World’s First Humanoid Artist Ada Speaks at Abu Dhabi Cultural Summit

Abu Dhabi: The largest exhibition of Impressionist masterpieces in the Middle East opens at the Louvre Abu Dhabi to coincide with the UAE Museum’s fifth anniversary.

Running until February 5, 2023, “Impressionism: The Pathway to Modernity” features more than 100 paintings and prints by Impressionist pioneers, including Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Pierre- Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Bette Morisot and Gustave Caillebotte.

Known for their light, fleeting nature and loose brushstrokes, Impressionism took off in Paris in the 1870s, when the city was modernizing and undergoing social change. This revolutionary art movement is still widely admired to this day.

“When you’re faced with an Impressionist painting, you still think it’s really fresh,” Stéphane Guégan, the exhibition’s co-curator, told Arab News. “It’s a very immediate, very spontaneous result. . . it’s what it feels like to see through the eyes of a painter.”

However, the Impressionists at the time – they first exhibited in 1874 – were seen as radical. They broke free from the shackles of well-regarded canonical art, and in turn were heavily criticized by some media outlets and critics.

“It’s controversial … some people are more skeptical, and even criticize this kind of painting,” Guégan noted. “The paintings are considered unfinished, like sketches.”

“In a way, summing up the negative reaction to the first Impressionist exhibition, I would say they had a feeling that the painters were trying to fool tourists and amateurs at the time,” he continued.

In some ways, the Impressionists acted as social commentators through their vibrant photographs. Their work is varied, depicting elaborate train stations and bridges, social events in the countryside, women in elegant dresses, and elegant home interiors.

“France and Europe became very modern societies, and painters responded to this situation, changing the subjects they painted and the way they represented the outside world,” Guegan said.

In addition to exploring themes depicting urbanization and nature, the show brings fashion into the picture, showcasing five garments from the late 1800s. “There is a connection between fashion and modern painting because they both try to respond to the ephemeral nature of modernity,” says Guégan.

This Franco-Emirati cultural event has come to life in part through an extraordinary collaboration with the prestigious Musée d’Orsay in Paris, lending a large number of paintings to the Arab world for the first time.

Highlights include Manet’s “The Balcony,” Morisot’s “The Cradle,” and Monet’s iconic depiction of the Houses of Parliament in London, known as the “father of Impressionism.”

“We wanted to put together this incredible collection of masterpieces because we wanted visitors from Abu Dhabi and the rest of the region to have the opportunity to see them,” Guégan said. “Looking at a masterpiece is never useless.”