Tracing Neo-impressionism: Mägi and Finch
Location: 3rd floor, B-wing
International and local Neo-Impressionism – Paul Signac, Alfred William Finch, Henri-Edmond Cross, Maurice Denis and Konrad Mägi, on the Kumu Classics floor
Beginning on 11 June, the exhibition Tracing Neo-Impressionism: Mägi and Finch will be open on the third floor in the B-wing of the Kumu Art Museum. The colourful display offers both surprises and material for comparison: the exhibited works of art are from internationally renowned painters (Paul Signac, Henri-Edmond Cross, Maurice Denis, Maximilian Luce, Paul Sérusier, Louis Valtat and Verner Thomé) as well as domestic artists (Konrad Mägi, Villem Ormisson, Herbert Lukk and Konstantin Süvalo).
All of the above-mentioned artists were united by their love for the dot of colour, by their yearning for harmony in colours and for the balanced surfaces in their paintings. The 19th-century Impressionists had liberated colour and found an opportunity to use a spontaneous painting method to depict the transient. The young artists of the end of the century, primarily Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, attempted to create order in the impressions received from nature, based on the experience of their predecessors and applying the most recent scientific studies in the field of vision and optics. They believed that the emotional content of a painting could be expressed by a strictly measured relationship between colour, hue and line. In the work of Neo-Impressionists, the canvas replaced the retina, on which dots of colour were formed into an image. The colour dot – the main technique of Neo-Impressionists – served as inspiration for the terms ‘pointillism’ (point – French for ‘point’) and ‘divisionism’ (diviser – French for ‘to divide’).
In the comparison of different artists and dotting techniques, the story of Estonian Neo-Impressionism unfolds, revealing to viewers the hard work undertaken to achieve harmony in a painting, as well as the possibilities of using dots for decorative purposes; it reveals the influence of other artists, as well as the creative interpretation of their work.
One of the focal points of the exhibition is the creative contact between Konrad Mägi (1878–1925) and Alfred William Finch (1854–1930), a Belgian-Finnish artist of English origin. After an exciting summer in Åland in 1906, Mägi went to Helsinki for a year to continue his education in the Ateneum Art School, and to earn money for his trip to Paris. Willy Finch, who had come to Finland in 1897 and taught in the Ateneum Art School, had been one of the most principled followers of Georges Seurat’s painting system in the 1890s. Thus, Finch might have been the first artist whose oeuvre brought Mägi in contact with the new art trend. When we compare Mägi’s works completed in 1908–1915 to Finch’s paintings, as well as to the paintings of French artists, we cannot but admire the determination and uniqueness of Mägi’s creative quest and his extraordinary sense of colour.
Curator: Tiina Abel
Assistant curator: Liisa Kaljula
Designer: Inga Heamägi
Cooperation partners:
Atenum Art Museum, Turku Art Museum, Amos Anderson Art Museum, Tartu Art Museum, Viljandi Museum, Estonian Historical Archives, and various private collectors.
