From Monet to Warhol - 4: The Unclassifiables

From Monet to Warhol - 4: The unclassifiables

at the Goulandris Foundation, Athens.

This is the 4th post on this exhibition. You can see the previous three here , here and here

If you don't want to read the introduction again, scroll down to Picasso and Matisse.

A wonderful exhibition, which gave me great pleasure. Firstly because it was great seeing paintings that I had seen before and loved. Secondly because some of it was new to me, and this includes artists I had not come across before.

The ensemble of eighty three works of forty five artists, mostly paintings,  which is on loan from the Swiss private collection, was assembled over three generations, affording us the opportunity to retrace the history of modern art from the 1880s until the present day.

Most of the major movements, currents and trends that have marked the evolution of painting are touched upon here in varying degrees of detail: Impressionism, Symbolism, Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Japonisme, Synthetism, the Nabis, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. They reflect the increasing changes imposed on perspective, colour and figuration, as well as the historical context in which they were conceived.

Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse:

The role played by Picasso and Matisse in the evolution of modern art was so fundamental that both perpetually moved between the various artistic movements of their era, without ever fully joining one. Thanks to the tremendous number of works they left behind, these two shook the foundations of painting, sculpture and drawing. One thing they both have in common is a simplicity of execution that only better reveals their expressive capacity.

Pablo Picasso, Satyr

The figure of the fawn, or satyr, appears more than 700 times in Picasso's oeuvre, and eventually ousted another hybrid creature that was central to his work: the Minotaur. 

Henri Matisse, Head of a Young Girl, 1947, (India ink on wove paper)

Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman in Profile, 1913

Pablo Picasso, The Frugal Repast, 1904, (etching and scraper on zinc printed on wove paper)

A print of the famous Frugal Repast  from an era when Picasso painted marginal people and travelling circus performers. He learned the techniques of etching and drypoint. 

Pablo Picasso, Bullfight, 1960, (mixed media on paper)



Destination Paris:

The term Ecole de Paris was created to designate the totality of European artists who flocked to  Paris from the end of the 1890s. It encompassed extremely diverse contributions to modern painting, including Wassily Kandinsky, Amedeo Modigliani and Marc Chagall, all of whom cannot be assimilated to any one particular current. When he resigned himself to abandoning sculpture, his first love, Modigliani revolutionised the art of the portrait and the nude. As for Chagall, he imagined his own pictorial universe characterised by the perpetual recalling of the themes of love and tolerance.

Amedeo Modigaliani, Portrait of Beatrice Hastings, 1915, (oil on paper mounted on canvas)

Marc Chagall, Bouquet of Mimosas, 1954-55, (oil on canvas)

Sam Szafran the Unifier:

Szafran holds an unusual place in contemporary art at the end of the 20th century. Despite his status as a self-taught painter he reintroduced into painting the long-neglected technique of pastel and led it to a higher level of excellence. Fascinated by the new perspectives that were afforded by the various focal lengths used in the cinema industry, he presented a new way of seeing the world through angles unexplored until then.

This exploration continued with watercolour that he used to work on a larger scale. Thus, Szafran combined a classical tradition with contemporary innovations, far from any affiliation with a specific group.

Sam Szafran, Plant Watercolour (Faceless Lilette). 2009, (watercolour on paper)

Szafran made his studio a sumptuous oasis. The predominance of flora took on a threefold symbolic value: to the joy of finally owning a studio that he could decorate as he wished was added the happiness of seeing in plants both a nod to Matisse and a kind of miniature forest.

Sam Szafran, The Bellini Print Shop, 1974, (pastel on cardboard)

Szafran took part in the purchase of a print workshop on rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, in Paris, at the end of the 1960s and christened it Bellini in homage to the Venetian painters Giovanni and Gentile Bellini. It would become a recurrent motif in his work for close to forty years and afforded him the opportunity to adapt his use of pastels to meticulous descriptions of the various machines along with architectural details.

Sam Szafran, Staircase, 2002, (pastel on paper)

Towards the end of the 1960s Szafran paid a visit to a friend at 54 rue de Seine. He was captivated by the staircase that he had to climb and over the years he would immortalise it from every angle, by day and by night. He made of this common space, up until then overlooked in painting, an obssessive place of memory, existential questioning and aesthetic experimentation.

From Monet to Warhol - 3: Japonisme, Nabis

From Manet to Warhol - Japonisme, Nabis

at the Goulandris Foundation, Athens.

This is the third post on this exhibition. You can see the first few posts here and here . If you don't want to read the introduction again go down to first photograph.

A wonderful exhibition, which gave me great pleasure. Firstly because it was great seeing paintings that I had seen before and loved. Secondly because some of it was new to me, and this includes artists I had not come across before, Maurice Denis, for example.

