Suzanne Valadon dedicated almost four decades of her life to her art. Her subjects ranged from female nudes and portraits of women to still lifes and landscapes. Never having attended an art academy, Valadon was never bound by formal training or traditional artistic conventions. Her work was groundbreaking, especially as she became the first female artist to paint a male nude. In addition, her depictions of women were far less idealized than those seen in the works of her male peers, challenging conventional representations of the female form. Rather than the typical sensual, languid female forms, Valadon chooses to depict figures that are bold and monumental, and, at the height of her career, she even confronts her own body with raw honesty.
The exhibition showcases this exceptional figure and highlights her pioneering, but often underestimated, role in the birth of artistic modernity. It reveals the great freedom of this artist, who did not really adhere to any particular movement, except perhaps her own. The exhibition of almost 200 works draws on a wealth of national collections, in particular the largest, that of the Centre Pompidou, but also from the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie. Exceptional loans from the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Fondation de l’Hermitage and major private collections complete the exhibition.
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