French Moderns | An Introduction: Part I
About this Event
October 13, 2026
■5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
■Torggler Lecture Hall
Discover the revolutionary visions that shaped modern art. Presented in advance of the Torggler's fall exhibition French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850-1950, join Executive Director Holly Koons and Curator of Exhibitions Lucas Matheson for an engaging exploration of French art spanning one hundred transformative years.
From academic painting to Impressionism to the radical innovations of the mid-20th century, France was a hotbed of artistic revolution. In the first lecture, Holly Koons will trace how French artists challenged tradition and reimagined what art could be from 1850 to 1900. In the second lecture, Lucas Matheson will guide you through the continued expansion of artistic possibility from 1900 to 1950, when Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism, and abstraction pushed art beyond the eye and further into the mind.
This is your chance to gain a greater understanding of the movements that shaped the modern world.
Admission: free, no reservations required
French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850–1950 exhibits fifty nine works of art from the Brooklyn Museum’s renowned European collection and privileges France as the artistic center of international modernism from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries.
About the Exhibition