European Avant-Garde opens at the Blanton

Austin has a new long-term resident at the Blanton Museum of Art, and it's a heavy-hitting one. The museum is opening "The European Avant-Garde: From Impressionism to Cubism, Works from the Robertson Foundation," a long-term installation that pulls fourteen paintings from the celebrated collection of Julian and Josie Robertson. It opens to the general public today, September 27, and won't be coming down until August 5, 2029, so there's no rush to catch it before it vanishes.

The premise is straightforward: the exhibition traces the evolution of the European Avant-Garde from Impressionism through to Cubism, following the artists who spent the late 19th and early 20th centuries rethinking color, space, and composition. The names on the wall are the ones you know from art history textbooks: Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Paul Signac, Paul Gauguin, Pierre Bonnard, Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Odilon Redon, Henri Fantin-Latour, and Ludwig Meidner. One source also lists André Derain.

A few of the specific works worth knowing before you walk in: Claude Monet's La Seine à Argenteuil (1877), Camille Pissarro's La ferme du friche à Osny (1883), Paul Signac's Port-en-Bessin – Les rochers du Calvados (1883), Paul Gauguin's Au-dessus de la mer (1889), Pierre Bonnard's Mimosas (1915), Fernand Léger's La femme au miroir (1920), Henri Fantin-Latour's Roses (1886), and two Picassos: Jeune femme en robe bleu ciel (1949) and Tête de femme (La femme qui pleure) (1943). The range of dates alone tells you how much ground the show covers.

There's a local connection here, too. The works come from the Robertson Collection, built by Josephine "Josie" Tucker Robertson (1943–2010), a San Antonio-born UT Austin alumna who earned her B.A. in Fine Arts in 1965, and her husband Julian H. Robertson Jr. (1932–2022). The Robertson Foundation is a private family foundation they set up in 1996, and the exhibition is organized by the Blanton with the works on loan from that foundation. It's a nice full-circle moment for a UT alumna's legacy to end up on display at the university's museum.

Logistically, it's an easy visit. Admission is included with general museum entry, and it's free for members. The Blanton sits at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Congress Avenue, at 200 East Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., and it's open Tuesday through Friday 10am to 5pm, Saturday 10am to 8pm, and Sunday 10am to 5pm. The museum is directed by Simone Wicha and holds the largest public collection in Central Texas, with more than 22,000 objects. The campus itself has been freshened up by the Swiss firm Snøhetta, now sporting a canopy of petal sculptures and a site-specific mural by Carmen Herrera, Verde, que te quiero verde. And if you're into architecture, the permanent collection includes Austin, the 2,715-square-foot stone building Ellsworth Kelly completed in 2018, the only building he ever designed. With the exhibition running until 2029, you can take your time with it.