'SEASONS' EXHIBITIONS CELEBRATE THE IMPORTANCE OF SEASONS IN CHINESE AND JAPANESE ART

A Man Taking His Ease. Anonymous. China, Ming dynasty, 15th-16th century. Handscroll; ink and color on silk F1911.232

"Seasons," a series of five exhibitions at the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art through March 4, 2012, explores the vast history of seasonal imagery and associations in Chinese and Japanese art. Highlighting the museum's outstanding permanent collection, the exhibitions invite reflection on the importance of the cycle of seasons in East Asian culture and the prevelance of seasonal themes in art, literature and social customs.
"The seasons have affected Japanese and Chinese art in profound and distinct ways," said Ann Yonemura, senior associate curator of Japanese art. "In Japan, art and poetry reflect the gentle changes in climate resulting from the islands' topography as an archipelago, whereas in China, art reflects the cycle of seasons through stunning landscape paintings of craggy cliffs, wide rivers and soaring mountains."
Through June 12, 2011, the exhibition "Seasons: Chinese Landscapes," explores the seasonal themes and activities that frequently appear in Chinese painting such as wandering in nature, visiting friends and composing poetry. The works also depict the unique moods and feelings associated with each season. "In the traditional Chinese approach to landscape painting, seasons inspire unique emotions, such as happiness and elation in spring, peaceful contentment in summer, melancholy and solemnity in autumn and quiet contemplation in winter," said Stephen Allee, research specialist in Chinese art at the Freer and Sackler galleries. To allow Chinese voices to inform the interpretation of the works, the exhibition will also feature numerous translations of inscriptions, colophons and other directly related poems and texts.
From Dec. 24 through July 5, 2011, "Seasons: Japanese Screens" will offer an intimate perspective on seasonal images by providing a "door-frame" view into the natural world. The screens provide detailed glimpses of nature, such as a single chrysanthemum, as opposed to a sweeping landscape. A second group of seasonally themed screens will be on view July 9, 2011, through Jan. 22, 2012. On display from Feb. 5, 2011, through Aug. 7, 2011, the exhibition "Seasons: Arts of Japan" will reflect the seasonal associations that have permeated Japanese poetry, art and customs from the earliest historical times, including cherry blossoms in spring and scarlet maples in autumn. The exhibition will include painting, lacquer ware, ceramics and calligraphy. A second group of season-related Japanese works will be on display Sept. 3, 2011, through March 4, 2012.
Concurrently, "Seasons: Tea," will celebrate a dozen examples of how ceramic utensils used within a tea room were chosen to reflect and moderate the season, from rough stoneware conveying wintry chill to porcelain suggesting a summer breeze. The exhibition will also reveal how shapes adapt to the season: a deep cylindrical bowl keeps the tea warm, whereas a shallow open bowl is cool to the touch. "We know from a Japanese text dated circa 1500 that ceramic materials have long been seen as reflecting seasonal moods," said Louise Cort, curator of ceramics. "The tea host uses many clues-tactile as well as visual-to attune the gathering's guests to the season, even to the weather of that particular day."
"Seasons: Flowers," on display from July 2, 2011, through Jan. 8, 2012, offers paintings of Chinese flowers native to each season. Paintings will be organized in various groupings, such as wildflowers, garden flowers, aquatic flowers and flowering trees. Discussions of the seasonal symbolism of the plants and the various stylistic modes of depiction will be accompanied by scientific identifications and descriptions.

Website : Freer- Sackler - The Smithsonian's Museums of Asian Art

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FORTY PHOTOGRAPHS BY PHOTOGRAPHER JEANLOUP SIEFF AT BERNHEIMER FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY

Bernheimer Fine Art Photography presents in its gallery spaces on Brienner Strasse in Munich the exhibition Jeanloup Sieff: Four Decades.
It features a selection of around forty photographs from four decades by the great French photographer Jeanloup Sieff. This unique selection of photographs offers a look at the themes of fashion, portrait, and nude photography from the 1960s to the late 1990s. It includes both vintage prints and later prints made during the photographer’s lifetime and authorized by him.
The curator, Ira Stehmann, in collaboration with Barbara Sieff and in consultation with Blanca Bernheimer selected the works directly from the photographer’s estate in Paris, and it is the first larger selection to be exhibited in a gallery in nearly a decade.
The number of vintage and later prints of the motifs presented in the estate is very limited. Only a single copy of some of the prints is for sale. That explains why so few works have been sold from the estate in recent years. This exhibition is thus very special in terms of both variety and rarity.
Jeanloup Sieff created images that influenced entire generations. Images that now occupy a secure place in the history of photography and in the collective memory. Astrid’s Back and the portraits of Yves Saint Laurent and Yves Montand are famous examples of the photographer’s style, with its extraordinary combination of elegance and humor, romanticism and melancholy. These images demonstrate Sieff’s mastery of fashion photograph, his search for authenticity in portrait photography, and his virtuosity in his enchantingly beautiful nudes.
Freedom and pleasure were also determining factors in Sieff’s work: pleasure in light, pleasure in composing spaces and experiencing encounters. Black-and-white photography was his medium throughout his life.
Jeanloup Sieff was born in Paris in 1933. His parents were from Poland. In the mid-1950s he worked as a freelance photojournalist and fashion photographer for Elle magazine, then he in 1961 he went to New York, living and working there until 1966. After returning to Paris he photographed fashion, nudes, and portraits for numerous journals such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Paris Match, Glamour, Esquire, Look, Vogue, and Twen. He was the author of numerous books of photographs and exhibited in renowned galleries and museums throughout the world. His works are in many museum collections, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, Musée de l’Art Moderne, Paris, and the Museum Ludwig, Cologne. He received such awards as the Prix Niepce (1959), the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in Paris (1981), and the Grand Prix National de la Photographie (1992). He died in Paris on September 20, 2000.

Website : Bernheimer

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THREE MAJOR GERMAN MUSEUMS ANNOUNCE AN EXHIBITION ON THE ART OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN CHINA

Antoine Watteau, Entertainment in the Open Air, around 1720 © Staatliche Museen Zu Berlin. Photo: Jorg P. Anders.

In spring 2011 three major German museum bodies – the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Munich – will join forces with the National Museum of China to present an exhibition on the art of the Enlightenment, to be held in Beijing. The exhibition reveals the unfolding artistic and intellectual curiosity and openness of mind which characterized this era in European history. It is furthermore the first international exhibition to be hosted at the National Museum of China when it reopens in early 2011 after the completion of an extensive refurbishment and expansion program.
The initial agreement on the long-term presentation of works of art by the three German museum partners in the National Museum of China was signed by the then German President Horst Köhler and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in May 2007. The joint exhibition project between the three German museum bodies and the National Museum of China was then formally agreed to in writing on 29 January 2009, during a ceremony in the German Chancellery in Berlin which was attended by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. The exhibition project is closely connected to the Sino-German cultural exchange programme, bilaterally agreed to in 2005, which aims to foster mutual understanding between the two countries and broaden cultural ties. It is also a component of the Sino-German ‘Communiqué on the Comprehensive Advancement of the Strategic Partnership’, signed by Wen Jiabao and Angela Merkel in July 2010 in Beijing.
The exhibition falls under the joint auspices of Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of China, and Christian Wulff, German Federal President. It has been predominantly funded through the German Foreign Office, while BMW Group have also given their backing as a further partner. The exhibition will be accompanied by an event series entitled ‘Enlightenment in Dialogue’, jointly organized by Stiftung Mercator and the National Museum of China.
This cooperation between the three German Museum clusters and their Chinese partner is the result of a long-standing and inspired dialogue which has been conducted over many years. For Berlin, Dresden and Munich ‘The Art of the Enlightenment’ is the logical continuation of their joint involvement in China which began in 2005 with the photography exhibition ‘Humanism in China’ and continued in 2008 with the exhibitions ‘Living Landscapes: A Journey through German Art’ and ‘Gerhard Richter’ held at the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC).
In a joint statement, the director generals of the three German museum bodies announced: ’The exhibition unveils the visual world of an epoch on the cusp of modernity, which gave birth to ideas that are still of seminal importance for art today. It is exactly this essence and impact which ‘The Art of the Enlightenment’ will strive to make palpable to the Chinese public.’
With their vast and diverse collections, partly rooted in the rich collecting culture and arts landscape typical of the European Enlightenment, the three German museum clusters make an ideal partner for this project. Nearly 600 works of art, exhibited on 2700 m², offer a breath-taking overview of the artistic spectrum of the arts of the Enlightenment ranging from painting, sculpture, drawings and prints, over crafts and fashion to scientific instruments. Among the highlights are masterpieces by Chodowiecki, Friedrich, Gainsborough, Goya, Graff, Greuze, Hogarth, Kauffmann, Pesne, Piranesi, Tischbein, Vernet and Watteau. A total of nine sections will fix the visitor’s gaze on core themes of 18th century art: ‘Court Life in the Age of the Enlightenment’, ‘Perspectives of Knowledge’, ‘The Birth of History’, ‘Far and Near’, ‘Love and Sensibility’, ‘Back to Nature’, ‘Shadows’, ‘Emancipation and the Public Sphere’ and ‘The Revolution of Art’.
The exhibition has been jointly conceived and organized by the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Munich and the National Museum of China. The team of curators which was made up of members from all four museum institutions, has received substantial support from renowned research organizations in the field of sociocultural sciences, including the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, the Institute of History at the University of Potsdam and the BerlinBrandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. All research results will be documented in a detailed catalogue, published in English and Chinese which, for the first time, will make the foundations of European art from the Enlightenment available to the wider Chinese public. The educational programme of accompanying art talks and tours has been developed by the National Museum of China and the three German museum bodies, in conjunction with the Goethe Institute.
In addition, Stiftung Mercator in cooperation with the National Museum of China is initiating and organizing a series of events, entitled ‘Enlightenment in Dialogue’. In five separate dialogue blocks, Chinese and European scholars will discuss the various facets and themes of the Enlightenment. The series will describe and elaborate on the foundations of the European and Chinese Enlightenment whereby the concept of the Enlightenment will not just be limited to the areas of philosophy and historiography, but will also be transposed to the cultural climate of the present day and connected to such other themes as Chinese history and tradition, modernity, science and art. The series will thus form a bridge between the historical concept of the Enlightenment and the present day.
The National Museum of China will celebrate its reopening in the spring of 2011 after completing a refurbishment and expansion programme executed by the Hamburg-based architect studio Gerkan, Marg und Partner. With spaces totalling nearly 200,000 m² in surface, it is set to become the largest museum building in the world. The building’s new dimensions will enable it to become a forum for the arts and cultures of the global world, able to host international exhibitions and events, as well as displays devoted to Chinese artistic and cultural history. The present exhibition, which so magnificently showcases one of the prominent artistic and philosophical legacies that continue to shape the identity of Western civilization today, clearly marks the mission and responsibility of museums today, as they become sites of Enlightenment, with a wide openness to the world and an acceptance of their role as mentors.

