Mystic Landscapes at the AGO

Paul Gauguin: Vision After the Sermon 1888 The Yellow Christ 1889 Christ in the Olive Garden 1889

Who knew these three paintings were originally meant to be a triptych? I certainly didn’t; but now that they’ve been arranged together for the first time (for the exhibition Mystic Landscapes at the Art Gallery of Ontario) since Paul Gauguin painted them , it sure makes sense. The primary colour scheme alone should have been my first clue. The otherworldly theme of the story of Christ’s life as envisioned in French Brittany runs through all three as well as the artist himself appears in all three with him taking the starring role of Christ in 2 out of three. I always found this to be very revealing about Gauguin, it takes some kind of hubris to paint yourself as a martyr. Maybe this is the reason  they never made it to a church to serve as inspiration for the pious. Piety was kind of on the back-burner of Paul Gauguin’s life but I guess  he did like to dip his toe in the mystic. He was definitely a seeker.

My hat’s off to the curators for pulling off this feat (along with another, I’ll get to in a minute). I was most excited to see Vision After the Sermon when it was announced it was coming to Toronto, but had no idea the other two were along for the ride. Now that I’ve seen them as a triptych it’s hard to see them any other way. This is exactly what good curation should do, shed new light on the familiar and re-contextualize art into new and exciting combinations and narratives. Having said that: my biggest criticism with the AGO is some of their exhibition themes can get really stretched and unnecessary. Please let the art speak for itself and don’t put words in its mouth.

Vincent Van Gogh Starry Night Over the Rhone 1888

The art not only speaks for itself in Mystic Landscapes but sings. Besides Gauguin you get heavy-hitters like Munch, Whistler and O’Keeffe and lesser known artists like Jansson and Dulac. There is a wonderful room devoted to the work of Claude Monet with fine representations of the various series he embraced over the years. His Waterlilies, Cathedrals, Poplars and Haystacks are all present. Van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone is given a place of prominence near the end of the show. A personal highlight for me was this Egon Schiele,

Egon Schiele Landscape with Ravens 1911

but the biggest surprise of the show is the inclusion of our own nation’s artists. When it comes to landscapes, mystic or otherwise you have to admit Canada can hold its own. Lawren Harris, Emily Carr and Tom Thomson get to share the walls with Monet and O’Keeffe and rightly so. The curators have positioned our artists at the table with some of Art history’s biggest names and this is an exciting and revelatory prospect. It is one thing to propose this in our own backyard but another to shout to the hills, which will happen when this show ends its run in Toronto and moves to the Cathedral of Impressionism itself The Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Tom Thomson The West Wind 1916-1917

Make your way to the Art Gallery of Ontario to see Mystic Landscapes. Come for the Van Gogh, stay for the Gauguin and revel in our National treasures before the secret gets out and standing in line becomes a way of life.

 

Claude Monet’s Haystacks

Between 1890 and 1891 Claude Monet (the father of Impressionism) painted roughly 30 paintings of Haystacks. They were the first of many series he would devote his life to. Not as beloved as his Waterlilies or showy as  his Cathedral of Roen, the Haystacks signify a sea change in his approach to painting. The subject matter took a backseat to concept and technique. This was not lost on the critics of the day who immediately picked up on what Monet was pursuing. Monet wasn’t trying to capture the everyday banality of the rural French countryside, but rather the fleeting effects of light and time. This was and still is a radical idea.

Not everyone was as impressed with the idea as the critics: namely some of the farmers whose fields art history was being rewritten in. They would intentionally tear the stacks down to keep Monet out of their backyards. Luckily, enough of them didn’t care or in the case of the winter scenes were paid to leave them up. See, snow isn’t that great for your hay but Monet wanted to capture the effects. A few francs later and we now have some of the most dramatically orchestrated winter images in the history of painting.

In 1891 when they were originally exhibited, it was the first time an artist had shown a suite of paintings of the same subject matter that were intended to be shown together as a group. The subject was the same but the effects were diverse and varied. Colour was set free. Monet found the violet in the shadows created by the yellow sun, and notoriously swore off black stating ‘there was no black in nature’. Black eventually found it’s way back in, but near the end of the 19th century Monet wouldn’t even put it in his paint box when he left the studio to go capture the day’s light.

And capture the day’s light he did. Over the years my feelings towards the Haystacks have grown considerably. What I at first mistakenly perceived as too simplistic drawing, I now admire for their abstract qualities. In this day and age the Impressionists have been so universally accepted that it is easy to forget just how innovative, groundbreaking and polarizing they truly were and Monet’s Haystacks were on the forefront of that wave.