I, GUSTAVE COURBET

Gustave Courbet’s radical visual language, his sociopolitical aspirations and his influence on modern art remain as powerful today as ever. He rejected the idealised aesthetics of classicism and romanticism, making the lives of ordinary people and reality the subject of his paintings instead. With his uncompromising attitude and innovative painting technique, Courbet is considered a pioneer of modernism – a boundary breaker between art, society and politics.