Why Monet and Freinds Worked

“Life, light and colour,” is the headline for Monet and Friends’ infamous art exhibit. During the past weekend over hundreds of people attended the event at the Royal Hall of Industries. The building was bustling with an audience of all ages, taking in the 19th-century artwork on display, but why? What is unique to this art experience, and what makes people continue to come?

The website, Monet And Friends describe it as, “takes visitors on a journey that examines the world of Impressionism across three main movements: ‘Metropolitan’, ‘A Day in the Life’ and ‘En Plein Air.”

The visual phenomenon pays homage to the Impressionist artists from the period of the 19th-20th century. The experience focuses on artists such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Pierre Auguste Renoir and many more as the interactive experience allows you to be encompassed by the work and creativity of the time.

The first part of the experience begins with a building dedicated to acknowledging the artists. The art was created during a period of difficult social and political time. This allowed the artists to break rules and focus their paintings on the turmoil of the average life, or nature and its beauty by using primarily light and shadow in their paintings. One wall, in particular, focused on sharing the timeline in which these artists created their work.

A timeline of the 19th-century artists and their work in the Monet and Friends exhibition at the Royal Hall of Industries. SAFA KHAN

As you leave the showroom, the hall is packed full of an interactive display with monitors set up, large as any ever with over fourteen artists' artworks. The experience was accompanied by, the Belle Epoque musical talents performing in conjunction with the art.

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The interactive display of Monet and Freinds at the Royal Hall of Industries SAFA KHAN

The displays were grouped into people and life, activities and leisure, and finally nature and its beauty. Visitors can choose to wander in all directions or simply sit on one of the small benches and experience the room brimming with colour.

Some onlookers were stunned by the artwork and its immersive ability to draw the audience into the time and space the art was made in, “it felt like the art took you to a place that they wanted to take you to, without you having to think, or without having to look and ponder” says visitor, Wael Hourani.

When asked what made it unique to other art exhibitions, he continued, “I just got an experience where they just took me out of this world, they took my soul out... they took you there without your permission.”

Monet and Friends is an experience, rather than an exhibition, John Mcdonald, from the Sydney Morning Herald, describes the experience perfectly, “It invites active contemplation, not simply the speedy consumption of hundreds of images,” which may just be the reason why people continue to come and thrive in artwork made decades ago.