From colorful pastel paintings to lifelike marble sculptures to otherworldly surrealist landscapes, the Harn Museum of Art’s latest exhibition brings 100 years of French history and culture to life.
“French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850-1950” opened Aug. 5 at the Harn after its conception at the Brooklyn Museum and subsequent travels to venues in Italy, South Korea, Canada and the U.S. The century’s worth of artwork spans avant-garde movements, from impressionism to surrealism, and features pieces from the period’s leading artists.
Getting on the touring schedule was a highly competitive process — it took the Harn three years to acquire and set up “French Moderns.”
Thanks to a donation from an anonymous donor and other local contributors, the Harn acquired “French Moderns” and became one of the few museums on the tour to offer free admission.
The exhibit displays 56 pieces from the Brooklyn Museum’s collection of European art and two other Claude Monet works: “Waterloo Bridge,” on loan from the Lowe Art Museum in Miami, and “Champ d’avoine (Oat Field)” from the Harn’s permanent collection. The exhibition is divided into four sections: Landscape, Still Life, Portraits and Figures and The Nude.
Dulce Román, chief curator and curator of modern art at the Harn, said “French Moderns” presents work from a period when creatives were “challenging the norms of the French Academy.” Artists like Monet and Henri Matisse experimented with new forms, styles and subject matters that would go on to influence American art today.
Gainesville residents don’t have to travel far to see artwork from some of the most significant names in art history.
“A lot of people will probably think, ‘Wow, I thought I would have to go to New York or Chicago or Philadelphia to see an exhibition like this,’” Román said. “They're not going to be able to believe how many famous artists are on view in the exhibition.”
Harn director Lee Anne Chesterfield hopes visitors can connect to the time when the featured artists lived and recognize similarities to the modern world.
The years between 1850 and 1950, marked by world wars and social, political and intellectual upheaval, saw major shifts in the art world, particularly in Paris. Despite the pervading global conflicts, from the revolutions of 1848 to World War II, the artists and their bodies of work persevered.
Cubist and modernist painter Fernand Léger fled France during the Nazi occupation in World War II. Other artists in the exhibit even fought in the wars themselves.
Chesterfield added that in today’s “tumultuous” climate, with parts of the world at war, observers of the exhibit can draw hope from “French Moderns.”
“It just reminds you of the beauty in the world,” she said. “It reminds you of the creative geniuses that we've had and still have — that will continue in spite of the turmoil that can happen around us.”
Tiffany Silva, the 26-year-old security and visitor engagement assistant at the Harn, said “French Moderns” sparked an excitement she’s never seen before at the museum.
Silva added the Harn’s last Museum Night event, held the second Thursday of every month, attracted over 1,000 visitors. The Gainesville museumgoers crowded around paintings as if they were at the Louvre Museum in Paris, she said.
The exhibition will be on display until Jan. 4 at the Harn Museum of Art, 3259 Hull Road in Gainesville.
Contact Isabel Kraby at ikraby@alligator.org. Follow her on X @isabelgkraby.
