bankaustria-kunstforum.at - You are on page "PIERRE BONNARD 1867 – 1947 | Preview | Bank Austria Kunstforum"

The Bank Austria Kunstforum is planning a retrospective of the work of Pierre Bonnard for winter 2011/12, the very first exhibition ever devoted to this artist in Austria. It will present around 90 paintings from international museums and private collections and trace Bonnard’s work from its beginnings in the Nabis circle, the influence of symbolism and impressionism, and on to the 1940s.

Bonnard never questioned the validity of objective representation and – always seemingly in allegiance to French classicism – cultivated his own style of “the other modernism” off the beaten track of all the “-isms” cropping up in the early twentieth century. This project aims to understand him by means of his major themes, a treatment of subjects in which he – characteristically – exploded ad ultimo all strict classifications of genre: still life, unconventional in its integration of living protagonists; the landscape, coupled as opposites in cityscape and the wild portrayal of nature; the female nude, alternating between the intimate portrayal of the toilette and the concentration on complex interiors.

Bonnard was still being labelled shortly after his death in the mid-twentieth century as a representative of a superficial harmony and “harmless” chronicler of upper middle-class everyday life. Now, however, the general consensus reigns – at least since the 1980s – that perhaps Bonnard did indeed paint the great uneasiness of a society haunted by the premonition it was spending the last happy days of its life …

The exhibition of the Bank Austria Kunstforum aligns itself as well to this assessment of Bonnard as an artist “on the brink” – Bonnard, who questions the validity of harmony by means of subtle nuances: dissonances of colour, spatial dislocations and ambiguous locations, “errors” in the placement of persons, etc.: Bonnard who, as he himself formulated, sought to find a way of overcoming nature by art.

The project is being produced in cooperation with the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen/Basle.

Curators: Evelyn Benesch, Ulf Küster
Concept: Evelyn Benesch, Ulf Küster, Gabriel Ramin Schor