As its melodic name may suggest, Paul Signac’s “Setting Sun. Sardine Fishing. Adagio.” depicts a fleet of thin sardine boats bobbing like musical notes on a sea of blues and warm yellows, bathed by the light of a lazy sun. Signac named many of his paintings after musical compositions, unshackling the artistic genre from its love for the external.
Signac was not alone in his artistic vision. He is joined by several artists in The Phillips Collection’s new exhibition, Neo-Impressionism and the Dream of Realities: Painting, Poetry, Music. Through over 70 works—ranging from large canvases to pamphlet designs—the exhibition explores the fin de siecle movement that arose from a disenchantment with classic impressionism, and its focus on brief, kinetic moments.
Neo-impressionism sought to capture a reality that pervades all living moments, resulting in an array of off-color works united by an abstraction of form and a dominating motif of nature.
The exhibition centers on landscapes, although portraits, cityscapes, and stage performances are featured Aficionados and casual visitors alike will recognize neo-impressionist staples like Georges Seurat’s Seascape at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy and some of Paul Signac’s iconic, pointillistic takes of the port of Saint Tropez. Lesser-known gems like Henry van de Velde’s The Beach at Blankenberghe and Charles Angrand’s The Seine in the Morning are also sure to equally delight.
Evoking the neo-impressionist synergy of painting and music, each canvas demands to be thought of as a symphonic piece. Despite their differences in content, the neo-impressionist paintings all testify to one greater purpose: “the pursuit of the Intangible… and to inscribe the mysterious Meaning,” as van de Velde puts it. Outlines are distorted and figures morphed into a dream-like trance that suggests one singular essence.
The museum, on the other hand, chooses to enunciate the paintings’ contextual differences by dividing the exhibit into sections by subject. “Urban landscapes,” one room’s label touts. “Arcadia,” another says. Even more vexing is when this partitioning takes a turn for the abstract: “Emptiness,” “Timelessness,” and “Arabesque” are all separate rooms. If the entire point of neo-impressionism is to bring out the permanent, overriding qualities of every subject, this pointed division, which rips the external shell off the paintings and categorizes them by mere subject matter, runs counter to the movement.
Other than its arbitrary categorizations, the Phillips Collection does a fine job of bringing this esoteric genre to the public. The selection itself is versatile, featuring works from many different artists across various stages of the movement. At the end of the exhibit, visitors can choose to take a “neo-impressionist selfie.”
In each painting we see a piece of an artist that could no longer stand to be chained to the externalities of impressionism—artists who long to break free and explore the universe of the internal. In each painting, this exploration pulses like a symphony—will you choose to hear it?
The Phillips Collection
1600 21 St., N.W.
Thurs.-Sun., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
phillipscollection.org
