Cleveland Museum of Art Presents PRIVATE LIVES: HOME AND FAMILY IN THE ART OF THE NABIS, PARIS, 1889 – 1900 — Preview

WHEN:

Through September 19, 2021

WHERE:

Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall
30100 Chagrin Blvd, Suite 150
Cleveland, OH 44124

TICKETS:

Free for Cleveland Museum of Art members & children under 5
$8 for students & children ages 6-17
$10 for seniors and adult groups
$15 for adults

For ticket information, visit the Cleveland Museum of Art website.

Cleveland Museum of Art presents Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris 1889-1900, an exhibition focusing on home and family by four Nabi artists: Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947), Maurice Denis (1870–1943), Félix Vallotton (1865–1925) and Édouard Vuillard (1868–1940). The Nabis – Hebrew for prophets – aim to depict subjective experience and emotion in their paintings, prints and drawings.

Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris 1889-1900 sections, described by a Cleveland Museum of Art spokesperson:

The Intimate Interior / The Troubled Interior

“Nabi interiors are celebrated for their intimate views of domestic comforts, but these artists used the same signifiers of cozy life—snug salons, lamplit activities and animated wallpaper—to hint at the discontents simmering below the surface. Portraits are generalized to the point of anonymity, impassable flatness and pattern block the visual penetration of the rooms and figures emerge from and disappear in the shadows. Artful distortions of scale keep the viewer off-balance, while ambiguity invites completion of the narrative.”

Family Life

“Family life occupied a central role in the Nabis’ art. Their imagery depicting families allowed them to explore romantic love, maternal affection and the joys of childhood. But far from being a sentimental retreat for the artists, these images of family life also offered an opportunity to examine nuance, conflict and grief.”

Music chez soi

“Music and musicality played a crucial role in the Nabi aesthetic from the time of the group’s inception. In the late 1800s, music and painting were often considered sister arts, both evoking emotions through harmony, rhythm and form. Each artist in this exhibition depicted music in the home, expressing a wide variety of moods and emotions, ranging from the refined musical soirée captured by Vallotton in The Symphony to Bonnard’s playful designs for a children’s music primer to Vuillard’s contemplative portrayal of Misia Natanson at the piano.

“Selections from composer Claude Terrasse’s Petites scènes familières (Familiar Little Scenes) performed by pianist and composer Arseniy Gusev can be heard in this gallery. In 1895, Terrasse published a suite of piano compositions illustrated with lithographs by his brother-in-law, Bonnard, to suggest the mood for each song, ranging from lively to melancholic.”

In the Garden

“The garden played a role in the personal lives and the art of Bonnard, Denis and Vuillard. The orchard and gardens of Le Clos (the Orchard), the Bonnard family home in Le Grand-Lemps in southeastern France, were a retreat and regular subject for the artist throughout his Nabi years. Denis frequently turned to the garden at his home in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, northwest of Paris, as a theme in his art. Although the urbanite Vuillard never had his own garden, he painted those of his friends. Nabi gardens were outdoor living spaces inhabited by family, friends and pets.”

The Nabi City

“The Nabi artists were deeply invested in depicting family life in domestic interiors and private gardens. However, the city of Paris appeared frequently in the work of Bonnard and Vuillard during the 1890s. The art in this gallery reflects the artists’ aims to establish a dialogue between public and private life, to domesticize the glittering City of Lights and to bring the city into the realm of the home.”

Private Lives is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog that features essays and vignettes by leading historians and art historians that offer insight into the private worlds of the Nabis.

For more information, visit The Cleveland Museum of Art website.

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Images courtesy of Cleveland Museum of Art