The first is the breakdown of Eurocentrism in culture and the retreat of racism. A large number of works draw inspiration from Japanese, Chinese, Persian and African art, reflecting the collapse of imperial aesthetics.

Notable among such works are Gustave Caillebotte's Garden Gate, Louis Valtat's Sea and Red Rocks of 1905; Mary Cassat's Feeding the Ducks of 1894 and Picasso's Mask of 1907. Perhaps the victory of Japan in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904 had something to do with this as the trend becomes much sharper around 1905.

The second element is the democratisation of art that was earlier restricted to the elite. Vollard played a significant role in encouraging artists like Toulose-Lautrec, Cezanne, Renoir, Degas, Picasso, Gauguin, Bonnard, Matisseand Rouault to make prints that would be easily accessible to people, ending the elitist stranglehold over art. A number of these prints are on exhibition here, and those of Rouault are remarkable for their quality.

Finally, once art was freed from the clutches of the imperial elite and found patrons among the people, it was only natural that it would move in a radical direction. And we have early examples of this radical art in Picasso's etching on a zinc plate of 1903, The Frugal Meal and the poor fisherman of Purvis de Chavannes, dating back to 1897. This exhibition will go a long way in explaining how the improved technology of colour-tubes, a wide range of chemical colours and printing techniques, freed art from the rich and brought it to the people, eventually making their concerns its own.

Vollard, the Reunion-born Paris art dealer, played a significant role in the process, and the exhibition should be an eye-opener for those who are genuinely interested in the path art is likely to take in the21st century.