Exhibition on Screen, the award-winning and much-loved art cinema brand, is proud to announce the release of Pissarro: Father of Impressionism in cinemas nationwide from 24 May 2022.
Born in the West Indies, Camille Pissarro found his passion in paint as a young man in Paris, and by the age of 43 had corralled a group of enthusiastic artists into a new collective.
Their first show was scorned by the critics, but the group had acquired a new name: the Impressionists. For the next 40 years Pissarro was the driving force behind what has today become the world’s favourite artistic movement.
As one of the most celebrated artists of 19th-century France and a central figure in Impressionism, Pissarro was considered a father-figure to many in the collective. His work was enormously influential to many artists, including Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne.
Directed by David Bickerstaff (Van Gogh & Japan, Lucien Freud – A Self Portrait), Pissarro: Father of Impressionism reveals Pissarro’s life and work through a series of intimate and revealing letters that he wrote to his family. This gripping film draws largely on the first major Pissarro retrospective in four decades at The Ashmolean, Oxford, and the remarkable Pissarro archive housed at the museum, exploring and highlighting the enthralling and hugely important biography and output of an incredible artist.
The Ashmolean Museum has a long tradition of excellence. As the UK’s first ever public museum (it opened its doors in May 1683) it houses a wonderfully rich collection, including the remarkable Pissarro archive, which has given the filmmakers exclusive access to the most extensive archive of any Impressionist painter.
Pissarro: Father of Impressionism also highlights works from a comprehensive exhibition which took place at the Kunstmuseum, Basel last year, aiming to show Pissarro as the galvanising force that propelled modern art forward and without whom there would have been no Impressionism.
The film features experts from both The Ashmolean, including Senior Curator Colin Harrison, Head of Exhibitions Agnes Valenčak, Museum Director Alexander Sturgis, and the Kunstmuseum’s Director Josef Helfenstein, Research Assistant Jelle Imkampe, and Assistant Curator Olga Osadtschy. The filmmakers also interview Pissarro expert Claire Durand-Ruel from the Durand-Ruel archive in Paris – all of whom give a unique insight into Pissarro as a man and an artist.
Pissarro: Father of Impressionism has a runtime of 90 minutes. The Ashmolean Museum’s Pissarro: Father of Impressionism exhibition is open until 12th June 2022.
