Pissarro Makes Quite An Impression

Sun Herald

Sunday November 20, 2005

By ERIN O'DWYER

THERE was awe and delight on the faces of the crowd yesterday as the Art Gallery of NSW unveiled its summer blockbuster exhibition on the life and works of French impressionist Camille Pissarro.

Seasoned art lovers and relative newcomers flocked to see the first comprehensive collection of works on display in Australia by the founding father of impressionism.

The exhibition has been put together with the help of Pissarro's great-grandson Joachim Pissarro, a senior curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

It features more than 100 works drawn from international collections.

Pissarro was the only painter to participate in all eight impressionist exhibitions, and was a revered mentor to his younger contemporaries Gauguin, Cezanne, Degas, Seurat and Matisse.

Sydney medical student Alice Tang, who visited the gallery with friends yesterday to celebrate the end of her exams, was struck by the obvious influence that Pissarro had on the more famous impressionists.

"We'd never heard of him before," Ms Tang said. "And we were tossing up between seeing this and the Grace Cossington Smith exhibition [also showing at AGNSW]. But having come here today, I realised the significance of Pissarro being a mentor to people like Van Gogh and Degas."

Amateur artist Adrienne Evans travelled with her husband by train from Gosford yesterday for the exhibition's opening day.

"Stand back and see what he's done with colour look at the light," Mrs Evans said of the 1881 work Peasants Resting.

"He's used pinks and blues the whole way through, and your eye just moves through with it."

The exhibition features a series of special events including French films, Pissarro-inspired chamber music concerts and celebrity talks.

Guest lecturers include former premier Bob Carr, foodie Stephanie Alexander and ABC broadcaster Richard Glover.

Pissarro The First Impressionist is at the Art Gallery of NSW until February 19. The gallery is open daily from 10am to 5pm daily and on Wednesday until 9pm.

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