A huge new Monet exhibition is heading to the Tate Modern next year
Hooray for Monet
Even if you’re an art luddite and the closest you got to galleries was watching reruns of Art Attack on CBBC, you’ll probably be au fait with Monet. The French painter pops up everywhere from Parisian Galleries to Emily in Paris (his work that is, not him, although what a cameo that would be). London’s Tate Modern however has never hosted a solo exhibition dedicated to Monet – until now.
After 26 years welcoming in both art aficionados, school trips and people finding a free spot to shelter from the rain, the Tate Modern has confirmed a huge new exhibition featuring 60 paintings from the French Impressionist painter. The exhibition comes in time with the 100th anniversary since the artist’s death, and it will be the UK’s biggest display of his work in almost a decade.
The landmark Monet exhibition was teased back in March when it appeared on the Tate’s 2027 programme. Now, we finally have more details, including its opening date and the sheer scale of the exhibition. It will be opening up 25th February and running until 27th June.
According to the Tate, it will “bring together breathtaking paintings from lenders across the globe, including rarely seen works from private collections” meaning you could be gawping at rarely seen works and adding a new layer of smugness to your cultural conversations (boasting) at the office. The exhibition centres on Monet’s profound and evolving relationship with time. According to the Tate, in the collection, we see how he echoed the rapid pace of modern life by capturing the fleeting, instantaneous ‘impressionist’ moment, through works such as Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare (1877). We are also shown, in celebrated series such as Poplars on the Epte (1891–1897), Monet’s attempts, through variations of the same subject, to capture a specific, transient instant in time. It will also explore the artist’s “enduring relationship with nature and how, as a subject in perpetual movement, it shifts with the passing years and seasons.”
Based mainly in France, Monet worked from around 1860 until his death in 1926, living through an era which saw the rise of railways, industrialisation, the modern city, and the adoption of standardised timekeeping, all of which massively influenced his work. Drawing on new research, the show explores how Monet responded to these seismic changes through his work. Whilst he’s known as a founder of impressionism, his influence is also central to modernism, and his portrayal of the natural world as he saw it around him still has huge influence today.
Although it won’t be opening until late February, tickets are already on sale, priced at £26, although it’s free for Tate members, with the usual £5 tickets if you’re 25 and under. You can find out more and book tickets via the Tate Modern's website.
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