Art Of The Day Weekly
#14 - from 14 September 2006 to 20 September 2006
IN THE AIR
The Antiques Biennial you know where
PARIS - Finally! The Grand Palais! The luxurious Biennale des antiquaires has come back to the promised land, the monument where it was first held in 1962. Since 1994, due to the works carried out in the steel and glass vault, it had to accept the underground spaces of the Carrousel du Louvre. The solemnity of the moment is not underlined by an increase in the number of exhibitors(gone from 103 to 107) but rather by an increased internationalisation: over 40% of them are foreign. In honour to the Entente cordiale the British delegation has grown from 7 to 13 members (with, in particular, the return of Sam Fogg, Pelham and Entwistle). Which in turn means the French delegation has shrunk by 10 units, thus feeding different rancours and jealousies. This represents to many a proof of quality: doesn't every important fair have its share of rejected?
HERITAGE
Treasures from Dresden
DRESDEN - The Voûte verte (Green Vault) (whose name came from the malachite color of its walls) wasone of the most amazing cabinets de curiosités, combining natural curiosities, master works of technical virtuosity and Antique objects. The collection was started during the Renaissance, took on another dimension with Auguste III, the prince-elector of Saxony, between 1720 and 1730. The XXth century put it through various trials: the war, with the terrible bombings of Dresden in 1945 (but the objects had been put into safety at the fortress of Königstein), then the seizures by the Red Army. The treasure was recuperated in 1958 and partially reinstalled (one thousand objects) in 2004 in a modern setting. The former Voûte verte, with its mirrors, its gildings, its bicoloured paving, has just reopened in the West wing of the royal palace, with the other 3000 objects that were saved. One can now discover a gobelet in a rhinoceros horn, sculptres in ostrich eggs, turned objects, bronzes, pieces of amber...
MUSEUMS
Still more objects
PARIS - This is one of the most awaited openings of the season: the museum of Arts décoratifs is back home. After being closed for a long period, it will reopen completely with a few novelties: a remarkable reinforcement of the collections of the XXth century, housed in the Marsan pavilion; a true space for temporary exhibitions(the nave measures 1000 m2); a restaurant overlooking the Tuileries gardens (to open in November). The very anglo-saxon «period rooms», one of the museum's features, have been kept and have even increased in number. Now they are ten, from an alcove of the first Renaissance to the apartment of Jeanne Lanvin (designed by the star of Art déco Armand-Albert Rateau), not omitting a Louis-Philippe bedroom and the symbolist living room of Eugène Grasset.
EXHIBITIONS
Leonardo forever
LONDON - We think we know everything he did. The Mona Lisa, the war machines, his mirror writing(backwards), the caricatures, the human body…. The Da Vinci Code opened the door to everyone's home. And yet… His visionnary spirit, his capacity to embrace an array of disciplines make Leonardo a continuous fertile ground for research. It is now the turn of the Victoria & Albert museum to try to dedicate a final exhibition based on his «note pads»: the Arundel pharmacopoeia from the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Foster pharmacopoeia from the British Library and pages never shown before, that come from royal collections. Among the sections of the exhibition: movement, organs – with a surprising heart operation – and the machines. Some of the latter are rebuilt in three dimensions.
Mantegna threefold
PADUA - To mark the 500th anniversary of Mantegna's death, the three towns in which he worked have gotten together for a commun exhibition programme. The first stop: Padua, where he began his career in 1444 in Squarcione's workshop. The famous frescos he did in the Ovetari chapel were destroyed by an American bomber in 1944 but we shall try to visualise them through a reconstitution combining digital techniques and traditional restauration. Second stop: Verona, where he left the famous San Zeno altarpiece. The exhibition at the Palazzo della Gran Guardia will show the wealth of the art of his contemporaries. Last stop: Mantua, where he worked for the Gonzague family until his death in 1506. Fortunately, the masterpiece he left there, another major cycle of frescos, the Camera Picta of the Palazzo Ducale, suffered no damages.
The website of the Mantegna year (in Italian and in English)
The eye of Europe
PARIS - The Musée du quai Branly has opened and its success surprises everyone. Is this a passing infatuation or a deeper tendency? The frequency of the temporary exhibitions should help us bring an answer. D'un regard l'Autre (From one's look to the other), directed by Jean-Yves Le Fur has one great ambition: to show the manner in which the Western world looks upon the other civilisations, from the Renaissance to our day. The demonstration ignores all barriers since we can see objects «from over there» such as African masks (some of them found in the Picasso collection ), magic statuettes, a plastron from Tahiti brought back by Captain Cook as well as creations «from right here at home». Among the latter, «inca» wall paper from the XIXth century, a painting by Douanier Rousseau, photographs in black and white by Man Ray or an anatomic Eve, that was used (without going into too many details) to teach the dominated populations the manner in which the organs are placed in the human body.
