FRANKFURT.- The French Neo-Impressionist Georges
Seurat (1859–1891) is considered to be one of the icons of nineteenth-century
art and the most important exponent of Pointillism, a style of
painting he developed. With about sixty paintings, oil studies, and
drawings from public and private collections in London, Paris, Zurich, New York,
San Francisco, a.o., the exhibition in the Schirn Kunsthalle offers a
representative survey and, at the same time, focuses on a crucial aspect of
Seurat’s oeuvre: the figure in space. No other pictorial subject tells more
about Seurat’s art. Both his paintings and drawings testify to his great
interest in the subject, which he dedicated himself to throughout his entire
creative career. The artist initially looked to groups such as the École de
Barbizon, to epochs like the Renaissance, or to fellow artists such as Puvis de
Chavannes, but realized his subjects in a new painting technique and innovative
compositions. Examining the Impressionists’ pictorial solutions and the most
recent scientific insights in the fields of physiology and chromatics,
Georges Seurat developed the method that went down in art history as
Pointillism and became an important source of inspiration for later
artists. On view 4 February through 9 May,
2010.
