Art Of The Day Weekly

The Acropolis done me in

In Athens, the museum of the Acropolis – a trite news subject- is finally taking shape. Some of the spaces are now open to the public in the morning, from 10 AM to noon, as prefiguration. The building designed by Bernard Tschumi did not get back lord Elgin’s famous friezes that still stand at the British Museum, but it is getting ready for an inauguration that has been set back various times – it should have coincided with the Olympic Games of 2004…. We hope the same hesitations will benefit the construction at Areopagitou 17, designed in 1930 by architect Kouremenos. Formerly the house of Parthénis, a colleague of Matisse’s and Picasso’s, included in the historic Monuments list since 1978, it is the most beautiful example of Art deco architecture in the Greek capital. But it has the sad role of disturbing the «dialogue» between the Acropolis and the new museum, located lower down. In other words, it partly hides the view of the Parthenon… In the current era of museums-monsters, this sort of situation could not be tolerated. The minister of Culture therefore cancelled the decree that protected the Art deco jewel that now awaits its own demolition. Unless… On the door, a flying piece of paper is progressively covered with signatures from protesters. In parallel, international personalities, among them Jean Clair, are trying to convince the government to come back on its position. Until now the lack of interest in the Acropolis was such that it had been turned into a quarry. Today it has been sanctified to such a point that everyone is ready to raze everything around it. Looking for middle of the road position desperately …

Consult: the website of the defenders of the Areopagitou 17 Art deco building

The New Museum of the Acropolis inaugurates its first temporary exhibition as of 23 September 2008. It has already been presented in Rome, and brings together master pieces returned by American museums. The permanent exhibition on the first floor should open in the month of December 2008 and the total area of the museum will open in April 2009.

LAST DAYS... UNTIL September 21... Do not miss CHARLES FRECHON; a painter from the School of Rouen, a gifted interpreter of the Normandy countryside at the MUSÉE DES BEAUX-ARTS DE ROUEN See ArtoftheDay article

AND ALSO... OPENING MAPS Contemporary Latin American Photography at the CENTRE FOR FINE ARTS in Brussels (Belgium) See ArtoftheDay article

Boldini, idealizing women

MONTECATINI TERME – Just like Domergue or Helleu, Boldini has an ideal woman, the symbol of snobbish elegance that is a little vain, between the end of the century and the Belle Epoque era. The Italian painter, born in Ferrara in 1842, settled down in Paris after the Universal Exhibition in 1867 and found there a perfect context, and he became the appointed portrait artist of the aristocracy and the greater bourgeoisie. In an unexpected place but which lends itself well through its cosmopolitanism – the major Tuscan spa – the exhibition examines the close links between Boldini and the feminine universe. From Berthe, his first French mistress, to the young and flighty writer Emilia Cardona, who became his wife, not excluding Madame Lanthème or countess de Rasty, it is a true gallery of refined, elegant and sophisticatedly-dressed seductresses, that parades in front of the visitor, in 110 paintings, 60 drawings and numerous photographs.

An oscar for Correggio

PARMA – The retrospective of the painter from the Emilia region is clearly the gathering of the greatest number of works to be potentially transported from museums all over the world. Antonio Allegri, aka Correggio (1489-1534), is the representative of the most refined mannerism, whose saints have golden hair and peach complexions.. These loans trace all his career, from his training in Mantova to his Parmesan altarpieces, including his architectural compositions. The location of the exhibition itself is unique, shared between the Pilotta palace and the Farnese theatre, an extraordinary wooden trompe-l’œil. A special effort was made to give value to what also exists in situ, i.e. to say it mildly, his most important masterpieces: the cycles of the cathedral, the Saint-John-the Evangelist and the Chamber of the abbess at San Paolo. Scaffoldings have been set up so the visitors may be at the height of the frescoes and the lighting of the cupolas designed by the «painter of light» was entrusted to Vittorio Storaro, the photographic director of Bernardo Bertolucci’s movies and winner of three Oscars, of which one for Apocalypse Now. There is great entertainment in store for us …

Nolde, painting as a means to resist

PARIS – This will be the first time the French public will see polyptych of the Life of Christ, kept at Seebüll, in Germany. Actually, many of the works presented will be seen for the first time in France since there had never been until now a retrospective of Emil Nolde, the expressionist painter who died in 1956. Better late than never: at the Grand Palais and then at the Fabre museum in Montpellier a great ensemble of some 90 paintings and 70 drawings and prints. The «Grand-father» of the Die Brücke group (he was older than his companions), Nolde is an intense colourist, describes the activity of the modern town but also participates in the renewal of religious figuration. He turned to painting late in his life – he was first a sculptor on wood and a teacher of industrial design – and Nolde dedicated himself to it until his oldest age. His membership to the Nazi party did not prevent him from being classified among the degenerated painters in 1937 and then from being forbidden to paint in 1941. He then produced an original aspect of his work, thousands of small clandestine watercolours.

Gothic autographs

PARIS – At the time of the electronic signature, what could be more exotic than a seal from the XIIIth century? Round or oval, ogival or hexagonal, be it orbicular, in copper or bronze, golden or not: the choice is practically unlimited. Especially since the difference is then made by the motifs: star, holly branch, hook, lis flower or animals – from the sheep to the lion, from the bear to the chicken … On 23 September, a whole collection of seals produced from the XIIIth to the XVIIIth centuries, from the region of Touraine, from England, the Rhineland or Spain, will be put up for sale by the Damien Libert auction house. The estimates are extremely conservative for such ancient pieces of history. An example, this round seal in copper, with a 22 mm diameter, that belonged to Raoul, a cleric from the XIVth century: it is evaluated between 100 and 200 €. But one will undoubtedly have to add at least ten times that figure for this seal from the same era, with a pyramid shape handle and a ring, decorated with a paschal lamb and a banner…