Website : The National Museum of China

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MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN SYDNEY PRESENTS ANNIE LEIBOVITZ : A PHOTOGRAPHER'S LIFE

Annie Leibovitz (American, b. 1949), Patti Smith with her Children, Jackson and Jesse, St. Clair Shores, Michigan 1996. Photograph © Annie Leibovitz

The Museum of Contemporary Art and Events NSW present the exhibition Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life 1990–2005, following a record-breaking tour in the US and Europe.
Hugely popular among critics and art-lovers alike in museums from New York to London, Paris and Berlin, the exhibition is expected to attract large crowds in Sydney.
The Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor said “We are thrilled to be presenting this important exhibition by one of the world’s most celebrated photographers. It offers Australians a rare opportunity to see a world-renowned collection of images, from famous public figures to intimate family portraits.”
Annie Leibovitz is without a doubt one of the most celebrated photographers of our time. The exhibition brings together almost 200 iconic images of famous public figures together with personal photographs of her family and close friends. Arranged chronologically, they project a unified narrative of the artist’s private life against the backdrop of her public image. “I don’t have two lives,” Leibovitz says. “This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it.”
At the heart of the exhibition, Leibovitz’s personal photography documents scenes from her life, including the birth and childhood of her three daughters, and vacations, reunions, and rites of passage with her parents, her extended family and close friends. The exhibition features Leibovitz’s portraits of well-known figures, including actors such as Jamie Foxx, Daniel Day Lewis, Demi Moore, Scarlett Johansson, Al Pacino, Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt as well as artists and architects such as Richard Avedon, Brice Marden, Philip Johnson, Chuck Close and Cindy Sherman.
Featured assignment work includes searing reportage from the siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s and the election of Hillary Clinton to the US Senate. There are also landscapes taken in Monument Valley in the American West and in Wadi Rum in the Jordanian desert.
Annie Leibovitz has been making witty, powerful images documenting American popular culture since the early 1970s, when her work began appearing in Rolling Stone. She became the magazine’s chief photographer in 1973, and ten years later began working for Vanity Fair, and then Vogue, creating a legendary body of work. In addition to her magazine work, Leibovitz has created influential advertising campaigns for American Express, Gap, Givenchy, the Milk Board and the TV series The Sopranos.

Website : Museum of Contemporary Art 19.11.2010-27.03.2011

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FIRST EVER EXHIBITION OF NORMAN ROCKWELL'S ORIGINAL WORKS ON VIEW AT THE DULWICH GALLERY

Norman Rockwell was America’s best known and best-loved illustrator for over six decades of the 20th century. Astonishingly prolific, he is best-known for the 322 covers he created for the Saturday Evening Post; but he painted countless other magazine illustrations and advertisements, capturing images of everyday American life with a humour and power of observation that spoke directly to the public, whose love for his work never wavered.
These good-natured, often very funny, occasionally sweetly sentimental images picturing America as he wished it to be, rather than as it perhaps was, gave rise to an adjective, ‘Rockwellesque’, which in some critics’ minds became something of a dirty word. But his output was not all sugar and spice ‘he recorded political events, portrayed presidents, and on occasion painted searing images in support of the civil rights movement.
Although Rockwell himself was happy to be described as ‘an illustrator’, his illustrations were executed with considerable technical skill in oils, and these original paintings have increased dramatically in value since his death in 1978. Recent years have seen a critical reassessment of his work. In 1999, The New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl led the way with his bold statement in ArtNews: ‘Rockwell is terrific. It’s become too tedious to pretend he isn’t.’
This exhibition is be the first of his original works in this country. It includes all 322 covers of the Saturday Evening Post, created between 1916 and 1963, along with illustrations for advertisements, magazines and books’ providing a comprehensive look at his career.
Over thirty years after his death, England’s oldest public art gallery offers visitors in the UK their very first chance to discover the art behind the adjective.

Website : Dulwich Picture Gallery 15.12.2010 - 27.03.2011

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WINTER MOOD AT AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL WITH DUTCH WINTERS FROM RIJKSMUSEUM COLLECTION

Barend Cornelis Koekkoek, Winter landscape, ca. 1838.

With its Dutch Winters exhibition, which runs from 24 November 2010 up to and including 21 March 2011, the Rijksmuseum Schiphol will display a selection of 17th- and 19th-century works from its own collection that depict the popular theme of winter in a multifaceted and sublime manner. Hendrick Avercamp’s winter landscapes are among the best-known images in 17th-century Dutch painting. The frivolity in the cold depicted in his paintings creates the impression that every winter in centuries past was an extended period of freezing temps, which is true in a sense, as the period between approximately 1500 to 1850 is sometimes referred to as the ‘Little Ice Age’ due to the brutal winters and cool summers. Along with these 17th-century winter scenes by artists, such as Hendrick Avercamp and Jacob van Ruisdael, the Dutch Winters exhibition will also feature works from the 19th-century Romantic era by Barend Koekkoek. After focusing on the realism of August Allebé and The Hague School of Anton Mauve, the exhibition rounds off with the impressionistic work of George Hendrik Breitner and Isaac Israëls dating from around the turn of the century.

