Impressionist major exhibition celebrates five years at Louvre Abu Dhabi

A major exhibition of Impressionist art opened Wednesday at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, featuring works by masters including Cezanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Pissarro and Renoir.

One of the most important exhibitions of the 19th century art movement outside France, it features more than 150 works on loan from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Claude Monet’s “Women in the Garden” is one of the movement’s masterpieces, featuring rapid dabs and brushstrokes that explore the transient effects of light and color.

“Impressionism: The Road to Modernity” runs until February 5, marking five years since the art museum opened in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

It also showcases etchings, clothing, photographs and films of the rebellious and unconventional art movements that were born as industrialization and urbanization brought social unrest in Europe.

Sylvie Patry, chief curator of the Musée d’Orsay, said the theme resonates in the Bay Area today, “where we also face the challenges of modernity and the transition to a new world”.

In 2007, French President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated the Louvre Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the world’s leading oil exporter and one of the largest buyers of arms.

Manuel Rabat, director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, said one of the museum’s “fundamental missions” was “to showcase great movements in the history of art, such as Impressionism.”

“To tell the story of Impressionism, you have to have an incredible loan from the Musée d’Orsay”.

To mark its first five years of existence, Louvre Abu Dhabi has received a special birthday present for an undisclosed price – Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s masterpiece The Cup of Chocolate .