Post-Impressionism: Cross-Currents in European and American Painting, 1880-1906

Washington, D.C: National Gallery of Art, 1980. Second Edition, Revised. Large Softcover. Very Good. 10x8x0. Second edition, revised. Spine creased, light edge wear. 1980 Large Softcover. 248 pp. This exhibition is a celebration and an exploration. The towering masters of post-impressionism, most notably Cezanne, van Gogh, Gauguin, and Seurat, are among the most beloved artists in the entire canon of western painting. Fortunately, they are well represented in many American museums. Less seen by the public are the fabulous holdings in private collections and in the more out-of-the-way public collections abroad. The opportunity to gather together some of the major achievements of these four artists from all these sources would in itself be cause for rejoicing. In addition to this the National Gallery has the opportunity to present an exhibition that goes far beyond this limited selection. So dazzled have we become by the achievements of the major figures working in France that we have tended to scant the complex and fascinating context of artistic experimentation that characterizes this fecund period, not only in France but in countries across Europe and in the United States. This exhibition is the first in which that context has been so comprehensively examined. For the American version, however, the size of the exhibition has been reduced by almost a third; the focus sharpened, with a greater concentration on a smaller number of artists; the span of the show precisely defined between 1880 and 1906, the year of Cezanne's death; and an American section added. It had been, in fact, the original intention of the organizers to include the work of American artists, and they were delighted when the Gallery offered its curator of American painting, John Wilmerding, who collaborated with Professor Wanda Corn to select this additional section and write the texts accompanying it. The original catalogue, a model of its kind, has already become an art-historical reference work; this present publication records the show in its new form, with an abbreviated version of the original introduction, brief essays for each country and biographical sketches for each artist.