«Vivre notre temps!» Bonnard, Vallotton and the Nabis

13.5. 16.10.2022

The Nabis group, founded in 1888 around the artists Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Félix Vallotton and Édouard Vuillard, symbolically represents the beginnings of modern art. The farewell exhibition of the Hahnloser/ Jaeggli Collection in the Kunstmuseum Bern shows its most prominent works of the painters of this audacious movement and illustrates their manifold references to Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon.

At the turn of the 20th century, art changed from figurative forms of depiction to abstraction. The Nabis group, founded in 1888 around the artists Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Félix Vallotton and Édouard Vuillard, is emblematic of this decay of Impressionism. Their ideas paved the way towards a modern and non-representational art.

The farewell exhibition of the Hahnloser/Jaeggli Collection, which will be presented at the Kunstmuseum Bern from 13 May to 16 October 2022, addresses the tensions between old and new, subject and colour surface, as well as mimesis and experiment, which are reflected in the works of the Nabis from this transitional period. The juxtaposition of works by their most important models Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon and the Nabis artists reveals their multifaceted roots in these two important artists and captures the moment in which artistic vocabulary has been reassessed.