The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886
This opulent catalog to an intriguing exhibit at the National Gallery and San Francisco's Fine Arts Museum offers a fresh approach to a familiar subject. Its goal is to re-create the impact of this avant-garde movement in contemporary terms, making us reconcile our modern, inherited notions of its "newness" with its original values. To this end, it presents cross-sections of the eight landmark Impressionist shows and forces us to view the works as individual entities as well as in their actual context, as they were selected by their creators to be publicly encountered. Scholarly essays address the evolution of Impressionism as well as the diversity of the complex group of artists involved. High-quality reproductions and catalog entries, along with interesting supplementary materials, recommend this for modern art collections. Robin Kaplan, MLS, The Information Group, Los AngelesCopyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.