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Past Exhibitions

Browse the chronological list of past exhibitions at the Saint Louis University Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCRA), or search for a specific exhibition. Click “View” for more information about an exhibition. If you need further information about an exhibition, please contact us.

Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre

Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre

March 8, 2011 to July 31, 2011

Georges Rouault was born in working-class Paris in 1871, and apprenticed as a youth to a stained glass workshop. In late 1890, he enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts, where he became the favorite pupil of Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau. Rouault became involved with the Fauves (among them his classmate Henri Matisse) and began participating in major exhibitions, notably the Salon d'Automne of 1905. Rouault developed his own, primarily Expressionist, style, influenced by his strong affinity for the medieval period. Yet he remained outside of the group movements that dominated the twentieth century, developing a focused, persistent artistic vision expressed in a variety of media. In addition to paintings, drawings, and prints, he also executed ceramics and designs for tapestry and stained glass, as well as the set for Diaghilev's ballet 1929 ballet The Prodigal Son. Rouault came to be highly regarded in France and internationally, and was the first artist to be given a state funeral by the French government upon his death in 1958.

Rouault's Miserere is considered a landmark in the history of printmaking and twentieth-century art. Originally commissioned by Rouault's powerful Parisian art dealer, Ambroise Vollard, the project was conceived as two volumes, titled Miserere and Guerre, to be made up of 100 large etchings accompanied by text by poet André Suarès. Rouault developed the majority of the images between 1914 and 1918-the years of World War I. His initial ink and gouache sketches were transferred to copper plates. Under Vollard's strenuous demands, Rouault reworked the plates continuously between 1922 and 1927. Ultimately, the books never materialized, but 58 images were printed in an edition of 450 in 1927. Vollard later had the plates canceled so that no further prints could be made. However, due to Vollard's untimely death in 1939 and Rouault's legal struggles with Vollard's heirs, the etchings were not published until 1948. Given the title Miserere, they were recognized as a milestone in expanding the technical and expressive range of the print.

Perhaps more than anything, Rouault's devout Roman Catholic faith was the guiding if unstated principle of his art, leading to his persistent concern with the twin themes of humanity's frailty and redemption. Miserere is in many senses a comprehensive expression of Rouault's religious vision. In the series Rouault addresses many of the themes that prevail throughout his work: brutality; degradation; hatred; injustice and judicial corruption; loneliness; poverty and hunger; the destructiveness of war; and-counterbalancing it all-compassion. Art critic John Canaday describes Rouault as "one of the great printmakers of the age," and the Miserere prints as "landmarks in the development of print techniques." Born out of the unprecedented violence of the First World War and Rouault's intense compassion for the marginalized and underprivileged, Miserere continues to speak forcefully and poignantly in our present times, and can be appreciated for its technical achievement, stark beauty, human insight, and spiritual integrity.

MOCRA is pleased to present this major body of work by a distinctive figure in twentieth-century art.

All of my work is religious for those who know how to look at it. | Georges Rouault

above:
Installation view of Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre at MOCRA, 2011. Photo by Jeffrey Vaughn.

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