Impressionist Installations And Private Exhibitions Martha Ward Summary

In Martha Ward’s essay Impressionist Installations and Private Exhibitions, Ward explores the ways in which the location of exhibitions and the way that they were organized impacted painting in late nineteenth-century Paris. With the art market flourishing and governmental policies encouraging independence, it was wise for artists such as the Impressionists to branch out and showcase their works in diverse ways. Throughout her essay, Ward stresses the varying “social and aesthetic distinctions that contemporaries experienced as significant and held to be definitive,” (Ward 49). Increasing social expectations led to increased restrictions, boundaries between the public and the private became challenging. Private showings represented the varying artistic principles that could …show more content…
Factors included where the piece would be hung, wall color, size, scale, and frame. While these factors may seem slight, they determined whether the piece would be noticed as a self-determining object addressed to the public or as a mere decoration to an individual’s living quarters. Ward went on the explore numerous late nineteenth-century installations and they allow individuals to understand contemporary art. Complaining from individuals such as Degas seemed to spark interest in how the Salon carried out its practices. By 1874, Degas and other artists withdrew from public showings due to incessant argumentation. Instead, intimate areas were sought out to develop values that complemented both the work and its surrounding environment. This new development led to the flourishing of art circles throughout the 1870s and 1880s. These circles paved an easy road to collectors for professional artists and gave lesser known artists a chance to be noticed. Protests of these circles only enhanced the image, and it became clear that the private space shed light on beauty and connections between the work and the