NYAB Event - "Modern Masters: Paris & Beyond" Exhibition

"Modern Masters: Paris & Beyond" Exhibition

Hammer Galleries

This event has ended.

Paris and Beyond includes important works from the early decades of the twentieth century, during the “années folles “ or “crazy years” of 1920’s Paris, through the decades following the second World War, as many of these Masters moved ‘beyond’ Paris.

For the first half of the twentieth century, Paris was the undisputed center of the art world, the place where any serious artist had to be. Van Dongen came to Paris from Holland shortly before the turn of the century, and others followed– Picasso and Miró from Spain, Chagall from Russia and Matisse, Léger and Dubuffet from the French provinces. As the noted author Edward Lucie-Smith describes in Hammer Galleries’ Paris and Beyond catalogue essay, “the result was a mixture between a stewpot and a laboratory. A stewpot, because all kinds of cultural traditions were blended together. A laboratory because this is where all kinds of artistic ideas were continually tested to their limits...The city was a buzzing hive of new ideas.” It was in Paris where many of these artists made their crucial breakthroughs, where they became “Modern Masters."

Gradually, however, the Parisian artistic community began to disperse. In the decades following the inter-war years, many of these Masters became established artists and started to seek inspiration outside of Paris. External factors such as the onset of World War II certainly accelerated the flight from Paris. Léger and Chagall sought refuge in America, and Miró returned to Spain. It was also during this time that many of these “Modern Masters” explored media outside of painting, Hammer Galleries' exhibition includes sculptures by Henri Matisse and Jean Dubuffet, ceramics by Joan Miró, and an exquisite “mobile” by Alexander Calder. The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to trace the works of many of these Modern Masters throughout the decades of the twentieth century.

[Image: Marc Chagall "Le Pont Neuf" (ca. 1953-1954) oil on canvas 16 x 12 7/8 in.]

Media

• Painting
• Sculpture

ADVERTISE ON NYAB