MIND’S EYE CREATING A COLOURFUL IMPRESSION
The Singapore National Gallery has done it again. After their explosively successful “Yayoi Kusama: Life Is The Heart Of A Rainbow” exhibition, which had art enthusiasts flying in from all over Asia, they’ve unveiled another blockbuster show for aesthetes in the region. “Colours Of Impressionism: Masterpieces From Musée d’Orsay” brings 67 priceless impressionist works, including select masterpieces from artists like Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Paul Cézanne and Auguste Renoir, for the first time to Southeast Asia.
Four years in the making, “Colours Of Impressionism” isn’t just a gathering of paintings hung on the wall in chronological order, but a smart and engaging look on the development of the movement through colour.
The show, which dedicates each room to one or several colours, is accessible and informative for new to impressionist works and for those who are already impressionist aficionados.
“We have tried to give some very simple and key elements [for visitors] to understand what is impressionism, what is an impressionist painter, how did they paint at the time, what was new and revolutionary, but also to give more knowledge to those who already appreciate this art,” said Paul Perrin, curator of paintings from Musee d’Orsay.
“So that’s why we came up with this very simple idea of colours. As we know, impressionism is characterised in art history as the painting of light. But this light is composed of colours. As you know, when you have a prism and a ray of light that goes inside, it comes out as a rainbow. And we wanted to do the same with this exhibition. It’s a kind of prism that’s composed of all the colours that are used by the impressionists.”
Starting with the colour black, visitors get to view masterpieces like Edouard Manet’s 1832 Clair De Lune Sur Le Port De Boulonge and Auguste Renoir’s 1841 Madame Darras, which illustrates their need to represent the realities of their time — dark, real and gloomy.
Walking further into the L-shaped room, the paintings light up significantly and become more characteristic of impressionist methods with their bright landscapes and portraits, showing the shift in the 1870s by the new generation of artists like Johan Barthold Jongkind and Eugene Boudin — both important figures to Claude Monet.
Then, winter hits as the third room examines white snowscapes like Claude Monet’s stunning 1868-9 piece La Pie. Visitors learn how impressionists are now trying to understand light by painting snow as not just a white solid colour like artists in the Renaissance did, but a complex subject with shades of yellow, pinks, purples, greens and oranges.
Lush greens and blues are then represented in the fourth room, where Monet’s 1900 Le Bassin Aux Nympheas, Harmonie Rose hangs. Here, the curators wanted to emphasise each artist’s different use of landscapes and show again that nature isn’t simply only one solid colour.
Cutting through the impressionist timeline next is a bright orange Neo-Impressionist room, housing artists like Paul Signac and Georges Seurat, who went against the impressionists’ romantic notions and painted in a more organised and methodological way.
Last but not least, the room of pink and purple displays the works of impressionist artist in their later years — either abandoning the movement completely, or revolutionising it further, like Paul Cezanne and Henri-Edmond Cross’ block-like forms and harsh strokes.
Though 67 paintings and six rooms may not be enough of a fix for the true connoisseurs of impressionist paintings, the general organisation of the paintings against colourful walls in addition to the informative texts still made for a pleasant and informative walk-through.
“It was a good progression and it fit well with our ideas,” said Perrin when asked why he chose to order the paintings by colour instead of date.
“I think it’s better for the paintings if sometimes it’s not very formal. Each painting is different but they go well together. When you put one painting next to another you can learn from the two. And for the eye it’s also very pleasant. It gives you the energy to walk and to follow the rooms.
“If you order it by date it can be exhausting by the end because it’s not very beautiful and pleasant. So even if you don’t read the text, you know where you’re going and you want to see more.”
One of the biggest challenges in arranging this exhibition was balancing the works of art and which to bring to Southeast Asia. Visitors may be disappointed that there are merely 10 Monet paintings in the show. However, they also have to consider that there wouldn’t be any left in d’Orsay to display.
“We need to be careful on how many we can move from d’Orsay and also how we can balance with maybe not-asfamous artists and paintings,” Perrin continued.
“It was not an easy exhibition [to organise], but it was pleasant to make. It’s really the first time we wanted to focus on one subject — to do something that’s not just a presentation of d’Orsay’s paintings, but a real exhibition where you can learn things. If French people come here, they will learn things about impressionism they didn’t know in France. It was maybe a bit more work than we usually do, but it was worth it.”