Saturday, March, 8th, 11am - 1pm $30 Members / $50 Non-Members (includes 1 year membership) The French avant-garde from 1900 to 1960 was the flowering of a crisis. Modernism announced itself as the dawn of a new era from which there would be no return, a definitive break with the past –– but it was not immediately clear what the crisis involved or what this sudden break heralded. Finding themselves in this strange, precarious situation, between the collapse of the old order and the birth of the new, artists like Matisse, Picasso, Duchamp, and Dalí explored in their art new possibilities of thought and perception. And they discovered in embryonic form the problems of art and civilization that would soon overshadow the entire 20th century –– problems that have only become increasingly urgent in the postmodern era. Yet the spirit of art during this period contrasts sharply with the tragic atmosphere of contemporary world events. Instead of merely reacting to the external situation, or representing it in artistic form, movements like dadaism and surrealism laid the seeds of revolt. These artists are characterized by their irrepressibly experimental attitude and their exploration of the manifold possibilities of irony, humor, chance, destruction, and automatism, all of which imply a new mode of creative consciousness. But the significance and the goal of this revolt is still ambiguous: sometimes motivated by the desire to adapt art to the conditions of modernity, sometimes by the desire to access the deepest strata of the human psyche, and sometimes seeking the fulfillment of the mysterious and apocalyptic prophecy of the death of art. This event will introduce modern art in France through a discussion of its historical context, its major movements and personalities, and an analysis of selected works. There will be refreshments and snacks provided.