Ronan Barrot – LA NATURE N’EST PAS UN DÉCOR – De Monet aux artistes contemporains

Seated at the edge of his garden’s pool in Giverny, Claude Monet discovered what would become one of the major revolutions in painting: the miracle of the Water Lilies. In his incessant quest for light, he gradually dissolves the boundaries of pictorial space. The painting is no longer an open “window” on a stage, but an immersive space in which the viewer is invited to enter.

Painting no longer seeks to represent the world, but to restore its vibration, matter and light. With this radical gesture, Monet opens the way to modern painting and considerably broadens the field of possibilities.

Through some sixty works, the exhibition unfolds in nine rooms, each dedicated to a contemporary artist answering in his own way the questions opened by Monet.

Landscape is understood in a broad sense: it encompasses the countryside, gardens and natural spaces, without excluding the urban landscape.

Dialogue with Monet’s Water Lilies, the telluric depths of Evi Keller, the luminous intimacy of Jacques Truphémus, memory and form in Markus Lüpertz, the suspended atmospheres of Malgorzata Paszko, the hyper-perception of Youcef Korichi, the engraved landscapes of Érik Desmazières, the power of color in Charlotte de Maupeou or the pictorial density of Ronan Barrot.

Without any apparent stylistic connection, these works nevertheless respond to each other. All share with Monet the same freedom in front of nature and its representation.

Practical information:

From May 8 to October 18, 2026

Maison Caillebotte at the decorated farm, Yerres, France