PIERRE BONNARD. The Color of Memory - a podcast by CastYourArt.com

PIERRE BONNARD. The Color of Memory

The show has 116 loans from 11 different countries on display. Among the lenders there are international museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery Washington and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, as well as several renowned private collections.
The exhibition is a cooperation with the Tate Gallery London and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen. It was curated by Evelyn Benesch (Kunstforum) and Matthew Gale (Tate Gallery).
Born in 1867 near Paris, Pierre Bonnard was born into a family of civil servants. He had first successes as a member of the Post-Impressionist artist group “Les Nabis” (The Prophets) which he joined already as a student. Paul Gauguin and Eduard Vuillard were fellow group members; their style was influenced by Japanese woodblock prints and they used a wide variety of artistic techniques.
After the turn of the century Bonnard visited the south of France. He was fascinated by the light there, these vibrant colors of the Mediterranean had a major impact on his work and his unique approach to color would become a central element of his oeuvre. He claimed that the interplay of colors is subject to the same law of logic like the form, according to him even the surface had its own rationality, beyond color.
In 1926 he moved to the Côte d’Azur, together with his wife Marthe de Méligny. In the sunny south of France he had all his subjects at hand: The landscape, the house, the garden - and his wife Marthe, his muse and model.
These quiet, melancholic subjects like landscapes, the garden, the sea or female nudes would become a lifelong constant in Bonnard’s oeuvre.
Bonnard never painted directly on front of his subject, he always painted from his memory. He was no realist, he had his own very idiosyncratic approach – with unusual angles, partly concealed figures and permanent oscillation between inside and outside. The subtle correlations within his images demand the viewer’s attentive observation.
His topics, like genre scenes of common activities, still lifes, interiors, self portraits or landscapes were re-interpreted by him time and again. One of the most important subjects was his wife Marthe. He painted almost 400 nudes of her, many of them while washing or in the bath.
After 50 years of life together Marthe passed away. After her decease he isolated himself more and more. He died at the age of nearly 80 years on the 23rd of January 1947 near Cannes.
Bonnard was a contemporary of the great revolutions in art, of Surrealism, Cubism and Futurism, but he considered himself as solitary. Nevertheless he was very successful and popular in his lifetime. He was a very close friend of Henri Matisse who held him in high esteem as an artist.
Pierre Bonnard’s sensual handling of colors inspired many other artists; among them Mark Rothko and his color field painting.
In the chronologically arranged exhibition that includes photographs by the painter, it becomes evident how unusual the many-faceted painting of Pierre Bonnard actually is. (written by Cem Angeli)

Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien | www.kunstforumwien.at
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