Event Item: 00117

The Impressionists: Master paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago

Exhibition: 29th Jun 2008 to 2nd Nov 2008

Source: http://www.kimbellart.org

Some of the most celebrated and iconic works of the great Impressionist painters are coming to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. The loan of about 90 paintings from Chicago's world-renowned Impressionist collection is possible because of an ambitious reinstallation and expansion project at the Art Institute that includes extensive renovation of the galleries and the construction of a new Modern Wing designed by Renzo Piano-the architect recently chosen by the Kimbell to design its own second building. The Art Institute's Impressionist collection has never before left Chicago in such a large group, and it will be shown exclusively at the Kimbell.

The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago will be a feast for the eyes more sumptuous than even the great Barnes Collection exhibition, seen at the Kimbell in 1994. It features masterpieces of painting by the world's most beloved artists, including Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec-a succession of geniuses who, through a miracle of history, worked largely in the same country and within the span of a single lifetime. They were painters of modern life who created a more complete and delightful picture of the world in which they lived than any artists before them or since. Carried forward by the so-called "Post-Impressionists"-represented in the exhibition by masterpieces by Cézanne, van Gogh, and Gauguin-the Impressionist movement fostered breathtakingly original pictorial idioms that ushered in the progressive art of the 20th century.

The exhibition will bring to Fort Worth works that have come to define the Impressionist achievement-paintings that will be familiar even to those who have never visited the Art Institute since they have been so widely disseminated through reproductions. They include Paris Street; Rainy Day (1877) by Gustave Caillebotte; 7 Cézannes, including Madame Cézanne in a Yellow Chair (1893/95) and The Bathers (1899/1904); 6 works by Degas, including Yellow Dancers (In the Wings) (1874/76) and The Millinery Shop (1884/90); 7 Gauguins, including The Arlésiennes (1888) and The Ancestors of Tehamana (1893); 5 van Goghs, including Self-Portrait (1887) and The Bedroom (1889); 7 Manets, including The Races at Longchamp (1866) and Woman Reading (1878/79); 26 Monets, including 6 paintings of wheatstacks, 4 of London, and 3 of water lilies; 12 Renoirs, including Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise (1875), Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (1879), and Two Sisters (On the Terrace) (1881); and 3 Toulouse-Lautrecs, including Moulin de la Galette (1889).

Commented Malcolm Warner, the Kimbell's acting director: "The Art Institute's Impressionist collection is truly second to none, and we are honored and excited to be able to show it at the Kimbell. In the beautiful light and noble spaces of Louis Kahn's galleries, every one of these vital paintings will sing out gloriously. It is a great pleasure to be working with our colleagues at the Art Institute, and we take pride in bringing to the Kimbell an exhibition that any museum in the world would covet."

Kimbell Art Museum, 3333 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Fort Worth, Texas 76107-2792