Website : Rijksmuseum Schiphol

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SPECTACULAR INSTALLATION BY EVA SCHLEGEL DEALS WITH THE THEME OF FLYING AND FALLING

The installation 'In Between' is seen during a preview of the exhibition 'In Between' by Austrian artist Eva Schlegel at the MAK museum of applied arts in Vienna December 7, 2010. The exhibition opens today and runs until the end of April 2011. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

A spectacular installation dealing with the theme of flying and falling between success and failure, at the very edge of that which is possible, stands at the center of the exhibition Eva Schlegel. In Between, is open at the MAK Exhibition Hall. This installation represents an attempt to capture visually that which is fleeting, but will nonetheless be in the truest sense palpable and audible, confronting the viewer directly with projected images, image disturbances and wind sounds, and taking up the entire airspace (of the MAK). This personal showing devoted to the multifaceted artist Eva Schlegel, who has attracted much notice in Austria and abroad, brings together new works created specifically for the MAK with a retrospective of earlier works.
For quite some time now, Schlegel has been fascinated both by the act of overcoming gravity and by the quality of detachedness as a metaphor for the risk of unsecured falling or even crashing. This fascination holds regardless of whether they are images of clouds, films of ephemeral forms which move within weightlessness and, even so, seem threatening as they pass above us, or photographic documentary material of floating human beings. The work In Between consists of three airplane propellers with a diameter of 3.8 meters each; the propellers are somewhat removed from the floor and thus appear to float. These serve as backdrops for the projection of Schlegel’s films, moving images of human beings flying and free-falling, weather balloons floating upwards, and related physical phenomena such as Newton’s falling apple or the flight of birds.
Also on display will be an amorphous sculpture consisting of giant white weather balloons. The balloons, with a diameter of two meters each, will float close together up at the ceiling of the room. Visitors will find themselves situated directly beneath the installation, with which they will be interactively connected. Thus, for a brief time, they themselves will become participants in the artwork: a camera will film entering visitors, whose images will first be projected onto the floor before floating about the room and eventually vanishing.
Furthermore, a series of blurred portraits will address images of women in our media-dominated world. An additional, separate exhibition room will be dedicated to the artist’s works using lead, demonstrating Schlegel’s extensive involvement with this idiosyncratic metal. Finally, a cube made of lead will be put up to serve as a shroud for the pornographic Lacquer Series.
Dealing with physical materials and their opposite, the ephemeral, represents an important point of departure for Schlegel’s œuvre. Her experimentation with contradictory states (presence/absence, focus/blurriness, exterior/interior, stasis/motion) serves to make the observer aware of the fact that he or she is engaged in observation. Even back in the mid-1980s, the artist attracted attention with her perceptive irritations in the form of numerous interior designs and “construction site art” works using materials such as glass and mirrors. The “false trails” of the only ostensibly legible, as well as the blurred portraits’ refusal to convey personalities via specific superficial traits, show with just what intensity Schlegel explores the frontiers of portrayal and communication. Ever since the 1990s, the artist has been producing photo series with clouds. Recently, she began transferring cloud-images onto lead plates via silkscreen. This heavy medium forms a contrast with the ephemerality of clouds and thus provides a counterweight to weightlessness.
Eva Schlegel, who was born in Hall in Tirol in 1960, lives and works in Vienna. From 1979 to 1985, she studied at the Academy of Applied Arts Vienna (today’s University of Applied Arts) with Oswald Oberhuber. Schlegel went on to hold a professorship for art and photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 1997 to 2006, and she is now to serve as commissioner of the Austrian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011.

Website : MAK

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LE PALAIS FARNESE OUVERT LE TEMPS D'UNE EXPOSITION

Le Palais Farnese ouvre ses portes au public pendant 4 mois, pour exposer la collection Farnese.

Outre l'intérêt des 200 oeuvres exposées, c'est l'occasion de découvrir le magnifique bâtiment Renaissance qui abrite l'ambassade de France à Rome, habituellement fermé au public.
Dessins, sculptures, peintures et objets d'art ayant appartenu aux Farnese, célèbre famille romaine, et dispersés au fil des siècles, ont été rassemblés pour l'exposition.
Dans la cour du palais, situé dans le coeur historique de la Ville éternelle à deux pas de la place Campo di Fiori, le visiteur est accueilli par Apollon citharède, une statue monumentale de quatre tonnes en porphyre et en marbre, convoyée tout spécialement de Naples.
En haut de l'escalier d'honneur, deux impressionnants Daces prisonniers veillent à l'entrée du Grand Salon. Le musée de Naples, la présidence de la République italienne et le château de Chambord ont prêté des tapisseries, et le musée de Louvre des dessins d'Annibal Carrache.
Autre pièce remarquable de l'exposition, un portrait du pape Paul III Farnese du Titien. C'est ce pape qui a transformé une famille de la petite noblesse romaine en une véritable dynastie alliée aux plus grandes monarchies d'Europe.
Le palais Farnese, un joyau de l'architecture Renaissance
L'exposition va permettre à des milliers de visiteurs (les organisateurs en attendent 100.000) de découvrir un lieu exceptionnel, habituellement fermé au public. Le pape Paul III l'a commandé en 1514 à l'architecte Antonio da Sangallo le Jeune. Le Palais Farnèse s'élève sur une place ornée d'énormes vasques monolithes provenant des Thermes de Caracalla et transformées en fontaines. Michel-Ange a achevé le bâtiment.
A ne pas manquer: la galerie des Carrache (1597-1608), ensemble de fresques sur les amours des dieux inspirées de Raphaël et de Michel-Ange, et la Salle des Fastes, qui sert de bureau personnel à l'ambassadeur. Elle est décorée d'un plafond à caissons et de fresques de Salviati.
Le palais romain a été loué aux ambassadeurs de France et à des artistes, avant d'être acheté en 1911 par la France, qui l'a revendu en 1936 à l'Italie de Mussolini. Mais le palais Farnese héberge toujours l'ambassade de France puis l'Italie le lui a reloué. Le bail de 99 ans s'achève en 2036.
Une collection, de Rome à Naples
C'est le pape Paul III Farnèse (1468-1549) qui commença à collectionner des oeuvres d'art à partir des sculptures antiques trouvées lors des fouilles des Thermes de Caracalla à Rome en 1545. Son neveu, le cardinal Alexandre Farnese (1520-1589) a accru considérablement la collection en acquérant des sculptures antiques, des tableaux, des dessins et des gemmes.
A la suite du mariage de la dernière des Farnèse, Elisabeth, avec Philippe V d'Espagne, petit-fils de Louis XIV, le "Museum Farnesianum" est passé définitivement en 1734 aux mains des Bourbon de Naples, qui ont dépouillé le palais romain de ses joyaux. Le petit-fils d'Elisabeth, Ferdinand IV, roi de Naples, a transféré toute la collection dans sa ville. Elle se trouve toujours aujourd'hui au Musée archéologique de Naples.
De la Renaissance à l'Ambassade de France, Palais Farnese, Rome, jusqu'au 27 avril 2011

Website : il Palazzo Farnese

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AGO PARTNERS WITH CENTRE POMPIDOU TO BRING MASTERWORKS BY CHAGALL, KANDINSKY TO TORONTO

Marc Chagall, Dance, 1950‐52 (La danse, 1950‐52), oil on canvas, 238.0 x 176.0 cm. Collection of the MNAM, Centre Pompidou, Paris © Adagp/Centre Pompidou, Mnam‐CCi / Dist.RMN Marc Chagall.

The Art Gallery of Ontario is bringing the magic, whimsy and wonder of Marc Chagall to Toronto next fall with a major exhibition organized by the Centre Pompidou. Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Centre Pompidou, Paris on view from October 15, 2011 through January 15, 2012, features the lush, colourful, and dreamlike art of Marc Chagall alongside the visionaries of Russian modernism, including Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevich, Natalia Goncharova, Sonia Delaunay, and Vladimir Tatlin.
Drawn from the collection of the Centre Pompidou, the exhibition examines how Chagall’s Russian heritage influenced and informed his artistic practice, illustrating how he at turns embraced and rejected broader movements in art history as he developed his widely beloved style. Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde comprises 118 works from a broad array of media, including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, and film. The artwork is drawn entirely from the collection of the Centre Pompidou and features 32 works by Chagall and eight works by Kandinsky.
“Centre Pompidou is one of the world’s preeminent art museums and we at the AGO are deeply grateful—and very excited—to be able to share these highlights from its collection with our visitors,” says Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO’s Michael and Sonja Koerner Director, and CEO. “The visual relationship—both complementary and contrasting—of Chagall’s emotive figurations with the abstractions of the Russian avant-garde tells a compelling and complex story of influence and heritage, contextualizing Chagall within the art movements of his homeland for the very first time and offering visitors an opportunity to discuss, debate, and connect with some outstanding works of art.”
“Built around the great figure of Marc Chagall and the exceptional collection of our museum, this exhibition is an opportunity to consider the exceptional work of the Russian avant-garde from Chagall’s perspective,” says Alfred Pacquemont, director of the Musée national d’art moderne in Centre Pompidou. “Our collection of works by Chagall includes key works from Chagall’s personal collection, many of which were gifts of the artist and his family; works by Kandinsky, Gontcharova, and Delaunay are also among our collection’s highlights. We are privileged that the Art Gallery of Ontario will host this exhibition for its only North American showing, and that these great works—many of which rarely leave our museum—will be experienced and enjoyed by a Canadian audience.”
“From cubo-futurism and constructivism to folk art and expressionism, Chagall’s influences are as wide-ranging and divergent as his work is boldly original and singularly imaginative,” says Elizabeth Smith, the AGO’s executive director of curatorial affairs. “This exhibition encourages new perspectives on Chagall’s artistic development, and offers a comprehensive presentation of outstanding artwork by the 20th century’s most imaginative and engaging Russian artists.”

