Home > ArtoftheDay Weekly > #94 - from 12 June 2008 to 18 June 2008

Art Of The Day Weekly

#94 - from 12 June 2008 to 18 June 2008

IN THE AIR

The controversy of Saragossa

When reading the cultural supplement of El País on saturday 7 June, one had the feeling architectural criticism was not dead. William J. R. Curtis gave himself free rein to demolish, according to the rules in the books, the pavilions built for the International Exhibition on water, that will open its doors in the capital of Aragon. The bridge of Zaha Hadid or the Water Tower by Enrique de Teresa were compared to buildings in a shopping mall or from a theme park: in other words, they were seen as works designed to be talked about and not according to their futur integration into the urban fabric. The only buildings the author liked were the Spanish pavilion by Patxi Mangado, with its ceramic covered columns, and the convention center by Nieto and Sobejano. In a world where the interweaving of networks and interests often pushes persons to compliment by interest, free criticism is like a breath of fresh air. And it brings along an unexpected effect: for some of us - I feel concerned - this vitriolic article, published on the first page, will have the effect of stimulus. Let us go see what this is all about!

  • Expo Zaragoza 2008 - Water and sustainable development is open from 14 June to 14 September 2008

    The website of the Zaragoza Expo 2008

  • EXHIBITIONS

    A very British Orient

    LONDON – Each country has its own specialists in the field of Orientalist painting. France of course has Gérôme and Fromentin and has recently discovered a passion for Etienne Dinet. Italy has brilliant water colorists. What about England? The Tate Modern, which is dedicating a retrospective to this genre, allows the public to discover who hides behind Lord Leighton or Pre-raphaelite painter Hunt and his famous The Scapegoat. A varied landscape, covering a century and a half (1780-1930), with Egypt as its most recurring motif, is presented throough 120 works. There are precise oil paintings by John Frederick Lewis, «scoops» by David Roberts, the first to draw Petra, watercolors quickly brushed by Edward Lear, a long distance traveler, who spent years in the Levant (from Albania to the pyramids) before ending his life in the flowers of San Remo. Hammams, street scenes, English men in local clothes, landscapes of the Holy Land are the most often used motifs… following the harem, of course.

  • British Orientalist Painting at the Tate Britain, from 4 June to 31 August 2008

    Know more

  • Centennial Balthus

    MARTIGNY (SUISSE) – He is the painter of the modern street – though frozen in an atmosphere of the Italian Renaissance -, cats, Swiss landscapes he was familiar with for a long time, but shameless adolescents as well. A genre that is frankly not very much in fashion and which gives him a nefarious touch, which surely does not displease Jean Clair, the newly elected member of the Académie française and curator of the exhibition with Jean Radrizzani. Together theyhave gathered masterpieces from Paris, New York, London or Bern to celebrate three anniversaries: the 100th of Balthus' birth (on 29 February 1908), the 25th of his «rediscovery» (the exhibition in 1983 at the Pompidou Center) and the 30th of the Gianadda foundation. Fundamentally figurative, Balthus, who throughout his life was close to persons as different as Rilke, Giacometti and Artaud, also produced numerous drawings: there is a whole room just for them.

  • Balthus at Fondation Gianadda, from 13 June to 23 November 2008

    Know more

  • Gods of the warm seas

    PARIS – Sacred is in fashion. Looked at from its modern and Western aspects by the Pompidou Centre, it offers at the Quai Branly museum an immersion into the Polynesian exoticism. Under the title «Arts et divinités», 250 pieces from various international museums, among them the British Museum, explore the 1760-1860 period. This golden age was not chosen at random: it is the time when colonizers and missionaries flowed to the far-away islands, disrupting centuries-old traditions. These vegetable or animal headdresses, these earrings in nephrite or in sperm whale ivory, these grinning bowls, these images made out of feathers, fibre and mother of pearl, that helped give the gods a face and to «tame» them, were increasingly pushed out of daily life. They no longer had a place in the squares and huts, and made a remarkable entrance into European collections, as objets d’art or as trophies pulled from the pagans by the evangelists…

  • Polynésie, arts et divinités at the musée du Quai Branly from 17 June to 14 September 2008

    Know more

  • AUCTIONS

    Rouen in blue

    PARIS – Nearly one hundred pieces of porcelain from Rouen, in the traditional blue monochrome: this had most probably not been seen since the major «Exposition rétrospective de la faïence française» (Retrospective exhibition of French porcelain), held in 1932 at the Marsan pavilion. At the time, production from Rouen represented a quarter of the 3000 pieces presented, which proves how highly it was considered. The collection presented on 18 June at Sotheby’s reminds us that it was in Rouen that the first French soft paste porcelain was made: Louis Poterat produced them as of 1673, much later than in Florence but before Saint-Cloud. He worked so secretly, once his workers left in the evening, that few pieces made by him remain. It is therefore not surprising that the rare, 10 cm-tall soft paste porcelain cylindrical pot, attributed to his workshop towards 1690, has the highest estimate in the sale, at 100 000 €. Among the other lots – sugar casters, ocre niellé plates, armorial ewers, spice boxes, and even an amusing misleading pitcher – some will be accessible as of 2000 €.

