Monet - Lost in Translation

From 9 October 2015 and for the next three months, ARoS invites visitors on a fantastic journey back to the end of the 19th century and up to the present day with Monet as the headliner and a unique selection of the greatest French Impressionists. The exhibition MONET - LOST IN TRANSLATION brings Monet and his fellow artists back to life by exploring the tension between the contemporary overexposure of Impressionist art and the original starting point of the Impressionist painters.

The exhibition gives visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves in the life of the Impressionists. With a total of 49 works, 18 of which are by Monet, MONET - LOST IN TRANSLATION follows the Impressionists' journey into the countryside past wildflower meadows, the forests of Fontainebleau, haystacks in the sunshine and Monet's garden in Giverny, across rivers and out to the coastline of northern France.

The exhibition will show how differently the Impressionist painters registered the nature around them. What they had in common was that they achieved dramatic lighting effects by using small flickering brushstrokes. In their works, they depicted the now; the refraction of light through the atmosphere, the movement of clouds across the sky and the changing colours of water and fog. Through painting, they transferred their visual impressions - impressions - to the canvas. In the open air, they created vibrant landscapes that many are still seduced by today.

Impressionist paintings caused great offence when they were exhibited in Paris in the 1870s. At the time, contemporary critics claimed that the sketchy and unfinished style of painting was a result of the artists' poor eyesight. They themselves believed that their paintings were closer to sensory reality than the detailed and meticulous idiom of classical painting.

Monet - Lost in Translation takes the audience on a journey. The first room of the exhibition is decorated with a theatre set that resembles Paris in 1880, with photos of the city seen from above, of streets and alleys, and of the St. Lazare railway station, from where the Impressionists left the city and travelled to the countryside. From here, the audience begins the journey back to the late 1800s and up to the present day.

From a train carriage, we are led through three rooms with a classic gallery hanging and into a darkened room, 'The Black Box', which is a luxurious presentation of works with famous and recognisable motifs by Monet - water lilies, haystacks and the Charing Cross and Waterloo Bridges in London.

Finally, we end up in a waiting room. This is where the Monet story begins and ends - from the dental clinic in the building that housed Monet's art studio to today's dental clinics with Monet posters on the walls.

The exhibition is curated by Erlend Høyersten (Director, ARoS) and Suzanne Greub (Director, Art Centre Basel). The exhibition has been created in collaboration with Art Centre Basel.

Due to great interest in the exhibition, ARoS is extending its opening hours during the exhibition period 9 October 2015 to 10 January 2016. We will open at 9.00 am, i.e. one hour earlier than usual, partly to accommodate the interest we are already experiencing from school groups. In addition to the usual evening opening until 22.00 on Wednesday, ARoS will be open on Thursday evenings until 22.00 during the exhibition period.

A. P. Møller Fonden