Gloria Groom, with an essay by Nicholas Watkins
Contributions by Jennifer Paoletti and Thérèse Barruel

Summary

This book accompanied the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to the decorative projects that Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Ker Xavier Roussel, and Edouard Vuillard carried out between 1890 and 1930. Lavishly illustrated, the publication offers a new assessment of the artistic evolution and interaction of these four very independent talents. It also explores the aesthetic concept known as décoration, which was based on the belief that formal elements such as line, color, and shape could communicate ideas and emotions directly. In his writings, Denis called for a new pictorial language that was evocative rather than illusionistic; a painting, he suggested, instead of being a window onto the world, should be an abstract equivalent of nature. These principles prompted Denis and his fellow artists to move beyond the narrowly illusionistic tradition of easel painting, applying décoration to a wide range of works for domestic interiors, from wall-sized ensembles to screens. The resulting works—bold, large-scaled compositions, conceived singly and in groups—quite literally expanded the role of painting as part of the modern experience.

The Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press, 2001
9 1/2 x 11 in.; 308 pages; 249 illustrations
Hardcover $32.50 ISBN 0-300-08925-2
Related exhibition: Beyond the Easel: Decorative Painting by Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis, and Roussel, 1890–1930