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(Sample Museum Show article from Spring 2000)
Toulouse-Lautrec and the Pleasures of Paris
May 12 - August 13, 2000
At Milwaukee Art Museum, WI

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
 Color  Lithograph
   Jane Avril at the Jardin de Paris, 1893
    Courtesy of Milwaukee Art Museum

    Toulouse-Lautrec and the Pleasures of Paris explores the explosion of popular imagery and entertainment in Paris at the end of the 19th century. During this period, artists turned their attention to the diverse pastimes that seduced the expanded leisure classes, from the vibrant café-concerts and cabarets of Montmarte to the bustling street life and sporting activities in and around Paris. Bright and attractive posters on walls and kiosks announced everything from popular night club singers to elegant liqueurs and comestibles of every sort.  New periodicals, art galleries and publishers provided an opportunity for admiring and purchasing fine prints.

    Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) was an important figure in the creation and dissemination of this new, modern imagery. His bold posters and prints from the 1890s, many from the museum’s permanent collection, form the backbone of this exhibition. Scores of his works, from his earliest poster Moulin Rouge - La Goulue, produced in 1891, to the whimsical May Milton and his daring 1st poster, The Gypsy of 1899, showcase the allure of some of the most famous stars of the Parisian stage. Photographs of each performer and comparative images by artists such as Théophile Steinlen and Edouard Vuillard will show how each artist attempted to capture a unique vision of these entertainers.

    Other works, such as Mirages by Henri-Gabriel Ibels, a theater program from the renowned Théatre Libre from 1893, show how influential Toulouse-Lautrec’s style of design and composition was to other artists depicting the theater of the 1890s.

    The exhibition will also explore the many ways that images were seen and disseminated on the streets and boulevards of Paris. Kiosks boldly displayed posters by Toulouse-Lautrec, Jules Chéret and Alphonse Mucha, who advertised commercial

products with all the visual flourish and sex appeal they could muster. Prints such as Toulouse-Lautrec’s L’Estampe Originale (The Original Print), which shows the performer Jane Avril inspecting a just-printed picture of herself, illustrate the importance of prints and posters to the success of the entertainment and leisure industry. Others, like Pierre Bonnard’s lithographs for the 1899 series Several Views of Parisian Life, offer us a glimpse into the daily life of bustling Paris. Books, magazines and illustrations from the Figaro Illustrée and other 1890s periodicals will show how images came directly into the hands of the eager consumer. Also included in the art of this period were images of prostitutes and demi-mondaines who became identified with the decadent pleasures of the cabarets and brothels of Montmartre. The exhibition will showcase one of Toulouse-Lautrec’s most extraordinary series of prints, Elles or those women, from 1896, which depicts the behind-the-scenes life of prostitutes and their customers.

    The exhibition, which will be accompanied by a full-length, illustrated catalogue, is curated by Kristin Makholm, Ph.D., MAM associate curator of prints and drawings. Toulouse-Lautrec and the Pleasures of Paris promises to recreate the sensuous look and appeal of this era, one of the most vibrant and provocative periods of French culture.

Felix Vallotton                             Woodcut
          L'Averse (The Downpour), 1894
        Courtesy of Milwaukee Art Museum

    The exhibition opening is Thursday, May 11, 5:30 p.m. a lecture will be held at 6:15 p.m.

    Julia Frey, Ph.D., professor of French literature and art history at the University of Colorado will give her lecture titled Like a Fist in the Face: Shock Value in the Art of Toulouse-Lautrec as part of the MAM’s Layton Lecture series. Frey’s exceptional biography Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life, published in 1994, was a finalist for the 1994 National Book Critics Award in biography and was chosen one of the Notable Books of 1995 by The New York Times. The reception following the lecture is sponsored by MAM’s Print Forum. Regular museum admission; free to museum members. Regular museum admission to non-members.