Image Makers and Rule Breakers: French Art, 1860–1960

Ongoing

Highlighting SDMA’s renowned permanent collection, this special display highlights the Museum’s exceptional depth in mid-nineteenth through mid-twentieth century French painting and sculpture. The time frame of these works illustrates a period of dramatic change in art history—from the harsh realism of the 1860s to the rough, raw Art Brut of the 1960s.

The display presents two parallel tracks of artistic experimentation: one track follows a landscape tradition, while the other is innovative, figurative art. Each path considers how such divergent artistic trajectories led the way towards Abstraction. By presenting these works within a time frame of dramatic change in art history, Image Makers and Rule Breakers offers a succinct chronology of the various progressive stages of modern French art.

Featured works from SDMA’s permanent collection include visitor favorite Bouguereau’s Young Shepherdess, The Ballerina by Edgar Degas, Haystacks at Chailly by Claude Monet, as well as pieces by Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, Rodin, and more.

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