Keys to a passion

The first sequence of the exhibition, Subjective Expressionism, evokes the questions each of us has about life, death, anguish and solitude: Kazimir Malevich, Edvard Munch, Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, Otto Dix and Helene Schjerfbeck.

The development of the second sequence reflects the importance of the Contemplative line in our collection. It ranges from meditations on nature – Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Ferdinand Hodler and Emil Nolde – to the radicalism of abstraction, with Kazimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian, Constantin Brancusi and Mark Rothko. Quite another direction leads to a vision of more embodied hedonism: Pierre Bonnard and Pablo Picasso.

The third sequence, Popist, is resolutely engaged with the vitality, energy and progress of modern life, represented through its most contemporary expressions – the city, sport, advertising and the media – in works by Robert Delaunay, Fernand Léger and Francis Picabia.

The fourth sequence centers on Music, the close relationship between artists and music, which plays a decisive role – both explicitly and implicitly – through an emblematic selection of works by Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, František Kupka and Gino Severini.