Focus: Damien Hirst

Leslie Hewitt</a>’s eponymous work nods to this musical approach by creating juxtapositions and layers in her compositions demonstrating riffing’s conceptual richness. Riffs on Real Time builds on this idea with works from the Kemper Museum’s collection featuring artists riffing on different artistic styles or movements and aspects of popular culture. Additionally, it includes works highlighting the cultural and sociopolitical dimensions of rhythm and music as well as their ability to convene, even galvanize.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><br></p>" />

Claude Monet</a> (1840-1926), the luminary of French Impressionism, lent the movement its name with his painting Impression Sunrise (Musée Marmottan, Monet, Paris), which debuted in Paris at the inaugural 1874 exhibition of Impressionist artists. Uniting its practitioners through his innovative approach as one of the first artists to practice painting ‘en plein air’ (outside), he was obsessed with capturing nature’s changing elements such as natural light, and atmosphere. Monet elevated this technique by painting in series, exemplified by the museum’s beloved Water Lilies, which records the subject at different times of the day.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>This ongoing focus exhibition series, “Monet in Conversation,” delves into Monet’s dual role as influencer and influenced. The first in this series focuses on Monet and Americans in Paris.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>These artistic “conversations” that will change annually, will unfold as a visual dialogue, illuminating the reciprocal influence between Monet and fellow artists, encapsulating the essence of transformative artistic exchange.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Monet in Conversation with Americans in Paris&nbsp;</p><p>Following the Civil War in 1865, the United States experienced newfound international prominence. Wealthy art patrons from North America sought prestige by importing European culture. When French Impressionism emerged in 1874, American artists, entrenched in academic traditions, initially rejected its radical style. Exceptions like <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Focus--Damien-Hirst/"/Artist/John-Singer-Sargent/42B6194D4B522925">John Singer Sargent</a>, influenced by the movement, emerged, followed by a host of later artists, like <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Focus--Damien-Hirst/"/Artist/Theodore-Robinson/58A3A9C61D7CDD2A">Theodore Robinson</a>, <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Focus--Damien-Hirst/"/Artist/Childe-Hassam/3D5DAF487A53FDEF">Childe Hassam</a>, and many others.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>By the mid-to-late 1880s, American collectors embraced Impressionism, leading artists, including those featured in this focus exhibition, to experiment with the style. American artists began to visit Paris where Impressionism started, as well as artists’ colonies that focused on outdoor painting, like the one in Giverny, where Monet lived since 1883. By the early 1890s, Impressionism had firmly established itself in American art, leaving an enduring impact on the nation’s painting.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p>" />

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art</a> in our first presentation of wildlife art from some of the most acclaimed wildlife and wilderness painters of the 20th century. Survival of the Fittest: Picturing Wildlife and Wilderness  features approximately 45 masterworks created by an influential group of painters known today as the Big Four: <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Focus--Damien-Hirst/"/Artist/Richard-Friese/59FC361355C10E80">Richard Friese</a>, <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Focus--Damien-Hirst/"/Artist/Wilhelm-Kuhnert/3426F338244A83A5">Wilhelm Kuhnert</a>, <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Focus--Damien-Hirst/"/Artist/Bruno-Liljefors/CA567D234E8EF08A">Bruno Liljefors</a>, and <a target="_blank" href=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Focus--Damien-Hirst/"/Artist/Carl-Clemens-Moritz-Rungius/56656B1083BFE00C">Carl Rungius</a>. Working during the late 1800s and early 1900s, these artists presented a vision of wildlife that valued the animal, its natural behavior, and natural habitat as subjects worthy of portrayal in their own right. This way of seeing wildlife stemmed directly from Charles Darwin’s revolutionary theory of evolution, aptly summarized as survival of the fittest, a well-known catchphrase that also became the title of innumerable works of art. The Big Four’s experience in the field translated into dramatic canvases back in the studio. Picturing wild animals in ways that had not been widely seen before, their powerful images gave eager audiences a way to see what lay beyond urban centers and brought a new vision of the wild into increasingly domesticated lives.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p>" />