ADELAIDE.- More than 65 Impressionist masterpieces from the renowned collection of the Musée dOrsay, Paris are on show at the
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide in a unique exhibition exploring the revolution of colour that lies at the heart of Impressionism.
Titled Colours of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée dOrsay, the exhibition charts the revolution of colour that lies at the very heart of Impressionism. Curated by Marine Kisiel and Paul Perrin of the Musée dOrsay for the Art Gallery of South Australia in collaboration with Art Exhibitions Australia, the exhibition underscores the truly seismic nature of Impressionism and offers a new perspective on the nineteenth centurys most important art movement. The exhibition is open to the public from Thursday 29 March until Sunday 29 July 2018.
No fewer than ten exceptional paintings by Claude Monet are presented including the artists celebrated work, La pie (The magpie). Painted by Monet in the open air, the snowscape features a novel palette of pale, lustrous colours, which caused the painting to be rejected by the Salon, the annual official art exhibition, in 1869. The Musée dOrsay has generously lent this painting to the Gallery together with Monets Un coin d'appartement (A corner of the apartment), Le bassin aux nymphéas, harmonie rose (Water lily pond, pink harmony) and one of the Musée dOrsays five versions of La cathédrale de Rouen. Le portail et la tour Saint-Romain, plein soleil (Rouen Cathedral: the portal and Saint-Romain tower, full sunlight). These works are being displayed alongside celebrated masterworks including Édouard Manets La serveuse de bocks (The beer maid), Paul Cézannes Le golfe de Marseille vu de lEstaque (The Gulf of Marseilles seen from lEstaque), Gustave Caillebottes Vue de toits (effet de neige) (Rooftops in the snow [snow effect]) and Pierre Auguste Renoirs Gabrielle à la rose (Gabrielle with a rose).
From Manets Spanish-inspired canvases, picked out in shades of black, grey and brown and with dramatic touches of light, to the rich green and blue hues of the French countryside as painted by Cézanne, Monet and Pissarro, and the rosy pigments of Renoirs and Morisots fema le figures, Colours of Impressionism recasts the story of the art movement as one of intensifying chromatic brilliance. Also featured in the exhibition are works by Neo-Impressionist artists such as Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, who heralded a new chapter in the movement through their scientific approach to the application of colour. Examples of materials used by Impressionist painters including palettes and a paintbox, gifted to the Musée dOrsay from the artists families, will also be included.
Art Gallery of South Australia, Director Nick Mitzevich, describes the exhibition as the most important exhibition ever to be shown at the Art Gallery of South Australia. With so few Impressionist works held in Australian collections, the exhibition presents a rare opportunity for Australians to see the movements radical evolution of colour. I would like to thank the Musée dOrsay for sharing this remarkable collection with Australia.'
In an unprecedented move, the Art Gallery of South Australia is staging the exhibition in one of Australias few nineteenth-century gallery spaces, the Elder Wing, a fitting backdrop for Colours of Impressionism.
Colours of Impressionism is the first major museum exhibition in South Australia to focus on Impressionist painting and it builds on the Art Gallery of South Australias aim to present major international exhibitions and significant works of art to Australian audiences.