Art Of The Day Weekly
#66 - from 15 November 2007 to 21 November 2007
IN THE AIR
Rubens without the flames
ANTWERP – To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Rockox museum in the house of the former burgomaster of Antwerp and Rubens' protector, major musuems have made a great number of important loans, in order to rebuild the councillor's collection. The Prado has lent the oil sketch of the Adoration of the Magi, the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm the ancient busts bought by Christine of Sweden while the Ceremonial Salon by Frans II Francken, a reflexion of the hanging at the time of the Rockox, arrives from Munich. The most emblematic painting though will be coming from the National Gallery in London. It is Samson and Dalila, that will be set up at exactly the same spot where it was three centuries ago. Commissioned by Rockox, the painting was meant to be put in front of the chimney. It is said Rubens was aware of this when he painted it, foreseeing the light from the flames on the persons faces. It is very fashionable to recreate former collections (recently we have seen the Gonzague, the Farnèse, Vollard). But they all have their limits: at the Rockox home, no one has lit the fire in fireplace…
EXHIBITIONS
Velazquez, a painter of History
MADRID – For the Spaniards, the great event is the temporary return in Spain of The Rokeby Venus, one the leading works from the National Gallery in London, where it has been since 1905. It has a special place in the history of Hispanic art: considered as the only nude of the XVIIth century, a sufragette attacked it with a dagger in 1914 as she saw it to be an obscene and degrading image for women. Rather than offer a Vélazquez retrospective like the one in 1990, difficult to mount given the outrageous insurance cost for his works, the Prado has chosen to celebrate its enlargement to only present one aspect of the greatest Spanish painter. They chose the historic paintings, between mythological fables and biblical stories ( Dinner at Emmaüs from Dublin or Saint John the Evangelist, also from the National Gallery). Nearly 30 paintings by Vélasquez are brought together and put in relation with productions from his contemporaries, from Caravaggio to Rubens and Poussin, from Greco to Ribera, in order to draw the portrait of narrative painting of the "Siglo de Oro".
How do you do, Mr. Fabre?
MONTPELLIER – He gave his name to a museum, whose renovation is a success if we are to judge from the attendance: already 300 000 visitors since its reopening on 4 February. François-Xavier Fabre (1766-1837) therefore well deserved a retrospective, especially since he added to his talent as a collector (in 1825, he left his important fund to his city, and today it represents the heart of the museum), that of a painter. In this last field, the winner of the prize of Rome and student of David's that he was rendered the ideal Italian landscapes and excelled in the academic genre of historical painting. The titles of some of his major works perfectly reflect the spirit of the time, such as his Nebuchadnezzar having Sédecias' children murdered right under their father's eyes… His production as a portrait artist is less known, though his Italian friends, such as Alfieri the poet and sculptor Canova praised his work. Through some one hundred pieces brought from all over the world (Poland, Lituania, United-States, Italy, Scotland, etc), the exhibition pays a homage to a former hope of French painting, who had not been treated this way since 1937.
The Gino enigma
TURIN - The catalogue brings together a good selection of well-known critics and artists: Marina Abramovic, Joseph Kosuth, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nicolas Bourriaud. On the other hand, the artist exhibited may very well be unknown: who is this Gino De Dominicis, born in 1947 and died in 1998? A meteor, a flamboyant and secret person who fled group work to follow on his own, an itinerary that is hard to define, combining painting, sculpture (a giant skeleton on skates holding a dog's skeleton on a leash, Il tempo, lo sbaglio, lo spazio, 1970) and conceptual installations (the diabolic laughter of D’Io, from 1971, that welcomes visitors to the Merz foundation, or a self-interview from 1995). The retrospective, even if it is enriched in regard to the one recently held at villa Arson, only has some forty works: De Dominicis will go donw in history as a mysterious and intrinsically rare artist.
FAIRS
A decade of Paris Photo
PARIS – The event has reached the ten year old threshhold by comforting itself as the main international photography fair. The part of foreign exhibitors – 3/4 of the nearly 100 galleries, among them some major ones such as The Photographer’s Gallery in London or Bruce Silverstein from New York - is proof enough of this. Following the Netherlands in 2006, the guest country this year is Italy. Eight galleries from the peninsula present young creators, such as Lorenza Lucchi Basili (Oredaria, Rome), Maurizio Montagna (Bel Vedere, Milan) or Raffaella Mariniello (Trisorio, Naples) while one of the most important Italian banks, UniCredit, faithful to the tradition of patronage of the banking institutions across the Alps, presents its collection of landscapes from the 1970 to our day. A special section is dedicated to the video fund of museums of contemporary art such as the Mambo (Bologna), the Maxxxi (Rome) and the Mart (Trento).
ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Lavera, 2007, print on aluminum, 7ex, 124 x 99 cm (Courtesy Galerie Guy Bär tschi)
Fabrice Gygi: a cruel world
GENÈVA – His best know production is undoubtedly these constructions-cages he puts out on unexpected landscapes, public gardens, museum atriums or school playgrounds in India: parables of a world where freedom is but an illusion, and reduced to very little if one tries to pull it from the tyranny of consumption or the growing social inequalities. There were also the tents, the fences, the grandstands. Fabrice Gygi (born in 1965) uses steel, stainless steel, plastic materials - pylons, gates, canvas covers, that belong to the world of construction as well as to that of the war. After having recently spread his falgs and oriflammes in Geneva, Gygi has created new works for the exhibition, of which Lavera, printed on aluminium, which refers to an atmosphere at the crossroads of Max Max and the Gitanes car race, accompanied by a deaf threat to the environment.
BOOKS
Initiation to Courbet
The queue is constantly getting longer in front of the Grand Palais and books are stacking up on the bookstore's shelves: based on those simple criteria, the Courbet retrospective is surely the event most awaited. It is not easy to decide in teh abundance of the editorial production. Among the initiations to Courbet, the one by Manuel Jover is easily read. It follows the chronologic framework while giving emphasis to the major eras (the bohemian life at the beginning, the Parisian maturity to finish with the shattered man of the Commune and of the case of the Vendôme column, exiled in Switzerland). It is richly illustrated (even if the enlargeents are not always very convincing) and puts forward certain important episodes: the presentation at the Salon of the Baigneuses from 1853, the scandal of the Enterrement à Ornans(Buril at Ornans), the commission of theOrigine du monde-The origin of the world (who today would dare not mention it?), the friendship with Proudhon, journalist man Castagnary or the collector Bruyas.
IN BRIEF
MADRID – The 31st edition of Feriarte, the fair specialised in ancient art, brings together 180 art dealers from 17 to 25 November at the Parque de exposicion (Feria de Madrid).
MILAN – Milano International Art Exhibition or MINT is a fair that combines antique dealers and gallery owners. It will hold its 2nd edition at Castello Sforzesco from 21 to 25 November with some fifty stands, among them De Jonckheere or Voena.
NEW YORK – The sales of 6 and 7 November have brought about their share of spectacular bids. Te Poipoi, a landscape by Gauguin went for 39.2 million $ at Sotheby’s (where more than one fourth of the lots remained neverteless unsold, among them a landscape by Van Gogh, estimated at 35 million $). At Christie’s, L’Odalisque, harmonie bleue allowed Matisse to break his own personal record, at 33.6 million $.
PARIS – Diva, the fair dedicated to contemporary art video and to digital creation, will hold its 3rd Parisian edition, from 15 to 18 November, in an unusual location, le Louvre des antiquaires, where 15 art dealers welcome foreign galleries.
PARIS – A new magazine of photo-journlism, Polka, is published under the responsability of Alain Genestar (ex-director of the editorial staff of Paris Match). It is dedicated to Périer, Rancinan, Réza, Riboud and Salgado, and coupled with an exhibition at the espace W (44 rue Lepic, 75018).
PARIS – A former plant of musical instruments then the headquarters of a workers' union, the Maison des métallos (94, rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011) has been restored to become a cultural center for the Ville de Paris. It was inaugurated on 7 November.
PARIS – The gallery Historismus presents as of 15 November a part never exhibited of Eileen Gray' corpus: 60 works on paper (gouaches, collages, photographs).
RENNES – For the 20th Goncourt of high school students, a monumental sculpture of books by visual artist Alicia Martin has been set up on Parliament.
ON ARTOFTHEDAY.INFO
This week, do not miss
FERDINAND HODLER (1853-1918)
PARIS - The Musée d'Orsay presents the first retrospective dedicated to the Swiss painter since the one in the Petit Palais in 1983. Next to landscapes of lakes and mountains that made the reputation of this symbolist artist whose sources are at the sources of abstraction, he also has portraits and history paintings.
ART NOUVEAU - ART DECO - DESIGN
PARIS - Sotheby's offers a very diversified auction of decorative arts from the XXth century. A section with Art nouveau shows the names of Mucha, Mattes and Carriès while the Art déco rests on safe values such as Dupré-Lafon, Chareau, Printz. Some twenty lots of contemporary design will help close the sale.