The exhibition presented at the Beaux-arts and the École de Nancy museums is original for more than one reason. It is dedicated to an art critic whose motto was Rien sans art (Nothing without art), and approaches the works of the innovating artists of his time from an original angle, whether looking at painting, sculpture, the decorative arts, medals or prints. The exhibition is the fruit of a collective work. The musée d’Orsay lent some one hundred pieces while other exceptional loans of unusual works were granted by Roger Marx’s descendants and private collectors. The exhibition draws a list of the aesthetic commitments that motivated Roger Marx’s career. Over 200 works illustrate the different currents of the French artistic scene from 1882 to 1913 through his eyes.
The defender of the avant-gardes
Roger Marx was born in Nancy in 1859 and was buried in his native town in 1913. He is one of the main characters of French artistic life at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. He was an art critic and a fervent defender of the avant-gards of the 1900s, as well as a passionate and refined collector. He followed a very important career as a high civil servant in the administration of the beaux-arts in Paris. The public at large does not know his work, or œuvre as we can surely refer to his considerable production. At the end of the 19th century his name was closely associated to a great number of artists barely known at the time but that he encouraged and unveiled to the public, such as Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Paul Gauguin, Eugène Carrière, Auguste Rodin, Emile Gallé… His aesthetic choices, rather daring for his time, were determining.
Thirty years of artistic life
The exhibition at the musée des beaux-arts brings to life 30 years of artistic life through Marx’s choices and aesthetic commitments. His training as an art critic took place in Nancy, followed by the professional debuts in Paris as of 1883, where he fought for the cause of artists such as Puvis de Chavannes, Whistler, Fantin-Latour or Auguste Rodin. During the Universal Exposition of 1889 he entered a huge battle to have the decorative arts recognized at the same title as the «beaux-arts». He definitely took his position on the side of the avant-gardes and fought for Redon, Rops, later Monet, Matisse, Signac, Cézanne, Othon Friesz, Maurice de Vlaminck or Jean Puy. Gauguin and his «ornamental» concept of art, which he shared, charmed him, and he was very attentive to the beginnings of the Nabis, Denis, Vuillard and Bonnard. The art of medals, which he dedicated many fundamental works to, seemed to him to be the ideal means to support republican ideals. Art must prepare itself for the coming advent of a social form of art, aimed at everyone. He also dedicated himself in particular to defend the publication of art and prints, of which all the techniques and the different types are approached, from etchings on wood to the lithograph, the poster or binding, with Lepère, Toulouse-Lautrec, Ranson, Vuillard...
Roger Marx and the École de Nancy
The Musée de l’École de Nancy focuses more on the relations between Marx and the decorative artists and painters of the school of Nancy. Though he settled in Paris as of 1883, Roger Marx kept an attentive look on the itineraries his friends from Nancy followed along the path he himself contributed to defend. He made up an exceptional collection. When he died a major part was sold. Certain pieces, among them some twenty Gallé glass objects offered during that sale, as well as others not shown on the art market, are presented here. Over seventy works from the École de Nancy retrace the particularly rich relations Roger Marx had with the artists from Nancy, such as Victor Prouvé, Camille Martin or Emile Gallé. Among the works shown certain pieces were unknown to date, such as a corner cupboard Fleurs du Mal done in 1896, that he kept in his collection and which is proof of his support to Emile Gallé’s furniture. These pieces perfectly illustrate the creative itinerary of an artist who was prey to doubt, to questions and to the lack of understanding in the years 1900 - 1904.
Illustration: MAURICE DENIS Soir florentin,1905, oil on canvas, 45x65 Musée des Beaux Arts de Nancy
PUBLICATION
Catalogue of the Exhibition. Texts by Catherine Méneux, Blandine Chavanne Bertrand Tillier, Philippe Thiébaut Valérie Thomas Blandine Otter, Bénédicte Pasques, Rossella Froissard Pezone, Emmanuelle Héran, Jérôme Perrin, 320 pages, 300 color illustrations, co-published with Artlys. 45 €
To see more illustrations, click on VERSION FRANCAISE at the top of this page
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