Website : Art Gallery of Ontario 15.10.2011-15.01.2012

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OU L'ON PISTE LA GRANDE FAUCHEUSE

« Barthélémy l’Anglais, Livres des propriétés des choses » France, fin du XVe siècle © bnf

Belle exposition à Bruxelles, elle cible la représentation de la mort au Moyen Age comme réalité inéluctable et construction de l'esprit. Deux cent cinquante pièces d'art, d'archéologie et d'artefacts. Un parcours ludique et didactique qui nous donne une image d'un Moyen Age raffiné.

Des squelettes en ivoire ouvragé, des batailles sanglantes enluminées de fanions et des anges fermement incisés dans le laiton de lames funéraires côtoient des enfers flamboyants, de jeunes défunts peints à l'heure de la mort, de purs visages de gisants et des crânes sarcastiques. Ce parcours sur la mort au Moyen Age que l'on imaginait volontiers infernal ou un tantinet lugubre s'avère, au contraire, paisible, didactique, tonique, très lisible, dans tous les cas de figure, pour un sujet aussi vaste !
On a presque le sentiment, au terme de cette exposition qui accueille deux cents cinquante pièces en tous genres couvrant un millier d'années, que rien n'est plus sensé, plus parlant ni plus raffiné que la représentation sacrée ou profane de la mort dans un Moyen Age souvent entrevu comme barbare ! Même les squelettes bien réels dans la gangue des fouilles archéologiques, les tissus sacrés retrouvés en lambeaux, les mains fossilisées exhumées des tourbières prennent des allures saisissantes de vanités !

La mort, à tous les tournants
Tout se passe comme si le secret de la pensée intime et collective qui prépare à l'inéluctable trépas était à jamais perdu, enfoui sous le linceul aseptisé de la mort moderne, une mort cachée, niée, évacuée à grands renforts de précautions.
La mort au Moyen Age, violente ou naturelle, attendait à tous les tournants. L'espérance de vie, réduite par les guerres, la peste, les famines, les exécutions capitales et autres joyeusetés, avait pour effet de la rendre omniprésente. Les cimetières n'étaient pas comme aujourd'hui à distance respectable des vivants. Ils épousaient les flans des églises qui accueillaient sous leur sol les tombeaux des puissants et des nantis. Les sépultures du commun, des puissants longeaient les murs tandis que les pauvres étaient promis à la fosse commune et les juifs exilés en leurs propres cimetières.
Bref, la sphère des morts coexistait avec celle des vivants et la terre qui leur était réservée au sein du village pouvait à l'occasion accueillir un marché, une foire, une fête. Cette proximité jointe à la piété, la superstition, la promesse du paradis, de l'enfer et du purgatoire contribuait à apprivoiser la grande Faucheuse.
Une construction de l'esprit
Les sentiments, les comportements liés à la mort varient selon les époques, les espaces, les circonstances historiques et les conditions de vie. La mort n'est pas seulement une réalité inéluctable, elle est aussi une construction de l‘esprit, une vision. Et c'est l'art dans sa diversité, outil privilégié de l'histoire des mentalités, qui en reflète le mieux les nuances.
L'exposition du Cinquantenaire s'empare de manière généraliste, ponctuelle, pédagogique d‘un sujet fort et très étudié qui relève ici de plusieurs disciplines, archéologie, histoire, histoire des mentalités, sociologie, médecine… Elle en pointe, sans les développer (mais le livre qui l‘accompagne ne s'en prive pas), les différentes dimensions avec un choix très réfléchi et original d'œuvres d'art puisées au Musée et dans d'autres collections publiques et privées.
La plupart des objets renvoient à des panneaux explicatifs. Exposés de manière emblématique grâce, notamment, à la mise en espace claire et structurée qui leur assure un rayonnement maximal en dépit d'un éclairage calculé au plus juste, ils portent réellement le parcours. Peut-être scolaire en première intention, l'exposition déborde cette impression même si la première salle est nettement plus conventionnelle que les autres.
L'exposition peut aussi contenter un public pointu. On y fait des découvertes. Les frottis monumentaux, par exemple, réalisés aujourd'hui à la cire à partir de pierres tombales explicitent à merveille les sujets et les styles en les transposant dans un nouveau registre, graphique et mystérieux.
Et puis il y a des pièces infiniment précieuses choisies avec goût comme ce vase grec funéraire d'une grande pureté de ligne et de dessin, ce couple de chiens en marbre aboyant aux pieds d'un gisant, cette madone simplissime en marbre blanc et cette mise au tombeau mosane du 14e siècle. De magnifiques gravures et surtout ces vanités en ivoire aussi puissantes que de taille réduite (le squelette méditant sur une tombe du musée de Cluny) évoquent un Moyen Age qui, décidément, à tous les coups, vaut mieux que son lot de préjugés.

Website : MRAH Bruxelles 02.12.2010-24.04.2011

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FIRST EXHIBITION TO SHOW PAINTINGS BY JOSEPH ALBERS AT THE PINAKOTHEK DER MODERNE

Study for a Variant / Adobe (I), ca. 1947, Oil on blotting paper with pencil 24,1 × 30,6 cm, The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation © 2010 THE JOSEF AND ANNI ALBERS FOUNDATION / VG BILDKUNST, BONN / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY, NEW YORK. AUFNAHME: © 2010 WERNER HANNAPPEL / VG BILD-KUNST, BONN.

The exhibition is the first to show such a concentration of paintings on paper by Josef Albers, some of which will be completely unknown to the general public. Works in oil on paper, painted by the artist since the 1940s in preparation for the »Adobe« and »Variant« series in particular, are presented together with a large group related to his principal work »Homage to the Square« from the artist’s late period, that he focused on from 1950 until his death in 1976.
Josef Albers was only able to fully develop into an important artist and influential teacher after emigrating to the USA. From around 1940 onwards, Albers was inspired by Mexico’s pre-Columbian architecture, scultpure and textile art that boosted his sense for the aesthetic and led to idiosynchratic, radiant colour compositions, the likes of which had never been seen at that time in European modern art. Around 1950, Albers discovered what was for him the ideal formal shape of colour - the square.
The works exhibited surprise the viewer with their spontaneity, their search for immediacy and the extraordinary delicacy of their colours. Albers studied the interaction of colours like virtually no other. Through his works on paper in particular it can be seen in detail how the artist achieved such a thorough osmosis of plane and space through increasing the density of the colours used.

Website : Pinakothek der Moderne München 16.12.2010-06.03.2011

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ANGEL VERGARA REINVENTE LA PEINTURE SUR LE VIF

« Portrait du jeune Karl Marx » : extrait de la vidéo « Karl Marx-L’idéologie allemande » où la main de l’artiste trace un portrait dans l’espace © Angel Vergara

Représentant la Belgique à la prochaine Biennale de Venise, Angel Vergara expose une belle sélection de son travail à l'Ikob d'Eupen.

En cette période de marchés de Noël et de week-end enneigé dans les Hautes Fagnes, les amateurs d'art peuvent faire d'une pierre deux coups en profitant de quelques heures de détente pour rendre une petite visite à l'Ikob, le Musée d'Art contemporain d'Eupen. On peut actuellement y découvrir une exposition consacrée à Angel Vergara, artiste né en Espagne en 1958 et travaillant à Bruxelles depuis de nombreuses années.

Étonnant parcours que celui de cet artiste issu d'un milieu modeste et ayant toujours eu la sensation que, pour toucher le public, il fallait aller à sa rencontre. Depuis ses débuts, il ne cesse de chercher mille et un moyens de répondre à ce besoin. Peintre dans l'âme, il ne se contente pas de revisiter les grandes thématiques du passé. Il ne se satisfait pas non plus de l'abstraction ou d'une quelconque modernité passagère.

