with Donald Dwyer, Art Historian
Date: Monday, July 7
Time: 2:00 P.M.
Often called the ‘father of modern art,’ Manet (1832-1883) was one of the first artists to look at life candidly. He revered the art of the past, and though influenced by Raphael and Titian, he discovered a new way of portraying the world, impelled by the challenge of photography. Manet’s painting was shocking to contemporaries in subject matter and technique. His famous Luncheon on the Grass includes a female nude with two fully clothed men and made no attempt to relate the figure to mythology. His technique was equally scandalous. Ever since the Renaissance, painters had tried to create a lifelike reality, but Manet used smooth areas of color with little modeling to suggest depth. With his frank sexuality and bold style, he was hailed as a leader of the avant-garde. His ‘flat’ canvases rescued art from competition with the camera and impacted painters from Cezanne to Picasso and beyond.