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Published at 4:27pm
Published at 4:25pm
Video
This fall and winter should be big for Georges Seurat, the 19th-century French painter and father of Pointillism. On October 28, the Museum of Modern Art will open “Seurat: The Drawings,” the first show in 25 years devoted to the artist’s works in Conté crayon on paper. Meanwhile, in February, the Roundabout Theatre Company will present last year’s acclaimed West End revival of Sunday in the Park with George, the Stephen Sondheim–James Lapine musical based on Seurat’s masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. TONY got together with the show’s director, Sam Buntrock, and MoMA curator Jodi Hauptman to discuss Seurat’s legacy and his enduring appeal to audiences everywhere.
On Seurat’s drawings…
Jodi Hauptman: The general public usually thinks of Seurat as a painter—the dot guy. But drawing was equally important to him. He didn’t think of them as studies, he saw them as an end. Their subject matter is very different from what you see in the paintings. People are going to come to the show thinking that they’re one thing and discovering they’re quite another.
Sam Buntrock: What surprised me most while doing research on Sunday in the Park was the drawings. I really didn’t know them at all and I fell in love with them, because of the way they seemingly bring their subjects out of nowhere. The work plays with light using charcoal dust, which wouldn’t ordinarily seem to add up.
On Seurat’s life…
Hauptman: People are always surprised to hear that he had such a short life, because he produced such a large body of work for what was essentially a ten-year career. The people who knew him say he was very quiet. Degas called him “The Notary,” meaning he was very focused on his work.
Buntrock: There’s no Van Gogh moment to his life, you know, where he cuts off an ear or something equally dramatic. In fact, his parents didn’t know that he had a mistress, or that he’d had a child with her. His mother only found out the day before he died of diphtheria, which his mistress and child died of too. He’d come to her apartment, basically to die, and that’s when he told her.
On Seurat’s appeal…
Hauptman: He made public art, in a way. Even at a young age he embarked on these monumental, colorful canvases that were filled with everyday people. His subject matter wasn’t removed from regular life. You can see him exploring the edges of the city, going into the newly industrialized suburbs, and then going back to capture entertainments like the circus. It’s so familiar and real.
Buntrock: There’s a great mystery about the paintings’ characters and a level of ambiguity that allows the viewer to add their own interpretation.
