Showcasing 59 works from the Brooklyn Museum’s European collection.
Already a major player on the Italian artistic and cultural scene, Palazzo Zabarella in Padua is confirmed as a protagonist in an international dialogue with world-renowned institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the first in a rich series of collaborations.
The exhibition “From MONET to MATISSE. French Moderns, 1850-1950“, running from Dec. 16th, 2023 to May 12th, 2024, features 59 works from the Brooklyn Museum’s outstanding European collection. Founded in 1823 as the Brooklyn Apprentices’ Library Association, the Brooklyn Museum boasts a permanent collection of more than 140,000 objects (from Egyptian to contemporary art) and is the second largest art museum in New York City and one of the largest in the United States. In addition, it is considered a pioneer among American collecting institutions and recognized as one of the main repositories of French modernism in North America.
The curators of the exhibition are two members of the talented staff of the New York museum: Lisa Small, Senior Curator of European Art, and Richard Aste, former Curator of European Art, Brooklyn Museum have selected the masterpieces of painting and sculpture, which tell of one of the most fascinating centuries in art history, when artists moved away from the academic artistic tradition to focus on subjects of everyday life. But not only. It also celebrates France as the artistic center of international modernism from the mid-800s to the mid-900s.
The exhibition includes examples of the key movements of the period – realism, impressionism, post-impressionism, symbolism, fauvism, cubism, and surrealism – that emerged in and around Paris between 1850 and 1950 and quickly became part of the dominant Western canon. “From MONET to MATISSE. French Moderns, 1850-1950” is divided into four sections – Landscape, Still Life, Portraits and Figures, and The Nude – and draws a path that shows how the basic conception of art making changed over the course of a century.
Paintings, drawings and sculptures made by the leading artists of the time are on display, both those of French origin and those who trained and exhibited in France: Pierre Bonnard, William Bouguereau, Gustave Caillebotte, Paul Cézanne, Marc Chagall, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Edgar Degas, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Gabriele Münter, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Odilon Redon, Yves Tanguy, Édouard Vuillard, Auguste Rodin and many others, a total of 45 masters.
A body of work that animates the exhibition “From MONET to MATISSE. French Moderns, 1850-1950”, truly spectacular that offers visitors the chance to admire masterpieces that encapsulate the spirit of experimentation, failure and breakthrough that warmed the souls of artists during these years of artistic revolution.
The exhibition is organized by the Brooklyn Museum and sponsored by Fondazione Bano in collaboration with the City of Padua – Department of Culture.
