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Also on View

 

French Drawings from the Aaronsohn Collection
(February 2–April 29, 2012)

This exhibition, featuring recent gifts to the museum by D.C.-based collectors Jonathan and Roseann Aaronsohn, presents 27 works on paper by seven artists active in France in the late 19th and early 20th century. Drawings by Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947), André Derain (1880–1954), Bernard Lamotte (1903–83), Fernand Léger (1881–1955), Kees van Dongen (1877–1968), and Edouard Vuillard (1868–1940), as well as prints by Stuart Davis (1892–1964), provide a compelling glimpse into the importance of drawing in the working methods of the modern artist.

During the late 19th century, the Parisian avant-garde began to break away from the naturalistic manner of representation that had long dominated French academic practice. In their search for a new means of artistic expression, the young generation of artists exploited the expressive potential of line. The impulse gave way to a variety of innovative drawing styles and techniques that frequently complemented the artists' concurrent productions in other media.

Embracing this independent spirit, the artists in the Aaronsohn collection turned to drawing as an essential foundation for their creative practice—whether as the genesis of an idea to be further explored in other media or as an independent graphic expression in its own right. Each drawing, realized with the barest of means, conveys the freshness of the artist’s vision, from the decorative interiors of Bonnard and Vuillard and the fleeting street scenes of Lamotte and van Dongen, to the classical bathers of Derain and the bold geometries of Davis and Léger. The drawings invite the viewer to have an intimate encounter with a work of art, following the rhythms of the marks on the page to retrace the artist’s gestures and relive the making of the work.

Works by Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard are also presented in Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard on view February 4–May 6, 2012.

André Derain, The Bathers, n.d. © 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.