Art Of The Day Weekly
#6 - from 1 June 2006 to 7 June 2006
IN THE AIR
Photographs unlimited
MADRID – This is undoubtedly the photograph festival that attracts the greatest number of visitors in the world. Photo España invades the Spanish capital every year during the months of June and July with dozens of exhibitions, screenings and street events, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors. The 2006 edition is placed on the theme of nature. Among the invited artists some are deceased – Karl Blossfeldt and his flowers, Pierre Verger and his images of the Spanish countryside – but in majority they are photographs in activity. Some of them have built their reputation for some time, such as Joël Sternfeld, Ramón Masats (with diptychs synthetising the half century of his career), John Davies (the transformations of the British landscape), Bae Bien-U (and his forests of pine trees) or Olafur Eliasson. Others are worth discovering for their works directly linked to current events (hurricane Katrina seen by Chris Jordan, the Antarctic and the problem of the warming of the planet by Mireya Masó, or Yasumura's strange landscapes). From in to off, from the large structures to the smaller galleries, from urban interventions to shows, Photo España demonstrates an enviable capacity to interest the public at large. This is not a commun gift when dealing with contemporary art.
EXHIBITIONS
Constable in large formats
LONDRES – No one could render as he did the wet English skies, the low, round clouds, the cows smelling the hay carts, the crystal-clear rivers and the ever green fields: Constable is, together with Turner, the most talented British landscape artist. And he loved above all to work in large formats as this exhibition shows, bringing together his «six-footers», that is paintings 6 feet tall (approximately 1.80 m), something unheard and unseen of even during his day. Each of these nine compositions is accompanied by its preparatory sketch, of the same size, with very vivid and spontaneous drawings. Six pairs refer to his favorite motif, the Stour river (1820-21), with its meanders, its hedges of poplars, the calm village dwellers. The other paintings, from a later period, show the cathedral of Salisbury or the castle of Hadleigh. These ambitious hymns to the landscape were meant to attract the visitor's eye at the exhibitions at the Royal Academy. They succeded, as two centuries later we are still admiring them. They have lost nothing of their immediacy nor of their atmospheric freshness.
Picasso, again and always
MADRID – Two of the major Spanish museums – the Prado and the Reina Sofía – celebrate Picasso once again. And this has a double justification: the 125th anniversary of the painter's birth and, more so, the 25th anniversary of the return of Guernica to Spain, following an exile to the MoMA in New York. At Reina Sofía, this icon of the XXth century is at the center of a group of other paintings of the same period by Picasso, such as l’Ossuaire (1945, MoMA), and a work equally powerful, 3 May 1808 at Madrid: the executions on mount Príncipe Pío by Goya. At the Prado, Picasso is confronted to older masters such as Dürer, Tiziano, Vélasquez, Zurbarán or Caravaggio. Among these paintings, we should mention The ironing maid (1904, Guggenheim), The Woman in blouse (1905, Tate Modern), Small decanter and three bowls (1908, Ermitage) or The rape of the Sabine women (1963, Boston Museum of Fine Arts). In total, some fifty works by the man from Malaga are visible: a worthy effort when one knows their value, the cost of the insurance and how museums dislike being separated from them, be it temporarily.
Tal-Coat, Breton d’abstraction
TOULON – The retrospective dedicated to Tal-Coat coincides with his birth centennial. The former focuses on the last twenty years of the abstract artist (1965-85), the ones during which the lover of greys, blacks and burnt earth was captivated by bright colors. This is the time in which he lived in Dormont, in Normandy, as well as on the shores of lake Léman, but it is also during this period that he «digested» his previous stays in Provence. Some one hundred works are presented, in particular oils in small formats (with some rare exceptions such as Dans le bleu -In the blue-), as well as drawings, wash drawings and watercolors. This exhibition is also a requiem; indeed the fire which recently broke out in the family residence destroyed certain works that should have been shown…
AUCTIONS
Inaccessible Art déco
PARIS – Those rare visionnary art dealers who bought Art déco furniture in the 1970s – when it was far from expensive - can now rejoice. It is indeed one of the specialties of the XXth century that has undergone strongest revalorization. The Camard sale illustrates this perfectly. The master pieces by great names – Chareau, Süe and Mare, Ruhlmann, Eileen Gray, Perriand, Royère, Dunand – now require investments of various hundreds of thousands of euros. An example, this low, black, lacquered table on a massive wooden sphere, by Pierre Legrain: between 800 000 and 1 million euros… and almost as much for this decorative panel by Jean Dunand representing a society of monkeys on a gold background (600 000 euros). Everyone remembers the great event last year, right here: the 8 950 000 euros for six armchairs «with a mermaid» by Eileen Gray. Don't count on finding a great deal: the most simple wall lamps in a chromed metal series by Jean Perzel cannot be found for less than 5 000 euros and the «chair with wire» by René Herbst starts at 3 000 euros. Important to note as well, a surprising steel dresser with silver bronze bas-reliefs by Eckart Muthesius. It distinguishes itself from the privileged materials of the Art déco creators - lacquer, shagreen, sanded glass, precious wood. But, this will not render it less expensive …
FAIRS
Primitive art: Brussels on the road to Quai Branly
BRUSSELS – It does not have the impressive character of the large fairs, while integrating itself harmoniously into the urban fabric. The concept of Bruneaf is simple and already has followers: antique dealers exhibit… in their own gallery or - for foreigners - at their Brussels colleagues' in the district of les Sablons. For its 16th edition, the Belgian fair of non-European art has kept its «human» dimensions: no more than 50 participants, of which nearly half are foreigners (Americans such as Bruce Frank, Italians, Dutch or French such as Durieu or Lecomte). Business will have its part but conversations will also focus on other things: the president of the association, Patrick Mestdagh, is openly concerned about the weak means given to the museum of Tervuren at a time when Paris will be inaugurating the museum of Quai Branly (23 June) and pulls the alarm on the museum of Kinshasa, repeatedly looted.
