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On this day in
1832 was born Paul Gustave Doré, French artist, engraver, and illustrator.
1872 Russian pianist and composer Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was born
1993 died Rudolf Nureyev , one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century
2004 died Francesco Scavullo, American photographer best known for his celebrity portraits. |
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Seurat, Signac and the neoimpressionism
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| Friday, November 21, 2008 |
Curated by French academic Marina Ferretti Bocquillon, the exhibition focuses on the figures of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, presenting a selection of their outstanding works, from some of the most important museums in the world (including the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and the Metropolitan and Guggenheim Museums in New York). It is an opportunity for the public to discover these two artists, their respective roles, and the fundamental contribution they made to the birth and development of Neo-Impressionism, which spread rapidly above all in France and Belgium.
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Georges Seurat Paysannes au travail 1882-1883, oil on canvas 38,5x46,2 cm New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, Donation, Solomon R. Guggenheim (41.713) |
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The exhibition is divided into seven themed sections, which place the works in their historical context and also offer a timeline that enables us to follow the stylistic evolution of Neo-Impressionism. Each section also includes an Italian work of Divisionist or Pre-Futurist art (with paintings by Balla, Previati, Russolo and Longoni), underlining the convergence of European artistic interests in that period, so rich in aesthetic innovations. The exhibition opens with “Seurat and Signac before Neo-Impressionism”, presenting the works produced before the two artists met in 1884. Despite their differences the two, who became friends, shared a common love of scientific rigour (an interest in optics and the perception of colour), and modernity, and above all the ambition to be innovators. This section is followed by “The Suburbs”, which were expanding and starting to make their presence felt in most European cities in the second half of the 19th century. The banks of the Seine soon became a destination for Parisians in search of new ways to spend their leisure time. Thus it was that in Asnières Signac, a keen sailor, discovered the joys of boating and painting “en plein air”. A little further on was the island of La Grande Jatte, where the Parisians went to stroll, and this was the spot that Seurat chose to paint the work which is regarded as the icon of Neo-Impressionism, Un dimanche après-midi à l’île de la Grande Jatte (1884-86). After numerous studies, this was the moment when the painter put the fundamental principle of the ‘division’ of colour into practice: by applying pure colours to the canvas in small dots, when the painting was observed from a distance the blending of the hues was accomplished by the viewer’s retina.
Camille Pissarro Briqueterie Delafolie à Eragny 1886-1888, olio su tela, 57,8x71,8 cm Private Collection |
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This was the advent of Neo-Impressionism, and the new technique, applied with varying degrees of rigour, was widely employed. The young Neo-Impressionists did not however turn their backs on the legacy of their Impressionist predecessors, and maintained an interest in analysing and translating the light of the Ile de France. The section "The seasons and work” presents landscapes, often without human presences, by Camille Pissarro, Albert Dubois-Pillet and Henri Edmond Cross, the Belgians Henry Van de Velde and Theo Van Rysselberghe, and the Dutch artist Jan Toorop. These canvases follow simple geometries in which the study of light is the genuine subject of the work. However some of these painters also began to explore social issues: the Belgian artist Costantin Meunier was a forerunner in this field, followed by Georges Morren, and in France, Maximilien Luce, who became the poet of the working classes. Thanks to the development of the rail network, the Parisians discovered the appeal of the beaches of Normandy and Brittany. The section “Seurat-Signac: Marines”, presents works that are often a pure study of line and colour, and represent some of their greatest artistic achievements. Both gave free rein to their passion for analysing light and developing highly sophisticated chromatic arrangements, with tiny brush strokes lending incredible vibrancy to their canvases.
After the landscapes we come to “The City”, namely Paris at the end of the 19th century, which was basically a giant building site, what with the modernization of Les Halles and the construction of the Eiffel Tower. But for the artists Paris meant above all the world of the studio, where models posed and painters could work on their most ambitious compositions. Paris was also the place for recreation and socializing, and the artists met in cafés, frequented night spots and attended fashionable entertainments: the circus, the cabaret and above all the can-can shows, as seen in Seurat’s two most important studies, exceptionally included in the exhibition: Study for Le Chahut, 1889-90 and Le Chahut Etude, 1889.
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Paul Signac Femme se coiffant. Opus 227 (arabesques pour une salle de toilette) 1892, 59x70 cm Private Collection |
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Among the various themes it would be impossible to leave out “Portraits”, both in the context of the large-scale compositions, and in the sense of authentic portraits, many of which feature family members. The exhibition ends with the section “After Seurat: Marines”. After the death of Seurat in 1891, Signac was left leading the Neo-Impressionist movement. In 1892 he discovered Saint Tropez, and decided to spend part of the year there. His technique evolved towards a freer approach: in 1895 his brushstrokes expanded and his use of colour became more powerful. He began using a mosaic-like style and his works became bolder and simpler as a result. The exemplary colour potency of Voiles et pins (1896), in which the study of pure colour takes precedence over the analysis of light, heralds the advent of Fauvism. It was the start of a new chapter, the dawn of the 20th century avant-garde movements.
The exhibition also presents two specific sections, dedicated respectively to colour photography, by Silvana Turzio, and exploring the theory of colour, by Francesca Valan.
On display are around twenty extraordinary autochromes, namely the “colour photographs” devised by the Lumière brothers at the beginning of the 20th century. These come from the collection of the Société Française de Photographie, and are comparable to Neo-Impressionist paintings both in terms of subjects and use of colour. In the section dedicated to colour theory, visitors will be able to perform some proper visual experiments, which reveal the vibrations of light and offer further insight into the work of the Neo-Impressionists. At the end of the exhibition each visitor will also be able to take part in a fun collective interpretation of Seurat’s great masterpiece Un dimanche après-midi à l’île de la Grande Jatte, by attaching a dot of colour – in sticker form - onto an outline version of the painting.
Further information
Georges Seurat, Paul Signac e i neoimpressionisti |
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