Nabis (art)
The Nabis (the "prophets", from the Hebrew term for Prophet) were a group of young avant-garde Parisian artists of the 1890s who, through their widely diverse activities, were a major influence on the progressive art and graphic design produced in France at the turn of the 20th century. The galvanizing figure of Les Nabis was Paul Sérusier, who provided their name and disseminated the example of Paul Gauguin among them; the most famous of the Nabis are Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard, who were in fact somewhat peripheral to the core group. Meeting at the Academie Julian and then at the apartment of Paul Ranson and preaching that a work of art is the end product and visual expression of an artist's synthesis of nature in personal aesthetic metaphors and symbols, they paved the way for the early 20th-century development of abstract and nonrepresentational art. The integration of art and daily life was a goal the Nabis shared with most progressive artists of the time. Among the other artists who considered themselves Nabis was Maurice Denis, whose journalism put the group's aims in the eye of a progressive audience, and whose definition of painting—"a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order—expressed the Nabis approach. His Théories (1920; 1922) summed up the Nabis' aims long after they had been superceded by the Fauve painters and by Cubism. Other Nabis were Ker-Xavier Roussel, Paul Ranson and Felix Vallotton. The sculptor Aristide Maillol was associated for a time with the group. The Post-Impressionist styles they embraced skirted some aspects of contemporary Art Nouveau and Symbolism. The influence of the English Arts and Crafts Movement set them to work in media that involved crafts beyond painting: printmaking, book illustration and poster design, textiles and set design.
External linksThe NabisPaul Ranson
ReferenceClaire Freches-Thory and Antoine Terrasse, 2003 The Nabis : Bonnard, Vuillard and Their Circle ISBN: 2080110764
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