Summer and museum season of Quimper

Musées de Quimper

2018 season

May to October 2018

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Kupka, Mucha, Gauguin... A Czech season in Quimper

Kupka, Mucha, Gauguin... A Czech season in Quimper

Like few other places in Europe, Finistère and Brittany have attracted artists from all over the world. Hence these French regions occupy a specific place in many art movements : naturalism, symbolism, Art nouveau, modernism, surrealism...

Beyond the cliché of an exotic land where the artists came to unwind, one must highlight the role of these regions in the renewal of the themes and the boom of landscape painting.

In this European Year of Cultural Heritage, the Department of Finistère has decided to promote it as a land of creation and inspiration ! In the Summer 2018, the museums of Quimper have chosen to make a subjective portrait of Brittany and its many aspects from the end of the XIXth century to the end of the XXth century. Thanks to two exhibitions, from the symbolist and symbolic Wave of Kupka to the surrealistic tones of the harbours painted by Jean Le Moal and a meeting with a boastful Gauguin, the visitors are invited to move away from commonplaces to immerge themselves in a unique Brittany.

“Czech Artists in Brittany (1850-1950)”
Bateaux de pêche à Concarneau © Galerie nationale de Prague

“Czech Artists in Brittany (1850-1950)” Musée départemental breton

The musée dépatemental breton and the National Gallery of Prague have found within the Czech collections numerous works inspired by Brittany from the 19th and 20th centuries. As early as the 1860s, Brittany by its nature and its costumes attracted Czech artists including Alfons Mucha and František Kupka. With this exhibition, more than 80 Breton works by Czech artists will be presented for the first time in France thanks to an exceptional contribution from the National Gallery of Prague and other Czech museums.

“Jean Le Moal (1909-2007)”
Vers Machu Picchu © MBA Rennes, Dist. RMN Grand Palais / Jean-Manuel Salingue

“Jean Le Moal (1909-2007)” Musées des beaux-arts de Quimper

Considered as one of the main representatives of the French non-figuration from the second half of the 20th century, Jean Le Moal appears today as a painter who is to be rediscovered his work that goes beyond aesthetic partitioning. This exhibition looks back at this French painter of Breton origins and his entire career in the light of the historical context of his aspirational years and his artistic environment, with no preconception or bias.

 

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