Postimpressionism on paper at the St. Louis Art Museum
Edgar Degas - Ballet Dancers in the Wings - 1890-1900Edvard Munch - Moonlight - 1896
The St. Louis Art Museum presents "Impressionism and Beyond", an exhibition of works on paper that focuses on the paths towards modernity opened up by Impressionism.
Images: Edgar Degas, French, 1834–1917; "Ballet Dancers in the Wings", c.1890–1900; pastel; 28 x 26 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Museum Purchase 24:1935 ·· Edvard Munch, Norwegian, 1863–1944; "Moonlight", 1896; printed c. 1906; color woodcut on Japan paper; image: 15 13/16 x 18 9/16 inches, sheet: 18 7/8 x 23 5/16 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of General and Mrs. Leif J. Sverdrup 338:1952
The exhibition -which was scheduled to open on 28 January 2022, but due to several outbreaks caused by the Omicron variant had to be postponed until the museum's reopening on February 1- includes 59 works on paper (drawings, etchings, pastels), all of them from the collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum.
The works on display cover a very broad period, according to the museum itself from the 1850s to the 1930s, which means studying a period that begins when Impressionism had not yet been born and ends when the experiments carried out by the Post-Impressionist painters had given rise to the numerous avant-garde movements of the early 20th century, many of which had practically died out by 1930.
In fact, it is the period between -approximately- 1885 and 1905 that is of most interest in the exhibition. In a press release, the museum notes that “Mary Cassatt elevated color printmaking to new heights through her adaptation of the Japanese aesthetic that was taking Paris by storm in the 1890s, while her Impressionist colleague Edgar Degas sought multiple avenues for experimentation in print. Degas and other Impressionists also developed inventive drawing styles that allowed them to capture movement and intense effects of color and light in their works.” Although it is highly debatable whether to describe Degas as an "impressionist", it is correct to point out that the experimentations of these artists drove the experimentation of the late post-impressionism, as well as the early avant-garde of the 20th century.
"Impressionism and Beyond" will be on view at the Saint Louis Art Museum -if there are no changes due to the evolution of the pandemic- until 31 July 2022.

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