Paul Signac's best-known works were meticulously painted with a fine brush in brightly colored dots, a method described by contemporary critics as painted confetti and artistic smallpox. Along with his close friend Georges Seurat, Signac played a crucial role in the development of this new, radical style which, unlike Impressionism, emphasized discipline, elegance and harmony.
At the start of his career as an artist Signac often worked in the suburbs of Paris. Here he chose unusual and sometimes ugly industrial subjects, such as this railway junction in Asnières, to the northwest of Paris. Signac painted the railway yard with broad brushstrokes in fairly muted colors, a far cry from the bright hues of his later paintings and lithographs. The strong verticals of the trees and telegraph poles are a striking feature of the work. By positioning a dark form in the foreground, the artist created a vista and thus introduced greater depth in the picture.
From 1886 Signac acted as the spokesman for Neo-Impressionism inside and outside Parisian avant-garde artists circles. He introduced the new movement at the eighth exhibition of the impressionists, and proclaimed the theories of his friend and mentor Georges Seurat. Signac?s contacts with members of the Belgian group of artists Les XX encouraged the dissemination of Neo-Impressionism in Belgium.
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Read more ... A fresh look at the unsung master of Neo-Impressionism