The paper revolution of Nabis artists

Paris. The National Library of France did not have to request too many loans to mount its exhibition on the Nabie print: only 26 of the 189 objects on display come from private collections or from the Maurice Denis, Van Gogh (Amsterdam) and Orsay Museums. This richness of the BnF collections (which also includes the Jacques Doucet library and that of the Arsenal) is essentially due to the donation from collector Atherton Curtis, entered in 1943: a treasure trove of papers in perfect condition which fascinates visitors to the exhibition today. The aim is to show the laboratory that was the art of printmaking by the Nabis.

Gauguin’s heirs

In their introductory text, the curators, Céline Chicha-Castex and Valérie Sueur-Hermel, mention Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Félix Vallotton, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Paul Ranson and Aristide Maillol, forming this group having worked from 1890 to 1900 in the same direction. Along the way, they join Ker-Xavier Roussel, József Rippl-Ronai and James Pitcairn-Knowles. They show that this generation of artists, born between 1861 and 1870, realized Paul Gauguin’s ambition to produce inexpensive art at low cost, within the reach of almost all budgets, which is present in daily life but also revolutionary, initiating a new outlook and at the origin of part of the aesthetics of the 20th century. The only downside that we can bring to the work of the curators is not having devoted a space, even a small one, to Gauguin, proving what a precursor and model he was.

During the rooms, informed by the objects presented, numerous cartels developed and by the very didactic demonstration of what lithography and xylography are technically, the visitor discovers to what extent the Nabis changed the environment of the art-loving bourgeois classes, but also of the people of the big cities. The screen The Nurses’ Walk, frieze of cabs by Bonnard, published in 110 copies in 1895 or the wallpaper The Pink Boats by Denis, published in 1895, did not meet the crowds but the posters, which everyone saw, are also present – ​​in small numbers since the exhibition “Art is in the street” recently highlighted them at the Musée d’Orsay.

Another structuring point of the journey is the importance of the militant group formed by the Nabis and their entourage. We see Bonnard’s brother-in-law, the composer Claude Terrasse, asking him to illustrate his music theory method. Enthusiastic gallery owners (Le Brac de Boutteville), committed publishers (André Marty, Ambroise Vollard, Julius Meier-Graefe), art critics (Roger Marx, André Mellerio) support them. The printer Auguste Clot advises artists and supports their desires with incredible talent. Specialized journals such as The original print, The White Review Or The Feather are presented with the prints included in the subscription, the portfolios they publish or the fairs they organize. The era marks the birth of the artist’s book which enjoys a special place in the course. We learn that following Maurice Denis, who collaborated with André Gide on Urien’s Journey (1893) published by Edmond Bailly’s Librairie de l’Art Independent, the painters define themselves as “book decorators” and not illustrators: a total change of perspective.

What is evident everywhere is the group effect that propelled these young people into a movement that went beyond individualities. Everything starts or is enriched by high school friendships (Denis, Vuillard and Roussel but also the future actor and theater director Lugné-Poe met at Condorcet), marriages (Roussel with Marie Vuillard), a social life around notable personalities (Misia Natanson), a sociability which supports the strategies of artists and their publishers. Alongside the discovery of exceptional works that it allows, the exhibition appears as a luminous celebration of enthusiasm and audacity.