Museum Talks | Washington, DC #17 The Barnes Foundation – Matisse & Renoir: New Encounters

This conversation will be moderated by Faya Causey, former Head of Academic Programs at the NGA, and will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience.

This virtual talk will be held through two online platforms:

• VXP, an interactive videoconferencing technology designed specifically for the study of art and other visual materials. Access the VXP following this link (up to 200 attendees, on a first-connected, first-in basis)
• Barnes Live, for additional online participants. Access live following this link (no maximum capacity).

Discover or rewatch the recording below:

Exhibition

Villa Albertine DC is honored to host Cindy Kang for a virtual talk on Matisse and Renoir at the Robert Gallery on Thursday, July 18, from 6:00pm to 7:00pm ET.

Two innovators of Modern European Art, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919) and Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954) were also among Dr. Albert Barnes’ favorite painters. He collected their artwork voraciously over the course of four decades. On view at the Roberts Gallery, Matisse & Renoir: New Encounters at the Barnes presents 34 of these works that reflect the expansion of our educational program, emphasizing the objects’ art historical context.

Renoir was nearly 30 years older than Matisse. As a member of the impressionist group that upended painting conventions in the late 19th century, Renoir paved the way for Matisse to develop his own radical approach to color and form in the next century. Their ability to push boundaries changed the way successive generations of artists thought about color as an expressive compositional tool. The two artists met in 1917, near the end of Renoir’s life, and engaged in a creative dialogue over the next two years that Matisse cherished.

Arranged by artist and time period, the installation shows the stylistic development of both artists across their careers as well as the subjects and motifs they fruitfully revisited. By placing such iconic works in new contexts and juxtapositions, Matisse & Renoir: New Encounters at the Barnes encourages new perspectives.

Th exhibition opened on Sunday, June 23 and will be on display until September 8, 2024.

Find out more about the Barnes here.

The Speakers

Cindy Kang, PhD, Curator, The Barnes Foundation
Cindy Kang is a specialist in Modern European Art and particularly focuses on the relationship between painting and decorative arts in late 19th- and early 20th-century France. At the Barnes, she is co-curator for Matisse & Renoir: New Encounters at the Barnes (2024), co-curated Marie Laurencin: Sapphic Paris (2023–24), curated Marie Cuttoli: The Modern Thread from Miró to Man Ray (2020), and served as managing curator for the Barnes presentations of Berthe Morisot: Woman Impressionist (2018–19) and Renoir: Father and Son / Painting and Cinema (2018). Additionally, she commissioned the exhibition Water, Wind, Breath: Southwest Native Art in Community (2022) and co-led the institution’s land acknowledgment process. Kang previously held curatorial and research positions at the Frick Collection, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Bard Graduate Center, and was a scholar-in-residence at the Getty Research Institute. She received her PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.