Sa peinture est vivante, avec ou sans toile. Et elle n'hésite pas à se nourrir de la performance, de l'installation ou de la vidéo pour mieux nous faire ressentir toutes ses vibrations.
Désigné pour représenter la Belgique dans le cadre de la prochaine biennale de Venise, Vergara a choisi le peintre Luc Tuymans comme curateur de son exposition. Ce n'est pas un hasard.
Peinture dans l'espace
Dans le pavillon belge, il présentera une série d'œuvres inspirées par les sept péchés capitaux. Mais quel que soit le sujet qu'il aborde, Angel Vergara travaille de manière singulière, mettant en évidence la relation au temps, à l'espace et à la gestuelle du peintre.
L'exposition de l'Ikob montre ces différentes manières de procéder à travers une série d'œuvres d'époques diverses dont les plus récentes datent de l'an dernier.
Au rez-de-chaussée, on retrouve notamment une série de six photographies réalisées à Calais sous son costume de Straatman. Cette figure étrange inventée par l'artiste se plante au beau milieu de la ville, sur une plage, sur un marché… Couvert d'un simple drap blanc, Angel Vergara se rend invisible à ce qui l'entoure mais capte évidemment toute l'attention par l'étrangeté de sa présence et la blancheur éclatante du drap. Sous celui-ci, il note, dessine, capte et restitue tout ce qui l'entoure.
On retrouve ensuite cet art de la notation sur de grandes toiles à la peinture acrylique. Noms de personnes ou de lieux, tracés de déplacement, dates, chiffres, petits portraits : ces grands tableaux tentent de capturer le mouvement, le passage du temps, la réalité des échanges dans un espace donné.
Plus loin encore, on retrouve Straatman dans un film tourné avec la complicité des pompiers de Bruxelles puis transformé par l'artiste pour devenir une sorte de dessin animé saccadé. On voyage ainsi constamment entre le dehors et le dedans, la vie et son passage sur la toile, le modèle et le geste du peintre. C'est particulièrement vrai dans les trois nouvelles vidéos montrant Marx, Engels et Wiertz, saisit par le pinceau de l'artiste qui s'agite sous le nez de modèles jouant les illustres personnages et abandonnant la pose de temps à autre. Comme pour mieux nous rappeler la vanité de toute tentative de les fixer pour l'éternité.

Jusqu'au 13 février à l'Ikob, Loten 3, 4700 Eupen, du mardi au dimanche de 13 à 17 heures.

Website : IKOB

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ARTISTIC REVOLUTION TRIGGERED BY THE FLEMISH PRIMITIVES IS THE SUBJECT OF EXHIBITION

For a number of generations Flemish art influenced artistic Europe in the fields of painting, sculpture and illuminated manuscripts to a degree that rivalled the innovations of the Italian Renaissance. The exhibition sheds light on this period with major loans from foreign museums.
In the fifteenth century the Flemish Primitives triggered an artistic revolution in Central Europe. Talented painters like Jan van Eyck with his brilliant eye for detail, introduced new painting styles and techniques. Their influence spread rapidly and inspired scores of artists, including the painter, draughtsman and etcher Albrecht Dürer.
Van Eyck and Dürer are two great masters from the period 1420-1530. A pioneering exhibition brings together first-rate works by them and some of their contemporaries, drawn from notable European and American collections. Paintings and other art forms will illustrate the interaction between the Flemish Primitives and art in Central Europe. The exhibition looks set to be one of the cultural experiences of 2010.
With masterpieces by Jan Baegert, Dieric Bouts, Hans Burgkmair the Elder, Robert Campin, Gerard David, Albrecht Dürer, Jost Haller, Hans Holbein the Elder, Johan Koerbecke, Stephan Lochner, Quentin Massys, Conrat Meit, Hans Memling, Joachim Patinir, Hans Pleydenwurff, Tilmann Riemenschneider, Martin Schongauer, Veit Stoss, Hugo van der Goes, Rogier van der Weyden, Jan van Eyck, Israhel van Meckenem, Michael Wolgemut
The Brugge Centraal city festival examines the relationship between Flanders and Central Europe. Flanders has a long tradition of interaction with the countries in that region, as Bruges' heritage testifies. Brugge Centraal offers a packed and varied programme of exhibitions, events, films, performing arts productions and concerts.
The programme is of course still in preparation but the two main pillars of Brugge Centraal are the art-historical exhibition 'Van Eyck to Dürer', and a contemporary art trail for which 'artist curator' Luc Tuymans is the inspiration and driving force. ‘Van Eyck to Dürer’ is a prestigious exhibition in the Groeninge Museum on the influence of the Flemish Primitives on the artists in the Holy Roman Empire.

Website : Brugge Centraal

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LES MELANGES DE LA FRANCE RENAISSANTE

Dans l'Hexagone, c'est vers 1500 que se négocie la Renaissance : s'y mêlent influences du Nord et du Sud et spécificités champenoises, picardes, provençales… Belle exposition, sans têtes d'affiche !
En ce temps-là, la France était plus belle. Le vitrail, la statuaire, la tapisserie, le manuscrit avaient le même pouvoir symbolique et édifiant que la peinture qui naissait à elle-même.

Enluminure ou émail, médaille ou tapisserie pouvaient, au même titre qu'un retable, instruire le monde temporel et spirituel, témoigner de la circulation des idées, des techniques, du mariage des styles.
De Charles VIII à Louis XII (1483-1515), tous deux époux d'Anne de Bretagne, la renommée du royaume était grande et les terroirs, de la Champagne au Val de Loire, de la Normandie à la Provence, exhalaient déjà leur fumet.
L'imprimerie changeait le monde. Les artistes souvent polyvalents, allaient d'une région à l'autre. Les commanditaires – aux mains jointes… et aux appétits terrestres – étaient nombreux, curieux de l'art qui se tramait ailleurs. La vie religieuse pouvait être affaire privée. Et la demeure – le jardin – reflétait un nouvel art de vivre.
On rénovait, on améliorait, plutôt que de mettre en chantier, mêlant gothique flamboyant et antique. L'art n'avait pas de frontières, le Nord lorgnait vers le Sud, le Sud vers le Nord.
Tout était dans tout ou presque au chapitre de l'art qui liait l'architecture au meuble, la sculpture à la médaille, la peinture à la tapisserie, l'enluminure et vice versa.
Une synthèse à la française…
Les foyers créatifs d'Avignon, Lyon, Tours, Troyes et Paris, touchés par l'Italie ou les Pays-Bas selon leur aire de rayonnement (et souvent par les deux) structurent l'exposition.
La Renaissance ne se perçoit plus comme l'aboutissement d'un long tunnel mais comme une acclimatation, une synthèse à la française aux cadences variées, portée par la prospérité économique après la guerre de cent ans. Bref, comme une continuité artistique – qui s'emballe vers 1500 et culminera un peu plus tard.
Cette synthèse complexe est déjà à l'œuvre dans l'art du symbolique Jean Fouquet et du maître de Moulins (Jean Hey), actif dans le Bourbonnais.
La douceur suave, la luminosité de sa Nativité, de son Annonciation, de ses portraits de petites princesses conjuguent merveilleux flamand et spatialisation italienne sur un mode « aéré » qui lui est propre.
Dans la fameuse tapisserie de La Dame à la licorne dite mille-fleurs que l'on peut attribuer à Jean d'Ypres, on mesure bien ce métissage des influences et la naissance d'un goût français de la mesure.
Même impression avec le vitrail Saint-Adrien de Notre-Dame de Louviers (Rouen), avec sa beauté et sa lisibilité monumentale.
La sculpture trouve sa juste place dans l'exposition avec de magnifiques « mises au tombeau » qui dramatisent et humanisent la souffrance. Les thèmes, surtout sacrés, sont perméables au sentiment profane. Une certaine sensualité, une douceur, une vie plus souple et parfois fantasque animent la statuaire.
… dans un registre qui reste léger
Il est rare qu'une exposition, pourtant dépourvue de « grands noms » – exception faite du Maître de Moulins, de Saint Gilles, de Fouquet et de Clouet et de La Belle Ferronnière de Vinci, tableau fétiche de Louis XII – témoigne avec bonheur d'une telle mixité sans sombrer dans un registre lourd, historique et documentaire.
L'afflux de pièces patrimoniales de première main laisse tout bonnement l'impression qu'églises et musées, cryptes et monastères de Province et de Paris auront été vidés de leurs trésors, le temps de l'exposition !
C'est aussi le moment, si l'on en croit le regretté André Chastel, vrai « parrain » de l'art français, où se mettrait en place la notion d'identification au roi qui débouchera sur le concept de monarchie absolue et cette conscience identitaire qui ne va pas sans le sentiment d'un « goût français ».
Le thème du jardin intra-muros qui apparaît parfois dans des manuscrits et recoupe celui de territoire en voie d'unification semble le confirmer.
Concoctée par la Réunion des Musées nation avec l'Art Institute de Chicago où elle sera l'objet d'un second volet, « France 1500 » est solidaire (pur hasard) de l'exposition de Bruges consacrée à l'influence des Primitifs à l'est de l'Europe. Ou de celle qui s'ouvre cette semaine au Cinquantenaire sur la mort au Moyen Âge.
Un temps de transition, qui, décidément, mobilise les énergies !

