Colorful Character Large, Multifaceted Exhibit Also Reflects Bonnardís Life, Talents by Gary Tischler As an exhibition experience, ìPierre Bonnard: Early and Lateî is by no means a piece of cake. But on its subject and its appearance at The Phillips Collection, it just may finally be the whole cake. The exhibition isnít easy: Itís so big and multifaceted that you may get confused or just plain tired and exhausted. But then, itís also a clear reflection of the man, his life, his talents, and the way he moved in and out of the shadows cast by his peers, friends, styles and movementsóthe modern and moderns. Bonnard was not, as Duke Ellington was described, ìbeyond category.î Rather, he moved through categories, with no respect to appropriateness of time, or he ignored them all together, with no respect for the insistent pull of abstraction and the shrines erected to it. The long-lived Bonnard, who died in 1947, seemed to be doing his own dazzling, colorfully bathed form of impressionism late in his life, about the time abstract expressionism was born, and Picassoówho turned up his revolutionary Spanish nose at the Frenchmanís prolific workóhad sped past cubism. Bonnard didnít much care for the lines of abstraction. He lived for and lovedówith a passion reserved for a first and last mistressócolor. He overwhelmed his best work with it until color, fused with light and subject, became emotion and feeling. The exhibition tells us a lot about Duncan Phillips, founder of The Phillips Collectionóas many of the exhibitions here do. It defines the institution in some ways as it continues to be a place of generosity while remaining an echo of the deeply personal tastes of its founder. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Phillips loved Bonnardís work and the institutionís history reflects that appreciation. Before 1930, the Phillipsís mounted six of the nine group exhibitions in which Bonnard participated in the United States. Since then, 13 one-person Bonnard exhibitions have been featured at the Phillips. Not that the need existed, but the Phillips probably got it right this time. The exhibition itself is housed in the original home of Duncan Phillips, so in a way it becomes not only an homage to Bonnard but also to Phillips, Bonnardís great American appreciator and champion whose first Bonnard purchase was ìWoman With Dog.î Phillips called Bonnard ìthe true descendant of the sensuous Renoir, but more sophisticated, less robust and normal,î and said of the collection he had amassed, ìWith us, Bonnard is at home.î Bonnard also came home in a fulfilling sort of way. There are 130 works in all media here, which says a lot about Bonnardís range of talent and ambitionóbut it also makes it difficult to bring him totally into focus. He is forever slipping out of category and oeuvreóBonnard was not just prolific, he was always on the move. Itís as if Joyce Carol Oates, already a prolific writer with hundreds of books to her credit, started writing plays and screenplays, designing costumes, publishing photographs and writing presidential speeches. This comes into sharp focus when you look at some of the self-portraits in the exhibition. The puzzled, perfectly dressed, full-lipped young man Bonnard painted in 1889óhis face sharp against the white shirt, the black cravat and coatóis a far cry from his later portraits. By 1920, the colors became more vivid, the look ascetic, and the face wild with hues of red and yellow as itís guarded by a beard. Two later portraitsóin 1930 and between 1938 and 1940óseem monkish and thin against the light-colored background. It is a peculiar sort of aging that resembles more of a chrysalis than a loss, moving toward the light of life. One of the things you recognize right away is that Bonnard hardly ever wanedóhe got better. Itís as if he discovered impressionism and post-impressionism on his own. In form and color, there has never been such a fierce red as that in ìRed Cupboard,î so potent that it just about knocks you down. Over time, the colors, mixed with light and only got richer. You want to lie in the reflected glory of the whites and little yellows of ìBlossoming Almond Tree,î painted between 1946 and 1947. It was in 1946, a year before his death, that Bonnard said, ìThere is always color. But it has yet to become light.î In Bonnardís late paintings, it does indeed come together. This is not to denigrate the life or the richness of everything he did earlier. He gained his first recognition as a lithographer, winning a poster competition for France-Champagne. He did text illustrations, book covers, theater programs and music-sheet covers, and he was a member in good standing with the fermenting world of the Paris avant-garde, a kaleidoscope of performance art, art for its own sake, and boundary-stretching literature and theater. Included here is also a series of enchanting, haunting photographs of a woman who called herself Marthe de Meligny, who would figure strongly in his life, love and work. Early Bonnard has a kind of excitement to it: Itís a portrait of the artist as a young man and, in a sense, all artists as young men. Later, Bonnard remained full of discovery, but it was also a time of realization, flowering, cohesion, light and color. Unfriendly critics have made much of this late coming into impressionism, failing to see its fulfilling nature. Whatever you see of him and his changes, Bonnard always remained rooted in what he saw and experiencedóit was like water to a constantly thirsty man. He was a champion of found and seen objects, transforming them into blinding, emotion-filled works. ìI invent nothing,î he once said. ìI observe.î Everything in front of his eyesóand his heart and imaginationówas a form of what he called ìthe first sensation.î In this exhibition, youíre likely to have many first sensations. It is ìBonnard: Early and Lateî but always on time. ìPierre Bonnard: Early and Lateî runs through Jan. 19 at The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St., NW. For more information, please call (202) 387-2151 or visit www.phillipscollection.org. Gary Tischler is a contributing writer to The Washington Diplomat.