.