Tucson Museum of Art to exhibit Claude Monet’s Bloc de Rochers, Belle-Île Beginning September 9, 2018

TUCSON, ARIZONA – Tucson Museum of Art (TMA) is the new temporary home to one of Claude Monet’s 39 paintings from Belle-Île, one of France’s most beautiful islands off the southern shore of Brittany. On loan from the Kasser Mochary Art Foundation, Monet’s Bloc de Rochers, Belle-Île depicts a jagged rocky coastline and encapsulates the island’s mystique and allure that inspired authors like Flaubert and Dumas, and painters like Monet and Henri Matisse. The painting is on exhibit beginning Sunday, September 9, 2018 in partnership with Second SundAZe @ TMA presented by the Stonewall Foundation. TMA’s Chief Curator Dr. Julie Sasse will give a gallery talk at 11 a.m. with free Second SundAZe admission for residents of Arizona and Sonora, Mexico.

“It’s a privilege and a treat to exhibit masterworks from the Kasser Mochary Art Foundation, especially Monet’s Bloc de Rochers, Belle-Île,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, TMA’s Chief Executive Officer. “This painting reflects Monet’s hunger for new landscapes and a daring style of brushwork that evolved from his stay on Belle-Île.  We are excited for visitors to experience a different side of Monet developed before his well-known water lilies paintings.”

This exhibition is co-curated by Dr. Julie Sasse, Chief Curator and Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Joanne Stuhr, Curator of the Kasser Mochary Art Foundation.

Since 2016, TMA has exhibited works from Kasser Mochary Art Foundation in the Museum’s Mary Jo Brown Gallery. Many of the popular works, such as Pierre-Auguste Rodin’s Adam, Alberto Giacometti’s Annette VI, and Alfred Sisley’s Paysage aux environs de Moret, remain on display along with a few new works by Fernando Botero, Lynn Chadwick, and Monet.

The Kasser Mochary Art Foundation was founded in 1968 by Alexander and Elisabeth Kasser along with their daughter, Mary V. (Kasser) Mochary, and son, I. Michael Kasser. With the mission of inspiring and promoting appreciation of the fine arts, the foundation’s collection of important works emphasizes passion and embodies the progressive vision for the twentieth century that propelled the Modern masters.

The Kasser family’s history is as notable as the foundation’s masterpieces. Elisabeth and Alexander Kasser endured significant risks to aid thousands of Jewish people and political targets during the Nazi invasion of Budapest, Hungary. Elisabeth served as a translator for Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish Ambassador to Hungary, while Alexander, as director of the Swedish Red Cross, organized efforts along with Prof. Valdemar Langlet, which saved hundreds of Hungarians from internment and death. The Kasser family left Europe after World War II, and their subsequent success in the U.S. allowed them to follow their passion for collecting art.

The new selection of masterworks from the Kasser Mochary Art Foundation will remain on view in the Mary Jo Brown Gallery at TMA.

Admission to the museum is always free for children 12 and younger. TMA’s family days, Second SundAZe @ TMA, presented by the Stonewall Foundation, occur every second Sunday of the month and are free to residents of Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Second SundAZe provides enriching programming for around 4,000 visitors of all ages each year.