Memphis, TN.- The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is pleased to present “Monet to Cézanne/Cassatt to Sargent: The Impressionist Revolution”, on view through October 9th. The exhibition of over 95 paintings and works on paper features masterpieces never before seen together by leading Impressionists such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Jean-Louis Forain, Paul Cézanne, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam, Cecelia Beaux, and others that capture the rise of Impressionism in Paris, its revolutionary underpinnings, and its arrival and influence in America. This exhibition also illuminates the strength of Impressionist holdings in the American South, drawing on the Brooks’ highly regarded permanent holdings as well as those of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, and important private collections.
Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works—whether landscapes, genre paintings, portraits, still lifes, or city scenes—are arguably the most recognizable and popular visual art in the world. However, because of their familiarity and immediate appeal, it is easy to forget how these loosely painted, light-filled canvases first shocked and then eventually transformed the art world. Monet to Cézanne/Cassatt to Sargent: The Impressionist Revolution will consider the emergence of the movement, and trace its avant-garde — and widely varying — development through the nineteenth century and into the modern era, both in France and the United States. “One of the things about Impressionist pictures that always beguiles us is their seemingly eternal freshness and spontaneity,” says Stanton Thomas, Curator of European and Decorative Art at the Brooks. “After a century and a half, they have lost none of their power to both inspire and intrigue us. Of course, the Impressionist Revolution still continues — it reverberates in contemporary artists’ attempts to break the machine, to use color arbitrarily, or think to outside the conventions of visual tradition—even now, we see ripples of that shock wave.”
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is an art museum in Memphis, Tennessee. The Brooks Museum, which was founded in 1916, is the oldest and largest art museum in the state of Tennessee. The museum is a privately funded nonprofit institution located in Overton Park in Midtown Memphis.The original Beaux-Arts building, a registered U.S. National Landmark designed by James Gamble Rogers in 1913, was donated by Bessie Vance Brooks in memory of her husband, Samuel Hamilton Brooks. The cylindrical extension, opened in 1955, was designed by Memphis architect Everett Woods. The Brooks’ facilities also include the Brooks Museum Store, the Brushmark Restaurant, the Holly Court garden, and a grand terrace that overlooks the greens and trees of Overton Park. In 1989, the building was expanded and reoriented by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The expansion, which doubled the square footage of the existing building, included a new public entrance as well as a three-story gallery space where the old and new buildings join. The facility consists of 29 galleries, art classrooms, a print study room with over 4,500 works of art on paper, a research library with over 5,000 volumes, and an auditorium.
The collection has over seven thousand works of art, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and examples of the decorative arts. Of particular note are the Samuel H. Kress Collection of Renaissance and Baroque paintings, the Hugo N. Dixon Collection of Impressionist paintings, the Levy Collection of American prints, the Goodman Book Collection, and the Goodheart Collection of Carl Gutherz paintings, drawings, and archival material.Paintings in the permanent collection include works by Italian Renaissance, Baroque, Impressionist, and 20th-century artists. The Kress Collection is one of numerous collections of paintings distributed by this philanthropist among American museums. The Brooks also has a fine collection of English portraits, including works by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Lawrence, and Romney. There are impressionist works by Camille Pissarro, Renoir, and many American impressionists: Winslow Homer, Thomas Hart Benton, Childe Hassam, and Robert Henri. The contemporary collection includes paintings by Kenneth Noland, Robert Motherwell, and Nancy Graves, plus the nationally-known Memphis artist Carroll Cloar. The Brooks Museum also conserves a selection of 19th and 20th century sculpture and decorative arts, including furniture and textiles. Visit the museum’s website at … http://www.brooksmuseum.org
