Degas, Cezanne, Seurat - The Dream Archive from the Musée d'Orsay
Until May 3rd, a selection of 130 works from the archives of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris is on show in the Albertina in Vienna. Besides well known masterpieces, “The Dream Archive” shows works less known to the Austrian public, thus offering an insight into the wealth of France’s art history.
The choice of works as well as the title of the exhibition was made by Werner Spies, the former director of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Werner Spies was at complete liberty to choose from more than 90,000 items in the Musée d’Orsay, with the support of curator Leïla Jarbouai.
By their selection, they managed to convey some of the ambivalences of the19th century in this exhibition, ordered by chapters. In additions to the “stars” of French art like Degas, Cézanne, Seurat, Moreau, Boudin, Manet, Doré or Odilon Redon (with his Smiling Spider), there are artists less known to the Austrian public, like Felicien Rops, Fernand Khnopff, Léon Spillaert or Honoré Daumier, there is even a self portrait by Charles Baudelaire.
The comprehensive catalogue of the exhibition also contains a special feature: 100 famous artists, intellectuals and writers were asked for their input to selected works, among them Alex Katz, Luc Bondy, Mario Vargas Llosa, Anish Kapoor, Tony Cragg, Paul Auster, David Lynch, Peter Handke, Jeff Koons and many others. (written by Cem Angeli)
An exhibition-portrait by CastYourArt. | www.castyourart.com