Art Of The Day Weekly
#24 - from 23 November 2006 to 29 November 2006
IN THE AIR
A few more figures
The major sales in New York this fall shatterd all records. Christie’s led the dance by selling in one day 500 million dollars worth of impressionnist and modern works of art and then, another day, 250 million dollars of contemporary art. A big first time! Klimt became overnight the most expensive artist and most sought in the world (in this vein, may we remind you that one of his major works, the Frise Beethoven, is in an extraordinary Art déco building in Brussels, the Stoclet palace, whose destiny remains vague). Clyfford Still, whose record was until now 1.3 million dollars, suddenly shoots up to 21.3 million for his 1947-R-N°1 ? Has he become more important than Warhol,who stagnates at 17.3 million dollars? As for De Kooning, at 27 million dollars, his Untitled XXVII is now the most expensive work of art of the period following WWII. Poor Rauschenberg, currently celebrated at Beaubourg, only weighs 1.4 million dollars. A detail: the inventor of the Combine Paintings must be twenty times less expensive. Ah! art history would be so easy if we could stick to figures…
PS - As we are "closing this newsletter", the dance of records on the art market does not seem to be loosing any ground. According to the New York Times, collector Steve Cohen is said to have bought recently Woman III from David Geffen, a work of 1953 by De Kooning for 137.5 million dollars...
EXHIBITIONS
Van Gogh, a pioneer of expressionism
AMSTERDAM – The common points between Van Gogh and the German and Austrian expressionnist painters– active two decades after his death – may seem obvious even to the least informed public. This is precisely the link the Van Gogh museum intends to explore by presenting some one hundred works by Kandinsky, Schiele, Klimt or Jawlensky. Aside from the way this accursed artist could fascinate certain artists such as Schiele, the causes of his influence over Van Gogh are very simple: as of the beginning of the XXth century, collectors from Berlin, Dresden and Vienna grouped their works together. The young artists from the Die Brücke or der Blaue Reiter movements could then get near him and be impressed by his violent colors, his sharp touches. Soleil levantby Otto Dix is an almost litteral translation of Van Gogh's Champ de blé aux corbeaux. Among the works presented to the public, we will be particularly attracted by Soleil d’automne, Schiele's wilted sunflowers, rediscovered very recently in a private French collection. They will be hung face to face Van Gogh's Tournesols. A confrontation we have awaited for a long time…
Romain Vishniac, a last witness
PARIS – A world that is going to disappear: when he went through central Europe in the 1930s to photograph the Jewish communities, Roman Vishniac, born in Saint-Petersbourg but based in Berlin, had the premonition Nazism would soon annihilate them. Nevertheless, even when he emigrated to the United States in 1940, he had trouble trying to create awareness among those he spoke to of the horror that was taking over Europe. And when the book, that groups together some of the 16000 photographs he took over a decade, appeared in 1947, he had to change the title to: «A world that has disappeared». The 70 images presented at the musée du judaïsme bring it back to life with the innocent children's games, th snow covered shtetls, the long bearded rabbis. Very few people know the life of Vishniac himself. He was a high level scientist (1897-1990), a specialist in microbiology who formulated hypothesis on the birth of life on Earth. He left other photographs, a whole work in color, on micro-organisms, proteins or hormones. A necessary catharsis far from the madding crowd…
Raymond Hains, a beautiful souvenir
PARIS -Generally, when a known artist passes away, a number of obituaries are dedicated to him and the minister of Culture pays him a tribute. Then it is RIP (requiescat in pace)… All of this was done for Raymond Hains, who disappeared on 28 October 2005. But once the official aspect had been dealt with, his admirers and friends insisted in not wanting to forget him. United in a joyful manner we rarely see, some fifteen Parisian galeries are going to unfold the phases of a day in his honor, on Wednesday 29 November. Designed by the Association of Raymond Hains' friends, the AARH, the itinerary will begin at the gallery W in Montmartre and will pass for the coffee breaks, tea time and hot chocolate through the La Châtre, Véronique Smagghe, Denise René, Daniel Templon, Vallois, Jousse galleries (and i am forgetting some) before ending at a party at the school of Beaux-Arts.
