Release Date: October 29, 2004

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART CELEBRATES
FRENCH ART IN 2005 and 2006

Washington, DC--The National Gallery of Art, Washington, will celebrate French art in 2005 and 2006 by highlighting works in its permanent collection and presenting several important exhibitions: André Kertész, February 6 through May 15, 2005; Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre, March 20 through June 12, 2005; Cézanne in Provence, January 29 through May 7, 2006; and Dada, February 19 through May 14, 2006.

French Art in the Permanent Collection

With 40 paintings by Auguste Renoir, 25 by Claude Monet, and 19 by Edgar Degas, as well as substantial holdings by other major artists, the Gallery's collection of French 19th-century paintings constitute one of its richest and most popular areas. In French 18th- and 19th-century sculpture, 28 works by Auguste Rodin and the most extensive collection of original sculpture in the world by Edgar Degas are among its major holdings.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the naming of the fauve movement in France, the National Gallery of Art will present its superb collection of fauve paintings. In 1905 critic Louis Vauxcelles coined the epithet fauve, or “wild beast,” to describe the explosion of color in the work of a group of young painters exhibiting that year at the Salon d’Automne. The special installation Fauve Painting in the Permanent Collection will be on view in the West Building, December 12, 2004, through May 22, 2005, and will feature 13 works, including paintings by Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, André Derain, and Maurice de Vlaminck, as well as by lesser-known figures such as Albert Marquet and Kees van Dongen. The crown jewel of this exhibition is Matisse’s Open Window, Collioure (1905), a central icon of the fauve movement and one of Matisse’s early masterpieces.

André Kertész
February 6-May 15, 2005

This exhibition will examine the full career of celebrated Hungarian-born photographer André Kertész (1894-1985), who lived in Paris from 1925 to 1936, when he moved to New York City. A section of the exhibition will be dedicated to his Paris subjects, including Chez Mondrian (1926), Meudon (1928), Under the Eiffel Tower (1929), and Clock of the Académie Française (1929). In Paris Kertész had his first significant artistic success; he revealed, as few other photographers before him had, the fundamental mysteries of the French capital.

André Kertész is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, where it will premiere February 6 through May 15, 2005. The exhibition will then be on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, from June 12 through September 5, 2005.

The exhibition at the National Gallery of Art is made possible through the generous support of the Trellis Fund and The Ryna and Melvin Cohen Family Foundation.

Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre
March 20-June 12, 2005

Artists' fascination with the decadent spirit and glamour of bohemian life in the Parisian district of Montmartre at the turn of the 20thcentury is the focus of this major exhibition of more than 250 works primarily by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). Paintings, drawings, posters, prints, sculptures, zinc silhouettes from the Chat Noir shadow play, and printed matter, such as illustrated invitations, song sheets, advertisements, and admission tickets, will be presented alongside depictions of similar subjects by fellow artists, including Toulouse-Lautrec's predecessors Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet; his contemporaries Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Vincent van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso. Poster artists such as Jules Chéret are also represented. The themes of the exhibition include dance halls, cafés-concerts, and cabarets (featuring a section devoted to the Chat Noir), and performers.

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Art Institute of Chicago, where it will be on view July 16 through October 10, 2005.

Time Warner Inc. is the corporate sponsor of the exhibition.

The Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation is proud to be the foundation sponsor for the exhibition.

Cézanne in Provence
January 29-May 7, 2006

There are treasures to be taken away from this country, which has not yet found an interpreter equal to the abundance of riches which it displays.

-Paul Cézanne, on the landscape of Provence, 1886

Cézanne in Provence--on view January 29 through May 7, 2006, in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and June 9 through September 17, 2006, at the newly renovated Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence--will be the principal international exhibition marking 2006 as the centenary of the death of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906). A key figure in the impressionist and post-impressionist movements, he is often seen as the father of modern art. This exhibition, by focusing on the works Cézanne painted in and around his native Aix-en-Provence, will celebrate the landscape and the rich associations it had for him.

Approximately 100 of Cézanne’s greatest oil paintings and watercolors will demonstrate his intense, emotional engagement with the countryside of his birthplace, where he painted some of his most compelling landscapes, penetrating portraits of family members, and the monumental Bathers from the National Gallery, London. Works depicting such scenes as Cézanne’s family home of Jas de Bouffan, Mont Sainte-Victoire, the Mediterranean coast at L’Estaque, the dramatic quarry at Bibémus, and the Château Noir will come from public and private collections throughout Europe and the United States.

