Michael Werner Gallery, New York is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings, pastels, and drawings by the pioneering late 19th to early 20th century French artist Ker-Xavier Roussel (b. 1867 in Lorry-lès-Metz, France; d. 1944 in L’Étang-la-Ville, France).
A founding member of Les Nabis, Roussel, along with his counterparts Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, and Maurice Denis, expanded on the work of their Post-Impressionist predecessors, Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. Employing flat patches of color, bold contours, and simplified lines, the work of Les Nabis ushered in important 20th century modern art movements, including abstraction and symbolism. Roussel remains less well known than other members of Les Nabis, largely because of his dedication to classical and mythological subject matter after the group’s last exhibition in 1900.
Several scholars have recently argued that Roussel’s work was not simply a nostalgic harken towards antiquity. His work was firmly rooted in the milieu of early 20th century France. The northern light and Mediterranean coves in his mythological scenes were inspired by the garden of his house in L’Étang-la-Ville, just west of Paris, as well as his travels to the South of France. Art historian Théo de Luca points out how Roussel’s figures blend seamlessly into the background. Their familiar and iconographic postures underpin the overall expression and evocation of his compositions. Art historian Florian Illies says that Roussel embodies the 20th century or the “century of acceleration,” identifying movement as the main theme in his work: “namely the wind in the trees, the pastel crayon that races across the paper, and above all the libidinous elan that is to be sensed with all his mythological figures.”
Ker-Xavier Roussel enrolled at École des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 1888, before going on to study at Académie Julian. He took part in the Salon des Indépendants and La Libre Esthétique and also exhibited his work in prestigious galleries, including Bernheim-Juene, Durand-Ruel, Louis Carré, and Druet. He received numerous public commissions, including the stage curtain for the Comédie des Champs-Élysées in 1913, the staircase for the Kunst Museum Winterthur in 1917, the Théâtre de Chaillot in 1936, and the Assembly Hall of the Palais des Nations, Geneva, in 1937. After his death in 1944, he was the subject of several posthumous retrospectives, including at the Kunsthalle in Bremen in 1965, at Haus der Kunst in Munich and Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris in 1968, and at the Musée des Impressionnismes in Giverny in 2019.
Ker-Xavier Roussel opens to the public on Wednesday 5 June and will remain on view through 23 August. A catalogue with texts by George Condo, Théo de Luca, Florian Illies, Raimund Stecker, and Mathias Chivot accompanies the exhibition. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 10AM to 6PM in June, and Monday through Friday, 10AM to 6PM in July and August.