Van Gogh and the Avant-Garde: The Modern Landscape

 Art Institute of Chicago

(October 13, 2023–January 14, 2024)

During an intensely creative period between 1882 and 1890, Vincent van Gogh and other notable Post-Impressionists found new inspiration in the changing landscape just outside of Paris. On view at the Art Institute of Chicago May 14 through September 4, 2023, Van Gogh and the Avant-Garde: The Modern Landscape brings together more than 75 paintings and drawings from this formative period by Van Gogh as well as Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Emile Bernard, and Charles Angrand, shedding new light on their boundary-pushing techniques and illuminating the power of place to shape artistic identities. 

Long a popular spot for leisure activities, the area along the Seine River underwent a period of rapid development toward the end of the 19th century, as coal, gas, and manufacturing facilities appeared along the skyline. The tensions between recreation and industry visible in the landscapes of Asnières and other nearby locales attracted Van Gogh and his contemporaries, igniting their creativity and prompting them to develop new ways of recording what they saw. As Van Gogh remarked in a letter shortly before his arrival in Paris, “the bringing together of extremes—the countryside as a whole and the bustle here [in the city]—gives me new ideas.”

Each artist explored the use of discrete brushstrokes and strong colors in innovative ways, in turn developing novel styles of painting. As Jacquelyn N. Coutré, Eleanor Wood Prince Associate Curator, Painting and Sculpture of Europe, remarks, “The pioneering work by Seurat, Signac, Bernard, and Angrand in the northwestern suburbs of Paris prompted many artists, including Van Gogh, to rethink the possibilities of painting. It was here, in this location and in conjunction with these artists, that he learned to energize his brushstroke and to ‘see color’, both important contributions to his rapid development as an artist.” 

The more than 75 works in this revelatory presentation include many from private collections that are rarely displayed. Twenty-five works are by Van Gogh, including paintings from three triptychs that will be shown together for the first time. 

Van Gogh and the Avant-Garde: The Modern Landscape is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

This exhibition is curated by Jacquelyn N. Coutré, Eleanor Wood Prince Associate Curator, Painting and Sculpture of Europe, at the Art Institute of Chicago, and Bregje Gerritse, researcher at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, with the assistance of Jena K. Carvana, curatorial associate in Painting and Sculpture of Europe at the Art Institute of Chicago. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by the curators and other noted scholars, an examination of the innovative portrayals of industry and leisure created by five avant-garde artists working at Asnières in the late nineteenth century, From 1881 to 1890, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Emile Bernard, and Charles Angrand chose Asnières, a suburb of Paris, as a site of artistic experimentation. Located on the Seine, Asnières became a popular destination for Parisians thanks to aquatic sports and festivals starting in the 1850s, facilitated by the arrival of new train stations and bridges earlier in the century. This convenient new transportation system had beckoned Parisians to more distant destinations like Argenteuil and Bougival, resulting in the river scenes depicted by Impressionists like Monet and Renoir. At the same time, the idyllic landscape of Asnières increasingly contrasted with the factories appearing on the opposite side of the river. Homing in on the tensions between leisure and work, the avant-garde artists at Asnières sought to capture the feeling of this starkly modern landscape by developing innovative motifs, styles, and techniques that pushed their work in new directions. Offering an unprecedented in-depth look at the work produced by the artists at Asnières, this handsomely illustrated volume includes scholarly essays on each of the artists as well as a map detailing the locations where the artists painted.

IMAGES

Vincent van Gogh. Exterior of a Restaurant in Asnières, May–June 1887. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation).

Paul Signac. The Junction at Bois-Colombes (Opus no. 130), 1886. Leeds City Art Galleries.