By Ed Lowe
Senior Writer
The word "blockbuster" is often overused to describe the latest movie or exhibition. But in the case of the newly opened Art Institute show titled "Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre," that's about the only word available. This show is not only about the artist who single-handedly brought fine art into advertising and promotion. It is also about his colleagues, including such well known names as Van Gogh and Degas and a young Pablo Picasso, as well as other lesser known artists who inhabited the cafés and dance halls of the Parisian area. His work painted an entire era of French life in the late 19th century.
What makes this show so spectacular is the organization of the work around specific performers who were the rock stars of their time and of dance halls, cafés and saloons that created an entire culture of Bohemian Paris that continues to this day. Lautrec's work is featured in both oils and in the lithographs that were plastered all over 1880s and 1890s Paris to promote a singer or a dancer. His posters presented essential caricatures of celebrities who occupied that world. He painted the world he lived in, defying the more conventional genres of his time. There were no water lilies, no placid landscapes among his work. His subject matter was as gritty as the people who inhabited the Parisian area of Montmartre.
In the mid 19th century, Paris was rebuilt from a medieval city to a modern one. There were thousands of people displaced from this massive rebuilding, and many of them settled in the outskirts of the city near the church of Sacre Couer (Sacred Heart) high on a hill outside the city. Eventually, this area was incorporated in the greater Paris of the late 19th century and it became a Mecca for artists of all stripes, for the demi-monde, for the brothels and for the anti-establishment elements of French society. Lautrec, whose background was from upper class nobility, became a part of this society and painted it with a flair.
Using the expanded techniques of lithography, he was able to bring his art to a more broadly based audience. As prices went down on his posters, the market for them expanded exponentially. He was a good businessman as well as a great artist. Henri Toulouse Lautrec has been well remembered. In the 1950s, a movie biography recounted some of the elements of his life. A couple of years ago, the Academy Award Oscar for Best Picture was won by the movie "Moulin Rouge," which portrayed one of the dance halls he immortalized and tried to replicate the vibrancy of the
period of Lautrec.
The Art Institute's show is guest curated by an internationally known Lautrec expert, Edinburgh University Professor Richard Thompson, who also authored the accompanying catalog of the show. The Chicago staff responsible for this outstanding exhibition include Douglas Druick, Gloria Groom and Mary Winton Green. The best way to experience the show is through the use of an audio tour which points out details of specific paintings and explains the show's orientation. The show was organized by the Art Institute and by the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Corporate sponsorship was provided by the Sara Lee Foundation.
"Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre" will continue through Oct. 10. Admission to the special exhibition is $6 and is available at the Museum or by calling (312) 930-4040 for advance timed tickets. Admission to the Art Institute, located at 111 S. Michigan Ave., is suggested at $12, with lower rates for seniors and children. On Tuesdays, Museum admission is free for all though there is still a charge for the show. For further information, visit www.artic.edu/aic.
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