Grand Palais, Paris, jusqu'au 10 janvier, tous les jours sauf le mardi.

Website : Grand Palais

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EXHIBITION OF WORKS BY PAINTER AMEDEO MODIGLIANI AT THE MUNICIPAL HOUSE IN PRAGUE

Amedeo Modigliani

The Municipal House opens a unique exhibition of the works of the world-renowned early 20th-century Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920), which will run to February 28, 2011 at the elegant venue of the Municipal House in Prague. The organisers chose the artist’s own magically sounding name as the exhibition’s title. The exhibition aims to acquaint the public not just with Modigliani’s work, but also with the man himself and his life.
To complement the works of Amedeo Modigliani the exhibition will also show paintings by Modigliani’s friends and peers, such as Pablo Picasso, Max Jacob, and Gino Romiti, and the last curatorial section of the exhibition will be a parallel display of the work of Amedeo Modigliani and the Czech artist František Kupka (1871-1957), whose paintings will be part of the Amedeo Modigliani exhibition.
The curator of the exhibition is Ms Serena Baccaglini, whose name has already been behind numerous important projects. She organised eight exhibitions about Picasso, the special collection Bosè/Dominguin, and an exhibition about Salvador Dalì. The AMEDEO MODIGLIANI exhibition will contain works on loan from public and private collections around the world, for instance, from the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem, the Estorick Collection in London, and from private collections in Germany, France and America. Thanks to cooperation with the Modigliani Institut Archives Légales in Rome original documents will be shown that illustrate the life of Amedeo Modigliani in the early 20th century during the wonderful years of the birth of contemporary art.
The exhibition presents Modigliani as an Italian artist, but it does not overlook that fact that in the early 20th century he was also an important figure of the ‘Paris school’. The exhibition will be showing Modigliani’s paintings, but also many of his studies and drawings, and thus it constitutes an important contribution to our understanding of Modigliani’s works as a whole. As will all geniuses, especially in the field of drawing, they reveal to us the beauty of his style and allow us to witness the first signs of the origin of an idea.
The exhibition will also present works by the famous Czech artist František Kupka. Serena Baccaglini came up with the new idea of showing side by side the works of these two artists, who exhibited together in 1912 as part of the Autumn Salon in Paris. Modigliani and Kupka were two great innovators in art, with similar life paths and bringing them together again, it is a new, magical, and exciting occasion. At the exhibition in 1912 Modigliani showed his sculptures, while Kupka presented his paintings Amorpha, Fugue in Two Colours and Warm Chromatics which can be regarded as the first real abstract works in history. Modigliani and Kupka are thus meeting up again for the first time in Prague, more than a century later.
The exhibition will also show some paintings by friends of Modigliani, with whom the artist lived through the inspirational period of the artistic avant-garde in Paris in the years before the First World War. Thus, we will be looking into the background of the time when modern art was born. Thematically the exhibition will focus also on the artistic relationship between Modigliani and Jeanne and on questions that have left the figure of Modigliani shrouded in mystery. Jeanne Hébuterne, the love of the artist’s life, was the model for his best work. Those who love Modigliani will certainly recall his nudes and portraits with the typically elongated faces, almond eyes, long, sharp noses, and melancholy expressions. Unfortunately, a few days before Modigliani and Jeanne were to marry the artist died of tuberculosis at the age of just 36. Jeanne Hébuterne followed him soon after, as, unable to bear the loss of her great love, she jumped from the window of her parents’ home.
It is almost extraordinary that an exhibition of the work of this major artist has never taken place in the Czech Republic. Similar exhibitions, for instance, have been held recently in Milan, Madrid, and Bonn. Not long ago the National Gallery had two of the artist’s works on loan.
The first major exhibition of Modigliani’s more important work to take place in Prague is thus only happening now.
The exhibition’s organiser, the director of Vernon Gallery, Monika Burian Jourdan, says of the exhibition’s significance: ‘I am only coming to realise the importance of the exhibition and its impact in a historical perspective just now, in the course of its preparation. For me Modigliani signifies elegance, mystery, success, and human tragedy. Amedeo Modigliani’s works possess an Italian charm that in a certain sense we can also feel from Prague architecture...’
The curator’s gusto and enthusiasm for the life and work of Amedeo Modigliani is enormous, and her energy and professional experience and ability promise art lovers a great exhibition experience.
On the exhibition Ms Baccaglini adds: ‘A great passion for Modigliani and Prague was a tremendous incentive to me to obtain special works that would allow us to encounter the great artist as a genius and as a man."

Website : Prague's Municipal House

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LA SAGA BOCH VIVRA !

Un voyage éclectique dans le temps, les styles – et à travers les turbulences économiques - entre 1841 et aujourd'hui, jusqu'aux créations de Lucile Soufflet, Elvis Pompilio et Charles Kaisin.
Il ne faudra pas attendre 2014-2015 pour s'offrir un regard curieux sur le futur Centre de la céramique qui sera implanté à La Louvière. Le Musée royal de Mariemont présente le piédestal de la collection d'entreprise de la manufacture Boch Frères, une centaine de pièces de 1841 à nos jours, des œuvres souvent inédites. En fin de parcours de l'exposition intitulée Le souffle de Prométhée, un écran plasma dévoile enfin ce que sera le Centre Kéramis.
L'association d'architectes Coton, Devisscher, Le Lion, Nottebaert, Vincentelli a été retenue pour développer une architecture en courbes, organisée autour d'un édifice qui abritera les trois fours bouteilles en briques (classés en 2003 et uniques en Belgique), derniers vestiges de ce type de cuisson industrielle. Kéramis, futur Centre de la céramique de la Communauté française, musée et centre d'art axé sur les pratiques contemporaines de la céramique, est aussi le moteur de la restructuration urbaine de La Louvière.

Une vision éclectique
De l'histoire de la société actuellement en cours de démolition au design à table, la centaine de pièces exposées à Mariemont n'est en rien un condensé de l'histoire de l'art de la céramique de 1841 à nos jours. « Il s'agit d'une partie de la collection d'entreprise Boch, précise Ludovic Recchia, conservateur de la section céramique au musée de Mariemont. Il faut l'appréhender à travers le prisme du marché de l'art aux différentes époques, avec ce que cela comprend comme points positifs et négatifs… »
L'accent n'est donc pas mis sur Charles Catteau, le grand créateur art déco de la manufacture, hors quelques pièces dont un grand vase géométrique et le célèbre vase aux Cigognes (1925). La plupart des faïences montrées n'ont pas été dévoilées au public depuis leur acquisition par la Communauté française et la Société régionale d'investissement de Wallonie lors de la faillite de l'entreprise en 1985. C'est le cas, par exemple, d'une allégorie de l'alimentation, récemment acquise par la Province de Hainaut, provenant des anciens magasins du Bon Marché, à Verviers. Dans ce parcours qui suit la ligne du temps, depuis la fondation en 1841, l'arrivée d'artisans luxembourgeois, le rachat de la Manufacture de Tournai dès 1850, on découvre les premières productions luxueuses en grès fin, témoignages du grand éclectisme dont fera preuve la Manufacture Boch dans toutes les Expositions universelles jusqu'en 58, avec le célèbre service Atomium. Des documents, des livres de comptes et de réprimandes (pour jet de terre !), un inventaire des exportations en 1902, de l'Europe à l'Australie, émaillent le grand étalage des réponses qu'une telle entreprise peut donner au goût éclectique de sa clientèle…
Dans ce savoir-faire qui transcende l'imitation Iznik, le symbolisme et l'Art nouveau de Georges De Geetere, l'Art déco selon Cateau et Wolfers, les 30 Glorieuses avec les créations de Chevallier, Pierre Caille et D'Hossche jusqu'aux créations de Nedda El-Asmar pour la station polaire Princesse Elisabeth, un département est une mine d'or pour les collectionneurs : la Chambre des peintres (1870-1900), triomphe du « bleu de La Louvière ».
« En 1870, des peintres hollandais engagés par Victor Boch, venus pour la plupart de Delft et de Maastricht, apportent leur maîtrise de la peinture sur faïence », rappelle Ludovic Recchia devant les créations fantaisistes de la dynastie Heemskerk. Ce savoir-faire va valoriser la peinture sur faïence, « un genre en soi, à l'égal de la peinture sur chevalet », selon Octave Maus. C'est aussi pour la Manufacture Boch, le début de l'appel récurrent à des artistes, sculpteurs, designers. En contrepoint, une série de photographies de Véronique Vercheval illustre la lutte des ouvriers et ouvrières en 2009 face à la faillite voulue par les créanciers : « Par la raison ou par la force, Boch vivra ! »
Le souffle de Prométhée , Musée royal de Mariemont, Morlanwelz, jusqu'au 13 février.

