Monet paintings lead Impressionist exhibit at Bellagio Gallery

Find the thought of going to an art gallery a bit intimidating? Afraid that you won't understand what's going on, or wonder if you'd like the paintings you'll see?

If so, may we suggest "Claude Monet: Impressions of Light," an exhibition that opens Saturday at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art?

First: The exhibition features 20 pieces by Monet, Impressionism's founding father, and eight works by other Impressionist painters including Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Camille Pissarro and Eugene Louis Boudin.

Second: Who doesn't love Impressionist painting? It's a safe bet that even art museum newbies will find that they're more familiar with Impressionism than they realize and may even already know a few of the pieces they'll see.

Impressionism is "a very known genre and a very likable art," Bellagio gallery director Tarissa Tiberti says.

"I think the subject matter is relatable to the average guest or viewer of art. You don't need to have an extensive art background to be able to look at it and know what you're looking at."

Impressionism, a school of art created in the late 1800s, primarily in France, represented a radical departure from what came before.

"These artists were going outside and painting en plein air (in open air) as they called it," Tiberti says, using as subject matter "things that were right outside their door.

"They started to track light and how light goes through the sky in a day and painted multiple scenes at different times -- morning and sunset, as well as different seasons."

"A lot of times, when you look at their works, they evoke, I don't want to say a positive feeling or a happy feeling, but it's an easy response," Tiberti adds. "The colors are very enjoyable, even if it's a stormy sky."

Yet, she adds, "this was revolutionary in the time that they were doing this."

The Bellagio gallery is mounting the exhibit in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which has one of the largest collections of Monet paintings outside of Paris.

"We have a good, long-standing relationship" with the museum, Tiberti says. And while the Boston museum does have traveling exhibitions, this show was, Tiberti notes, assembled specifically for the Bellagio gallery.

As the title of the exhibition implies, light is the thread that ties its works together. So, Tiberti suggests that viewers examine how light is captured and used in each painting, and then use that information to figure out the time of day represented in each work.

"It's all about light and color," Tiberti says.

To further encourage guests to explore the works, the gallery offers complimentary audio tours as well as guides for children, Tiberti says. "And, we do daily docent tours at 2 p.m. that are available with your admission. Anybody can join those."

To give locals an incentive to visit, the gallery offers "Locals Night" every Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m., when admission is $8 for those with Nevada IDs. At other times, a Nevada ID nets guests a $3 discount from the usual $15 admission fee.

Tiberti says that about 13 percent of the gallery's patrons are local residents, and that she'd love for more Southern Nevadans to discover what the gallery has to offer.

"I think the thing with locals is that we're in a casino and sometimes locals don't love to go on the Strip if they don't have to," she says. "But we try to find ways to do different things (for them)."

Contact reporter John Przybys at
jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.