From Library Journal
Accompanying an exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this attractive catalog is the first study to focus on the decorative painting of French artists Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, and Ker Xavier Roussel, members of the Nabis in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Curator Groom chronicles the formal development of each artist's style as well as the involvement of patrons who commissioned murals and screens for their homes. In his essay, scholar Nicholas Watkins demonstrates how the four artists applied the aesthetic principles of the mural to all types of painting, thus subverting the academic hierarchy of the fine and decorative arts. Drawing parallels with William Morris's Arts and Crafts movement and acknowledging the influences of both Japanese art and the 18th-century French rococo style, Watkins traces the absorption of these artists' abstracted decorative style into early 20th-century modernism and post-World War II avant-garde painting. With beautiful illustrations and a thoughtful text, this book is recommended for all libraries with art collections. Sandra Rothenberg, Framingham State Coll. Lib., MA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Choice
"Well produced. . . . highly recommended."

Book Description
The contributions of artists Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, and Ker-Xavier Roussel to the avant-garde of the 1890s as members of the group known as the Nabis are widely recognized. What is less known about these artists' careers is their work in decorative painting—work on a large or unusual scale. This gorgeous book reproduces 85 decorative works carried out by the four artists between 1890 and 1930. During this time each moved beyond the illusionism of easel painting and applied his wholly untraditional aesthetic of décoration to a traditional wide range of works for domestic interiors, from wall-size ensembles to screens. The book also examines the tastes and the role of the patrons who made these works possible. Bringing together works from public and private collections, this book introduces and reunites paintings that have long been dispersed and presents to contemporary viewers bold and evocative works that literally expanded the role of painting as part of the modern experience

From the Publisher
This book is the catalogue of an exhibition that will be open at The Art Institute of Chicago from 28 February through 16 May 2001 and then travel to The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 26 June through 9 September 2001.

About the Author
Gloria Groom is David and Mary Winton Green Curator of European Painting at The Art Institute of Chicago. Nicholas Watkins is reader in the history of art at the University of Leicester and a widely published authority on Bonnard. Jennifer Paoletti is research assistant in the European Painting Department of The Art Institute of Chicago. Thérèse Barruel is an independent scholar and specialist on Denis.

ANNOTATION

This book is the catalogue of an exhibition that will be open at The Art Institute of Chicago from 28 February through 16 May 2001 and then travel to The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 26 June through 9 September 2001.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The Contributions of Artists Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, and Ker Xavier Roussel to the French avant-garde of the 1890s, as members of the Nabis, are widely recognized. What is less known about these artists' careers is their extraordinary work in decorative painting - work on a large or unusual scale for private interiors. This illustrated book focuses on the many decorative works carried out by the four artists between 1890 and 1930. During these years, they moved beyond the narrow parameters of easel painting and applied their wholly untraditional aesthetic of decoration to a wide range of works for domestic interiors, from wall-size ensembles to folding screens. The cosmopolitan group of patrons who made this work possible ranged from the avant-garde circle of La Revue Blanche to prominent members of the French establishment. An examination of their role and tastes is another fascinating feature of this publication." "The book and accompanying exhibition reunite paintings that have long been dispersed, introducing contemporary viewers to a group of bold and evocative works, which had a wide-ranging, though little-recognized, influence on modern art. As the book's authors argue, the aesthetic embodied by these works indeed helped set the stage for the large, non-narrative paintings by artists as diverse as Rothko and Lichtenstein that came to dominate the avant-garde after World War II."--BOOK JACKET.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Accompanying an exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this attractive catalog is the first study to focus on the decorative painting of French artists Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, and Ker Xavier Roussel, members of the Nabis in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Curator Groom chronicles the formal development of each artist's style as well as the involvement of patrons who commissioned murals and screens for their homes. In his essay, scholar Nicholas Watkins demonstrates how the four artists applied the aesthetic principles of the mural to all types of painting, thus subverting the academic hierarchy of the fine and decorative arts. Drawing parallels with William Morris's Arts and Crafts movement and acknowledging the influences of both Japanese art and the 18th-century French rococo style, Watkins traces the absorption of these artists' abstracted decorative style into early 20th-century modernism and post-World War II avant-garde painting. With beautiful illustrations and a thoughtful text, this book is recommended for all libraries with art collections. Sandra Rothenberg, Framingham State Coll. Lib., MA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

ACCREDITATION