National Gallery Singapore is providing a wonderful opportunity for visitors to be able to take in masterpieces from Impressionist painters normally on display in a Paris art museum. It is a chance not to be missed, and is included in the museum’s Century of Light programming.
Impressionist painters used unconventional methods that challenged the artistic world of their time, including using dots to convey light and color in pointillist paintings, as well as almost abstract shapes to portray scenes that reflect movement and are true to sight.
There are a number of masterpieces that visitors should look forward to seeing as a part of the show.
One piece by Claude Monet is a startling challenge to the expectations of art at the time. The enormous canvas features a snowy country scene. True to sight, and to the colors Monet himself observed while painting, the snow isn’t completely white. There are yellow and blue patches, and the shadows cast by a snowy fence are a deeper shade of blue instead of black. The focus of the painting is a single black bird perched on the gate. Normally, paintings of such size would be devoted to portraits of kings or saints, or depictions of historically and religiously important events. By putting a normal scene on such a large canvas, Monet was highlighting the importance of the world around us based on how we observed it.
Another painting by Edouard Manet gives viewers an intimate nighttime scene. Manet employed the use of a new black paint emerging at the time. So though the setting is a harbor at night, the liberal use of black throughout the painting is still luminous. A cloud-swathed moon illuminates a group of women waiting for fishermen to unload their catches for the day. Even the black sails in the harbor have caught a little moonlight, adding to the magic and mystery of the scene.
In a portrait by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, painted of a relative of his, the importance of light is again examined. The woman touches a rose in her hair, the outlines of her body vivid with color. Each swell and curve of her is illuminated by a light source, making her intense and ephemeral — like the flowers that accompany her.
Take your art skills to the next level — or learn new creative skills that will benefit you for the rest of your life — by enrolling in an art class via SGArtClass.com. Try your hand at watercolor, acrylic, or oil painting, or try something a little less traditional with nail art, recycled art, or caricature drawing classes. There is an art class designed to suit every taste and interest. Talented instructors will take you through the steps of learning techniques necessary to complete the projects you’re most interested in.
To see a preview of the paintings that will be on display at the show at National Gallery Singapore, go to http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/show-me-the-monet-10-highlights-from-national-gallery-singapores-colours-of.