The ensemble of eighty three works of forty five artists, mostly paintings,  which is on loan from the Swiss private collection, was assembled over three generations, affording us the opportunity to retrace the history of modern art from the 1880s until the present day.

Most of the major movements, currents and trends that have marked the evolution of painting are touched upon here in varying degrees of detail: Impressionism, Symbolism, Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Japonisme, Synthetism, the Nabis, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. They reflect the increasing changes imposed on perspective, colour and figuration, as well as the historical context in which they were conceived.

Japonisme:

The generic term of Japonisme includes all of the influences that affected French, then Western art after the development of trade between Europe and Japan starting in the second half of the 19th century. Fascinated by ukiyo-e, the artists were inspired by this unaccustomed approach to form, perspective and colour and integrated it into their work, each in his or her own manner. This is particularly visible in the work of Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh as well as the whole Neo-Impressionist group and the Nabis.

 Paul Ranson, Tiger

For this drawing Paul Ranson was inspired by Kitagawa Utamaro's Tiger in the Bamboos. He respected the precepts of ukiyo-e by ignoring perspective and depth, but introduced a series of sinuous lines amid which the graceful silhouette of the tiger unfurls.

Edouard Vuillard, Seascape (Saint-Jacut), 1909, (blue-bound distemper on paper mounted on canvas)

Maurice Denis

When Denis participated in the creation of the Nabis group, he was barely 18 years old. Two years later he became their theoretician and was not reluctant to incorporate into his painting scenes that evoked travel, the original paradise and the fantastic, with a confirmed sense of modernity.

Maurice Denis, Legend of Chivalry (Three Young Princesses), 1893, (oil on canvas)

For this oil painting, strongly influenced by Japanese woodcut prints and more particularly by Parody of God Juro by Yashima Gakutei, Denis produced a reinterpretation of the Middle Ages. The garden that irresistibly recalls Millefleur tapestries is enlivened by three facets of his wife Marthe and two knights arriving at a gallop.

Maurice Denis, The Cook, 1893, (oil on canvas)

A devout Catholic, Denis reinterpreted here a biblical episode in which Jesus pays a visit to Martha and Mary's house. Denis entrusted the latter role to his wife Martha, whom he had recently married and who was to become thereafter his principal model. Influenced by Japanese woodcut prints, he simplified the forms and used thick contours for a composition that faithfully transcribed the Nabis' frame of mind.

Pierre Bonnard

Scene from the South of France.

Pierre Bonnard, Anchorage, 1929.

This ostensibly simple work is based on horizontals and as such gives us the sensation of limitless space, stabilised solely by the graphic motif of the guardrail.

Felix Vallotton, Rising Ride, Houlgate, 1913, (oil on canvas)

Large flat patches of colour that follow on from each other without attempting to create the illusion of depth.

Felix Vallotton, Evening, Honfleur or Peace and Quiet, 1909, (oil on canvas)

Nabis:

Around 1888 a group of young friends decided to create an unofficial artistic movement and christened themselves Nabis. Spurred on by Paul Serusier's painting The Talisman, Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Buillard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Felix Vallotton and George Lacombe among others, united to form a group.

Influenced by Paul Gauguin, the Nabis intended to liberate painting from all naturalist restraints, to express their inner life and their feelings in the face of nature without trying to copy it. They had a great admiration for Japanese art, ukiyo-e in particular.

Felix Vallotton, Still Life with Blue Plate, 1922, (oil on canvas)

Under the pretence of a still life that united several banal objects, Vallotton turned his gaze on his youthful aspirations: his love of literature, for he was also a novelist, his admiration for 17th century Dutch masters, his adoration of nature and the refinement of porcelain manufactured in both Japan and Delft.

Paul Serusier, The Feast of Corpus Christi at Huelgoat, 1891-93, (tempera on canvas)

This is one of my favourite paintings in this collection. Serusier was influenced by Gauguin, in particular that of detaching from the real, but he was also inspired by his passion for ukiyo-e art.

Georges Lacombe, The Bay of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, 1902-4, (oil on canvas)

P.S.   

Ukiyo-e:

Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings. The term ukiyo-e translates as 'picture(s) of the floating world'. 

Earliest ukiyo-e works emerged in the 1670s. Colour prints were introduced gradually, and at first were only used for special commissions. By the 1740s, artists used multiple woodblocks to print areas of colour. By the 1760s full-colour production became standard, with ten or more blocks used to create each print.

Ukiyo-e was central to forming the West's perception of Japanese art in the late 19th century, particularly the landscape of Hokusai and Hiroshige. From the 1870s, Japonisme became a prominent trend and had a strong influence on the early French Impressionists such as Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet and Claude Monet, as well as influencing Post-Impressionists such as Vincent Van Gogh, and Art Nouveau artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

From Monet to Warhol - 2: Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism

From Monet to Warhol: Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism

at the Goulandris Foundation, Athens.