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Musée Granet, and the Communauté du Pays d’Aix, Aix-en-Provence, and the Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris (French National Museums Organization).

The exhibition will also launch Cézanne 2006 in the United States and France, where Aix-en-Provence will celebrate the centenary with numerous events, including the reopening of the Musée Granet, one of France’s top regional museums, and the opening to the public of several key sites including the Jas de Bouffan and Cézanne’s work cabin in the Bibémus quarry, as well as the famous studio at Les Lauves, newly restored to its original state. For additional information about the Musée Granet and Cézanne 2006 events in Aix-en-Provence, visit Cézanne 2006 or call, in France, +33 (0)4 42 161 171.

Dada
February 19-May 14, 2006

In contrast to other key avant-garde movements, Dada has never been the subject of a major American exhibition exploring the broad view of its art. This exhibition will present the hybrid forms of Dada art in a variety of media around the various city centers in which Dada emerged: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, Paris, and New York. Artists represented include some of the most important figures in the history of modernism: Tristan Tzara, Jean Arp, Sophie Taeuber, Hans Richter, Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann, George Grosz, John Heartfield, Kurt Schwitters, Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, and Marcel Duchamp.

The exhibition will premiere at the Musée national d'art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, October 5, 2005, through January 9, 2006, before traveling to the National Gallery of Art’s West Building, February 19 through May 14, 2006, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, June 16 through September 11, 2006. The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Related Activities

In the first half of 2005, the National Gallery of Art will feature many programs and activities related to the French exhibitions on view; for more information, visit www.nga.gov.

French Films on Café Life in Paris. From March 20 through April 2, the Gallery’s film program will present a variety of archival prints of early French feature films centered on café life in Paris and silent films accompanied by live music. Films include Jean Renoir’s French CanCan (1954), Alexander Korda’s La Dame de chez Maxim's (1933), René Hervil’s Minuit…Place Pigalle (1929), Fedor Ozep’s Mirage de Paris (1931), and E. A. Dupont’s Moulin Rouge (1928).

Lecture Programs. Sarah Greenough, curator and head, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, will present the lecture "Mystery, Melancholy, and Nostalgia: André Kertész's Changing Vision of Paris" on February 6 at 2:00 p.m. Sarah Kennel, assistant curator, department of photographs, will present "Picturing Paris: Emigré Photographers in the City of Light, 1920-1940" on March 6 at 2:00 p.m. Exhibition curator and Toulouse-Lautrec expert Richard Thomson will present "Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre: An Introduction to the Exhibition" on March 20 at 2:00 p.m. Noted specialists will discuss Paris in the 1890s in a special symposium, “On the Place Pigalle: Art and the Heart of Montmartre" on April 2, 1:00-5:00 p.m. All lectures are given in the East Building Auditorium.

Concerts. Three concerts will accompany the Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre exhibition: L’Orchestre de Chambre Français, with violinist Kyung Sun Lee on March 20; pianist Philippe Entremont, performing music by Debussy on March 27; and a French cabaret concert, featuring soprano Rosa Lamoreaux and pianist Betty Bullock on April 3. All concerts are given in the West Building, West Garden Court, at 6:30 p.m.

A Taste of Montmartre. Starting March 18, the Terrace Café in the East Building will offer a menu infused with the tastes of Montmartre, Paris, including crêpes, gourmet salads, cheese plates, and special entrées, as well as wines by the glass and café au lait. On Sundays, the jazz brunch will offer a selection of Parisian specialties. The Terrace Café will be open Monday to Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov.

Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances. For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by the Gallery or its checkrooms.

For additional press information please call or send inquiries to:

Press Office
National Gallery of Art
2000B South Club Drive
Landover, MD 20785
phone: (202) 842-6353 e-mail: pressinfo@nga.gov

Deborah Ziska
Chief of Press and Public Information
(202) 842-6353
ds-ziska@nga.gov

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NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART CELEBRATES FRENCH ART IN 2005 and 2006

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART CELEBRATES
FRENCH ART IN 2005 and 2006