Immersive Beyond Monet Experience Opens Thursday
Learn the story behind the exhibit and how to best experience it.
Beyond Monet at the Wisconsin Center. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Starting Thursday, you can enjoy the French countryside and world-class art without leaving downtown Milwaukee.
Beyond Monet, an immersive exhibit featuring 400 paintings of French impressionist painter Claude Monet, opens at the Wisconsin Center on Oct. 20.
“It’s about putting the audience in the middle of it, in a place that is shoreless and has no borders,” said Fanny Curtat, an art historian for Montreal-based experience creator Normal Studio, while we stood inside the exhibit.
You enter or exit the experience at your leisure, but Curtat notes that there are two scenes that are exceptionally notable. A “radical” scene uses quotes from critics and the artist’s responses, displayed in French and English, to illustrate how Monet’s work was divergent from what was mainstream at the time.
“He is painting reality and all of its changing colors, which was so drastically different than what The Academy was doing,” said the art historian. His painting Impression Sunrise starts the loop and is also regarded as the start of the Impressionism movement. The loop closes with his best-known work, a series of paintings of water lilies.
The other signature scene includes Monet’s paintings of storms. Curtat noted that the French painter earned many of his landscapes, standing outside in the heat or cold to capture the scene.
“No, I’m not a great painter. Neither am I a great poet. I just do the best I can to express what I feel about nature,” says a quote from the artist projected between pieces.
At one point approximately 20 different haystack paintings appear on the screen. To the untrained eye, they appear nearly identical. “He’s painting air,” said Curtat, offering a suggestion of where to focus your eyes. The genius of Monet becomes visible when one looks away from the bails of hay. A similar effect exists on many of the other pieces.
The digital exhibit affords the public the ability to see hundreds of pieces in one location. “Having 400 pieces of Monet in a real place would be a mammoth exhibit. The cost, just insurance-wise, would be insane,” said Curtat.
Normal Studio and the Wisconsin Center District are able to show the pieces because it is in the public domain, but in many cases must license fees must be paid for high-resolution images of the physical pieces.
Similar to last year’s Beyond Van Gogh experience, an educational area first greets visitors. It is focused on explaining the different themes that appear in the exhibit. A “tunnel” divides the introductory area from the main room, with reflective streamers lit up with colored light in an attempt to simulate water.
Photos and videos of the exhibit are welcome and encouraged, including a selfie area in the gift shop at the end (yes, there is even a Monet cookbook).
Don’t wait if you want to see it. Unlike the repeatedly extended Beyond Van Gogh show, the Monet show will not be extended due to a return of convention business. The exhibit ends Jan. 8. A new event is due to begin loading into the space the day after the immersive experience closes.
The designers and animators at Normal Studio are already at work on two more experiences. The next up is an immersive experience of King Tut in partnership with National Geographic. The other is undisclosed. Neither are confirmed for a Milwaukee exhibition.
Tickets start at $37 at MonetMilwaukee.com. The experience is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday it is open until 9 p.m.
Photos
Video
If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits.
