The National Museum of Singapore has done it. Creating a space in which a local or foreigner can be transported into another space. Something we dream about. Now it is a reality. I did not want to be caught up with all the formalities of the opening ceremony. Having to talk to friends and acquaintances when what I want is some quiet time to immerse myself in the art. Today, the start of a long weekend, I decided, the Saturday crowd notwithstanding, not to wait any longer. To come up close and personal with some of the most timeless and priceless works of art.
‘This exhibition comprises 145 paintings, drawings and photographs from the collection of the Musee d’Orsay. The works span the period of 1848 to 1914, a period of profound change and contrast for France and Europe. Torn between the past and modernity, artists tried to reconcile the radical transformations they were witnessing and to redefine themselves. While some artists embraced contemporary life, others sought refuge in a heroic past, evoking scenes from literature, music and mythology. In dealing with modernity, some artists also confronted its harshness through the realistic presentation of violent struggles, while others found solace in solitude, exploring the mind, imagination and dreams.’
I was most keen to see Van Gough’s ‘Starry Night’, Paul Cezanne’s ‘The Card Players’, Alexandre Cabanel’s ‘The Birth of Venus’ and Rene-Xavier Prinet’s ‘The Beach At Cabourg At High Tide’. I was also treated to ‘The Clown Cha-U-Kao’ by Toulouse-Lautrec, along with key works by forerunners of modern art including Claude Monet and Berthe Morisot. As I walked through the exhibition, I knew I would be back. There was just too much to take in.
Some people were looking at one painting without moving while others followed the curator’s tour. I have never seen such a crowd for an exhibition here. Families, groups, couples and singles. People are indeed interested. It was an education into a dream world of a reality from a different time. I was in the National Museum. But I was in a different time and a different country. At the turn of a different century when artists captured how men and women reacted to a new contemporary life.
