EL AL | Atmosphere

To Catch a Fleeting Moment: 150 Years of Impressionism at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art

In the spring of 1874, a group of artists—soon to be known as the Impressionists—presented their works in an independent exhibition, separate from the Salon, the official exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, held annually in Paris

who soon flooded the new urban spaces, enjoying leisure time in public. The Impressionists sought to imbue their works with these new realities: some left their studios behind, painting en plein air to capture the effects of light on nature, while others focused on scenes of daily life in the modern city, using unconventional perspectives and a dramatic sense of light to convey the urban atmosphere and pace. The exhibition To Catch a Fleeting Moment: 150 Years of Impressionism features nearly eighty major works by the protagonists of the period, including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Paul Signac, Georges Seurat, Mary Cassatt, Alfred Sisley, and others. While Impressionism is among the most familiar and beloved styles today, when it emerged, it represented a radical break with tradition. This exhibition seeks to recapture the bold invention and formal innovation that characterized the early years of the movement. Working in—and shaping—the dawn of modernism, the Impressionists pioneered new means of making and displaying art, initiating the rebellious, experimental spirit fundamental to the twentieth-century avant-garde. Curators: Nathalie Andrijasevic and Hillary Reder — Due to great demand, the exhibition will remain open until February 8, 2025. The exhibition catalogue can be purchased at the Museum store.

since 1667. One painting stood out among the 200 on view: Claude Monet׳s Impression, Sunrise (1872), which would inspire the group׳s name. The free brushstrokes and unblended colors used by Monet to capture a sunrise over a Normandy port were a source of ridicule among critics, many of whom deemed the works as unfinished or as “mere impressions.” Despite differences among group members, they all sought to

Edgar Degas, Ballet Scene , ca. 1887–1890 On long-term loan from the Moshe and Sara Mayer Collection

break away from the artistic tradition established by the Salon. They believed that art must change with the times; that it must be current rather than stuck in the past, thematically as well as stylistically. Active in a century of cataclysmic upheaval, the Impressionists witnessed era-defining transformations that led to the emergence of modernism in life as well as in art. The pervasive industrialization of the period is evidenced by the widespread presence of railways and smokestacks in their otherwise pastoral landscapes. Paris itself was an altered city, with widened boulevards, new public parks and squares, and modernized architecture and infrastructure, courtesy of Baron Haussmann׳s vast public works project. This renovation occurred in parallel with a rapid expansion of the middle-class,