About the Exhibition
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The largest exhibition of Impressionist works ever presented in the Rocky Mountain region, featuring 58 works from 33 museums in 28 cities in 13 countries across Europe, opens October 2 at the Denver Art Museum. Impressionism: Paintings Collected by European Museums will remain on view through December 12, 1999. Nearly 250,000 visitors saw the exhibition when it debuted in Atlanta earlier this year. Denver is the final stop before the artworks return to Europe.
Presented in Denver by U S WEST, this extraordinary exhibition includes multiple works by the preeminent artists associated with the Impressionist movement-who became some of the most well-known and beloved artists of all time: Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Mary Cassatt and others.
Museumgoers will see many familiar works including Before the Performance, by Edgar Degas; The Cliff at Fécamp, by Monet; and Self-Portrait with Straw Hat, by van Gogh. Visitors will also delight in seeing lesser-known works by equally well-known artists-particularly stunning are works by Cézanne, Gauguin, Pissarro, Sisley, and several others. Impressionism also provides an opportunity to meet the female artists who were active in the movement at a time when their male counterparts were just beginning to establish themselves, including Marie Bracquemond, Berthe Morisot, and, perhaps the most adored, American-born Mary Cassatt.
When the Impressionists first exhibited their paintings in the 1870s, critics ridiculed the movement and the general public expressed outrage upon seeing such radical artistic techniques.
However, during the latter half of the 20th century, Impressionism, with its colorful evocations of French urban and country life, has become immensely popular. This exhibition reveals how forward-looking European museums and individual collectors built their Impressionist collections-despite the early outcry-eventually transforming these paintings from objects of disfavor to highly valued masterworks.
Among the many lenders to Impressionism are such prestigious public collections as The National Gallery, London; Musée d'Orsay, Paris; Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo; the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum, Scotland; the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; Petit Palais Musée d'Art Moderne, Geneva; and Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart. Most of the works on view in the exhibition have never left the Continent.
Impressionism: Paintings Collected by European Museums is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, in collaboration with the Denver Art Museum and the Seattle Art Museum. It is guest curated by Ann Dumas, who served as co-curator of The Private Collection of Edgar Degas, which was on view last year at the Royal Academy in London, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Michael E. Shapiro, deputy director and chief curator at the High Museum, serves as the project's managing curator. In Denver, Dr. Timothy Standring, Curator of Paintings & Sculpture, curates the exhibition. The Denver Art Museum is the final site for Impressionism before the works return to their respective countries.
Wanting to attract more major exhibitions to smaller regional museums, these three institutions have formed a consortium to work together to share exhibition costs, staff expertise and other resources in order to more successfully offer premier touring exhibitions. Impressionism: Paintings Collected by European Museums is the Denver Art Museum's most ambitious exhibition project to date. Without the support of our sponsors, this exhibition would not have been possible.