'Picnic' by Maurice Brazil Prendergast, 1914-1915. From France to North America The Rise of Modernism

Tom Pynn gerated by long brush strokes and heightened bythe Matisse comes in the form of the purity and heigh- use of color. It isthis usage of color that isthe key to tened intensity of color itself. This influence directly With a grant from the IBM Corporation, the understanding Post-Impressionist art. These artists affected the movement known as Fauvism, which High Museum of Art is presenting The Advent of sought to evoke emotion through the use of purer only lasted a few short years, but had alasting effect Modernism: Post-Impressionism and North Ameri- colors and the use of colors in non-traditional space upon Post-Impressionist art inthat the American and can Art, 1900-1918 until May 11, 1986.The signifi- within the picture. Joyce Dixon Medina, in her Canadian artists retained the Fauvist's devotion to cance of this pioneering exhibition, which features article, "Matisee and the Signs," (Art Papers, January the purity of color while still adhering to Matisse's over 130 works by no less than 50 American and February 1986), explains that the influence of Ma- "equivalence" theory. One of the best examples of Canadian artists, is not that it is a display of North tisse's color theory is a major and primary aspect in this combination of techniques isreflected inArthur American art from thistime period, but that itshows Post-Impressionist art. She explains that, "In his Dove's "Still Life Against Flowered Wallpaper." While the development of the young artists and their method, color evokes. movement, space, depth, the work itself is classified as Fauvist, the combina- contribution to the development of Modern Art in articulates form, expresses mood and, therefore, it tion of colors to evoke the whole ispresent as isthe America. An important aspect of this exhibit is the substitutes for the presence of the artist. " purity of the colors used by the artist. Strikingly and contributions towards this end by the Canadian Matisse's theory of "Color Equvalences" is highly emotive, the table-cloth stands out as one of artists such as A. Y.Jackson and Tom Thomson. important in understanding what is was that artists the more brilliant aspects of this piece. The Post-Impressionists, a term cointed by such as Stuart Davis were trying to accomplish. The first American to completely absorb himself English art critic Roger Fry for his 1910exhibition From the same article, Joyce Dixon Medina points within the Post-Impressionist genre was Maurice entitled, Monet and the Post-Impressionists, formed out that Prendergast. Showing the influences of Cezanne, an artistic movement as a reaction to the French Gauguin, the Nabis painters, the Fauves, and Matisse, Impressionists of the 19th century, such as Renoir, Matisse's notion of "equioalenceclearlu Prendergast's enlarged brush strokes and brilliant Degas, and Monet. Whereas the Impressionists sought transcends the traditional use of color colors are best reflected in the painting, "Picnic." to explore, within their paintings, the sensations for compositional and emotional effect within figurative painting. "Equivalence" Through his usage of bold colors he succeeds in produced by Nature inthe landscape through short suggests that only color relations or "ba- evoking the spirit of a festival atmosphere that the brush strokes and the development of the fullness of lances," not individual color, are the ritual of apicnic does encompass for the artist. Here objects, the Post-Impressionists turned within them- "signs" for concretely felt emotions. But we have what Joyce Dixon Medina pointed out as selves away from Nature as asource of art and as a the notions of "equivalence," "balance," and "sign" differ in Matise's early stages being the importance of the colors in "substituting determinant of artistic content. To the Post-Impres- of experimentation (1908-1925) and the later, for the presence of the artist. " sionist, the inner self held the power to create anew mature stages (1925-1945). view ofthe outer world inrelation to their own inner Prendergast, along with his friend, Canadian feelings. Indeed, it is the obvious importance of color painter James Wilson Morrice, established the arrival Other aspects of Post-Impresionism include the "equivalence" that is absolutely mandatory in view- of Post-Impressionism in North America. In Canada, desire to represent more solid pictoral forms that, on ing, properly, such works as Stuart Davis' "Portrait the arrival of Post-Impressionism as a force is canvas, come across as flat shapes sometime.s_ex~g- of a Man (Eugence O'Neil]')." Another influence of reflected in the formation of The Group of Seven.