Chagall, Picasso, Mondrian and others

WORLD FAMOUS ARTISTS WERE MIGRANTS

Today, Chagall, Picasso and Mondrian are known as masters of modern art, but behind their role as artistic pioneers lay struggle—all three, from different backgrounds, were migrants. In spite of their success and achievement, they faced the same insurmountable obstacle: they were not French. Picasso, born in Spain, arrives in Paris penniless, where he flourishes as a creative genius. And yet he remains loyal to his Spanish roots, and often identifies with being ‘different', a sentiment he frequently explores in his work.

As a Jewish-Russian in exile, Chagall faces loneliness, exclusion and outright anti-Semitism. Often packed with Jewish-Russian imagery like rabbis and synagogues, his paintings convey a sense of deep nostalgia. In his early years, the Dutchman Kees van Dongen also encounters difficulties. He eventually became one of Paris’ celebrated society painters, but in 1906 he complained that the newspapers consistently portrayed him as the sale étranger, or “the dirty foreigner”.

The art climate changes with the First World War. While before the war, despite the presence of xenophobia, modern art thrives, there is a strong tendency towards tradition and classical art after the war. Avant-garde artists respond to this desire, and it is during this time that Picasso creates his famous neoclassical work, and Chagall switches to the universal theme of love. But when Chagall is asked to illustrate the fables of La Fontaine, the press is outraged to see French national heritage depicted by a foreign Jew. Mondrian, on the other hand, attracted to the avant-garde before the war, stays true to his personal vision, and continues to paint abstract compositions in spite of the new trend in French taste.

PARALLEL HISTORIES

The exhibition also highlights lesser-known stories that are directly related to migration and art. Some of the artworks depict the battle for decolonisation, a movement that erupts after 1918 when the sacrifice of the African troops, recruited to fight in the World War I, goes unrecognised. The show also explores the experiences of the black community in Paris, from the lives of the city’s many workers to electrifying personalities like the American dancer and activist Josephine Baker who, disillusioned by America, became a French citizen.

Another highlight is works of art by ground-breaking female artists, such as the Russian avant-garde artists Natalia Goncharova and Sonia Delaunay, the German Germaine Krull, who with her photo book Métal appropriates a ‘man’s subject’, to abstract artists such as Nicolaas Warb and Marlow Moss – male pseudonyms adopted by women artists.

INFORMATION STEDELIJK MUSEUM AMSTERDAM

The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is the most important museum of modern and contemporary art and design in the Netherlands, and an absolute must see. The spectacular building is a modern icon on the Museumplein and houses one of the most talked-about collections in the world, which includes 90,000 objects, from 1870 until present. STEDELIJKE BASE is the permanent exhibition of highlights from the collection of Stedelijk Museum; it shows the developments in art and design from 1880 to the present.  On the ground floor, STEDELIJK TURNS offers regularly changing collection exhibitions based on new perspectives, research and current themes. Under the title STEDELIJK NOW, Stedelijk Museum organises temporary exhibitions on the first floor.

Note for editors

For more information and press images you are welcome to contact the Press Office of the Stedelijk Museum, +31 20 573 26 60 / 56 or pressoffice@stedelijk.nl.