If you haven’t been to the Dallas Museum of Art to look at the vividly illuminating paintings that make up the DMA-mounted Pisarro exhibit, entitled “The Impressionist and the City: Pissarro’s Series”, don’t wait. Considered a painter of rural life, Camilee Pissarro (1830-1903) spent the last 10 years of his life painting the ports and markets of Rouen and LeHavre and the parks and boulevards of Paris.

In conjunction with the Pissarro show, the DMA also has organized a photography exhibit by DISD photography students who submitted their photographic impression of the neighborhoods, freeways, shopping malls and airports of our City.

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Of the latter, DMA director Richard Brettell says: “Pissarro himself would have been moved that high school students were included in the exhibition and encouraged to go ‘see’ Dallas as a new city, the way the painter saw the emerging industrial cities of France.”

The 70 canvases chosen for the Pissarro exhibition from more than 300 paintings located worldwide by Brettell and the artist’s great-grandson, Joachim Pissarro, are revealingly grouped to help the viewer better see the extraordinary variations the painter achieved looking at the same boulevard in morning or evening, looking down or looking out, alive with the movement of people on an ordinary workday or packed with the crushing throng of a parade.

Moving in rhythmic circles and waves against the lovingly recorded architecture of the urban-scapes are soldiers, fashionable women, businessmen, blue-shirted workmen, laundresses – in other words, the people who are the lifeblood of any city.

The student photography exhibit, which includes scenes of East Dallas and Downtown, also makes us see our City freshly through the carefully focused eye of our young citizens.

Photos of a Gryphon overhead or the perfectly engineered spiral of the concrete overpass remind us that real sight is a matter of paying very close attention to details.

“Impressions of Dallas” will make you want to get your camera loaded and set off to take a careful look at our East Dallas neighborhoods.

“The Impressionist and the City” remains at the DMA through Jan. 31 and then moves to Philadelphia and London. Admission is $6, seniors are $4, children under 12 are $2.

Arts Calendar

Dec. 1-26 – A new version of “A Christmas Carol”, starring Randy Moore as Scrooge, plays at the Dallas Theater Center’s Arts District Theater, 2401 Flora. The production “celebrates Dallas” as well as Christmas, says DTC artistic director Richard Hamburger. Call 522-TIXX for information.

Dec. 1-19 – Undermain Theatre’s second production, performed in its unique basement theater space at 3200 Main, is Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Imperceptible Mutabilities”, and innovative blend of humor, poetry and music exploring the African-American experience through the centuries. Wednesday is “pay-what-you-can” night; call 748-3082 for reservations.

Dec. 1-4 – “Art Treasurers Underground” is the Dallas Business Committee for the Arts’ second annual Holiday Gift Shop, taking place from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in the underground tunnels of NationsBank Plaza Downtown. The event features a collection of gift items from more than 30 of the City’s arts and cultural institutions, and proceeds benefit these organizations. For information, call 696-1745.

Dec. 5 – Harpist Emily Mitchell performs classical and traditional Christmas music in a new concert series at the Dallas Museum of Art. Call 922-1200 for information.

Dec. 5-6, 12-13 – “Candlelight Celebration” at Old City Park is a return to the early years of our century, with authentic decorations, choirs, handbell ensembles, surrey rides and Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Call 421-4151 for information.

Dec. 6 – “Symphony of Toys” is the SMU Conservatory Orchestra presenting a Christmas concert benefiting Santa’s Helpers. Admission is a new, unwrapped toy. Call 692-ARTS for information.

Dec. 12-13 – “The Holiday Festival Dolls” is presented by the Museum of African-American Life and Culture at the Trammell Crow Center in the Lower West Pavilion. Call 565-9026 for information.