Blanton opens avant-garde installation featuring Monet, Picasso

Delicate brushstrokes and vibrant colors create mesmerizing scenery from a past time. Vases of flowers, scenic cliffs and riverbanks, and portraits fill the walls in a small room, representing many of the largest movements in art history.

The Blanton Museum of Art opened “The European Avant-Garde: From Impressionism to Cubism” Sunday, featuring 14 artworks by renowned artists like Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso. The works come from the Robertson Collection, honoring UT alumna Josephine Robertson (fine arts ‘65), whose passion for European art pushed her to acquire the pieces for her private collection.

“It’s a way to open up a new door of creativity for the younger generation because younger people are going to go through this museum and see all these things and then they’ll have all these ideas rushing to them,” attendee Tasha Hester said. “Then maybe one day, they’re gonna be the ones to pick up that paintbrush and hopefully land in here someday.”

Moving through styles of impressionism, cubism and abstract artworks, the collection showcases the European art revolution during the avant-garde period, which took place from the 1870s-1940s. Holly Borham, the curator of prints, drawings and European art at Blanton, said she hopes students will find works that resonate with them and learn about different styles of art.

“There’s an opportunity for students to find something that appeals to them and maybe be surprised by something that they hadn’t seen before, and find a new favorite,” Borham said. “It’s also an incredible teaching tool to see this really pivotal period in art history encapsulated in one room.”

Notable works in the collection include renowned impressionist Monet’s “La Seine à Argenteuil” (1877) and two pieces that demonstrate Picasso’s cubist innovations, “Jeune femme en robe bleu ciel” (1949) and “Tête de femme (La femme qui pleure)” (1943). Borham said her favorite piece in the exhibition, Picasso’s “Tête de femme”, reminds her of UT.

“It’s delightful,” Borham said. “It’s in his cubist style and the sitter is wearing a hat, and to me, it looks like a cowboy hat. It’s perfect for Texas, perfect for UT.”

The special presentation will be open for three years until August 2029, much longer than the typical four to six months Blanton’s major exhibitions spend on view. Borham said the works from the Robertson Foundation are usually not on public view.

“It’s amazing to see how skilled and talented people were, and still are these days,” Hester said. “We need to keep these spaces open to keep encouraging that talent, because (we need to) keep the whimsical in your life.”

Other artists featured in the collection include Camille Pissarro, Paul Gauguin, Wassily Kandinsky, and other acclaimed painters. Admission to the museum is free for UT faculty, students and staff.

“It really allows people to see how far we’ve come as humans and the way we express our creativity, how techniques have advanced and how different things have come about,” attendee Tayler Jimenez said. “People (can) uncover that creativity in themselves and continue to expand it … and take on (an artist’s) idea and shine a new light on it.”

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