Getty explores modernity with new exhibit

“Defining Modernity: European Drawings, 1800-1900″

The Getty Museum

June 5-September 9

This summer at the Getty, visitors can make their way through an entire century of European artwork in one afternoon. The “Defining Modernity” exhibition features works by Van Gogh, Manet and Seurat, all within a few steps of each other.

The exhibition is ambitious, covering a variety of artists and pieces containing subjects including professional workers, nudes and depictions of both pastoral and city life.

The vast catalogue of topics provides viewers with different lenses with which to examine the time period.

The first gallery displays more traditional pieces from earlier in the 19th century, including Pierre-Paul Prud’hon’s “Study of a Female Nude.” The painting is a beautiful look at the effects of coloring and shade.

The second gallery moves into the latter 1800s and stands out from the first for its more vibrant depictions of the idea of modernity in contemporary life.

Pierre Bonnard’s “Le Moulin Rouge” exudes an active, impulsive air of Parisian living.

The exhibit also juxtaposes soft watercolor works with pieces of dark and shadow, often done with the medium of conte crayon. And though watercolor is more often associated with European drawings of the period, these crayon pieces prove the most eye-catching.

In Seurat’s “Woman Strolling,” the conte crayon’s light and dark effect depicts a contemporary French woman and gives an interesting view of contemporary French life. This work is placed side by side in the gallery with Constantin Guys’s “Woman with a Parasol,” which also focuses on a female subject but produces a far different effect from its use of watercolor.

Putting these different techniques on display in the same exhibition offers a rare chance to compare the contrasting innovations and trends occurring in art during the period.

“Defining Modernity” also features many classics, such as Vincent van Gogh’s “Portrait of Joseph Roulin.” Studying its detailed lines up close and in person will leave any viewer in awe.

And although the third and final room of the exhibition houses only one painting, this gallery is the gem of “Defining Modernity.” The room contains Edouard Manet’s “A Bar at the Folies-Bergere,” the artist’s final major work and one of French art’s most famed paintings.

The painting focuses on a female bartender but also revolves around a mirrored reflection which has provoked optical confusions and questions that remain even today.

Viewing it firsthand at the Getty, it becomes easy to see why. Make sure to read the questions on the side wall, because they pose many ideas about the piece to ponder, including the barmaid’s angling, the man seen reflected beside her, a hidden trapeze artist, and inconsistencies in the mirrored bottles of beverages on the bar. The viewer can work out these questions with the aid of a large mirror on the opposite wall which reflects back the piece and gives the viewer yet another way to see the painting.

Even after reviewing the questions and studying the reflections, there is no clear conclusion about the work, but isn’t that the sign of a true masterpiece?

E-mail Picklesimer at lpicklesimer@media.ucla.edu.

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