  • Collection d’un amateur – Rouen 1680-1740 : de la première porcelaine à l’âge d’or de la faïence at Sotheby’s Paris, 18 June 2008

    Know more

  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK


    Why does strange fruit always look so sweet?, work made for the musée Archéologique de Lattes. Photo: Montpellier Agglomération. Photo : Montpellier Agglomération

    Johan Creten : shaping Rabelais into ceramics

    The «Dégelée Rabelais»(Defrosting Rabelais) is an original contemporary art event organized under the aegis of the author of the same name, just like «Chauffe Marcel»(Heat up Marcel) had referred to Duchamp in 2006. It brings together some thirty exhibitions of all types in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It is in this context that Belgian visual artist Johan Creten (born in 1963) pitted himself against Gargamelle, Gargantua’s mother. After a passage at the villa Médicis in 1996, Creten carried out a residency at the porcelain manufacture of Sèvres in 2004-2005 where he used traditional techniques such as modelling by hand to produce very un-traditional sculptures –to say the least- such as a Vulva of roses, a bouquet of white ceramic flowers. Gargamelle is submitted to a similar operation, for a large dimension result, full of nipples, in sombre tons.

  • Musée archéologique Henri Prades at Lattes (Hérault), until 28 September 2008
  • Also worth seeing, as of 26 June 2008, an installation by Johan Creten at the musée de la Chasse et de la Nature

  • BOOKS

    In memory of Cerredo

    He died in 2005 at the age of 48, blown away by a devastating cancer, leaving a wife and four children. Those who knew him remember a voluble, enthusiastic and generous man. Those who are interested in painting will miss a talented artist who had the time to create an abundant work. Born in Buenos Aires, Fabian Cerredo married in his art the South American hyperbole and European introspection – if this type of categorization has any sense. On the one side carnal and abundant series inspired from One hundred years of solitude or from Gargantua with flowering women and untouched forests. On the other side we see technically impressionist portraits referring to Vélasquez or Bacon, scenes from operas or from mythology. And ever present, the abundant paste, a heavy texture modelled practically like a low relief. This book, by authors who knew him and do not hide their passion for him, brings him back to life: a first step towards a catalogue raisonné?

  • Fabian Cerredo, by Emmanuel Daydé and Françoise Monnin, introduction by Zoé Valdés and Fernando Arrabal, published by éditions de l’abbaye d’Auterive, 2008, 240 p., 53 €, ISBN : 2-9524823-5-7

  • IN BRIEF

    LE HAVRE – The emblematic buildings of the city in Normandy, now in the heritage list of Unesco, with a town hall by Auguste Perret and Niemeyer's Volcano, will enjoy a particular lighting as of 14 June by the Skertzo artist collective.

    Know more

    LONDON – The Grosvenor Antiques Fair, which brings together 85 international antique dealers at Grosvenor House, will be held from 12 to 18 June. The exhibition wil be dedicated to furniture and works of art at Woburn Abbey, a major English mansion that belongs to the duke of Bedford.

    Know more

    LONDON – The International Ceramics Fair will be organized from 12 to 15 June at the Park Lane Hotel. It will bring together some fifteen specialized antique dealers, and will also include a conference programme.

    Know more

    PARIS – Rémi Le Fur, formerly at Artcurial, created with Pierre Cardin a new auction house. Following a baptism on 31 March at the Versailles castle, with the scattering of the setting of the exhibition « Quand Versailles était meublé d’argent » (When Versailles was furnished with silver), the auction house will be holding its first major sale on 17 June with autographs and French XVIIIth century furniture.

    The catalogue (for a fee) on the website of Drouot

    PARIS – During the last 30 years of his life, until 1975, Calder dedicated himself almost daily to gouache painting, creating a unique poetical universe, distinct from his sculpture work. The galerie Brame et Laurenceau (68 boulevard Malesherbes, 75008) will present until 4 July forty of his gouache paintings covering the whole period, belonging to private collections.

    The website of the gallery

    ROME – Frédéric Mitterrand, writer, journalist and movie director, has been named director of the Villa Médicis, the French Academy in Rome, where he will replace Richard Peduzzi. The announcement in March that the position was going to be given to Georges-Marc Benamou, former culture adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy, had created a wave of protests.

    Know more

    This week, do not miss

    BERTRAND MEUNIER Ordinary peasants

    CHALON-SUR-SAONE - The accelerated changes in China have widened the gap of inequalities, creating a new proletariat and destroying the peasants. The musée Nicéphore Niépce presents the work of Bertrand Meunier, from the Tendance floue collective, who has been going to China regularly over the last ten years to record its social changes.

    Know more

    BRUNO LUCCHI

    MOUGINS -The Espace culturel exhibits the work of the Italian sculptor, marked by his Alpine origins and fascinated by the Mediterranean mythologies. He worked with different materials, among them clay and bronze. Bruno Lucchi questions the immemorial relationship between male and female, between man and nature.

    Know more

    CHARLES FRECHON

    ROUEN - At a time he was marked by Seurat's divisionism. Today Charles Fréchon (1856-1929) is known as one of the major painters from the school of Rouen. The musée des Beaux-Arts will dedicate a long awaited retrospective, with approximately 80 paintings and drawings, in which his love for the Norman countryside explodes to the viewer's eye.

    Know more