Beyond the Easel: Decorative Painting by Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis, and Roussel, 1890-1930 - Tapa dura

The contributions of artists Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis and Ker-Xavier Roussel to the avant-garde of the 1890s as members of the group known as the Nabis are widely recognised. What is less known about these artists' careers is their work in decorative painting - work on a large or unusual scale. This gorgeous book reproduces 85 decorative works carried out by the four artists between 1890 and 1930, when each moved beyond the illusionism of easel painting and applied their wholly untraditional aesthetic of decoration to a traditional wide range of works for domestic interiors, from wall-size ensembles to screens. The book also examines the tastes and the role of the patrons who made these works possible. This book introduces and reunites paintings that have long been dispersed and presents to contemporary viewers bold and evocative works that literally expanded the role of painting as part of the modern experience. This book is the catalogue of an exhibition that will be open at The Art Institute of Chicago from 28 February through 16 May 2001 and then travel to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from 26 June through 9 September 2001.

Gloria Groom is David and Mary Winton Green Curator of European Painting at The Art Institute of Chicago. She is the author of Edouard Vuillard: Painter-Decorator (ISBN 0 300 05555 2, ?55.00), published by Yale University Press. Nicholas Watkins is Reader in the History of Art at the University of Leicester and a widely published authority on Bonnard. Jennifer Paoletti is research assistant in the European Painting Department of The Art Institute of Chicago. Therese Barruel is an independent scholar and specialist on Denis.