FIGURE IN SPACE

GEORGES SEURAT (1859-1891)

The inventor of pointillism, presented through an extensive selection of drawings and paintings.

Georges Seurat, a man of consistently proper disposition, was called “the notary” by his painter colleagues, and yet he was a trailblazing avant-garde artist. No other visual theme so well illustrates the tremendous innovations in Seurat’s paintings and drawings as the focus of this volume: the figure in space. The artist’s dense weave of pencil strokes cover the paper, making his indeterminate, floating motifs either stand out or disappear, while distinct light and dark contrasts surround and accentuate the figures. In his paintings, Seurat transposed his subjects into his technique, Pointillism, as well as into his innovative compositions. In later pieces, he even repeated and varied human forms within a single work. For his increasingly geometrical visual composition, which subordinates the individual elements to a system, he earned the admiration of the Bauhaus.

Exhibition schedule: Kunsthaus Zürich, October 2, 2009–January 17, 2010 | Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, February 4–May 9, 2010.

Edited by Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft/Kunsthaus Zürich, foreword by Christoph Becker, Max Hollein, texts by Christoph Becker, Gottfried Boehm, Julia Burckhardt Bild, Michelle Foa, Wilhelm Genazino.