Pierre Bonnard (1867 – 1947), Dining Room in the Country, 1913, Minneapolis Institute of Art
Judith Schrut previews Tate Modern’s inaugural show of 2019, Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory.
To help us cope with the speed and stress of modern life, we’re encouraged to try slow cooking, slow tourism and slow living. Now, with its first show of the new year, Pierre Bonnard: the Colour of Memory, Tate Modern introduces us to the delightful concept of slow looking. I viewed the show, slowly, earlier this week and was completely smitten.
It’s Britain’s first major Bonnard exhibition in many years, displaying the work of this modern French painter of intimate domestic scenes, fleeting moments of everyday life and landscapes so richly layered and saturated with colour they are almost abstract.
Pierre Bonnard, The Studio with Mimosas 1939-46, Musée National d’Art Moderne, photo c.Centre Pompidou
Bonnard has always been a personal favourite, but the chance to view at one time over 100 of his greatest works, brought together from museums and private collections around the world, is a revelation, a chance to see this connoisseur of colour in a new light.
The show includes a fascinating selection of home movies and early photographs, taken on a pocket Kodak camera by the artist and his wife, Marthe de Meligny. On display too are a number of paintings without frames, allowing us to see how Bonnard seemed compelled to fill every canvas to its very edge with paint, colour and imagination. Look, look and look again, and you may well notice mysterious figures, shadows or small animals in various corners of many works.
I’ve always wondered why so many Bonnard paintings feature a nude woman (modelled by his wife) bathing. I was intrigued to learn this was because Marthe suffered from various illnesses throughout her life, treating these with hydrotherapy, ie, plenty of baths.
Pierre Bonnard, Nude in the Bath, 1936, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris/ Roger-Viollet
It was also fascinating to understand the importance of time and travel in the artist’s work. Instead of the usual painting easel, Bonnard would pin blank canvases, several at a time, directly to the walls in whatever room he was working. He then painted variously on each canvas, over weeks, months, years. During his and Marthe’s frequent travels to different homes and locations in France, he would load all works in progress into their car, re-attaching them on walls at each destination in order to continue painting. This of course also meant that most of the time Bonnard was painting from memory.
/Pierre Bonnard, Coffee (Le Café), 1915, Tate
Whether this is the first you’ve heard of Pierre Bonnard or the umpteenth time you’ve viewed Marthe in the bath, this exhibition is an unmissable treat. I urge you to go and see it. Slowly.
The CC Land Exhibition: Pierre Bonnard, the Colour of Memory runs until 6 May 2019 at Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG. General museum admission free. Exhibition tickets £17-18, free for members, £5 for under 18s. Find out more at tate.org.uk.
