Musee d’Orsay Masterpieces In Singapore

You know what I really like about the year end in Singapore? There’s always a deluge of cultural events around town, and it’s always such a treat to go see, indulge and be stimulated. The interest in and richness of cultural events in London is a vibe which I love about that city and I’m glad to see it is becoming that way here in sunny ‘Singers’. In fact, I was at the National Portrait Gallery in London just last Friday evening and was thrilled to see how full it was with people coming to see the exhibits and taking part in a tutored sketching session. I hope it will become that way here soon.

So we just talked about the Titanic exhibition in our recent post, and in Singapore, there’s lots more in the pipeline. But this week, the biggie to open its doors is the exhibition of 140 pieces of world renown artwork from the Musée d‘Orsay, the famous art museum in Paris which I never tire of visiting every time I am in the city. And I’m surprised that you only need pay $11 to get a foot into the delicious visual feast.

The exhibition Dreams & Reality: Masterpieces of Painting, Drawing & Photography from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris runs from now until 5 February 2012 at the National Museum and is part of the wider Voilah! French Festival that’s hitting the town in a big way (more in another post). The 140-plus artworks comprise Salon, Realists, Impressionists and Post-Impressionists paintings, photographs and drawings from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, exploring man’s reaction towards modernity at the turn of the century. The changing landscapes and life of Paris in early modernity got artists rethinking their approach to depicting the world around them, resulting in wonderful works like Paul Cézanne‘s The Card Players, Vincent van Gogh‘s Starry Night and Alexandre Cabanel‘s The Birth of Venus, and art by other greats like Gustave Courbet, Edgar Degas, Jean-François Millet, Édouard Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec and loads more.

Art buffs, take advantage of the free guided tours daily in English at 11.30am and 2.30pm (from 31 Oct) and in Mandarin every weekend (from 5 Nov) at 3.30pm. Meet at Exhibition Galleries, Basement.

Love the fact that there are lots of spin off activities from this splendid exhibition for everyone including kids. Here’s some highlights to make time for:

 

Dreams & Reality: A Curator’s Tour
11 Nov, 2 Dec, 23 Nov & 11 Jan 2012 at 7.30pm – 9.00 pm

Get a more in depth viewing of the exhibition with senior curator, Szan Tan as she takes you through this tour. A graduate from the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London, she has been a curator since 1997 and managed some of the previous exhibitions including Greek Masterpieces from the Louvre, A Story of the Image – Old & New Masters from Antwerp and Pompeii, Life in a Roman Town 79CE. $19 per person (including admission fees) and limited to 15 people per tour, starting out from Exhibition Galleries, Basement.

 

Dreams & Reality: A Storytelling Session for Children
Every Wednesday from 2 Nov until 1 Feb, except 21 & 28 Dec) at 10am and 11 am

For 5-8 year olds, this is based on a first-come-first-served basis. This free, half-hour programme sounds like fun, with storytellers presenting tales about the subjects, artists, themes and art works in this exhibition and lots of interaction. It should make a wonderful introduction for kids into the world of art, starting out from the Exhibition Galleries, Basement.
 

Dreams & Reality: An Interactive Tour for Children
Sat 29 Oct, 5 Nov, 19 Nov, 3 Dec, 17 Dec 2011 at 10.30 am and 1.30 pm
Older kids from 9-14 years old get a treat on this signature ‘interactive tour’. Assemble at Exhibition Galleries, Basement and meet Master Painter Vincent van Gogh as he gets inspired by two colourful characters on his quest to perfect his work. Through dramatised performance, fun activities and lots of interaction with the characters, the kids will have a whale of a time discovering the joys of art! $12 per kid.

 

Be an Art Model!
Every Tuesday and Thursday
“Excue me, are you a moderl?” If you ever had hopes to be one, here’s a chance – but with a simplyfab twist. If you think you have what it takes to be an artist’s ‘moderl’, pop by to the museum and have a little interview. To fit the bill, you need be able to pose (standing or sitting) for at least 15 minutes at a time, not have any hang-ups about being watched, be game to be dressed up in costumes and commit to a 1.5-hour sketching session on Tuesdays or Thursdays. Email  wong_shu_cheng@nhb.gov.sg to find out more.

 

The Modern Legacy of Post-Impressionism
Wed 30 Nov at 7.30pm
For some stimulating brain food, attend this talk by Jeffrey Say, a lecturer from LASALLE College of the Arts. While the Impressionist artists are credited for founding modernism, the Post-Impressionists were the ones who made the decisive impact on the development of modern art. This lecture will look at how Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin  influenced Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and  other artists of the early 20th century. For a local spin, this lecture also tries to draw certain parallels between Post-Impressionism, and Nanyang-style art of Singapore and other Southeast Asian artists. $10, The Salon.

 

Railway Trains and the Water Lily Pool: Time in Claude Monet’s Paintings
9 Dec 2011 at 7.30pm
Professor Emeritus Virginia Spate of the University of Sydney will explore Claude Monet’s expression of time through his paintings – from  the timelessness of traditional open-air landscapes, to railway trains that are controlled not by nature‘s time but by mechanical time, to that ‘momentary effect of light before it changes’ which seem to transcend time. Nice stimulation and brings you back to university days of swallowing knowledge for knowledge’s sake.  The Salon, $10, excludes exhibition admission.