Bonnard to Vuillard: The Intimate Poetry of Everyday Life
The Nabi Collection of Vicki and Roger Sant
[Paul Gauguin taught us] that every work of art was a transposition, a caricature, the passionate equivalent of a received sensation.
—Maurice Denis, 1920
In late fall of 1888 in Paris, a group of young, like-minded art students banded together after seeing a small abstract landscape by Paul Sérusier that he had made under the guidance of Paul Gauguin. Serusier’s boldly-colored composition, built up from broad patches of greens, yellows, blues, and reds arranged decoratively on the flat surface of a cigar box lid, marked a radical break from the naturalistic palette and broken brushwork of the Impressionists.
By the time of their first exhibition in 1891, the group had assumed the moniker “The Nabis,” a transliteration of the Hebrew navi meaning “prophet.” Their visionary approach asserted the primacy of form and color as abstract equivalents of human feeling. The Nabis’ emphasis on an artistic language of suggestion was in sympathy with the ideals of Symbolist writers, poets, and musicians, with whom the Nabis closely collaborated.
Bonnard to Vuillard: The Intimate Poetry of Everyday Life, drawn from the promised gift to the Phillips from the collection of Vicki and Roger Sant, explores rarely-seen works by some of the international group’s leading figures, including Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Aristide Maillol, Paul Ranson, Ker-Xavier Roussel, and Félix Vallotton. From painting and prints to stained glass, screens, tapestry, and ceramics, the works exemplify how the Nabis employed flat colors, decorative patterning, and silhouetted forms to convey their responses to the world.
During their short-lived, yet fertile period of collaboration that lasted until around 1900, the Nabis created a wide range of imagery, from the mystical to the mundane, the witty to the sardonic. In seeking to break down the artificial barriers between the fine and decorative arts, the Nabis poignantly captured the poetry of everyday life as it played out in living rooms, street corners, gardens, and landscapes.
The Phillips Collection · Bonnard to Vuillard: The Nabi Collection of Vicki and Roger Sant
Exhibition Curator Elsa Smithgall introduces the exhibition
The Sant Collection
This gift from Vicki and Roger Sant is nothing short of transformative. Through the bequest, the Sants contribute mightily to the growth of our holdings and strengthen our role as a leading center for the research and presentation of late-19th-century European art. We remain grateful to Vicki for her unwavering service and commitment to the Phillips as Trustee, President, Chair, and then Honorary Chair for over 30 years, and dedicate this exhibition to her in loving memory.
—Dorothy Kosinski, Vradenburg Director & CEO
This exhibition is planned in conjunction with a major promised gift from Vicki and Roger Sant of over 40 paintings and works on paper as well as two print portfolios from one of the finest private collections of Nabi art in the United States. The Phillips is delighted to announce this monumental gift on the occasion of the museum’s upcoming centennial in 2021. In addition to the promised gift of art, Vicki and Roger Sant have also designated a major bequest to create an endowment in support of the preservation, care, and study of the Sant Collection.
The Sants’ collection was shaped over more than 20 years by a deep relationship with each work and a keen understanding of its role in the context of modern art. Like the Nabis, who were committed to making art a part of everyday life, the Sants built a collection that filled their home with profound joy. It is fitting that these works will eventually move from the domestic interior of the Sants’ residence to the intimate spaces of the Phillips, where they will meet kindred spirits: French works by members of the Nabis and the Post-Impressionists acquired by founder Duncan Phillips.
Exhibition catalogue
A catalogue of the same title, published by Rizzoli Electa in association with The Phillips Collection, accompanies the exhibition. Edited by exhibition curator Elsa Smithgall, it includes contributions by European modernism scholars Sarah Bertalan, Isabelle Cahn, Clément Dessy, Dorothy Kosinski, and Katherine M. Kuenzli. The richly-illustrated book features a conversation between the Sants and Phillips Collection Vradenburg Director & CEO Dorothy Kosinski, as well as essays exploring the role of the Nabis in the early histories of modern art, the influence of Symbolist poetry and literature, and the innovative techniques of Nabi printmaking.
Available in the museum shop: $60 / $54 Members
Organized by The Phillips Collection, this exhibition celebrates the transformative bequest from Vicki and Roger Sant.
Presented by lead sponsors Dina and George Perry.
Brought to you by the generous support of John and Gina Despres, The Ronald and Jo Carole Lauder Foundation, Mrs. Marion Rosenthal, Ken and Dorothy Woodcock, George Vradenburg and the Vradenburg Foundation, Katherine and David Bradley, and Louisa C. Duemling.
Additional support provided by the Jacqueline and Marc Leland Foundation and Mr. and Mrs. Albert H. Small.
In-kind support is provided by