"From Monet to Morisso: Truth and Imagination in European Art" was recently exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, bringing together works by important artists from the 19th and 20th centuries on the European continent and its colonies, such as Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, claude Monet, and others. It is worth mentioning that the exhibition attempts to break the aesthetic standards of the past, which were dominated by white portraits of white men, and expands its horizons to European colonial artists and female artists who have influenced the development of modern art.
The second half of the 19th century is considered to be the period when modern art began to spread in Europe and continued until the 20th century, becoming a global phenomenon explored by many artists around the world. The Industrial Revolution and the development of urban life brought about earth-shaking changes, with artists abandoning traditional forms of expression in favor of depictions inspired by nature and everyday life.
Clouds over the Black Sea — Crimea, Boris Anisfeld, 1906, oil on canvas
The works of these modernist masters who introduced new ideas and methods into artistic creation are all over the European continent, and some can be found in collections such as the Brooklyn Museum. Recently, in the exhibition "Monet to Morisot: The Real and Imagined in European Art", the museum presented 90 pieces of its collection. The collections include Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, Claude Monet, Francisco Oller, Henri Matisse, gabriele Münter) and other works by important artists on the European continent and its colonies in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Woman with Three Girls, Jozsef Rippl-Ronai, circa 1909, oil on wood
Curated by Lisa Small, senior curator of European art at the Brooklyn Museum, the exhibition attempts to examine the tension between "the real and the imagined." The exhibition unfolds through several major themes: portraits, landscapes, exoticism and originalism, labor, faith and conflict. Previously, many of these works have appeared in the American and Asian touring exhibition "French Modernism: Monet to Matisse", "It is exciting to see the return and display of so many masterpieces of modern European art at the Brooklyn Museum, including our earliest collection of Degas and Cézanne." Small said that the exhibition is presented in a newly built space and will bring a new experience to the audience.
The Doge's Palace in Venice, Claude Monet, 1908, oil on canvas
Monet's The Doge's Palace appeared in the exhibition. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Monet embarked on a journey to London and Venice, where he applied the maturing Impressionist style to new urban landscapes. Works such as "Doge's Palace in Venice" show in detail the atmospheric effects that influenced Monet's artistic vision. In the painting on display, Monet cuts back on the details of the iconic building and instead represents the pouring daylight and sparkling water. Monet's creation coincided with the rise of local tourism, trains and travel guides promoted tourism, and Monet skipped this point, discarding any trace of the existence of passers-by.
The Carpet Merchant of Cairo, Jean-Leon Gerome, 1869, oil on canvas
In addition to household names, the exhibition features rare works by artists such as Chana Orloff, Ivan Me trovi and others. "Present and future European art displays will give us the opportunity to revisit and expand the stories we know about these works of art, to make connections between museums and, more importantly, to think critically about what kind of art and what artists are being overlooked." This seems to me to be exciting. ”
The Village of Gardanne, Paul Cezanne, 1885-1886, oil on canvas, crayon painting
"From Monet to Morisso" aims to highlight the extent to which modern European art has had a huge impact, changing the standards of art history itself. Ultimately, through reflections on gender, class, labor, colonialism and nature, the exhibition proposes what is real and what is imaginary, thus leading to the ideological meaning of each work. In addition, the exhibition once again made the audience aware that the traditional standards of European art history were composed of predominantly male white artists depicting white people. And in the coming decades, for institutions like the Brooklyn Museum, that composition will change.
"Still Life with Coconuts" by Francisco Ore
The Puerto Rican painter Francisco Aller (1833-1917) was the only Latin American artist to occupy a place in the development of Impressionism. As one of the most important artists in the Atlantic coastal region of his time, Ole promoted the innovation of painting in the Caribbean. Ole spent nearly 20 years practicing in Europe, working with the Impressionists, and in the course of his travels he was involved in the exchange of aesthetic ideas, and while forming his own modernist style, he was involved in the indigenous social issues of the Caribbean. During his three journeys to Paris, Ole made contact with Cézanne, Pisello, and other members of impressionism and post-Impressionism. On the other hand, although European Romanticism, Realism and Impressionism all had a turn in Ole's aesthetics, his greatest source of inspiration was Puerto Rico. He painted tropical landscapes, still lifes, native fruits and vegetables, as well as portraits of artists and scholars.
Self-Portrait, Bybert Morrisso, 1885
In this exhibition, the name of the female artist Berte Morrisso is undoubtedly a major focus. Morisso was one of the founding members of Impressionism, but unlike her colleagues who cut back on the experimental nature of their work in order to satisfy their patrons, Morisso's paintings, with their vivid brushstrokes and unusual shapes, almost crossed from Impressionism to Abstraction. Except for the year of her absence due to postpartum recovery, she was prominent in almost every year of the Impressionist exhibition at that time. Even so, Morisso's fame was far from the Impressionist "men's club". In her time, critics used words like "flirting" and "charming" to describe her work.
Reading, 1873 Byrbert Morrisso
Morisso was born in 1841 into an aristocratic family to the son of a high-ranking civil servant and the niece of the Rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Although barred from formal art education, Morrisso and her sister Edma improved their painting skills under private instruction, studying paintings by the early Classical masters at the Louvre, eventually with the Barbizon painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, who taught them the techniques of outdoor painting.
In 1864, Morisso participated in the prestigious Paris Salon under the name he took before his marriage. While studying at the Louvre, she left behind and became friends with Eduard Manet, whose revolutionary ideas also brought her an aesthetic breakthrough. Later, Morrisso married Manet's brother Eugène.
The Cradle (1872) byBert Morrisso
Morisso's paintings are primarily glimpses of women's private spaces: young women grooming their sisters, or mothers caring for children. In Morrisso's most famous work, The Cradle (1872), Edema gazes at her sleeping baby, Blanche. Edema's left arm is bent to form a mirror effect with the child, who is covered by a gauze-like white curtain, and the viewer enters an intimate scene within reach. Morrisso did not stop until he died of pneumonia at the age of 54. In her later years, her study of dynamics gradually gave way to a focus on introspection, and her images became the focus, and her rapid brushstrokes became clearer. In the portrait Julie Daydreaming (1894), her daughter, with red hair, looks gloomily ahead. In this painting, the sculptural pose has bid farewell to the stormy, rapid brushstrokes of Reclining Woman in Grey.
Julie Daydreaming (1894) by Pente Morrisso
In 1892, at his first exhibition, Morrisseau wrote, "We have our own value through feelings, intentions, and some kind of insight more subtle than men's." If we are lucky, unaffected by emotion, pedantry and excessive elegance, we will be able to make a difference. In Morisso's work, this is evident.
The exhibition "From Monet to Morisso: Truth and Imagination in European Art" will run until 21 May 2023.
(This article is compiled from Widewalls, ArtNEWS and other related reports and related information about the official website of the Brooklyn Museum.)