For too long the fine academic art of the 19th-century has lingered in the shadow of the Impressionist movement. The French Academy, with its rules and standards, has often been cast as the villain in the story of the period, standing in opposition to the "heroic" Impressionists in their quest for "artistic freedom."
It made for a good story, but, after too many retellings, it is now too much of a cliche. So a search for new narratives is under way, as shown by "The Birth of Impressionism — Freedom in Painting: Masterpieces from the Musee d'Orsay" at the National Art Center Tokyo, an exhibition that sets out to celebrate Impressionism without also damning academicism.
You wouldn't know this from the title, though, with its emphasis on Impressionism and freedom, but the museum's website is a little more helpful: "The exhibition attempts to give new life to the rich and diverse era from the late 1860s to early 1880s in which a broad spectrum of movements and talents coexisted alongside each other, and to free ourselves from the stereotype judgment of Impressionism being 'good' and academicism being 'bad.' "
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