 Modern Masters: From Corot to Kandinsky, on display at the Georgia Museum of Art through June 18, includes more than 50 paintings by such European masters as Renoir, Picasso, Gauguin, Chagall, Pissarro, Magritte, Corot, Dalí, Bouguereau and Millet, as well as American expatriate painter John Singer Sargent.
This is the first public exhibition of works from the Juntos Actuandos Foundation in Mexico City. The foundation is a private one dedicated to public service, and this collection was formed in the 1990s by Juan Antonio Perez Simón, a Mexican business executive. A native of Spain, he moved to Mexico at age five, and the collection reflects his fond memories of his European homeland. Although the original collection also contains works from the 15th-18th centuries, this exhibition features only the works from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Modern Masters traces the major art movements of those centuries, ranging from the celebrated Barbizon school depictions of the mid-19th-century French countryside and peasants to a 1973 watercolor by Chagall. Picasso’s and Gris’s cubist work, Renoir’s and Pissarro’s impressionism, Gauguin’s post-impressionism, Dalí’s and Magritte’s surrealist works and Kandinsky’s abstract work are all represented.
Only a few years ago this assortment of artistic styles would never have been shown together, but at the beginning of the new century viewers are able to look back and trace the development of modern Western art from the varied movements and styles represented in this exhibition. This new approach frees curators to show, for example, the progression from the academic work of Bouguereau to the surrealism of Dalí.
Furthermore, the artists in Modern Masters are appreciated by both academics and the general public for the beauty and skill that went into creating their works of art. Few would debate the significance and splendor of the works by Renoir, Picasso, Gauguin and Chagall. The paintings of Dalí, Kandinsky, Picasso, Gris and Magritte may seem hard to understand, but their intensity and new perspectives appeal to viewers.
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