ARCHITECTURE
Le Corbusier, continuation and end
FIRMINY – Much to the displeasure of certain purists, Gaudi's Sagrada Familia is stubbornly going to be completed. For Le Corbusier, things went much faster: the church of Firminy (Loire), one of his last projects, has just been finished and will be inaugurated on 25 November. José Oubrerie, his assistant at the time, always fought to have the project taken all the way through. He supervised the new works, picked up in 2002, after 40 years of interruption (mainly due to lack of financing). This event takes place at a moment when a campaing is been developed to include Le Corbusier's work in Unesco's list of the world patrimony. Five countries have united to defend this candidature: France (where most of his work is found), Switzerland (with the Clarté building in Geneva and the Jeanneret-Perret house at La Chaux-de-Fonds), Belgium (the Guiette house in Antwerp), Germany (the Weissenholf houses in Stuttgart) and Argentina (house of doctor Curutchet at La Plata). We will have the answer in 2008.
Presentation of the church on the website of the Le Corbusier Association
FAIRS
Artists speaking to artists
PARIS – In order to avoid useless third parties, artits at the Mac2006 fair will exhibit directly without going through third parties. We will see many figurative paintings – certain observers consider this a little «tacky» - and also more and more, photographs and video. Even some installations or digital images. We may find the quality of the offer very uneven. But it is precisely this variety, that also includes naif collages, enameled ceramics or Joseph Cornell style boxes, that make this fair so touching, as well as the feeling that these artists do not yet meet (or not completely) the mechanisms of the market, which impose classifications, values, estimates. This year they are 133 to submit themselves to the public's judgement. Showings and debates (on the 23rd, «what is an artist today?», directed by Françoise Monnin, on the 25th, «does painting exist?», directed by Niégo Paquito) will rhythm the event.
Website of the fair with a illustration for each of the artists
BOOKS
Faith seen from the sky
The idea itself was good to begin with: to take advantage of the current fascination with aerial photography and show something other than a succesion of pretty or "impressive" landscapes. The avowed ambition of this collection is to have the public discover under another angle Humanity's great monuments. Following a first volume that took us in 2005 to archeologic sites, in this second volume we are in places of faith, cathedrals, temples and mosques. For each monument and after a short historic resume one unfolds a page that lets us admire it on an imposing photograph four times the size that of a book format. From the large mosque of Samarra (Irak) to Our Lady of Brasilia and passing through the surprising Pogost of Kizhi (Russia), it is interesting to see how man has seeked to elevate himself to get closer to the divine. But if the authors really meant to show us documentaries, why do they impose on us large, fuzzy shots, undoubtedly over focused (Saint-Simeon, Samarra, Saint Sopjie, etc. ) ! And why not respect a basic principle that consists in first showing the details of the building and then, on the large fold out, replace the latter in its natural or urban environment. The stroll is very pleasant but a little over dimensioned by its own weaknesses.
IN BRIEF
BORDEAUX-Henri-Claude Cousseau, the current director of the Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts and former director of the Centre d’arts plastiques contemporains de Bordeaux (CAPC) is accused and will be tried for having works “with a pornographic content” during the exibition “Présumés innocents/" Presumed innocent” held at the CAPC in 2000.
GUBEN-(Germany) - Guenther von Hagens, the controversial director of human écorchés (that he exhibits with great success throughout the world) has just opened a permanent museum. The Plastinarium presents these embalmed characters in profane positions (playing cards, practicing sports).
LILLE - One month after opening, Lille 3000 has made its first assessment. 147 953 persons have visited the exhibitions. The most popular is Le Tri Postal Bombay Maximum City, Le Troisième Œil, La Fabrique, Futurotextiles with 79 825 visitors, L’Homme Paysage, at the Palais des Beaux-Arts with 13 100 persons. The Finnish Season at La Piscine has hosted 7700 persons and London-Bombay, Victoria Terminus, at the Fresnoy - which deserves more - 4 100 persons. An the party goes on...
NEW YORK - Goya's painting, “Enfants à la carriole”, was stolen a few days ago during its transport from the museum of Toledo (Ohio) and the Guggenheim, which was borrowing it for an exhibition on Spanish art. It has just been found by FBI agents, who announced the work of art had not been damamged.
PARIS -The Camard auction house will present on 29 November a sale of arts décoratifs from the XXth century. Among the pieces offered, one notices Gallé vases, Chareau and Ruhlmann furniture (a print holder in veneer estimated at 220 000 €) and pendants by Line Vautrin (starting at 300 €).
SAINT-ETIENNE -The 5th international design Biennial event will be held from 23 November to 3 December. The main exhibition, Cohabitations, has been given to Matali Crasset.
STRASBOURG-The 11th edition of the contemporary art fair St-art will be held from 24 to 27 November at the park of exhibitions with nearly 100 galleries participating. This year, Italy is the invited country.