ABSTRACT PISSARRO shows why this well-loved Impressionist artist was much more than we imagined!  Camille Pissarro’s early paintings, daring, radical, and uncompromising, defied the Paris Salon and subverted academic art—flaunting his rough brushstrokes, blatantly placing pure colors side-by-side, choosing unappealing motifs, creating forms from patches of color, flattening structures, and ignoring perspective when it pleased him. He was the first to intentionally draw attention to the materiality of painting—brushstrokes on canvas, rather than a recognizable picture. And he did it before Impressionism. The new research presented in ABSTRACT PISSARRO reveals Camille Pissarro’s principal role in the birth of modern art. It explores his continual innovation and daring use of new ideas. Comparing his paintings with other artists shows how he influenced them and continues to inspire artists to this day. Indeed, Camille Pissarro was the first to plant the seeds of what we now call abstract art.