Modernism from the Fundatie Collection - Van Gogh to Picasso

Around 1900, society and art underwent significant changes. It was the era of the labour and women's movements, industrialisation and urbanisation, and scientific discoveries. Art also changed as a result. Reality turned out to be different than previously thought, so it seemed pointless to continue to imitate it exactly in painting. Painters experimented with colour, form and movement. They expressed a mood or an inner vision. Everyday subjects took the place of mythical or biblical stories.

This selection from the Fundatie Collection shows how modernism flourished in the Netherlands and how it influenced later generations of artists. Vincent van Gogh, who left for Paris in 1886, had a major influence on subsequent painters. His intense use of colour and loose brushwork also inspired Isaac Israëls, who went to the French capital in 1903 and painted, among other things, the nightlife there. The next generation of painters, such as Leo Gestel, Jacoba van Heemskerck and Jan Sluijters, went a step further – colour played a particularly important role in their work. Picasso and Telting, on the other hand, experimented mainly with form in their work from the 1940s and 1980s. The experiment of modernism continued to resonate long afterwards.

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