ARTISTS
Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, Neo-Impressionists 19th-Century Prints and Drawings
In the 19th century, the graphic arts鈥攑rintmaking and drawing鈥攄iverged from their traditional illustrative function to become fertile ground for innovation and personal expression. Noting this trend, the influential poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire singled out printmaking as 鈥渢he sharpest possible translation of the character of the artist,鈥� and with this statement heralded an era of experimentation in etching, draftsmanship, and lithography.
This exhibition traces the legacy of Baudelaire鈥檚 observation through a selection of rarely exhibited fine prints and master drawings from the museum鈥檚 collection. Etchings by Impressionist painters show how the numerous applications of this largely untested medium achieved unforeseen (and often astonishing) ends at the hands of artists famously concerned with the temporal and the fleeting, while Post-Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist lithographs demonstrate how planographic techniques proved particularly appealing to artists seeking sharp linearity and chromatic precision. Prints and drawings associated with Symbolism will reveal how the intimacy of the sketch and the printed page yielded intensely private images that suggest emotional, psychological, and even spiritual states; as residual traces of first thoughts and nascent ideas, these works paved the way for Modernism in the visual arts.
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In the 19th century, the graphic arts鈥攑rintmaking and drawing鈥攄iverged from their traditional illustrative function to become fertile ground for innovation and personal expression. Noting this trend, the influential poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire singled out printmaking as 鈥渢he sharpest possible translation of the character of the artist,鈥� and with this statement heralded an era of experimentation in etching, draftsmanship, and lithography.
This exhibition traces the legacy of Baudelaire鈥檚 observation through a selection of rarely exhibited fine prints and master drawings from the museum鈥檚 collection. Etchings by Impressionist painters show how the numerous applications of this largely untested medium achieved unforeseen (and often astonishing) ends at the hands of artists famously concerned with the temporal and the fleeting, while Post-Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist lithographs demonstrate how planographic techniques proved particularly appealing to artists seeking sharp linearity and chromatic precision. Prints and drawings associated with Symbolism will reveal how the intimacy of the sketch and the printed page yielded intensely private images that suggest emotional, psychological, and even spiritual states; as residual traces of first thoughts and nascent ideas, these works paved the way for Modernism in the visual arts.
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