Impressionism: Masterworks on Paper @ MAM

At the Milwaukee Art Museum\'s (MAM) recently opened exhibition “Impressionism: Masterworks on Paper,” the museum transports the city to the Paris art world at the turn of the 20^th century. Monet produced works in the last half of the 1800\'s century that begins the exhibition and culminates in the exploration of Van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Cezanne in the early 1900\'s.  The exhibition of drawings with works on paper elevates these artworks to a status usually reserved for the oil painting. Drawings were frequently relegated to being used as artist\'s experiments, practice or studies, and in this exhibition, differentiating a painting from a drawing can be difficult, especially when viewing the pastels and watercolors. These particular works on paper uncovers the spontaneous elegance and expertise that these master artists created on common materials to expand their impressionistic and neo-impressionistic oeuvre.

The MAM\'s Curator of Exhibitions Laurie Winters staged each room in the gallery by artist, in a loose chronological order to dramatize the influence of drawings on modern art. Beginning with Eugene Boudin, who mentored Monet, the exhibition then travels through artists following in this impressionistic to neo-impressionistic movement that was turning at the beginning of the 20th century. Traveling from London,  Guest Curator Christopher Lloyd enjoyed the position of Surveyor to The Queens\' Pictures for nearly 20 years. At the MAM\'s opening this past weekend, Lloyd answered a few questions regarding this impressive exhibition with over 100 works on paper.

The exhibition begins with Eugene Boudin. What was his significance?

There are a few surprises in the exhibitions, names less familiar. Eugene Boudin taught Monet, mentored him. He was known for his watercolors of aristocrats in the 1860\'s, painting quite a few [points to Beach Scene, 1866]. His work influenced Monet in the following gallery who demonstrated his draftsmanship by using these plunging perspectives. Then they began multi-use of media, pastels, crayons, charcoals and watercolors. We have shown a series here of London Bridge that Monet painted from his balcony in the Savoy Hotel (from 1900-1902) with these atmospheric mists.

What drawings of Edgar Degas would you like to talk about?

This drawing Nude Woman Drying Her Hair (ca 1890), came later on in Degas\' life.  A nude outline seen from the back, it\'s conceptual. See how the outline is redrawn and redrawn. He had eyesight problems later in his life and redrew these from memory. Then we move to see his Breakfast After the Bath (ca 1894). This painting is urgent and compelling, more earthbound than the pure drawing. Degas was also a master of collage. He used tracing paper with a lack of respect for materials [what was considered appropriate to draw on at the time] and often pieced two pieces together when he needed a larger size piece of brown paper.

After Degas, three women have become important. Do you have any comments?

Most people will recognize Mary Cassatt, and will be less familiar with Eva Gonzales, a pupil of Monet\'s who came from Paris and was influenced by Degas. [Winters explains that both used pastels, what appears to be white, and markings with great effectiveness.] We also have Berthe Morisot, who worked in watercolors [Le Dejeuner a la Campagne, 1879] a sister in law to Monet.

Then we have a room on Camille Pissarro, and the Renoir works that were discussed before, including The Bathers. The exhibition moves to Jean Louis Forain. Who was Jean Louis Forain?

Everyone will know Pissarro, and Renoir. This [Forain] is a new boy to the Impressionists and we\'re introducing him here. He was of great importance and painted into the 1920\'s to 30\'s. He chooses to portray theaters, cafes, cabarets and dancers. See this painting [The Client, 1878] depicts a man in a tail coat sitting while viewing three nude women dressed for hire] It\'s a common, everyday but shocking take on giving the apples to the three graces [From Greek mythology, charm, beauty and creativity, and the Raphael painting].

Georges Seurat is an artist with a familiar name. Can you explain how he influences modern art?

Take a look at this drawing here [Place de la Concorde, Winter, 1882-83]. It\'s of the Place de la Concorde in Paris, where they put people to death with the guillotine. Louis XVI died here. It really says something for a French man to paint this scene. It\'s in black and white, similar to the picture below it [The Gateway, 1882-84], Modern artists study Seurat for the tension in this painting, it almost looks abstract. [The beginning of neo-impressionism]. This begins the conceptual abstraction we see further along in the exhibition (Winters add this exhibition brings a Seurat and Gauguin to the Museum for the very first time.)

Then there\'s Van Gogh. Everyone will be familiar with his paintings, but what about his works on paper?

This is a drawing of Van Gogh\'s studio [Window in the Studio at St. Remy, 1889]. See his painting materials sitting on the windowsill, sketched with a single line. Windows have a meaning in 19^th century art. They relay hope, the future, the beyond. And here, the drawing next to it, it\'s the field where Van Gogh committed suicide [The Oise at Auers, 1890] painted the year he died. Look at the marks he made in the sky. Isn\'t that similar to what the abstract expressionists were doing, remind you of Jackson Pollack?

We end with Paul Cezanne and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Any comments?

Toulouse-Lautrec used everything to draw on, cardboard, brown paper, a laissez faire with materials where anything goes, seen in the this drawing, The Trapeze Artist at the Medrano Circle, 1887-88. The exhibition provides an argument that drawing has the same status as painting, showing the future potential for drawing in different media, with different supports [board and paper instead of canvas], and the very mark making itself. It\'s all a new level of expression. It drives drawing into more exploratory works and abstractions that influences American Abstract Expressionism.

The Milwaukee Art Museum presents Impressionism: Masterworks on Paper through January with coordinating programs and gallery talks. For information and viewing images: www.mam.org