Monet’s Water Lilies at the High this Summer

For the first time in the southeast the High Museum of Art will exhibit four masterpieces by Claude Monet from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Among these iconic paintings will be MoMA’s renowned 42-foot-wide triptych, which is the largest “Water Lilies” painting in the U.S.

The High‘s “Monet Water Lilies” will be on view from June 6 to August 23, 2009. Following the Atlanta exhibition, MoMA will subsequently show its full collection of Claude Monet’s water lilies beginning September 13, 2009, through March 29, 2010.

Since MoMA acquired its first large-scale water lilies painting by Monet in 1954, and as it added others, they have become especially popular with the Museum’s audiences.

We firmly believe there is no substitute for actually seeing real art with our own eyes, especially large-scale works like Monet’s water lilies. But if you cannot arrange to ogle these masterworks in person at MoMA or the High, we encourage you to learn more about them online and through art books at BINDERS.

Claude Monet (1840-1926) devoted the last 25 years of his life to 251 paintings that portray the Japanese-style water pond he cultivated on his property in Giverny, France. His triptych Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond, 1920, is one of the most spectacular works in the MoMA collection, not just for its sheer size (6' 6" x 41' 10") but also for its beauty and colors, and its power to engage the viewer’s mind. The triptych painting occupies the entire length of a gallery.

MoMA says the goal is to “see how present taste (in art) helps to shape our attitudes towards the past.” For this reason, visitors will be able to see these Monet canvases in context with Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) rather than alongside other 19th century Impressionist painters.

Visit our website at www.bindersart.com!