Maurice De Vlaminck: Modern Art Rebel

Exhibition at the Barberini Museum, Potsdam, 14 September 2024 - 12 January 2025

After taking part in the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1905, Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958) quickly established himself as a leading figure in the French avant-garde. More than any other member of the Fauves, he very early on propagated the image of a rebellious modern artist who resolutely turned his back on the rules of academic painting. His main source of inspiration was the work of Vincent van Gogh, whose works Vlaminck studied at the major solo exhibition held at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in 1901. Van Gogh's self-taught background and his burgeoning myth as a brilliant artist and social outsider reinforced this identification, which would remain essential throughout Vlaminck's career.

This exhibition catalogue offers a broad overview of the painter's work as a whole, from his first compositions at the beginning of the twentieth century to his Cubist experiments inspired by Cézanne and Picasso, and his very last landscapes. The book recalls Vlaminck's essential contribution to the development of twentieth-century painting, in particular his role as one of the most important precursors of Expressionism.