OUR FALL EXHIBITIONS
SEPTEMBER IN EUROPE

THE CLAY WARRIORS

LONDON – The exhibition promises to be one of the «shows» of the Fall, with tens of thousands of tickets sold before opening. The clay army of the first emperor of China (Qin Shi Huangdi, who unified the country in 221 B.C.) will be visible for the first time (partially, of course!) in Europe. The discovery of these tombs in the Xi’an province in 1974 had been one of the culminating moments in archeological research in the XXth century.

MILLAIS

LONDON – We have been waiting for nearly one century for a complete retrospective of one of the leaders of the Pre-Raphaelite group. Next to Dante Gabriel Rossetti or Burne-Jones, John Everett Millais did indeed give shape to Victorian aesthetics. From Ophelia to the medieval heroins, his paintings are true classics on the other side of the Channel. This complete panorama also includes later landscapes and portraits.

LEE MILLER

LONDON – She lived a full life as a model, mistress and assistant to Man Ray, the muse of the Parisian avant-garde, and then photographer in her own right who never feared danger. Lee Miller (1907-1977) was one of the only women photographers authorised in the fighting zones and the first to photograph Hitler's blockhaus after the storming of Berlin. To commemorate the centennial of her birth, the Victoria & Albert Museum has brought together nearly 140 works, among them various vintage prints (Surrealist compositions, nudes, photograph reports in Rumania and Egypt) as well as satirical drawings or fashion images.

IN FRANCE

ALBERTO GIACOMETTI'S WORKSHOP

PARIS – Following years of legal procedures, the riches of the Alberto and Annette Giacometti Foundation are finally shown to the public. Over 600 works, of which some 200 statues, will be presented. We will discover asoects rarely shown of Giacometti's work, such as the painted plasters, ou more original yet, fragments from the walls of his various workshops, among them the one rue Hippolyte-Maindron, in Paris.

ARCIMBOLDO

PARIS – He was one of the painters cherished by the Surrealists with his paintings in the shape of "cadavres exquis": faces made of a composition of fruit, leaves and fish. Born in Milano, Arcimboldo (1526-1593) settled in the court of Vienna with emperors Maximilian and Rudolph II, and was covered with honors throughout his life, to be easily forgotten as soon as he died. This exhibition of some one hundred paintings includes the famous composed heads as well as another aspect of his work that is less known: his portraits of princes of the court and projects of costumes and decors.

8th ARTENIM

NÎMES – The 8th edition of the international fair of contemporary art in Nîmes aims at being festive with a night of art, on 23 September, that wil allow us to enjoy the last, weening days of the Summer. Aside from many personal exhibitions (Tony Soulié, Jacqueline Taïb, a series on Fantômas by Eduardo Arroyo), there is a hommage to gallery owner Alain Matarasso, the leader of the Galerie du Centre in Paris since thirty years, as well as various events dedicated to sculpture (Jordi, Riba, Guy de Rougemont) or to the production of the graduates from the Ecole des beaux-arts.

COLETTE RICHARME

ALBERTVILLE – The musée d’Art et d’Histoire d’Albertville has decided to temporarily empty its rooms to open them to an original artist: Colette Richarme (1904-1991). She was born in China, in Canton, but spent her youth in the Savoie region in France. Throughout her long life, spent mostly in Provence, Colette Richarme befriended a great number of creators of the XXth century, from Yves Brayer to Joseph Delteil and Louise Bourgeois. Her painting is strongly influenced by the light of the South, and it is now finally enjoying a complete retrospective, with nearly 150 paintings presented to the public.

COLLECTOR'S FAIR

PARIS – The national Union of Antique dealers has set up the third edition of its Salon du Collectionneur in a prestigious site, the Grand Palais. While alternating with the Biennale des antiquaires, this rendez-vous was launched in 2003 with a pedagogic vocation. It allows the public at large to buy a valuable object or simply to perfection its knowledge in art history. The 124 international exhibitors are grouped together by specialties: painting-drawing-sculpture, furniture, art objects, archeology, etc.

