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Pierre Bonnard, Le Café, 1915, Oil on canvas, 73 × 106.4 cm, Tate, Photo: © 2012, Tate, London © 2012, ProLitteris, Zurich

29 January – 13 May 2012 – Foundation Beyeler
With the exhibition “Pierre Bonnard”, the Fondation Beyeler celebrates the great French colorist and one of the most fascinating of modern artists. More than 60 paintings from renowned museums and private collections provide insight into all phases of his career.
Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) was a co-founder of an artist‘s group known as the Nabis, who admired the style of Paul Gauguin and Japanese woodblock prints. In Paris, Bonnard depicted the bustling life on the streets and in the cafés, before retiring first to Normandy, very close to Monet‘s water-lily garden, then to the sunny Côte d‘Azur, where he was inspired by the light and colors of the Mediterranean environment. Continually experimenting, he produced variants in ever-new color combinations and from surprising points of view on subjects from everyday life, in which time only apparently seems to stand still. The artist‘s favorite model was the mysterious Marthe, his muse and wife. Bonnard created harmonious still lifes, enigmatic interiors, intimate female nudes, moving self-portraits, and decorative landscapes whose magnificent palette is unique in modern art.

Pierre Bonnard - Place Clichy, 1906–07 Oil on canvas, 102.1 × 116.6 cm Private collection © 2012, ProLitteris, Zurich

One of the principal lenders is the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Further outstanding loans come from the Tate London; the Musée national d’Art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Metropolitan Museum, New York; the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; the Kunstmuseum Basel; the Kunsthaus Zürich; and from distinguished private collections, not least from the Hahnloser successors.

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JMW Turner, The New Moon or I've lost My Boat, You shan't have Your Hoop, exhibited 1840, Oil on mahogany Courtesy of Tate Image © Tate, London 2010

28 January – 13 May 2012 – Turner Contemporary  – Margate
Ninety-five works by Britain’s best-loved painter, JMW Turner, many from Tate’s collection, go on show in the major exhibition Turner and the Elements at Turner Contemporary in Margate. The exhibition, including a number of works featuring Margate and the north Kent coast, illustrates how his painting technique and the influence of the latest scientific and technological developments of his time, revolutionised landscape painting. In these images of Margate and the Kentish coast, Turner’s fascination with the elements, air and water, is apparent. The exhibition focuses on the theme of the elements in the artist’s work and is divided into five sections: Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Fusion.

JMW Turner was a frequent visitor to Margate spending time there as a child and again later in his life. In the 1820s and 1830s Turner lodged with Sophia Booth in a house that was located on the same site as Turner Contemporary. He is said to have remarked to John Ruskin that “the skies over Thanet are the loveliest in all Europe”.

“The artist delights to go back to the first chaos of the world, or to that state of things when the waters were separated from the dry land, and light from darkness, but as yet no living thing nor tree bearing fruit was seen upon the face of the earth”.
Art critic William Hazlitt commenting on Turner’s work, 1816

Works on display include Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth exhibited 1842 and The New Moon; or ‘I’ve lost My Boat, You shan’t have Your Hoop’ exhibited 1840. Turner’s frequent visits to Margate and the Kent coast are vividly portrayed, with particular works chosen especially for the exhibition’s time at Turner Contemporary.

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William Turner, (1775-1851) The Harbour of Brest : The Quayside and Château, vers 1827 Huile sur toile, H.172,7-L.223,5 cm Londres, Tate ©Tate London , 2010

From April 1st to August 31st 2011 – Quimper Museum of Fine Arts
From Turner to Monet, the Discovery of Brittany by the Landscape Artists of the 19th century
Quimper Museum of Fine Arts acquirred in 2009 and 2010, two paintings: Louise Josephine Sarazin de Belmont, View of St. Pol de Leon (1837), and Jules Coignet, The Oak in the dolmen Forest Dark Forest (1836). These works were previously unknown in the history of painting inspired by Britany. Their rediscovery has established two new milestones in the history of landscape in Brittany between Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes and Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot.

This prompted to reconsider this period, particularly the movement of artists across Brittany, the choice of sites and themes, and developments during the nineteenth century.

This exhibition, for the first time, puts into perspective, the discovery of Brittany by the landscape artists of the nineteenth century.

From the first coming artists in the late eighteenth century to the new experiments at the dawn of the twentieth century, all were split between the romantic and idyllic visions or between the countryside and the coast. 1863, date of arrival of the railway at the end of the peninsula, is a major break: Brittany is popular in Parisian studios, artists flock, some are grouped in colonies, others prefer to be isolated and explore new places and invent new topics.

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