The New Vision: Monet and the Contemporary Gaze

Claude Monet (1840–1926) is one of the great masters of Impressionism. The Pola Museum of Art holds nineteen oil paintings by Monet, the largest collection of its kind in Asia. Ranging from landscapes of the Seine, Saint-Lazare Station, leisure resorts, and the seaside, to the London and Venice series and the late “Water Lilies,” this collection covers major works from every stage of Monet's career. Marking the centenary of Monet and the 25th anniversary of the museum, The New Vision: Monet and the Contemporary Gaze presents this remarkable collection in its entirety.

Monet possessed an eye that astonished even his contemporary Paul Cezanne. He was also a pioneer who proposed a radical aesthetic vision, one that departed decisively from the artistic traditions of the past. Why is it that Monet's paintings, seen from our vantage point a century after his death, continue to shine with ever greater intensity? Where does the secret of their inexhaustible fascination lie? This exhibition revisits the museum's Monet collection through five themes: Camera, Time, River, Life, and Garden.

The technique of divided brushwork developed by Monet and his contemporaries approached the very mechanism of vision itself: bright touches of color were placed side by side and mixed within the viewer's eye. Monet deliberately employed bold compositions and framings that recall camera pans and zooms, or even the aerial perspectives familiar from drone imagery. He created a new form of expression in the “series paintings,” such as “Rouen Cathedral,” which captured the passage of time. At the same time, his paintings register the contradictions of modernity—such as water and air pollution—as part of the world that unfolded before his eyes. While presenting this new vision, Monet also realized an artistic vision of his own: the garden at Giverny, a subject for painting that he created with his own hands.

Clement Greenberg once observed that Monet's paintings belonged to the future. Even in the 21st century, Monet's gaze remains remarkably inspirational. Through the eyes of eighteen contemporary artists and groups from Japan and abroad—among the most acute observers of our time—this exhibition reconsiders the act of seeing, a primordial way in which we touch the world. What emerges is a new vision for seeing nature, cities, and the environments that surround human life in an age of constant change.

Artists: Claude Monet, Lucas Arruda, Allora & Calzadilla, Merce Cunningham + Robert Rauschenberg, Emile Gallé, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Noémie Goudal, Roni Horn, Pierre Huyghe, Yojiro Imasaka, Amar Kanwar, Kapwani Kiwanga, Nile Koetting, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Ritsue Mishima, Fujiko Nakaya, Hinako Omori, Thao Nguyen Phan, Susan Philipsz, Georges Seurat, Wolfgang Tillmans, Su-Mei Tse, and others.

The New Vision: Monet and the Contemporary Gaze is curated by Iwasaki Yoko (Chief Curator, Pola Museum of Art) and Suzuki Kota (Senior Curator, Pola Museum of Art).