From Impressionism to Abstract Art
11.13.2004 - 01.30.2005
This comprehensive selection of masterpieces drawn from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation collections highlights the changing course of the avant-garde from the end of 19th century through the first half of the 20th century.
Paintings by Impressionist Pierre Renoir and Post-Impressionists Georges Seurat and Vincent van Gogh represent the liberation of painting from age-old academic genres, in what later will be seen as the beginning of art’s Modern era. Centered in the flourishing artistic capital of Paris, the emergence of this rebellious avant-garde made many groundbreaking 20th century developments possible.
Formulated by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in the early years of the 20th century, Cubism offered new possibilities for rendering three-dimensional objects on the two-dimensional picture plane. The presentation also includes major paintings by Robert Delaunay, Juan Gris, and Fernand Léger, who tailored Cubism to their sensibilities. Pierre Bonnard and Marc Chagall represent the diversity of approaches taken by artistic contemporaries.
This exhibition includes diverse examples of the varied paths abstraction has taken in painting. Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Piet Mondrian can be seen for their pioneering roles in the course of modernism, while Surrealism’s biomorphic forms and unreal imagery can be traced in canvases by Joan Miró.
František Kupka
Planes by Colors, Large Nude (Plans par couleurs, grand nu), 1909–10
Oil on canvas
150.1 x 180.8 cm
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Gift, Mrs. Andrew P. Fuller, 1968