Out of Focus. Another Vision of Art

Monet’s Water Lilies series introduced the concept of blurriness into art, using the hazy and indistinct as expressive elements. This exhibition explores how this phenomenon became a new way of representing and understanding the world for later artists.

Out of Focus. Another Vision of Art features works by artists such as Alberto Giacometti, Gerhard Richter, Mark Rothko, Eva Nielsen, Claude Monet, Thomas Ruff, Alfredo Jaar, Soledad Sevilla, Christian Boltanski, Mame-Diarra Niang and Bill Viola, among others.

Long considered a benchmark of abstract painting, the Water Lilies series has also been a forerunner of the large immersive installations that would follow. However, the blurred, out-of-focus effect that characterises the vast expanses of water on the canvases – originally attributed to a supposed visual impairment on Monet’s part – had never been fully examined. Today, by contrast, this artistic technique is recognised as a deliberate aesthetic choice and serves as the central thread running through the exhibition.

Starting with the aesthetic roots of blurriness in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and tracing the intellectual, scientific, social and artistic upheavals that shaped Impressionism, the exhibition is structured around sections that bring together paintings, videos, photographs and installations by various artists. 

“At the frontier of the visible” explores how blurring, initially defined as a loss of sharpness, turns out to be a privileged medium for capturing a world where instability reigns and visibility becomes clouded. “Erosion of certainties” places us in a new realm where artists propose alternative approaches, treating their materials as transient, disordered, mobile, unfinished or uncertain. “In praise of the indistinct” focuses on how, in response to a profound disturbance in the order of the world, artists choose the indeterminate, the indistinct and the allusive. Finally, the epilogue, “Uncertain futures”, explores how blurriness reveals instability while also creating the conditions for a renewed sense of wonder.

Organised by the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris in collaboration with the ”la Caixa” Foundation, the exhibition features works from the ”la Caixa” Foundation Contemporary Art Collection and uses the blurred, out-of-focus and imprecise as a key to reinterpreting aspects of modern and contemporary visual art.