Les Nabis et le decor @ Musee du Luxembourg

True pioneers of modern décor, Bonnard, Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Sérusier, Ranson and Vallotton defended an art relating directly to life. They created original, joyous and rhythmic works, intended to decorate contemporary interiors in reaction against the aesthetics of historical pastiche that were in vogue at the end of the 19th century.
The decorative arts of the Nabis are a specific experience of total art, based on breaking down the boundaries of technique.
Responding most often to commissions from friends and patrons close to the group, they took themes familiar to artists such as the association of women with nature, inwardness and spirituality. Driven by the desire to create an art accessible to all, the Nabis innovated in the fields of tapestry, wallpaper, stained glass and ceramics. Their creations, remaining as prototypes, are part of the movement of decorative renewal defended and popularised in France by Siegfried Bing. Most of the decorative panels of the Nabis have been dispersed over time.
The ambition of the exhibition is to reconstitute as completely as possible some of the major collections they produced. But it has become impossible to show their original hangings in the absence of documents or photographs.

Maurice Denis, Femmes assises a la terrasse, 1891