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2/7/2013

Paris Intense

Neue Pinakothek, Munich

Curated by Annabel Zettel

Paris intense, such is the title given by Félix Vallotton to a series of lithographs made in 1893/94 in which he takes a modern look at the French metropolis. Vallotton gets beneath the skin of Paris and presents viewers with a concentrated and intensified reality which is quite the opposite of Belle-Époque trumpery, affectation and elegance. Only a short while before he had taken up with a group of artists called les Nabis (Hebrew for ‘prophets’ or ‘enlightened ones’). The unorthodox formal language of this circle of young students at the Académie Julian gave a new face to posters, journals, interiors and stage design in fin-de-siècle Paris.

Masterpieces of Nabis art, such as Vuillard’s ‘Café Scene’, Bonnard’s ‘Lignite Colliery’ and Maillol’s sculpture ‘Flora’ will already be known to visitors to the Neue Pinakothek. This exhibition brings together all works by the Nabis held in the museum’s collections for the first time, and throws new light on this exceptional group and its intentions.

Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Sérusier, Félix Vallotton and Édouard Vuillard, among others, were part of the Nabis inner circle. All were searching for new ‘genuine’ forms of expression. Art was to be freed from the need to represent and the naturalism of the Impressionists was to be overcome. Following Gauguin’s example, the young artists composed paintings using bright, strongly contoured fields of colour. Their simple formal language creates a subtle atmosphere, which goes much deeper than the pastose surface of the painting. Subjects recede into the background and the materiality of the picture – its lines, colours and shapes – come to the fore. Though some of their works greatly furthered the dissolution of the object in painting and its reduction into essential components, the Nabis never went over to complete abstraction.

The modernity of the Nabis found its expression in a variety of media. Bonnard, for example, created exceptional posters, not to mention ingenious illustrations for Paul Verlaine’s Symbolist poems. Vuillard decorated rooms with interior scenes in the large formats of which his clients would also find themselves reflected. Vallotton created woodcuts for magazines such as the avant-garde Revue blanche, the clear lines of which are a cool dissection of urban life and human relationships. Some Nabis artists designed stage-sets for Symbolist theatre and crafted objects, such as pieces of furniture or folding screens. Capturing scenes of everyday life on the streets of Paris, in the parks and behind the closed doors of the appartements in pictures which are thick with atmosphere, the goal of these young artists was to integrate life and art.

This exhibition presents works by the Nabis and such precursors as Gauguin, van Gogh and Puvis de Chavannes from the Neue Pinakothek’s own collections. Complementing the presentation will be a number of important exhibits from the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München and several exquisite loans from other external sources. The exhibition does not attempt to present all members of this group of artists. Instead, by selecting paintings and sculptures by Bonnard, Vuillard, Vallotton, Sérusier, Denis and Maillol which are characteristically Nabis, the exceptional quality of their works in the Neue Pinakothek is to be placed in focus.

The exhibition catalogue (in German only) is being published by Hatje Cantz: Paris Intense. Die Nabis – Von Bonnard bis Vallotton; edited by the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, texts by Rachel King, Annabel Zettel, designed by Schmid+Widmaier, Munich; approx. 128 pages, approx. 70 illustrations. Publication date: July 2013. ISBN 978-3-7757-3643-5. Price: approx. €24.80 (trade edition).

Press Dept. at the Pinakothek Museums
Tine Nehler M.A.
Leitung Presse & Kommunikation | Head of the Press Department
Pinakotheken im Kunstareal | Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen
Kunstareal | Barer Strasse 29 | 80799 Munich
tel: + 49 (0)89 23805-253 | fax: + 49 89 23805-125
e-mail: presse@pinakothek.depresse@pinakothek.de>
The Press Dept. on the Internet: http://www.pinakothek.de/presse
Facebook: http://www.facebook.de/pinakotheken

GUIDED TOUR WITH CURATOR
Annabel Zettel
Mon 08.07., 15.00

GUIDED TOURS OF EXHIBITION
Sun 07.07., 04.08., 01.09., 11.00
Mon 15.07., 12.08., 16.09., 30.09., 15.00
Wed 24.07., 21.08., 18.30

CHILDREN’S WORKSHOP | SCENES FROM EVERYDAY LIFE – TRACKING DOWN THE NABIS!
More than a hundred years ago a handful of rebellious Parisian art students got together and called themselves the ‘Nabis’ – or ‘prophets’. Inspired by scenes from everyday life, the members of the group passed on their message in not only hundreds of vivid paintings and drawings but also in countless prints, theatre posters, stage-sets and magazines. With different shades of chalk, brightly-coloured paper and other materials in our bags, we will set off to track down the ‘Nabis’.

With Uli Ball, artist

Sat 13.07. | 17.08. | 31.08. | 15.00-16.30 | Neue Pinakothek
For 6–12-year-olds | Meeting point: Foyer Neue Pinakothek
Price: 5 euros incl. materials | Limited number of participants
To book: T 089 23805-198, palais@pinakothek.de

Further information and images may be obtained either by phone: +49 (0)89 23805-286
or by e-mail: presse@pinakothek.depresse@pinakothek.de>

Press preview: 02.07.2013, 11.00 am

Opening reception: 03.07.2013, 7.00 pm

Neue Pinakothek
Barer Strasse 29 | 80799 Munich
OPENING HOURS
Daily except TUE 10.00 a.m. - 6.00 p.m.
WED 10.00 a.m. - 8.00 p.m.
Opening hours on public holidays
Opened: New Year (Jan. 1), Twelfth Day (Jan. 6), Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whitsunday, Whitmonday, Feast of Corpus Christi, Assumption Day (Aug. 15), National holiday (Oct. 3), All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1), 2. Christmas Day (Dec. 26)
Closed: Shrove Tuesday, May Day (May 1), Christmas Eve (Dec. 24), 1.Christmas Day (Dec. 25), New Years’ Eve (Dec. 31)
ADMISSION
Permanent exhibition
7 euros | reduced 5 euros
Sunday admission 1 euro
Combined Ticket
Permanent exhibition and special exhibition
10euros | reduced 8 euros
Special exhibitions not included.
Day Pass 12 euros (for the two Pinakothek museums, Museum Brandhorst, Sammlung Schack)
5-visit pass 29 euros (for the two Pinakothek museums, Museum Brandhorst, Sammlung Schack)
Free admission is granted to School classes, pre-schoolers, after-school children's groups, youth groups from the EU member states when accompanied by teaching or supervisory staff.
Prices subject to change.

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