Robert Kudielka ///

The Jaundiced Eye. Art Cristicism and the Fallacies of Historicism

"The way Modern art history is usually told barely takes into account the seminal importance of the Exposition Universelle in 1855. Of course, one knows that both Ingres and Delacroix had large retrospective exhibitions in the Palais des Beaux -Arts; that Courbet protested with his own show Du Réalisme in a specially erected pavillion; and that Pissarro arrived in Paris just in time to see the paintings by Corot which were to have such a decisive influence over him. But these were minor incidents, in fact, compared with the depth charge which the Exposition Universelle was going to drop on the European concept of art. In trying to rival London's Great Exhibition of 1851, the French authorities had decided to add a substantial representation of art, foreign as well as French, to their celebration of technological progress. Apart from most of the European countries, Russia, Turkey, the United States, Mexico and Peru contributed to the international scene; and within the Palais des Beaux-Arts a small "Museum of Chinese Art" was established. It was the first time that art on such an international scale was brought together in one place. For six months Paris really did become the centre of the art world in the fullest sense of the word. According to Théophile Gautier four hours in the exhibition was equivalent for the connaisseur to a fifteen year pilgrimage(...)"