The Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA) opens "Monet to Matisse: French Moderns, 1850–1950" on January 30, featuring over 100 masterworks from iconic artists including Monet, Matisse, Cézanne, Cassatt, Degas, Renoir, and Pissarro. The traveling exhibition, curated by the Brooklyn Museum, has been significantly expanded by BMA with over 40 works from its own collection, making it a unique venue on the tour. The show runs through May 24 and coincides with the museum's 75th anniversary, with thematic sections on Landscape, Still Life, Portraits and Models, and The Nude.
This exhibition matters because it not only presents a major survey of French modern art but also broadens the narrative to include contributions from Japanese artists, American artists, women artists like Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot, and two Black artists—Henry Ossawa Tanner and Charles Ethan Porter—as well as two Alabama artists. By connecting the revolutionary art of the past to contemporary issues of war, peace, technology, and social change, the BMA offers a timely and inclusive perspective on modernism, while also strengthening community engagement through partnerships with local organizations like the Alabama Ballet.