BOOKS
Van Cleef & Arpels, first century
It somehow looks like a commission … but we nevertheless leaf through it with pleasure, dazzled by the sparkling jewels. While its flag-shop located at N°22, place Vendôme is being refurbished (following those of Boucheron and Chaumet that have just stripped off the scaffoldings), the Van Cleef & Arpels house exhibits its first century of creation. The documents from their archives tell a love story between the jeweller and the celebrities, whether royalty – king Farouk, Soraya or the maharani of Baroda – or actresses – Marlène Dietrich, Grace Kelly, Claudia Cardinale. The major dates are quickly set, even if the book skirts around the difficult moments, such as the death, in 1942, of Renée Puissant, the daughter of the founders and a brilliant artistic director: the first steps, the marriage between Estelle Arpels and René Van Cleef, the success at the International Exposition of decorative arts in 1925 (the Châtelaine watch in 1926 perfectly symbolises the Art deco aesthetic), the technical innovations such as the "mysterious setting", with such an appropriate name. And we can admire some famous or unexpected pieces such as king Farouk's pink Brooch(614 rubis and 241 emeralds) or the strange wrist watch in white enamel, wood and plaited cord from 1932. Practically Arte povera for a time of crisis!
IN BRIEF
LIVERPOOL -The 5th Liverpool Biennial of contemporary art will be held from 16 September to 26 November. It is known for its numerous commissions – nearly 35 - to artists all over the world, of which half are designed for the urban environment.
LONDON- Klossowski and Bellmer: the Whitechapel Gallery is dedicating two simultaneous retrospectives to nefarious creators of the XXth century (from 20 September to 19 November), under the title "Vicious Circle".
Some of the drawings presented, to see over the Whitechapel website.
PARIS- The Pompidou Center, greatly criticized by the American press in the affair of the two works destroyed during the Los Angeles 1955-1985 exhibition has admitted its responsibility. It has offered artists Craig Kaufmann and Peter Alexandre to fabricate their works over again and announced a "quality procedure" would be reinforced.
PARIS-The traditional rendez-vous with the days of the patrimony, in Paris, in the province and in certain foreing countries,will be held this year on the weekend of 16 and 17 September.
The programme of the Journées du patrimoine and the dates of the events abroad
PARIS- The Autumn Festival will open on 14 September. Among the plastic arts included, the most spectacular will be the installation carried out by Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto, Leviathan Thot at the Panthéon (until June 2007).
Presentation of this monumental work under the vault of the Pantheon
PARIS-The sources of Walt Disney's inspiration, such is the theme of the exhibition the Grand Palais dedicates to the famous creator of movies and animated films, from 16 September 2006 to 15 January 2007.
SAINT-PAUL-DE-VENCE -Dominique Païni, the director of the Maeght Foundation since January 2006 and who replaced Jean-Louis Prat, at the head of the institution for 22 years, has just resigned.
TORINO- The Galleria d'arte moderna dedicates a retrospective to the enigmatic designer, architect and artist Carlo Mollino (1905-1973), who designed furniture, houses and a prototype car that took part in the 24 Hours car race in Le Mans in 1954.
VIENNA- Robert Mang, responsible for the theft of the famous saltcellar by Benvenuto Cellini at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in 2003, has been sentenced to three years in prison. The saltcellar, made in the 1540s for French king François I, was found at the beginning of the year in a forest near the Austrian capital, where it had been hidden.
ON ART OF THE DAY.INFO
do not miss...
Masters of Precolumbian Art
BRUSSELS - The whole famous Janssen collection is finally visible, in the Royal Museums! It covers an arc of time of more than three millennium (1500 B.C. to 1533 of our era) and, with its nearly 350 works, is essential proof of the American civilizations, from the Olmecas to the Incas, including the Aztecs and the Mayas.
Paul Dupré-Laffon Five outstanding pieces of furniture
PARIS - He is one of the greatest French decorators of the XXth century and his value has followed that of the other masters of his genre. The Jacques de Vos gallery presents five emblematic pieces of furniture by the creator (1900-1971), whose career was rythmed by some masterpieces: in 1929 the decoration of a private home on rue Rembrandt, another in 1938 on avenue Foch, up to his last villa at Deauville in 1971.
The passions of the soul, paintings of the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries from the Changeux collection
TOULOUSE -Jean-Pierre Changeux is a world-known researcher in neurobiology and a professor at the Collège de France. If that were not enough, he is also a wise collector. The musée des Augustins demonstrates how he helped us increase our knowledge about certain periods that were neglected in the history of art in France. Among the artists exposedwe have Jacques Blanchard, Noël Coypel, Jean-François de Troy, Antoine Rivaltz.