9th CONTEMPORARY ART BIENNNIAL IN LYONS

LYONS – For its 9th edition, the Biennale de Lyon closes a cycle dedicated to temporality that it began in 2003. What are current events when compared to history? How can we know what will survive among the accumulation of «news»? In order to know, the two curators Hans Ulrich Obrist and Stéphanie Moisdon asked some fifty curators around the world to each present an artist. This staircase selection enables us to combine «stars» and «emerging artists». It also has the advantage of introducing creators one is not used to seeing in this type of of event such as Michel Houellebecq or architect Rem Koolhaas.

DESIGN AGAINST DESIGN

PARIS – Starting from the extraordinary success of the word «design», the exhibition picks through two centuries of creation and organises unexpected confrontations between leading objects. For example, we will see face to face, a Dannhauser sofa from 1825 and a Bubble chaise longue by Frank Gehry, distant 150 years from one another. How des the historical context influence design? How did designers incorporate natural and organic forms? Staircases, chairs and radiators will bring an answer, accompanied by three monumental pieces by Zaha Hadid, Verner Panton and from the Van Lieshout workshop.

GOLD FROM THE GOLDEN FLEECE, Treasures from Georgia

PARIS – Pearls shaped like melons, pendants, necklaces, bracelets or signet rings: dated from the first millenium before our time, they are all entirelly in gold and come from tombs recently dug out in Georgia, on the Phase river so dear to the Antiquity (called today the Riomi). Such a collection is not surprising, as current Georgia is the Colchide that attracted Jason and his companions wen they were in search of the Golden Fleece…

JAPANESE PAINTERS IN PARIS

PARIS – The best known is Foujita, one of the stars of the School of Paris in the period between the two wars. But there are many Japanese artists who went through a Parisian period and some of them such as Seiki Kuroda are equally well-known in their own country. The exhibition presents ten of them and shows how they contributed to the birth of a true genre, yôga painting, which transcribes traditional concerns in a Western style.

IN ITALY

BIENNALE OF THE ANTIQUE DEALERS

FLORENCE – The Tuscan capital will host the 25th Biennale of antique dealers in its usual setting over the last decade, at palazzo Corsini (it used to be held at palazzo Strozzi). Staged by Pier Luigi Pizzi, it will welcome some one hundred exhibitors, mot of them Italian. The central exhibition is dedicated to the manufacture of Montelupo earthenware.

ROTHKO

ROME – One of the key moments of Mark Rothko's career was the presentation of his work at the Venice Biennale in 1958.The exhibition at Palazzo delle Esposizioni will focus on recreating a part of that Rothko room but it will also draw a general line of the artist's itinerary, from the figurative and surrealist paintings from his beginnings up to the large, monochrome compositions from the 1950s.

IN SWITZERLAND

MAX ERNST

BASEL – The Tinguely museum, dedicated to one of the main members of the movement of New Realists, will present a monumental work by Max Ernst, Pétales et jardin de la nymphe Ancolie. It is 5 meters wide, includes 18 panels, and had been painted in 1934 for a dance hall in Zurich. The property of the Kunsthaus Zurich, it will be lent on a long term basis to the musée Tinguely, where the public will be able to assist to its restoration. This special piece will be accompanied by nearly 150 other works by Max Ernst.

THE OTHER COLLECTION, Hommage to Ernst and Hildy Beyeler

BASEL – He is one of the most important art dealers of the XXth century. His gallery is celebrating its 60th birthday and the foundation its 10th. It will soon be directed by Samuel Keller, the guru from Art Basel, which alone gives an idea of its importance. To celebrate these anniversaries, Ernst Beyeler and his wife Hildy will unveil not a part of their personal treasures but some of the 16 000 works that went through the now mythical address at 9 Bäumleingasse. From Braque to Bonnard, from Van Gogh to Gris, Mondrian and Picasso, these exceptional pieces have almost all gone to the major museums in the world.

THE QUEST FOR WHITE GOLD

PRANGINS – The castle of Prangins, a beautiful French style building from the 1730s that looks on to lake Léman, organises temporary exhibitions. By picking in the collections of the Musée national suisse, it will offer this Fall a retrospective dedicated to the porcelain from Zurich and Nyon, two production centers that were active in Switzerland at the end of the XVIIIth century.