Vallotton found by skillfully manipulating the high contrast of black and white the relief-printmaking process of woodcut was a particularly powerful medium to illustrate political and satirical tension in his works, even in small-scale images. We understand the drive to try to enhance the relevance of the exhibition to a present-day audience, but to interpret his work through the lens of today’s politically-charged attitudes may distort understanding of the historical reality of Vallotton’s world, and overstate the extent of his anarchic proclivities. The curators of the exhibition make much of Vallotton’s revolutionary tendencies. Félix Vallotton, La manifestation, 1893 woodcutĪlthough he was intensely critical of the values of the Paris upper class, it seems Vallotton gave expression to his political views entirely through ironic artistic statements.
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