GIVERNY, France (AFP) — In the lush countryside painted by Claude Monet lies an unusual gem: a museum of US art in the cradle of French Impressionism. Now after 16 years, it is shedding its American label to tell a wider story.
The Museum of American Art in Giverny (MAAG) closes as usual for the winter at the end of October. When it reopens in May, museum staff told AFP, the focus will shift, with US art making room for Impressionist works from France and beyond.
"The new museum will present the larger story of Impressionism as a worldwide phenomenon," said Elizabeth Glassman, president of the Terra Foundation which in 1992 set up the museum in Giverny, Monet's former home village, an hour from Paris.
"The area is the "berceau" (cradle) of an international movement, the nuances of which have yet to be demonstrated," she told AFP.
French painters were inspired by the sunlight and water of the Seine valley to develop the hazy Impressionist style seen in Monet's paintings -- but the movement spread far beyond France.
It touched US artists such as Mary Cassatt and later the abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell, said museum administrator Diego Candil.
Mitchell is to be the subject of one of the new museum's first exhibitions. Another will be devoted to Monet himself.
To relaunch the museum, the Chicago-based foundation entered a public-private partnership with three local area authorities, Candil said.
The Musee d'Orsay museum, a leading holder of Impressionist works in the French capital, is to play a role in mounting exhibitions. Candil said this will include lending some of its masterpieces to the new Museum of Giverny.
Since its opening the MAAG has seen a steady stream of tourists arrive by train from Paris, many of them also drawn to Monet's old house and garden, where visitors can see the shimmering lily pond which the artist immortalised on huge canvases.
The American museum's location was chosen for its historical link to the United States -- knowing Monet lived there, scores of expatriate US artists were drawn to the village before World War One. The area became known as the "American colony".
"I know that lots of English and Japanese and other nationalities are really fond of Impressionism," said Candil, but "very few people know the importance of the American colony."
Now, "we want to open up, to be able to show other aspects of Impressionism that people don't know so much," such as Romanian and Norwegian works, he added.
"Impressionism is part of the French cultural heritage that we can help elucidate and celebrate," said Glassman.
It "remains a monolithic notion for most audiences and through smart exhibitions we can demonstrate multiple variations and interpretations, roots in the past and new expressions in modern and contemporary art."
The Terra Foundation meanwhile plans to open a base in Paris in November, from which to expand its efforts to promote American art in Europe, said Veerle Thielemans, director of academic programmes in the foundation.
The Terra's mission is to "help people understand historic American art," she said. "Giverny was just a slice of that."
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