*Monet & Venice *centered on Monet's Venetian series—paintings made during his 1908 trip with Alice, studies in water, reflection, and what he called *enveloppe*: the atmospheric veil between painter and motif. Monet once claimed Venice was "too beautiful to be painted." The first exhibition to focus on these paintings since their 1912 debut, and New York's largest Monet show in over 25 years, it brought together more than 100 artworks, books, and ephemera—including 19 Venetian canvases, among them the Brooklyn Museum's own *Palazzo Ducale* and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco's *The Grand Canal, Venice*. Monet's paintings were shown alongside work by Canaletto, Signac, Sargent, and Renoir—contemporaries who painted the same city with more figures, more street life. Monet largely left people out, focusing instead on the effects of light on water and architecture. The exhibition opened in a domed rotunda with projections and field-recorded soundscapes. Galleries connected through porous walls and framed openings. The final gallery arranged the Venetian series along a circular upholstered wall, each canvas individually lit, with an original score by Niles Luther, the Museum's composer in residence.
Year: 2025
Clients: Brooklyn Museum
Category: Exhibition, Direction