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Impression: Painting Quickly in
France, 1860-1890 at the Sterling
and Francine Clark Art Institute,
June 17-September 9, 2001
For us, they're art icons and beloved
companions, as familiar as our own coffee
mugs, T-shirts, and mouse pads. But the
sun-dappled paintings of Claude Monet,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and their fellow
Impressionists weren't always so fondly
regarded. The things we generally
appreciate most in Impressionist art—the
sense of spontaneity and vibrant
brushwork, the bold experiments in vision,
perception, and color—sent early viewers
racing for the door and offended critics
groping for acerbic bon mots. "The chief
object of these gentlemen," sniffed one
writer, "was to present their works almost
as in the same conditions as in a studio." In
a culture accustomed to the polished
formality of academic art, this was not a
compliment.
At the Sterling and Francine Clark Art
Institute in Williamstown, Impression:
Painting Quickly in France, 1860-1890
aims to put the revolutionary wallop back
into the world's most popular art style. The
77 works on view feature artists closely
associated with Impressionism—including
Monet, Renoir, Edgar Degas, and Berthe Morisot—as well as several predecessors
and one notable successor, Vincent van Gogh. And while the paintings are stunning,
the exhibition focuses, gently but insistently,
on the techniques that gave these works
their unprecedented punch.
First and foremost was speed. By the late
1800s, rapid change had become a
hallmark of the modern era, and train travel
was routinely taking people farther and
faster than they'd ever gone before. Not
only did the Impressionists choose fleeting,
ephemeral subjects—a sunset, a speeding
train, the dramatic finish of a horse race—they rendered them in a style that
seemingly kept pace with their subjects,
apparently painting them in a matter of
minutes (though in reality it usually took
much longer). It was the "unfinished" nature
of the work that scandalized French art
audiences, who saw it as the painting
equivalent of indecent exposure.
Impression invites us to be scandalized
along with them—and to appreciate the
revolutionary side of our favorite art. On
view June 17-September 9.
Key Terms:
Impressionism
Claude Monet
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Edgar Degas
Berthe Morisot
Vincent van Gogh
Impressionism - trains
Impressionism - sunsets
Impressionism - horse racing
See Also:
trains
sunsets
horse racing
Post-Impressionism
Expressionism
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