MADRID - From 14 January through 22 April 2010 Fundación Mapfre, Madrid, will present a major exhibition, including more than ninety paintings from the Musée D’Orsay in Paris, which will show Impressionism in a startling new light. The exhibition will include celebrated works by the great artists of Impressionism, Manet, Monet, Degas, Cézanne and more, but it will set these in the context of the myriad other currents of French art at the time. These range from the traditional painting of the state-controlled official Salon, to the often arcane Symbolism of Puvis de Chavannes and Gustave Moreau. Seeing the exhibition in Madrid, in close proximity to the Prado, visitors will also be made aware of the relationship of Impressionism to Spanish art, through the influence of Velazquez and Goya.

Impressionism was the most important French artistic movement of the nineteenth century, revolutionising the western tradition. But was it as isolated as it is usually seen to be? This exhibition, curated by Stéphane Guégan and Alice Thomine of the Musee D’Orsay, challenges the conventional vision of the movement as a radical rupture with the traditional art of the time. It will present a new way of looking at Impressionism by studying the full artistic spectrum of its period, something that has never before been attempted in an exhibition.

Impressionism: A Modern Renaissance will show how the Impressionist revolution was built from a variety of components: the Spanish influence of Goya and Velazquez on artists such as Manet and Whistler; the Batignolles school, with Manet at the centre and which included Monet and Renoir; the emergence of new views of women, in the art of female painters like Berthe Morisot as well as male ones such as Tissot; the legacy of the naturalism of Courbet and Millet, but also their continuing influence on the Salon. The exhibition will show too that even the Salon was evolving, freeing itself from the narrow diktat of the Ecole des Beaux Arts. The slick eroticism of the Salon nude will be seen with the frank sexuality of Courbet, the refined and exotic sensualism of Gustave Moreau, and the voluptuous women of Renoir. All will rub shoulders with Impressionism's new worship of urban reality, nature, colour and light.

Manet will be presented as one of the main drivers of the movement, as it emerged during the 1870s. The disaster of France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1 and the bloody suppression of the revolutionary Paris Commune that followed brought a powerful need for national renewal. The result was a modern renaissance, with Impressionism at its cultural heart. In 1880 the Salon was finally cut free from state control, marking the rise of a more open art world and a major turning point in the history of modern art.

Fundación Mapfre

Fundación Mapfre is a private Spanish cultural foundation. It is affiliated to the insurance group Mapfre. Created in 1975, its mission is to teach and promote culture, art and literature in Spain and South America. Fundación Mapfre organises numerous conferences, courses, prizes and exhibitions. It has also formed a rich permanent collection of Hispanic works of art including strong holdings of nineteenth-century drawings, works by the international avant-garde of the twentieth century, and contemporary photography.

In October 2008, Fundación Mapfre opened a permanent exhibition space in a newly converted historic building in Madrid, on the Paseo del Arte - the famous Madrid art trail. This puts Fundación Mapfre in the centre of the capital's art world, next door to the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, the Reina Sofia Art Centre, and the amazing new Fundación Caixa museum. It is in this new home that Impressionism: A Modern Renaissance will be held. The exhibition will be free of charge.

Exhibition Tour

The exhibition will travel to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco de Young Museum, San Francisco (22 May – 6 September 2010) then to the Frist Center for Visual Arts, Nashville (14 October 2010 – 23 January 2011).

Visit the Fundación Mapfre at : http://www.mapfre.com/fundacion/es/home-fundacion-mapfre.shtml