Monet paintings at Columbus Museum of Art

Gardens full of lush greens and deep red and brilliant purple swirls of flowers decorate the walls of the Columbus Museum of Art.

“In Monet’s Garden: The Lure of Giverny” enchants the viewer with scenes from famed artist Claude Monet’s self-planted gardens. The paintings reflect the mastermind and impressionistic beauty of Monet.

Giverny, a small town in France, was the home and inspiration to Monet. Filled with colorful gardens and delicate ponds, Giverny has inspired many artists to this day.

“The garden, in essence, is a work of art, entirely created by Monet,” said Dominique Vasseur, curator of European art for the museum. “It is an extremely beautiful garden.”

Displaying work from American Impressionists to today’s contemporary artists, the exhibit takes viewers on a journey through time.

In conjunction with the Musée Marmottan in Paris, France, the Columbus Museum of Art organized the exhibition and is the only place in the United States it will be shown.

Vasseur said artists from all around the world come to learn and paint at Giverny. He said most of the artists that visit and study at Giverny do so because of Monet’s legacy which lives within the gardens.

“The garden is steeped in the history of this great artist,” Vasseur said.

The exhibition intends to show Monet’s broad influence in the art world. It parallels Monet’s work against American artists from the late 19th century through today. With works ranging from clear, impressionistic pieces to early abstract forms, the paintings differ in style. Within the exhibition, the development and changes in Monet’s style can be seen. Interspersed between World War I paintings and contemporary art, Monet’s influential pieces move from clearly impressionistic to bordering the abstract style.

Lisa Florman, professor of history of art at Ohio State, said Monet had a great influence on abstract art as well as impressionism.

“Part of the importance of the Giverny paintings is that they were so influential on the American abstract artists such as Jackson Pollock,” Florman said.

Florman said a number of Monet’s later paintings in the late 19th century begin to suggest some abstract style forms.

She said in these later paintings, the handling of the paint suggests a more free style of brush work. In pieces displayed in the exhibit such as “The Path Under the Rose Arches,” painted in 1920, the paint is visible, thickly applied and much more dramatic than in Monet’s earlier, more impressionistic pieces, such as his famous “Water Lilies” of 1905. It is these later pieces that Florman said abstract artists of the 20th century began to look toward for inspiration.

Modern artists today are still finding inspiration not only from Monet but from his Giverny home. Artists such as Miranda Lichtenstein found inspiration and artistic exploration while studying in Monet’s Giverny gardens. In her “Coil” photograph displayed in the exhibit, Lichtenstein studied and used Giverny for the subject of her work. She used electric lighting during night to create haunting photographs that immerse viewers within the most private places of the garden.

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., on Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and is closed on Mondays. Tickets for the exhibit are $8 for students and seniors, $10 for adults and $5 for children.

Jennifer Hallquist can be reached at [email protected].