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WORLD'S GREATEST
ARTWORKS
For a list of the Top 10 painters/
sculptors: Best Artists of All
Time.
For the best oils/watercolours,
see: Greatest Paintings Ever.
TWENTIETH
CENTURY ARTISTS
For a quick reference guide,
see: 20th Century Painters.
WHAT IS ART?
For a guide to the different,
categories/meanings of visual
arts, see: Definition of Art.
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Other major painters and sculptors drawn
to Paris included the Cubist Juan Gris (1887-1927), the alcoholic genre-painter
Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955), the Surrealist Salvador Dali (1904-89), the
Romanian sculptor Constantin
Brancusi (1876-1957), the Russian artists Ossip
Zadkine (1890-1967), Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964), Natalya Goncharova
(1881-1962) and Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), the Hungarian optical artist
Victor Vasarely (1906-97),
the leading theorist of Surrealism Andre Breton (1896-1966), the painter
Jules Pascin (1885-1930), born in Bulgaria of Spanish and Italian stock,
and the Russian-French colourist and lyrical abstractionist Nicolas
de Stael (1914-1955).
Style of Painting
Although the Ecole de Paris was
a broad church, open to artists of every medium, genre and style - from
Dada to Classical Realism, drawing skills and good draughtsmanship were
highly prized, and its painters typically turned to figurative rather
than abstract art. Furthermore, their figuration was often romantic. The
use of colour in painting was
also thoroughly explored. By comparison, avant-garde art in America (eg.
abstract expressionism, colour field painting, hard-edge painting), Holland
(eg. De Stijl, Neo-Plasticism), Russia (eg. Suprematism, Constructivism)
and Germany (eg. Bauhaus Design School), arguably possessed a stronger
streak of abstraction.
Paris - The World Centre of Art (1890-1940)
The use of the term Ecole de Paris
reflected the extraordinary position of the French capital as the undisputed
centre of the global art world during the first four decades of the 20th
century. Indeed, ever since the French Revolution, Paris had been the
capital of the avant-garde in art and culture. During the 19th century,
movements like Realism (c.1850 on), Impressionism
(1870-80) and Post-Impressionism,
as well as the prestigious reputation of the Paris
Salon, the Salon d'Automne, the Salon des Independants,
the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Academie Julian, had further
enhanced the city's reputation. By 1900, few painters or sculptors could
afford to ignore the importance of the city or the opportunities it offered.
During the mid-1920s it was home to an estimated 70,000 painters and sculptors,
most of whom survived in poverty, first in Montmartre, later in Montparnasse.
Even as late as 1950, by which time Paris had been caught up, if not eclipsed,
by New York, the city could boast some 130 art galleries, showing works
by roughly 60,000 artists, while every year 20 large Salons each displayed
works by about 1,000 artists. For artistic reference purposes, Paris had
the Louvre - the largest art museum
in the world - whose extensive collection of Old Masters was copied and
studied by artists from all over Europe and America.
Parisian Culture
In addition, the city of Paris enjoyed
an unrivalled nightlife, with a number of famous cabarets as well as a
huge program of Opera and Ballet. These night-clubs and theatres were
avid consumers of poster art, theatrical
designs, costumes and sets, a process exemplified by The Ballets Russes,
organized by Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929). This Parisian ballet company
quickly became famous for its flamboyant and colourful designs, that were
an integral part of the aesthetic experience rather than mere backdrops.
Master painters who worked for Diaghilev included Georges Braque, Giorgio
de Chirico, Andre Derain, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. (For more about
decorative lithography in Paris during La Belle Epoque and later,
see: History of Poster Art.)
Curiously, despite great efforts by the
French authorities, including the establishment of two more of the world's
best art museums - namely the Musee
d'Orsay and the extraordinary Pompidou
Centre, home to the massive permanent collection of the French National
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art - Paris has never regained her former
position as the capital of world art.
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