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The painting that introduces the exhibition, Monet's "Rue Montorgueil, Paris, Festival of June 30, 1878," exemplifies that notion, Gopnik said You know this is an individual, but just barely He shows only the profile Exhibit Shows Emergence of Paris
Nov 20, 6:35 PM EST
ATLANTA (AP) â€â€? Paris emerged from bloody turmoil in the early 1870s to become the cultural center of Europe, and an exhibition offers a sampling of the art that accompanied the transformation "Those artists were Matisse and Picasso
Monet's painting is not political, "but it says there's something good simply in the act of celebrating," Gopnik said
In the early 1870s, war with Prussia was followed by civil strife that included a takeover of Paris by the working-class Commune
Also in the exhibition are paintings by Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh, Matisse, pointillists Georges Seurat and Henri-Edmond Cross and decorative work by Rene Lalique
"It's a genuinely thrilling show
"The impressionists chose to paint sunny days with dappled sunlight and small pleasures
Many of the works have never before left France 23) and runs through March 16 before moving to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston
The show is designed to illustrate "the texture of life" in late 19th-century France, said High Museum director Michael Shapiro The Commune later was suppressed by the government, and the city was under martial law for about five years What Monet does is to resist that urge
Showing the Monet and the Cabanel together is part of the philosophy behind the exhibition
Monet's portrait, "Madame Louis Joachim Gaudibert," and another portrait, "Comtesse de Keller," by the academic artist Alexandre Cabanel, are displayed in the same room "
They were trying to show another reality you could build a future out of," he said
The exhibition, "Paris in the Age of Impressionism," comes to the High Museum of Art from the French government's collection at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris
It closes with "Portrait of Madame M," by amateur painter Henri Rousseau, who was admired by some young avant-garde artists for his willingness to ignore the rules of perspective
"They could feed off his work and bring into the world new subjects," Brenneman said
"You get to see the impressionists with their archenemies, with their predecessors, their successors," Brenneman said
During that time, impressionism arose and helped change the direction of society, Gopnik said in a lecture at the museum "The idea of the Cabanel is to map the individual I'm in awe that so many masterpieces have been allowed out of France," art historian Adam Gopnik said after a preview tour of the exhibition, which opens Saturday (Nov "
Another famous painting, Monet's "Gare Saint-Lazare," is "incredible for the almost abstract quality of the paint which he uses to create a sense of the movements, of the steam and the smoke that's rising," he said The depiction of "low life" sparked controversy, but the debate over its merits introduced the notion of art for art's sake, Brenneman said
The painting shows a dazed-looking woman with a drink in front of her The government chose June 30 over July 14, Bastille Day, which it considered too inflammatory
It includes paintings by impressionists and their contemporaries and work of a slightly later period as well as sculpture, decorative art and numerous photographs of the Eiffel Tower, before and after its completion One painting, "Absinthe" by Degas, "is one of the great masterpieces in the history of art," said curator David Brenneman |