What hypocrisy remains unvoiced behind a conventional conservative façade? What secrets and lies lurk around the corner, along the corridor, or beneath the brim of an elegant hat?Įverything seems slightly on edge, an intriguing, incomplete narrative, a pressure cooker about to explode. He seems uneasy about the relationships that are played out in the dim lamplight, in the shadows, behind closed doors uneasy about the turbulence of city life, about the passions of the new consumer society, about the durability of the family unit. There’s a pervasive disquiet about Vallotton’s art. In his work he regarded French society with an amused but critical eye, satirising the customs and values of the bourgeoisie. Vallotton seems to have been both captivated by the capital’s boundless energy and conscious of the tensions that lay just beneath the surface. But it was also a hotbed of political unrest and social upheaval.
It was the centre of the art world and a hub for scientific innovation.
Vallotton became a master of the art of woodcut and he was commissioned to produce illustrations for journals and newspapers, including the influential La Revue Blanche.īelle Epoque Paris was prosperous and dynamic, brimming with fashion, fun and creativity.
They admired Japanese woodblock prints, and their work was characterised by flattened figures, strong outlines and bold colours by empty spaces and decorative patterns. They sought to convey emotion rather than just to record reality. In the 1890s he associated with the circle of artists known as the Nabis (Prophets), whose number included Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard. Aged 16 he settled in Paris, at first to study and then to practice art. Vallotton was born into a puritanical protestant family in Lausanne in 1865. ( The Royal Academy, London, until 29 September, and then the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 29 October to 26 January.) I recently attended an exhibition of the work of Swiss artist Felix Vallotton.
0 kommentar(er)