Website : Musée Royal de Mariemont

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THE HERAKLEIDON MUSEUM PRESENTS EXHIBITION - EDVARD MUNCH, BEYOND THE SCREAM -

Edvard Munch, On the Waves of Love. Lithographic crayon and tusche, 1896.

The Herakleidon Museum opened the exhibition "Edvard Munch, Beyond the Scream" which will be on display from November 26th, 2010 until February 27th, 2011 and includes 80 graphic works of Edvard Munch from the Collection of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art - Gift of Charles and Evelyn Kramer, New York. The exhibition is under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Municipality of the City of Athens and the City of Athens Cultural Organization (PODA); it also has the support of the Norwegian Embassy and the Norwegian Institute at Athens.
Many years ago, Charles and Evelyn Kramer built one of the most comprehensive collections of Edvard Munch’s graphic work, which they donated to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (TAMA). Thanks to a close collaboration with and great support from Professor Mordechai Omer, Director and Chief Curator of TAMA, we are able to present today these 80 works. We cannot express enough our gratitude for allowing these precious and delicate works to travel to Greece for the benefit of our visitors. Besides which, twenty five years have passed since the last extensive exhibition of Munch’s graphic work was presented in Athens. A whole new generation of museum goers will now have the opportunity to admire in our museum some of the most stunning works on paper that Munch produced during his long artistic career. ~ Paul Fyros, Founder of Herakleidon Museum.
Edvard Munch once said that “In my art I have tried to explain to myself life and its meaning”. Munch’s voyage into his soul has given the world unique masterpieces of art. The Kramer collection of his graphic work is one of the most important private collections of the artist’s works and I am looking forward to seeing it at the Herakleidon museum. ~ Sverre Stub, Ambassador of Norway

Website : Herakleidon Museum

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FIRST INTERNATIONAL MULTIMEDIA MUSEUM RETROSPECTIVE OF JEAN PAUL GAULTIER TO PREMIERE IN MONTREAL

From June 17 to October 2, 2011, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) will present The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, the first retrospective devoted to the celebrated French couturier who launched his first prêt-à-porter collection in 1976 and founded his own couture house in 1997. Dubbed fashion’s enfant terrible from the time of his first runway shows in the 1970s, Jean Paul Gaultier is indisputably one of the most important fashion designers of recent decades.
Very early, his avantgarde fashions reflected an understanding of a multicultural society’s issues and preoccupations, shaking up – with invariable good humour – established societal and aesthetic codes. Initiated, developed, produced and circulated by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to mark the thirty-fifth anniversary of the designer’s own label, this retrospective has been organized in collaboration with the Maison Jean Paul Gaultier.
“I wanted to create an exhibition on Jean Paul Gaultier more than any other couturier because of his great humanity,” explained Nathalie Bondil, Director and Chief Curator of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. “Beyond the technical virtuosity resulting from exceptional expertise in the various skills involved in haute couture, an unbridled imagination and ground-breaking artistic collaborations, he offers an open-minded vision of society, a crazy, sensitive, funny, sassy world in which everyone can assert his or her own identity, a world without discrimination, a unique ‘fusion couture.’ Beneath Jean Paul Gaultier’s wit and irreverence lie a true generosity of spirit and a very powerful message for society. His humanist aesthetic touches me deeply.”
The exhibition will feature approximately 120 ensembles, mainly from the designer’s couture collections, but also from his prêt-à-porter line, along with their accessories. Created between 1976 and 2010, for the most part these pieces have never been exhibited. Sketches, stage costumes, excerpts from films, runway shows, concerts, videos, dance performances, interviews and even television programmes will all provide a look at the couturier’s world. Photography will also be a major focus of attention, thanks to loans of, in many cases, never-before-seen prints from renowned contemporary photographers and artists. The exhibition will be organized along five different thematic sections: “Paris,” “Fusions,” “Multi-Gender,” “Eurotrash/X-Rated” and “Metropolis.”
A substantial portion of the exhibition will also be devoted to the artistic collaborations that have characterized the world of Gaultier, including filmmakers (Peter Greenaway, Luc Besson, Caro and Jeunet, and Pedro Almodóvar) and choreographers (Maurice Béjart, Angelin Preljocaj and Régine Chopinot), not to mention with the world of popular music, in France (Yvette Horner, Les Rita Mitsouko and Mylène Farmer) and on the international scene (Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Lady Gaga).

Website : Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

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LOUVRE PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE 18TH CENTURY WITH A SPECIAL SERIES OF FOUR EXHIBITIONS

Henry Füssli, Le Cauchemar, 1782, Detroit , Institut of Arts © The Bridgeman Art Library.

As part of its 2010–2011 season, the Louvre pays tribute to the 18th century with a special series of four exhibitions. The first of these, Paper Museums: Antiquity in Books, 1600–1800, opened in September, followed by The Louvre in the Age of Enlightenment, 1750–1792, Antiquity Rediscovered: Innovation and Resistance in the 18th Century, and concluding with Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736-1783), which opens in January 2011.
Organized around a selection of more than one hundred and fifty major works, Antiquity Rediscovered: Innovation and Resistance in the 18th Century, the focal event in the series, traces the emergence in Europe of the movement known as “neoclassicism”, characterized by a renewed desire to re-create the spirit and forms of ancient art. Seen as a reaction against the Parisian rococo style, which had filtered throughout the continent, this revival encompassed architecture and the arts of living as well as the visual arts, stimulated by recent archaeological discoveries and academic debates. From busts draped in the Roman style to decorative motifs derived from Greek vases, antiquity was all the rage among enlightened Europeans, with intellectuals discoursing at great length on Wincklemann’s artistic theories or Piranesi’s engravings and aristocrats from London to Saint Petersburg commissioning classically conceived houses incorporating elements of temple architecture.
However, as early as the 1760s, various alternative movements began to arise, inspired by different ancient sources, forming rival currents grouped in the exhibition under the names “neobaroque”, “neomannerism”, and the “sublime”. From Rome to Edinburgh, from Stockholm to Paris, artists expressed their individuality, offering their own visions of an antiquity rediscovered, less motivated by archaeological zeal, inspired instead by Renaissance or 17th-century ideals and sometimes even by aspects of the Middle Ages, synonymous with antiquity from a more national perspective. From the lavish fantasies explored by Fragonard to the phantasmagorical art of Füssli, this particular rediscovery of antiquity was a journey with no holds barred.
Nevertheless, the last quarter of the century bequeathed the enduring legacy of a new, more universal language, evidenced by a rigorous heroic style and a severity of tone, which is illustrated in the exhibition by the themes of the triumph of Mars, the notion of the “great man”, the ascendancy of the idea of virtue, and the ideal of human beauty achieved through the perfection of bodily proportions. These sections bring together masterpieces by David, Sergel and Canova, an array of furniture, architectural projects, monumental canvases and imposing marble statues, all giving expression to the new aspirations of a European society on the brink of revolutionary upheaval.
Concept of the exhibition
Set against, and often in reaction to, the graceful and lighthearted rococo style, whose influence was disseminated throughout Europe in the early 18th century particularly by artists based in Paris, between 1720 and 1730 a revival of interest in ancient art made its presence known in various ways, in England and in Italy. This exhibition addresses, in dialectical fashion, the variety of artistic and intellectual forms that spurred this resurgence of classical ideals and the development of a regenerated aesthetics.
Without attempting an exhaustive treatment of this topic, the exhibition is organized around three themes that succeed each other chronologically.
Fascination for classical art, 1730–1770
In an often contradictory, but always passionate manner, Europe turned increasingly to antiquity as a source of inspiration. First through sculpture, and in particular with the major innovator Bouchardon who, with a remarkable economy of means, was able to join a naturalistic approach with the classical heritage.
Academic and intellectual circles, spearheaded by major figures such as Winckelmann, Caylus, Diderot and Cochin, reexamined, whether to extol its virtues or criticize its achievements, this new demand for an orthodoxy based in the forms and values of antiquity. Europe debated the perfection of unearthed ancient ruins, weighed the merits of Rome against those of Athens, and occasionally set to work re-creating their lost masterpieces.
Around 1760, in painting and in sculpture, a cohesive vocabulary inspired by antiquity began to emerge, to some extent inspired by the earlier explorations of Nicolas Poussin in the 17th century, between Rome, Paris, London and Saint Petersburg. Among its main exponents were artists such as Mengs, Batoni, Hamilton, Greuze, Pajou and Clodion. Apart from finding expression in exceptional works of art, this vocabulary was embraced by many as providing moral and aesthetic precepts to guide everyday life.
The pervasive influence of the desire to restore ancient values certainly became manifest in decorative arts, especially in Paris, where the “Greek style” prevailed in the 1760s (Le Lorrain, Leleu, Vien) but, from Parma to Warsaw, this movement also took hold across the rest of Europe. Similarly, architecture was reborn in an exemplary manner, under the influence of visionaries like the engraver Piranesi, and resulted in the completion of ambitious buildings, designed by leading figures such as Chambers, Soufflot or Robert Adaam.
Resistance, 1750–1790
In the latter half of the 18th century, not all European artists espoused the same devotion to antiquity as the neoclassicists, a movement that increasingly set exacting standards for all its exponents. The second section of the exhibition focuses on three main rival currents, which served to counterbalance this trend.
The first of these is a little-examined current, referred to as the “neobaroque”, which grew out of a revived interest in the leading representatives of the baroque period: Bernini, Pietro da Cortona, and the dramatic and showy works of their heirs, Tiepolo and Francesco Solimena. This current arose in Rome and the rest of Italy (Mengs and Gandolfi) and first spread to France (Fragonard, Doyen, Pajou), then on to Spain, where Giaquinto and Tieopolo had found favor, also home to the last representatives of the baroque (Luis Paret, Goya), and later England. “Neomannerism”, a further alternative, came into being around 1750 and harked back to the great achievements of the Renaissance and the 16th century, which had themselves been inspired by antiquity. Some artists belonging to this movement would rediscover Correggio and Giambologna, Giulio Romano or Jean Goujon to create works less motivated by an interest in declamatory expressiveness or rigorous exemplarity than by sinuous virtuosity (Batoni, Julien de Parme, Cades, Nollekens, Deare, Caffieri, Allegrain, and including the young David).
The last of the three alternatives to neoclassicism is without a doubt the one with the most promising future: the “gothic” or “sublime” current. Inspired by the theories of the philosopher Edmund Burke, this movement blossomed especially in England and among artists from northern Europe living in Rome, who broke free of classical rationality, treating their patrons to a vast repertoire of specters, furies and horrid shades (Füssli, Barry, Sergel, Banks, Desprez). Neoclassicisms, 1770–1790
The final section of the exhibition explores, in four parts, various aspects of the pure, “triumphant” neoclassicism of the 1780s, through the prism of the militaristic ethos present both in the urban landscape and in interior decoration, the example of great men, the cult of virtue, and the exaltation of heroic bodily proportions through works by Sergel, Houdon, Schadow, Julien, Canova, Ledoux, David, Drouais, Regnault and Wright of Derby, among others.
Far from attempting to survey all the important artists or the full range of aesthetic projects circulating in Europe in the 18th century, this selection of some one hundred and fifty seminal works aims above all to underscore the intense quest for renewal motivating the artists of this period, inspired by various attempts to distill the essence of antiquity or else eager to shake off their archaeological heritage to craft more singular visions of an ideal world.