BOOKS
Gerda frees herself from Capa
For decades she was simply considered a banal colleague-mistress of photographer Robert Capa, the founder of Magnum. We must say she did disappear well before her very famous fiancé (she in July 1937, crushed by a tank during the Spanish Civil war, he in Indochina in 1954) and she did not have the means to gain recognition. Fortunately others did it for her such as Richard Whelan (in his biography of Capa) or Irme Schaber, who delivers in this book the results of an investigation that lasted for years. It turns out that the young and attractive Polish Jewish woman, born in 1910, arrived in Paris in 1933 where she mingled with the avant-garde of the time, was truly talented. To proove it, we see a certain number of images of the Civil War, until now believed to be Capa's, and which actually were taken by her. Images of conflict (the attacks with Republican soldiers in sandals and the «dinamiteros», the withrawal with convoys of the injured) as well as portraits of peasants, bakers, orphans. In these days in which we avidly search for romantic destinies, she has all it takes to be converted into a pasionaria: her premature death, her beauty, her aura… and her talent finally recognized.
IN BRIEF
AMSTERDAM- Night Watch, one of Rembrandt's most famous paintings, exhibited at the Rijksmuseum museum, will enjoy as of 2 June a special staging including light, sound and video. The artist is Peter Greenaway.
DJAKARTA-The earthquake that hit the island of Java on 26 May, causing thousands of victims, is thought to have damaged the Hindu temple of Prambanan, built in the IXth century and included in the list of UNESCO's world patrimony.
HONG KONG - A new record for a porcelain of the Ming era: a vase from the end of the XIVth century has been sold for 7.9 million euros at Christie's on 30 May. The buyer is Steve Wynn, the casino and luxury hotel tycoon from Las Vegas.
LONDON – During the British Art Week, Christie’s auction house will offer a watercolor by Turner painted in 1842, representing the lake of Lucerne. It is estimated to gor for more than 2 million pounds. Two days later, the hand written description of the execution of Louis XVI by his executioner Sanson will be put on sale. It is expected to go for twenty times less than the previous article…
LYON – Architect Renzo Piano has signed, together with landscape artist Michel Corajoud, the new Amphitheatre with 3000 seats at the Conference Centre that will be inaugurated 1st June.
A building in the shape of a flying saucer, to be seen on Renzo Piano's website
MARSEILLE –On 1 June the new ensemble of the Archives and the public library of the département will also be inaugurated on 1 June: a 28 000 m2 project, designed by the Vezzoni/Laporte team.
NEW YORK – The Selfportrait by Frida Kahlo (1943, oil on metal), offered on sale at Sotheby’s on 24 May, went for 5.8 million dollars, a record for a latin American work of art. The previous record had been set by another selfportrait of Frida Kahlo, sold for 5 million dollars in 2000.
PARIS – In its sale of modern art on 7 June at 8:30 PM, Artcurial offers three significant works by Italian masters: a De Chirico from 1935 (Dioscuri con i compagni in riva al mare), estimated between 600 000 and 800 000 €, a still life by Morandi from 1915 (between 450 000 and 650 000 €) and a Boccioni from 1911 (Busto di signora con grande cappello, between 500 000 and 700 000 €).
PARIS – For the Rive droite Evening, held for the last 11 years, the galleries of avenue Matignon, of the faubourg Saint-Honoré and the area around the Elysée palace will remain open until 11 PM on wednesday 7 May. In total, nearly 80 establishments will follow these unusual opening hours, with some fifty concomitant previews.
PARIS – The fourth edition of «Rendez-vous in the gardens» will be held from 2 to 5 June in 1600 gardens throughout France on the theme of perfume. Certain parks will be open exceptionnally for this event, such as the garden of strange herbs in Griesbach, the garden of the Yquem Castle or the Chemille medicine garden.
TOULOUSE – After exhibiting a part of their collection in the Sichuan,The Abattoirs (Slaughter house), return the favor by presenting young Chinese creators, from 2 June to 31 August.
VENICE – The exhibition Lucio Fontana that is to open on 4 June at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection represents an amazing small feat. The curator, Luca Massimo Barbero, seeked the components of two mythical series of 1961, that have never been seen together since:the New York series, pieces of metal, and above all, the Venice series, square canvases with a hole in which are found colored pieces of glass, of which he has brought together 12 examples.