The inaugural exhibition at the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum presents a selection of 45 masterpieces that highlights the distinct but highly complementary strengths of these two world-renowned collections, featuring key examples of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and early Modernism, including paintings by Cézanne, Chagall, Kandinsky, Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, and van Gogh.

The exhibition traces Modernism's roots in late nineteenth-century France, beginning with Claude Monet's Lady in the Garden (1867), one of the early monuments of Impressionistic plein-air painting. A scene of urban leisure by Camille Pissarro and portraits by Pierre Auguste Renoir demonstrate the range of subjects depicted by this innovative French avant-garde. Post-Impressionism and early Modernism are seen through a selection of paintings that are striking for their daring flatness and use of color, including Paul Gauguin's paintings of Tahiti's exotic "primitives," and Paul Cézanne's work in landscape, portraiture, and still life. Modernism's continuation in the hands of the early twentieth-century School of Paris can be seen in the work of the great colorists Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard; in fine examples of Pablo Picasso's painting prior to and during the development of Cubism; as well as in Cubist works by Picasso's contemporaries Fernand Léger, Robert Delaunay, and Franti_ek Kupka. The exhibition also features paintings by Marc Chagall, André Derain, Franz Marc, Amedeo Modigliani, Henri Rousseau, Louis Valtat, Kees Van Dongen, and Vincent van Gogh. The exhibition ends with the abstraction of Vasily Kandinsky, including his great Paris-period painting, Dominant Curve (1936).

Several of the Guggenheim's contributions to the exhibition are part of the Thannhauser Collection, an extensive suite of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century masterpieces bequeathed to the museum by the German-born dealer and collector Justin K. Thannhauser (1892-1976) and his wife Hilde. Many other works in the exhibition are gifts from Solomon R. Guggenheim's private collection, or museum purchases made under his auspices. Another painting, Picasso's The Studio (1928), comes from The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy. Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979) was Solomon's niece, and she transferred her collection and palazzo in Venice to the Guggenheim Foundation in 1976. In addition, important exchanges and outside donations have rounded out these core contributions to build the current Guggenheim collection. Most of the Hermitage paintings in the exhibition originally belonged in the private holdings of Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov, two prominent Russian businessmen who each developed world-class collections of French painting.

The exhibition has been organized by Lisa Dennison, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and Albert Kostenevich, Curator of Modern European Painting, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

This exhibition is sponsored by INTERROS Holding Company.

Museum Hours: 9:30 am - 8:30 pm, daily

Admission: $15.00 adults, $11 students, $7 children 6-12, free under 6

NV residents with ID may purchase tickets for $12
Access to both Museums may be purchased for $25.00

Tel: 702 414-2440
Fax: 702 414-2442
Toll free: (1) 866-GUGG TIX
Website: www.guggenheimlasvegas.org