I'm lucky that this year there just so happen to be three exhibitions on at the same time covering artists of interest to me. The three artists are from that fascinating melting-pot of an era: belle-epoque into modernism the end of the 19th century into the 20th, and all three artists were influenced by having been in Paris, though not French themselves. Munch, Schjerfbeck, and Vallotton are all individual artists, on the edge of movements, but so connected with what was going on in Paris that they shine a light on it all as well as being interesting in themselves.
Of course aware of The Scream and a few other works, I did not otherwise know much about Edvard Munch. Edvard Munch, Love and Angst is the catalogue of the British Museum exhibition, and a fascinating read. I was interested to read about his life and about the psychology behind the angst-ridden aspects of his work, and of prevailing attitudes to psychology in wider society at the time. It is also interesting to read of his illustrative work, especially with regard to theatre programmes, and how popular fellow Norwegian playwright Ibsen was in Paris at the time.
His wood prints are so interesting, their immediacy exciting my curiosity.
Helene Schjerfbeck's still figures appeal greatly to me, and I love her self portraits. She was Finnish, but not only spent time in Paris but also in St Ives. I regret that I had not known her work before now, but have much enjoyed reading the Royal Academy exhibition catalogue, and finding out so much about her and her works now.
Now I am deep into the catalogue of the third exhibition, of the work of Felix Vallotton. As a great fan of Vuillard's work I knew of Vallotton's paintings and some of his prints. I love the enigmatic quality in his paintings, and their dramatic composition. His use of colour is interesting - indeed, the work of all three artists bring lots of questions about use of colour to mind.
I enjoy Vallotton's use of black as a colour in his prints too.
It is such a joy to have three perspectives on an interesting period of art.
What a feast! You must be having such a lovely time. Like you, I had not come across Helen Schjerfbecke's work before, but I am very impressed by what I have seen. I hope to get the time to go and see the exhibition when we get back from Greece.
ReplyDeleteI hope that you get to the exhibition Eirene. I am indeed enjoying reading about this era through these artists, and plan to go on next to the Bonnard catalogue from the recent Tate Modern exhibition.
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