An exhibition about women in Paris, from 1880-1914, and how they were depicted in art, is currently on view at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. The exhibition marks the first large installation of the Elisabeth Dean Collection. For more information about the exhibition, and the coinciding event this week, please see the description and announcement below.
Victor Emile Prouvé, L’Opium, 1894
Color lithograph, 24 3/8 x 17 inches (61.9 x 43.2 cm).
Collection UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Hammer Museum. Promised Gift of Elisabeth Dean. Photograph by Brian Forrest. (http://hammer.ucla.edu)
TEA AND MORPHINE: WOMEN IN PARIS, 1880-1914
On view through May 18, 2014
Whether as angelic creatures or exotic lures, women filled the imaginations of artists and constituted the great subject of fin-de-siècle art. Those who had leisure time were depicted relaxing with an afternoon cup of tea, as seen in a Mary Cassatt etching, whereas other artists portrayed the drug addiction common to women facing harsh economic realities. These extremes, and the positions in between, set the parameters for the exhibition of approximately 100 works, which includes prints as well as rare books and ephemera (such as menus, theater programs, and music scores). This array of objects gives the exhibition an intimate quality, revealing much about how women – and men – lived their lives during a time of great social upheaval and artistic innovation.
This will be the first, large-scale exhibition of the Elisabeth Dean Collection since a 1986 exhibition at the Fresno Art Museum, when the collection was only six years old. Tea and Morphine will be the public’s first opportunity to appreciate the growth of the Elisabeth Dean Collection and to understand the scope of this important body of work.
Tea and Morphine is co-curated by Cynthia Burlingham, Director, Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts and Deputy Director, Curatorial Affairs at the Hammer Museum, and Victoria Dailey, Independent Curator.
Louis Abel-Truchet, program for Le Théatre Libre’s production of The Smoke, then the Flame, 1895
Color lithograph, 9 ½ x 12 1/8 inches (24.1 x 30.8 cm). Collection UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts. Purchase. Photograph by Brian Forrest. (http://hammer.ucla.edu)
Wednesday April 30th at 7:30PM
A Fusion of Senses: Poetry, Music, Dance and Visual Arts in Paris (1880-1914)
Co-presented with the UCLA Department of French and Francophone Studies and the UCLA Department of Music
Organized by Sonnets & Sonatas, a UCLA series of lectures, this evening of readings, screenings, and musical performances is meant to evoke a period of time when artists, musicians, and poets were merging different art forms. This program includes the works of Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Satie, and Boulanger; popular waltzes by Chaminade or Jaëll; and songs of Paris cabarets of the Belle Époque. Lecture by Laure Murat, professor in the UCLA Department of French and Francophone Studies. Musical direction by Guillaume Sutre, professor of violin and head of chamber music in the UCLA Department of Music.
In conjunction with Tea and Morphine: Women in Paris, 1880 to 1914.
Eugène Grasset, La vitrioleuse [The Acid Thrower],1894
Photo-relief with water-color stenciling, 22 7/8 x 18 inches (58.1 x 45.7 cm). Collection UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Hammer Museum. Promised Gift of Elisabeth Dean. Photograph by Brian Forrest. (http://hammer.ucla.edu)