GEORGES SEURAT
FIGURE IN SPACE

French Neo-Impressionist Georges Seurat is considered today to be one of the icons of nineteenth-century art and the most important exponent of Pointillism, a style of painting developed by the artist. He meticulously composed his works from countless small spots of paint arranged in juxtaposition; these spots blend in the viewer’s retina, giving rise to exceptional worlds of color. No other pictorial subject is able to tell so much about Seurat’s art as the figure in the landscape. Light-dark contrasts swirl about and accentuate his figures, lending them an unreal presence. By considering Seurat’s figure paintings, the exhibition will highlight a point of intersection in his creative output: the artist looked to groups such as the École de Barbizon, to epochs such as the Renaissance, and to fellow artists such as Puvis de Chavannes, but realized his subjects via a new painting technique and innovative compositions. Seurat thus smoothed the way from the nineteenth to the twentieth century for the Impressionists and became an important source of inspiration for later artists.
Curator: Christoph Becker (Kunsthaus Zürich) with Julia Burckhardt Bild (co-curator of the exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich), and Katharina Dohm (Curator SCHIRN)