Website : Musée du Louvre

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AMERICAN MUSEUM IN BRITAIN CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF RELATIONS BETWEEN TWO COUNTRIES

View of Claverton Manor, home of The American Museum in Britian.

“It was unique when it opened in 1961, and it remains unique today.” This is how Richard Wendorf, the director of an unusual museum on the outskirts of Bath , describes the only public collection of American art to be found beyond the boundaries of the United States. The American Museum in Britain, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2011, contains over 15,000 items devoted to the decorative arts of America: fancy gowns and Shaker furniture, an extensive collection of native folk art, important holdings of early maps charting the discovery and exploration of the Americas, and one of the largest and finest quilt collections in the entire world. “Portrait paintings and Grandma Moses, painted furniture and Chinese export porcelain – you will find it all here on top of Claverton Hill.”
For the past 50 years the American Museum in Britain has informed its visitors about the cultural history of the United States in order to strengthen relations between the two countries. Over 3 million people have visited the Museum since it opened in 1961, averaging around 40,000 visitors a year, including thousands of schoolchildren. In 2011, the Museum will mark this historical milestone with a major loan exhibition, a gallery trail, three publications, and the opening of two new facilities. The anniversary year will also feature parties, a film series, and lectures in Bath , London , New York and Washington and much much more.
On view in the main exhibition gallery will be an intriguing show entitled Marilyn – Hollywood Icon, featuring twenty of the screen goddess’s gowns and outfits, original photographs and posters, and personal items, all kindly loaned by David Gainsborough Roberts, who has one of the largest collections of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia. Fab@50 presents fifty unusual items in the collection and the fabulous stories that lie behind them, displayed in the Museum’s period rooms within Claverton Manor. On view from 12 March to 30 October 2011, the exhibition and display will be accompanied by significant publications.
The two new facilities to be unveiled in this anniversary year are the Folk Art Gallery, located in the former picture gallery of Claverton Manor, and The Coach House – which includes the former stables. The latter will be used for lectures, corporate retreats, musical events, films and educational purposes. The creation of these two new facilities has been made possible by a successful capital campaign that raised over £4 million for the Museum by the close of 2009.
The folk art collection introduces visitors to a distinctly American aesthetic. “Folk art” tends to be a misunderstood term in Britain , often applied incorrectly as a synonym for “unsophisticated” or “amateur”. At the Museum, its American context is conveyed: the art of the artisan in a pre-Industrial America , with pieces often crafted for constructive use – such as bird decoys, weather vanes, and trade signs – or to capture child likenesses in an age of high infant mortality. The comprehensive collection is acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic , and ranges from the late 18th to the 20th century. It includes important works such as portraits by celebrated artists John Brewster Jr. (1766-1854), Ammi Phillips (1788-1865), Orlando Hand Bears (1811-1851) as well as Sturtevant Hamblen (1817-1884). There are also diverse sculpted pieces: from several shop figures (including three large Cigar-Store Indians), a Mohawk figurehead, gilded metal weathervanes shaped as Native Americans, to a late-19th century carousel giraffe and a carved eagle thought to be by Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890). The opening of the Folk Art Gallery will be heralded by the publication of a catalogue published by Scala Press.
The Museum was founded by two visionary collectors: Dallas Pratt, a New York psychiatrist, and his partner John Judkyn, an English antiques dealer who took American citizenship after the Second World War. Based on their knowledge of the Winterthur , Shelburne, and Colonial Williamsburg museums in the United States , Pratt and Judkyn shared the extraordinary ambition of creating a museum of American decorative arts and crafts in Britain . Collecting most of the objects themselves, they shipped them across the Atlantic and put them on show deep in the English countryside. Panelled rooms from old houses in Massachusetts and Connecticut, the artefacts of everyday life in historic New England, New Mexico, and New Orleans, Navajo rugs, the brightly painted tinware of the Pennsylvania Germans – Pratt and Judkyn wanted all of these rooms and objects to appear as if their original owners had “just stepped out” before their guests arrived.
The richness of the collection spans US history from its early settlers to the 20th century, portraying the complexity and depth of American culture. The rooms are devoted to Shaker and Federal furniture, the 19th-century China trade, and the Museum’s world-class collection of textiles, including the famous quilts collection. Claverton Manor provides a spectacular setting for these sometimes humble American rooms, and it was the founders’ intention to provide an experience for visitors that was quite different from what they would find in other English country houses. The rooms of the American Museum were “occupied” by modest people who lived industrious lives, often in harsh conditions, and who valued the work of the skilled craftsmen and women who produced their furniture, their clocks, and their textiles.
The Museum’s collections, in turn, have helped to generate a revival in the United Kingdom of quilting and patchwork, and nourished enthusiasm for the unadorned work of the Shakers. Artists and designers such as Kaffe Fassett and Laura Ashley have found it a great source of inspiration. Above all, the Museum has helped to promote Anglo-American friendship and understanding by giving its visitors a new way of seeing America : as a country with an interesting history, and as a distinctive civilization with its own traditions and ways of living.
During the past five years, the Museum has developed new programmes and facilities to keep its collections and mission as pertinent as ever. Its café has been renovated and expanded, an interactive American Heritage Centre has been created in the basement, rooms at the top of the manor have been restored for entertaining and for corporate hire, and the grounds themselves – over 150 acres – have been lovingly tended, with the addition of an arboretum of native American trees and a Lewis and Clark Trail. Visitors can also enjoy the Mount Vernon Garden (which pays tribute to the garden George Washington would have known in Virginia ) and the spectacular view down the Limpley Stoke Valley .

Website : The American Museum in Britain

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