Today I immersed myself in the Impressionists, first hand. I visited the DIA and hung out with some of the biggest names from the turn of the century - Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Toulouse Lautrec, Vuillard, Bonnard, Renior, Cassatt, Morisot, Degas, Metcalf, Sargent, Redon, Dewing. It was some esteemed company well worth shaving my legs for! ( view pics of some of my favs)
Impressionism as a movement is wildly popular today, and perhaps that is because it is, to the modern eye, easy to digest. Beautiful colors, riotous brushwork, everyday sort of models. However, at the time these pieces were created, they were condemned by scholars and critics for being crude and altogether common. It is a testament to the artists' vision that they continued creating and exploring despite the cold reception and biting reviews.
Besides the fact that the work is indeed beautiful, here's why I appreciate Impressionism:
These artists rejected traditional academic art, art that was heavily steeped in realism, symbolism, religious/literary themes and formulaic compositions. Impressionist artists chose a new direction steered by emotion, gesture, the modern world/common man and experimentation.
And light. Paintings became about light instead of about the subject matter, about an experience, a transient moment.
It's one thing to sit down and paint an apple. It's altogether something else, though, to give that apple a kiss of the evening's sun in a nest of dappled branches, and make the viewer reach into the foliage.
That's what I admire about the Impressionists. They painted more than objects - they invited us to step into their paintings and experience them firsthand.
Which I did today. And I'm feeling all the better for it.
Here's to a New Year full of continued beauty and inspiration, Kim
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