Monday, September 22, 2008

Meadows Museum in Dallas presents exclusive showing of ‘From Manet to Miro: Modern Drawings From the Abello Collection’

By Pegasus News wire

DALLAS — The Meadows Museum presents From Manet to Miro: Modern Drawings from the Abello Collection, an exhibit of works by 45 of the most important artists of the past two centuries, from September 14 through December 2. The drawings, by such artists as Manet, Degas, Dali and Miro, are from the private collection of Juan Abello and his wife, Anna Gamazo, of Madrid, who were recently named among the world's 200 top art collectors by ArtNews. The exhibit marks the first time their collection has been shown in the United States, and the Meadows Museum is its only U.S. venue.

The 64 master drawings featured in the exhibit provide a complete survey of modern art over 200 years, from a small but dazzling 1805 crayon drawing by Francisco de Goya of his wife, Josefa Bayeu, to a 1987 work by Miquel Barcelo. The exhibit is organized by defining artistic movements, including Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Pop, and Contemporary Art.

The Impressionists are well represented, with drawings by Manet, Degas, Pissarro, and Renoir. Although the pioneers of this movement left tradition behind with their broken brushstrokes, depictions of everyday life and careful rendering of light with paint, most had still undertaken rigorous academic training and were excellent draughtsmen.

Also featured are many of the great pioneers of 20th-century art, including Gauguin, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, and Van Dongen. Van Gogh's pencil and black chalk drawing titled Head of a Peasant Woman is a particularly empathetic display of the artist's skill, and in a technique that differs significantly from his thick, energetically swirling paintings. The delicately drawn fragile female nudes of Klimt, Schiele, Matisse and Modigliani preview the confrontational abstraction to come with modern art as the 20th century progressed. Also included are drawings by great sculptors - Maillol, Brancusi, Gonzalez, Moore and Giacometti - and works by major Spanish artists such as Gris, Miro, Dominguez and Dali.

As a complement to the exhibition, the Meadows Museum will feature Master Drawings from the Meadows Collection, a display of 22 drawings from the 18th through 20th centuries by important Spanish artists such as Mariano Fortuny, Joaquin Sorolla and Joan Miro. The works, which are rarely exhibited publicly, include pencil, ink, and chalk drawings and pastels.

From Manet to Miro was organized by the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, the Meadows Museum and the Abello Collection, and was brought to Dallas by a generous gift from The Meadows Foundation.

Source: Southern Methodist University

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