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"Beautifying life" was the main message of the Nabis. This movement, born at the end of the 1880s, in contrast to the naturalism of the Impressionists, decompartmentalized art. The pioneers of this decorative art were Maurice Denis, Paul Sérusier, Pierre Bonnard or Édouard Vuillard. Twenty-somethings aspiring to break down the boundaries between fine arts and crafts to enrich everyday life with simplified and colorful forms on multiple supports: fans, screens, canvases, tapestries, stained glass, ceramics, cigar box .. Among the masterpieces on display in "Les Nabis et le décor", which has just opened at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris, there are ensembles reconstituted from French, Japanese and American collections, and not will probably never again find reunited. Interview with Isabelle Cahn, curator of the exhibition.
RFI : What is the point of looking today at the history of the Nabis ?
Isabelle Cahn : This is a first exhibition organized on the subject of Nabis and decor. It is a way of approaching the great principles of painting Nabis who wanted to distinguish themselves from painting easel and make decorative paintings.
" Nabis " means " prophets " in Hebrew and Arabic. Why are they today considered pioneers ?
The Nabis were revolutionary, because this desire to create a modern decor for modern interiors was theirs entirely. They have tried to distinguish themselves from the creations of the artists of previous generations while reinterpreting models, for example, the tapestries of the Middle Ages or the Japanese Art Nouveau to create very joyful contemporary scenes, related to their own life, their own environment. Their sisters or companions are often recognized in their paintings. This revolutionary side was the idea that the contemporary era was at least as interesting, if not more so, than the epochs or historicist styles that dominated then in the settings of the time.
The decor is at the center of this exhibition. Is it to place a cigar box at the same level as an oil painting ?
The idea was to live in everyday life, with works or objects that were both utilitarian, but beautiful. This is the idea of putting art in everything and also creating an art accessible to all in the form of utilitarian objects, but reviewed and redesigned by artists. So, among the Nabis, there is not only the desire to embellish life, but also to decompartmentalize production, to associate with artisans, to create a new environment.
This desire to decompartmentalize, what has this triggered in art and beyond in society ?
Finally, it was a fairly small experience that was not successful at all. One can even speak of a form of creation that remained very elitist, because the sponsors belonged to the same world as the Nabis. And their big plans to be edited and broadcast have remained in the prototype state. It was a very limited experiment, but, despite everything, full of dynamism and life, and to which the artists who followed followed. In any case, the Nabis participated in this great movement of renewal of the decorative arts in the late nineteenth century.
In the works the motive of woman is omnipresent. What was the role of women among the Nabis ?
The figure of the woman is often associated with the vegetation or the theme of the garden, with this enclosed space where the most precious elements will be included, so the woman is one of the most precious elements. She is also involved in the decorative, because very often, it is the women who take care of the interior. Among the Nabis too, there have been participations, because they have been associated with the production of painted frames and tapestries. They were also companions for this great movement of the decorative.
The only work found in the exhibition by a woman is a screen made by Marguerite Sérusier. Were women confined to a rather passive role within the Nabis movement ?
Yes, the role of the woman was absolutely not comparable to that of today. But these women artists have sometimes asserted themselves as artists, like Marguerite Sérusier who was 15 years younger than her husband. She was therefore also in a different dynamic and was herself an embroiderer and an accomplished upholsterer. She has created great sets and directed major workshops such as Atelier Martine, very famous for the creation of decorative arts. These women are also inspirational subjects, muses, idealized women.
The decorative cycle done by Bonnard, The Picking of apples, plunges us completely into the green. The Nabis, what function did they give to color ?
It is to be totally immersed in the green color, the color of the grass and the trees of his orchard of the family house and to make us almost feel, to breathe the perfume of the grass by painter's processes which are quite extraordinary. They are first of all a point of view on the ground, on the children picking up apples and bringing us back almost to the same level as the children. With the small size of children, we have the impression of being completely immersed, overwhelmed by these elements a little fantastic, extraordinary reveries.
The exhibition evokes Impressionism, Japonism, Art Nouveau ... What place do the Nabis have in all this ?
The Nabi movement is at the end of Impressionism, a period suspended in these great revival movements of the decorative arts of the late nineteenth century, but precisely also the arrival of the avant-garde. So, the Nabis are also a vanguard movement, but that will not have an extension in the twentieth century where each of the artists who composed the group will continue to create in a particular direction. This movement has an extremely short existence. He found himself at a very important moment in the creation, where art will shift more towards abstraction, towards symbolism, and detach from the naturalism of the Impressionists.
What is the most essential thing to learn from Nabis ?
The most striking thing about the decorative project of the Nabis is their desire to embellish life and to give us an embellished vision of life. This message is always contemporary. He strikes us, he moves us. It's not just a new style, but it's about bringing that joie de vivre, that beauty into everyday life. These sets were made to live in the everyday environment. I think this image and these values are extremely strong and affect us today too.
► The Nabis and the decor - Bonnard, Vuillard, Maurice Denis ..., from March 13 to June 30, 2019, at the Musée du Luxembourg, in Paris