PAUL SIGNAC
Saint-Tropez. Fontaine des Lices, 1895
oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm, private collection
MAURICE DENIS
Avril (Les anémones), 1891
oil on canvas, 65 x 78 cm, private collection
Avant-gardes of Fin-de-Siècle – Guggenheim Venice From September 28, 2013 through January 6, 2014 the Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents ‘The Avant-gardes of Fin-de-Siècle Paris: Signac, Bonnard, Redon, and their Contemporaries’.]]>
Source: Peggy Guggenheim Collection
About 100 paintings, drawings and a significant number of prints, drawn from notable private collections, focus on the French avant-gardes of the late nineteenth century, with special attention paid to the Neo-Impressionist, Nabi, and Symbolist movements.
The fin de siècle in Paris was a time of political upheaval and cultural transformation during which economic crisis and social problems spurred the rise of radical left-wing groups and an attendant backlash of conservatism. In 1894 alone, President Sadi Carnot fell victim to an anarchist assassination while the nationally divisive Dreyfus Affair began with the unlawful conviction for treason of Alfred Dreyfus, an officer of Alsatian and Jewish descent. Such events laid bare the poles of France: bourgeois and bohemian; conservative and radical; Catholic and anticlerical; anti-republican and anarchist.
Mirroring the many facets of an anxious, unsettled era, this period saw a spectrum of artistic movements. By the late 1880s, a generation of artists had emerged that included Neo-Impressionists, the Nabis, and Symbolists.
Opening with a selection of Impressionist paintings to contextualize the artistic environment preceding these movements, “The Avant-Gardes of Fin-de-Siècle Paris” then focuses on the activities of these movements in the 1890s. Certain artists are explored in depth: Neo-Impressionists Paul Signac and Maximilien Luce; Nabis Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard, and Félix Vallotton; Symbolist Odilon Redon. Surveyed together, the idioms of this tumultuous decade map a complex terrain of divergent aesthetic and philosophical theories on the cusp of two centuries. This presentation and publication offers Italian audiences a rare opportunity to view and study a cohesive arc of primarily French works from this time period.
Related content
Masterworks of the Avant-Garde at Sotheby’s (news, September 2013)
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