NATIONAL ART CENTER IN TOKYO PRESENTS POST IMPRESSIONISM: 115 MASTERPIECES FROM THE MUSEE D'ORSAY'

THE NATIONAL ART CENTER IN TOKYO IS PRESENTING 'POST IMPRESSIONISM: 115 MASTERPIECES FROM THE MUSEE D'ORSAY', AN EXHIBITION THAT BRINGS TOGETHER 115 STUNNING ICONIC MASTERPIECE PAINTINGS FROM THE LEGENDARY COLLECTIONS OF THE MUSEE D'ORSAY. FRANCE IN THE LATE 19th CENTURY WAS HOME TO A DIVERSE ARRAY OF PAINTERS WHOSE FERTILE GENIUS WAS SHAPED BY THE ARTISTIC INNOVATIONS WROUGHT BY THE IMPRESSIONISTS. THROUGHOUT THE LATER 1880s AND 1890s, THESE PAINTERS, CEZANNE, VAN GOGH, GAUGUIN AND SEURAT, AMONG OTHERS USED THEIR OWN MODES OF EXPRESSION TO PRODUCE IMAGINATIVE WORKS THAT EARNED THEM A PLACE IN HISTORY AS THE POST-IMPRESSIONISTS. THAT ERA OF POST-IMPRESSIONISM SERVES AS THE FOCUS OF THE EXHIBITION. OVER THE YEARS, POST-IMPRESSIONISM HAS BEEN PORTRAYED AS A MOVEMENT THAT FORMED THE ANTITHESIS TO IMPRESSIONISM AND SET THE STAGE FOR THE EMERGENCE OF AVANT-GARDE PAINTING OF THE 20th CENTURY. HOWEVER, THIS DEPICTION DOES NOT CONVEY THE IMMENSE DIVERSITY THAT CHARACTERIZED PAINTING IN THE POST-IMPRESSIONIST AGE, AN ERA EMPOWERED BY CRISSCROSSING STREAMS OF ART SPRINGING FORTH FROM THE CULTURAL TREASURE HOUSE THAT WAS FIN-DE-SIECLE PARIS. POST0IMPRESSIONISM ANNOUNCES A BREAK FROM IMPRESSIONISM, THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT WHICH OCCURRED IN FRANCE IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE LATE 19th CENTURY. BY THE MID 1880s, ARTIST WERE EXPERIMENTING WITH EVEN MORE RADICAL IDEAS. VAN GOGH'S INTENSE, RICHLY COLOURED SURFACES COMMUNICATE EMOTIONALLY THROUGH THE ARTIST'S EXPRESSIVE MANIPULATION OF PAINT. GAUGUIN'S MONUMENTAL, DECORATIVE AND OFTEN EXOTIC WORKS STAND FOR A NEW AND AT TIMES BRUTAL AESTHETIC DIRECTNESS. CEZANNE'S MASTERY OF THE GENRES OF STILL LIFE, LANDSCAPE AND PORTRAITURE FULFILLS HIS OWN PROPHETIC PROMISE TO 'ASTONISH WITH AN APPLE'. THESE ARTISTS ENCAPSULATE THE CHALLENGES TO PAINTING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MULTI-FACETED AVANT-GARDE AT THE TIME; POINTILLISM, NEO-IMPRESSIONISM, SYNTHETISM, SYMBOLISM, SCHOOL OF PONT-AVEN, CLOISONNISM, THE NABIS AND INTIMISM.
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