This is the second post on this exhibition. You can see the first post here . As always, I am including the introduction in this second post - if you don't want to read it again, go down to the first picture.

A wonderful exhibition, which gave me great pleasure. Firstly because it was great seeing paintings that I had seen before and loved. Secondly because some of it was new to me, and this includes artists I had not come across before.

The ensemble of eighty three works of forty five artists, mostly paintings,  which is on loan from a Swiss private collection, was assembled over three generations, affording us the opportunity to retrace the history of modern art from the 1880s until the present day.

Most of the major movements, currents and trends that have marked the evolution of painting are touched upon here in varying degrees of detail: Impressionism, Symbolism, Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Japonisme, Synthetism, the Nabis, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. They reflect the increasing changes imposed on perspective, colour and figuration, as well as the historical context in which they were conceived.

Neo-Impressionism:

The 8th Impressionist exhibition of 1886 marked both the end of this shared adventure and its renewal through the contribution of young artists with a different vision. On that occasion, Georges Seurat exhibited his monumental A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, the very first Neo-Impressionist work as it was designated by Felix Feneon. He was joined in this initiative by Paul Signac, along with Camille and Lucien Pissaro.

Numerous other artists became affiliated with the movement and following the untimely death of Seurat, it was Signac who became the head.

Paul Signac, Avignon, Morning

Paul Signac, Saint-Tropez, After the Storm, 1895, (oil on canvas)

Paul Signac, Asnieres

Paul Signac, Clichy Wharf

In 1887, Signac embarked upon a series of works characteristic of his first Divisionist period. Similar to dots, his brush marks precisely depict the Clichy Wharf.

Paul Signac, Juan-les-Pins, Evening, 1914

Two versions of this work, a preparatory ink study on cardboard, and the subsequent oil painting.

Paul Signac, Saint-Tropez, Place des Lices, 1905, (watercolour enhanced with pen and ink on paper)

Paul Signac, Still Life (Composition with Lemons), 1918, (watercolour on paper)

Henri-Edmond Cross, Cap Negre

Henri-Edmond Cross 

Maximilien Luce, The Coffee, 1892, (oil on canvas)

Here Luce treated a subject he was partial to, that of the life of the working class, and painted a contemporary genre painting.

Maximilien Luce, The Steelworks, 1899, (oil on canvas)

Maximilien Luce, Quai de l'Ecole, Paris, Evening, 1889, (oil on canvas)

Louis Hayet, two small oil paintings, conceived as pendants.

Achile Lauge,  Tree in Blossom

Leon Pourtau, Beach Scene

Beach scene was plainly inspired  by the emblematic A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat. The suburban idyll imaged by Seurat has been transposed here to a beach in Normandy.

Lucien Pissarro, Gouvernes, near Lagny, 1888, (oil on canvas)

Theo van Rysselberghe, Canal in Flanders in Gloomy Weather, 1894, (oil on canvas)

Theo van Rysselberghe, Kalf's Mill, 1894, (oil on canvas)

Post-Impressionism:

The term Post-Impressionism characterises a period of modern art rather than any precise artistic movement. Coined by Roger Fry in 1910, it served to designate all the avant-garde trends that were developing in parallel in Paris on the margins of the gradual dissolution of the Impressionist group.

Paul Gauguin, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and Vincent van Gogh are today the most illustrious Post-Impressionists. By expanding the horizons opened by their predecessors, they laid claim to a subjectivity in their painting that ignored all convention. 

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, The Clowness at the Moulin-Rouge, 1897, (lithograph in crayon, pencil and splatter, printed in six colours)

Paul Gauguin, Words of the Devil, 1894, (monotype heightened with watercolour and gouache on Simili Japon paper)

Louis Anquetin,  Interior of Bruant's club: The Mirliton, 1886-87, (oil on canvas)

Among the numerous venues enlivening Parisian nightlife, Louis Anquetin chose to represent the Mirliton, the notorious cabaret founded by Aristide Bruant. Here he gathered together, from left ro right, Francois Gauzi, Emile Bernard, Marie Valette, Louis Weber, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Marcel Legay and Bruant himself.

Louis Valtat, Mothers at the Bois de Bouloghe, 1903, (oil on canvas)

Louis Anquetin, 1887

In 1887 Anquetin's style developed radically. Forms were simplified, flat patches of bold colours were outlined in thick black contours that evoke  both Medieval stained glass and enamels as well as Japanese woodcut prints. He influenced Vincent van Gogh, who drew inspiration from this composition for his Terrace of a Cafe at Night at Arles in 1888.