Life in the Creative Lane - Adventures of a Curator

IMPRESSIONISM AND THE CARIBBEAN: Francisco Oller and His Transatlantic World

BROOKLYN MUSEUM | OCTOBER 2, 2015–JANUARY 3, 2016

A must see, outstanding art from an important period, proud to be a Caribbean! Norma Krieger

Eighty-five paintings and works on paper. The exhibition includes rarely seen watercolors by Winslow Homer, portraits by the Afro-Puerto Rican master Jose Campeche, Benjamin West and Camille Pissarro. Also featured are paintings by Oller’s contemporary’s, including Gustave Courbet, Paul Cezanne, and Claude Monet. The painter Francisco Oller contributed greatly to the development of modern art in both Europe and the Caribbean and revolutionized the school of painting in his native Puerto Rico.

Oller emerged from the small art world of San Juan in the 1840s, spending twenty years in Madrid and Paris, where he was inspired by the art of Gustave Courbet and joined the avant-garde circles of such artists as Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro, and Claude Monet. While European Romanticism, Realism, and Impressionism formed a critical jumping-off point for Oller’s aesthetic, his most important source of inspiration was Puerto Rico, where he painted tropical landscapes, still lifes with indigenous fruits and vegetables, and portraits of distinguished artists and intellectuals.

This is the first U.S. exhibition to present Oller’s work within both its New and Old World contexts.

Brooklyn Museum website | https://www.brooklynmuseum.org