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by silvia in category exhibitions | 2010/02/08 | (0) Comments
From: 2010/02/07 To: 2010/05/09
in Riehen / Basel. Switzerland (Schweiz) |
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 The art of Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) transcended traditional borderlines and entered untrodden territory. A customs official, Rousseau had no formal art training and initially painted in his free time. Many years passed before his art, non-academic and long considered merely naive, found recognition in the Paris salons. It was poets like Apollinaire and artists like Picasso, Léger, Delaunay, and later Kandinsky, who were the first to appreciate Rousseau´s outstanding significance.
On the centenary of his death, the Fondation Beyeler is devoting an exhibition to this pioneer of classical modern art, comprising of about 40 masterworks from renowned European and American museums and private collections. Viewers will discover Rousseau´s unusual portraits and the poetic paintings of French cities and landscapes in which he made visible the transition from the mundane to the mysterious. The exhibition culminates in a significant group of the artist´s famous jungle paintings. Although he had never actually seen a jungle, he created his own highly imaginative and colorful vision of it and its exotic denizens in his paintings. With his wonderful, often dreamlike compositions, Rousseau stood for the rediscovery of fantasy at the inception of modernism. He succeeded in opening new worlds for art, which influenced the Cubists and Surrealists and continue to excite art lovers young and old to this day.
The exhibition was curated by Philippe Büttner in cooperation with Christopher Green. The Musée d'Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris gave exceptional support.
Extended Information
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