By MOOK Scenic Spots Family Travel Life Network, reported and compiled by Chen Guanxin
The bright and cheerful style of Impressionist paintings, along with their focus on everyday life, landscapes, and figures, has been widely loved by the public. Monet, a representative master of the Impressionist movement, thanks to the generous loan from the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris—the most significant global collection of Monet’s works—the National Museum of History and the United Daily News Group have jointly organized the “Impressions. Classics—Monet” special exhibition from now until February 16, 2014, bringing yesterday’s impressions back as today’s classics.
Masterpieces by the Impressionist master Monet can now be appreciated at the National Museum of History. (Photo provided by the National Museum of History)
Monet devoted his life to exploring light and shadow, capturing the vivid and colorful water reflections and sky glows of nature, and mastering the rich vitality of fleeting moments in objects and scenes. This exhibition specially selects 55 representative works by Monet, organized into five thematic sections: Friends and Portraits, Satirical Cartoons, Poems of Light and Shadow, Monet’s Garden, and Eternal Monet. This allows the audience to gain a comprehensive understanding of the life and art that shaped Monet. The story begins with Monet’s private collection, revealing the portraits that reflect his personal taste in collecting, telling the cherished friendships and family bonds throughout his life. This is followed by the satirical cartoons where Monet first demonstrated his painting talent and began to emerge, progressing through the travel imprints from various places that nurtured this Impressionist master, the scenery of his beloved Giverny garden, and finally, his later years marked by highly free expressions that were later admired by the abstract expressionist movement in the art world.
Artists convey their feelings and ideas to the audience through their creations, sometimes resonating widely and gaining recognition, earning praise and fame; other times, they may struggle to receive any acclaim, grappling with life and their artistic ideals under worldly mockery. The life-oriented themes and bold, innovative visual effects of Impressionism once startled and were hard for the world to accept, but as times changed and trends evolved, they stood out and left a lasting legacy.
Today, water lilies are the most direct association people have with Monet. He had a deep love for gardens, which to him were not just sources of inspiration, but creations in themselves—miniature universes. The relationship between the creation of gardens and Monet’s artwork was complex, described by Proust as an initial and most vivid draft; it could also be seen as a ready-made, marvelous palette filled with harmonious hues. This exhibition specially integrates resources from the institutions within the Nanhua Academic Park. In coordination with the Taipei Botanical Garden, the museum will plan landscape arrangements and guided tours, allowing the exhibition and the real environment to complement each other, so that while appreciating the beauty of art, visitors can also feel the beauty of life.
● Further Reading:
【Thursday Art Appreciation】Leonardo da Vinci Legendary Exhibition: Tracing the Creation Process of the “Mona Lisa”
http://goo.gl/qUcS5A