I’ll be speaking at Sewanee in a couple of weeks time on the subject of Manet or the Post-Impressionists. (No prizes for guessing what I’ll be doing between now and then!) The talk is being given in conjunction with an exhibition at Sewanee’s University Art Gallery. It’s called The New English Art Club: Figurative Painting from Britain.
Here’s a brief description of the talk:
We are currently celebrating two notable anniversaries in the history of British art: the centenary of the first Post-Impressionist Show (1910-11) and the 125th year of the founding of the New English Art Club (NEAC) in 1886. This talk looks at the connection between the show and the club, exploring Roger Fry’s groundbreaking show, Manet and the Post-Impressionists, in relationship to the history of the NEAC. A former member of the club, Fry’s increasing disillusionment with the NEAC found an outlet in his activities as a curator. The exhibition, then, was not simply about introducing a new group of artists to a bemused London audience, as it is generally remembered. It was about which French artists might provide the most useful models for contemporary British artists. Manet, in particular, was strongly associated with the NEAC’s aesthetic agenda, and Fry’s curating both acknowledged this primacy and worked to supplant it. He was offering a choice of Manet (and the NEAC) or The Post-Impressionists.
William Orpen’s Homage to Manet includes several members of the club and was first shown at the club’s 1909 exhibition. It’s going to be a crucial image in my talk.
Sounds like an interesting talk! Coincidentally, I’m going to mention Roger Fry in tomorrow’s art history lecture. You probably know this, but I think it’s interesting that the term “avant-garde” was first used in English in a newspaper review of 1910 (in the conservative “Daily Telegraph” newspaper!). Roger Fry’s introduction of French art to an English-speaking audience was significant, to say the very least!
M–Right. The term had been used in English for ages, but not in relationship to art. (As for the Daily Telegraph, there’s a reason it’s nicknamed the Daily Tory-graph in England…!) Incidentally, the Dec 2010 Burlington Magazine covers the first P-I show in some detail and includes the most up-to-date research concerning which paintings were actually included in the show. Manet’s Bar in the Folies-Bergere was one of them…..