A group of artists jokingly calling themselves the Nabis—the prophets—formed in Paris in 1888. Among its members were Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Félix Vallotton, and Aristide Maillol. On the search for new, “authentic” forms of expression, they designed intimate interiors, stage sets, theatrical posters, magazines, books, furniture, and crafted objects. Art and life were supposed to intertwine, according to the maxim of the young painters who captured life on the boulevards and behind the boudoir doors in thickly atmospheric images. Following Gaugin’s model, they composed paintings out of condensed, strongly contoured planes of color, structured by dark brushstrokes. The surface texture itself became a protagonist.Masterpieces from the Neue Pinakothek and the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, show that the Nabis were Modernist pioneers during the Belle Époque.Exhibition schedule: Neue Pinakothek, Munich, July 4–September 30, 2013