Level 3: Material Gestures
Claude Monet and Abstract Expressionism (Room 7)

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The water-lily pond at Monet’s home in Giverny, north-west of Paris, became the principal motif of his later paintings. Filling the canvas, the surface of the pond becomes a world in itself, inspiring a sense of immersion in nature. Monet’s observations of the changing patterns of light on the surface of the water become almost abstract. The paintings were not fully appreciated in Monet’s lifetime, and when they were reassessed in 1950s, some critics viewed them as precursors of Abstract Expressionism.