Mitchell-Innes & Nash announces an upcoming exhibition of works by Georges Rouault from May 2 through June 9, 2007 at 1018 Madison Avenue. Georges Rouault: Judges, Clowns and Whores will feature more than 25 works that range in date from 1905 to 1939, with the majority dating before the First World War.

This is the first major exhibition of Rouault paintings in the U.S. since the 1953 Museum of Modern Art retrospective that traveled to Los Angeles and Cleveland. In addition to serving to reintroduce the work of the French Modernist to an American audience, the selection of works on view evokes the renewed interest in figurative painting among today’s contemporary artists. This parallel gives the paintings of Rouault both a timeless quality and also a new freshness.

Parisian artist Georges Rouault (1871-1958) spent his teenage years as an apprentice to a glass painter and restorer and it has been suggested that the heavy lines and bright colors characteristic of his painting style reflect this influence. He studied at the École des Beaux Arts under Gustave Moreau and first came to prominence when three of his paintings were included in the landmark 1905 Salon d’Automne alongside works by Henri Matisse and other Fauvists. While much of Rouault’s work tends to focus on Christian themes, the artist also took an interest in social justice and chose to highlight individuals who lived on the outskirts of society, including prostitutes and circus performers. This exhibition provides a window into the lives of these characters and offers a rare opportunity to see works usually dispersed among public and private collections. Paintings in the exhibition include two pictures in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art and a striking two-sided 1905 work in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the gallery will publish a fully illustrated catalog.