Monet exhibit to attract crowds

By Anna Kovalszki
and Anitha Chalam
Daily Arts Writers

As many a museum connoisseurs could tell you, a Monet hangs in the permanent collection of the University's Museum of Art.

Called "La Débâcle," or "The Breakup of the Ice," this 1880 painting forms the nucleus of the current exhibition, titled "Monet at Vétheuil - The Turning Point." This exhibition is unique in many ways; it is the first-ever ticketed-attendance exhibition mounted by the Museum - and it is expected to attract an unprecedented number of visitors.

But the reason for hosting this exhibition is not quite as unique. "Monet at Vétheuil - The Turning Point" is actually the third in a series of University exhibitions, originally conceived by former Museum Director William Hennessey.

As part of the "In Focus" series of exhibitions, this current display, like its predecessors, takes a single work in the Museum collection and places it in the center of an exhibition of related works. Like the Guercino and T'ai-Chi shows that preceded

EMILY NATHAN/Daily Art Courier Monique Escat watches Kevin Canze, a University Museum of Art preparator, hang one of the 12 Monet paintings on exhibit starting Sunday. The event is expected to draw large numbers of people.

it, the Monet show is small, featuring just 12 paintings.

Annette Dixon, curator of Western Art, said that while the size of the show is small, its effect is quite pronounced.

It is "rich in scope and extent of exploration. We are working with existing information and trying to take it one step further," Dixon said.

These 12 pieces have not been together since originally leaving the artist's studio more than 100 years ago. They were originally painted in the French village of Vétheuil, located just west of Paris. Monet's time spent there represents a crux in the artist's life.

Interim Museum Director Carole McNamara said the exhibition will be arranged according to theme. Displayed alongside these works will be quotations and explanatory notes about the paintings and the context in which they were painted. The display includes a photograph of the artist from this time, and a chronology of his life. Wood engravings documenting the freezing of the Seine also will be available for viewing. An exhibition catalogue featuring color plates of all the main paintings and numerous other reproductions and essays by Dixon, McNamara and Charles Stuckey, senior curator of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas will finish off the presentation.

Because anticipated attendance is so high, the museum has planned numerous related events including docent-led tours in both French and English, art videos that discuss the life and times of Monet and the Impressionists, a dinner-theater presentation titled, "A Taste of Monet" and a dance in the annual University Dance Company's spring performance. A symposium involving eminent scholars and a direct descendent of Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro, is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 7.

Even the Museum's gift shop attempts to create a studio atmosphere, with gauze-like material hanging over the side of the separator wall, similar to a method employed by Monet to deflect strong light. Suzanne Witthoff, who manages the gift shop, further elicits this environment with a Japanese cloisonné woodpiece, as Monet was a great fan of Asian art.

Most great artists of the so-called Impressionist circle have become household names, and Monet's "Waterlilies" can be found in a myriad of calendars and residence hall rooms. Greeting cards, umbrellas and restaurants such as Sweet Lorraine's in Ann Arbor exemplify the fact that Claude Monet's art has become universally known and admired.

Though this Vétheuil period is largely unknown to the masses, Dixon stressed its importance in the artist's life. The serial style of painting for which Monet is well-known is in its beginning stages of development within this particular group of works. In fact, much of Monet's more famous works, including the series of waterlilies, all come after this time.

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