Art Of The Day Weekly
#117 - from 22 January 2009 to 28 January 2009
IN THE AIR
Czech...mate!
The spectre of artistic frauds was already quite spread. To our great pleasure, the genre has once again expanded. We all knew of copies of all sorts, from the Vermeers painted by van Meegeren, to the false Dalís signed by Dalí himself, including the cheap Modigliani fished out of a canal in Livorno. But we had not yet heard of the false artists. 26 of them have just been discovered in one swoop and the hoax is so monumental that it becomes a masterpiece in its own right. The Czech presidency of the European Union intended to make a big cultural mark and had 27 artists, one for each member country, set up an installation in Brussels, in the hall of the European Council. Thus it wished to make fun of all nationalist clichés. Actually, it was one single man, David Cerny, who produced the installation, inventing false identities, false biographies and false websites for his colleagues, who are all virtual. When the Bulgarians discovered their country was symbolised by Turkish baths they smelled a rat and triggered off a mini-crisis. Who said that art was no longer political?
An illustrated report on the Entropa installation on Ouest-France
EXHIBITIONS
Modern art, the cousin of primitive art
BASEL – We are used to seeing works by Léger, Matisse, Dubuffet. The Beyeler foundation has turned around the usual perspectives by exhibiting in the rooms designed by Renzo Piano works of primitive art. At the beginning of the XXth century, Vlaminck, Picasso, Derain and other creators were fascinated by those exotic artistic forms. The principle of putting works side by side is back and consequently we have Fang reliquairies from Western Africa facing Cézanne and Kandinsky. The practically abstract sculptures from the atoll of Nukuoro, in Micronesia rub elbows with works by Brancusi and Douanier Rousseau while Picasso, who of course could not be left out, accompanies portraits of Mundugumor ancestors from New-Guinea. In total, nearly 200 ethnographic pieces are put face to face with modern art.
Revisiting Canova
FORLI (Italy) – Antonio Canova has popped up regularly over these last years. These retrospectives have been motivated either by the bicentennial of his production of Napoleonic inspiration or by the restoration of his sanctuary in Possagno, in the Venetia region. Here is a new opportunity to admire once again the prince of sculptors, this time in a small town in the Emilia-Romania region, known for giving birth to Melozzo da Forlì. It is surely not accidental that the organizers have been able to bring together major works such as the Venus Médicis from the Uffizi in Florence, the Italic Venus from Palazzo Pitti or other loans from the Hermitage. It was precisely for his admirers in this town that Canova had created in particular Hébé (in 1817, for countess Guarini) or the Dancer with a finger to her chin. The latter had disappeared when its sponsor, banker Domenico Manzoni was murdered. That violent death was a godsend for Forlì since Canova was commissioned a third work, the banker’s funeral stele, kept at the church of the Santissima Trinità.
Motherwell on paper
LA LOUVIÈRE (Belgium) – He is one of the American giants of the post war period, known in particular for his huge cycle done in black charcoal on the war in Spain. Among the abstract Expressionists, Robert Motherwell (1915-1991) was undoubtedly the one who produced the most abundant work on paper. Though he started engraving as early as 1947, in New York, at Stanley William Hayter’s, it was not until 1961 that he dedicated himself systematically to that form of art, giving it as much attention as to his painting. The Centre de la Louvière exhibits some sixty sheets, often worked by themes («Elegies», «Poet», «America-France Variations»). He demonstrates his unlimited inventiveness, combining for example engraving and collage, like in the series called «Gauloises bleues».
AUCTIONS
Collages all the way
VENICE – Unless it is signed by Max Ernst or Prévert, it is quite improbable that a collage may cause any sensation at an auction. That is not been very fair with a technique that is one of the fundamental elements of Surrealism –it practices the association of ideas – and which helped revolutionize modern poetry – just think of Calligrames by Apollinaire. Following the last expressions of Surrealism, illustrated in particular by Georges Hugnet, the Italians from the Poesia visiva movement and the members of Fluxus continued to develop the furrow. Without ruining oneself, since estimates go between a few hundred euros and 8 000 euros for a political composition by Sarenco, the lots presented in this specialized sale will allow us to rediscover these inventive and unjustly neglected artists, such as Lamberto Pignotti, Luciano Ori, Ben Patterson or Bernard Aubertin. They combine oil, photo, feathers, plants and postcards to transmit messages tha are often subversive or anti-establishment: a form of resistance we are no longer used to…
ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Stéphane Calais, La Pléiade serigraphics on paper, 100 x 70 cm (each). series of 80 pieces. courtesy Espace Claude Berri
Stéphane Calais: in memoriam Claude Berri
The coincidences of current events are going to make the inauguration of Stéphane Calais’ exhibit, Saturday 24 January, look like a homage to Claude Berri. Indeed, it will be held in the gallery of the producer, director and collector recently deceased. Calais, who has been admitted among the major artists since he was awarded the Marcel Duchamp prize in 2008, likes to try out different techniques. He can just as well give preference to pure drawing (his serigraphy on the theme of the Pléiade) or painting on canvas in «archaic» formats (the tondo or the oval, greatly appreciated during the Renaissance and by the mannerists), or launch himself with a laser in his hand, to cut out flower shapes in metal. An installation under the shape of large mobiles in macramé, feathers and balloons increasingly disorients the visitor in a «universe» with various dimensions. The title, inspired from a famous lampoon by architect Adolf Loos (Crime and ornament) written exactly one hundred years ago, further confuses the tracks …
BOOKS
A monkey's life
«Stop your monkey business!» is said vulgarly in French –and other languages. In the XVIIIth century, it was the contrary, since they were the big hit and more than one boudoir had its walls covered by them. To be fair, it must be said that monkeys were a totally different story: an ensemble of paintings in which male and female monkeys usually played the role of men. This book represents the most beautiful savaged ensemble that has just been restored with the help of the World Monuments Fund. It is in the castle of Chantilly, divided in two apartments: one Large Monkey Cage and one Small Monkey Cage. There we see the animal that is closest to man representing the wise man, the schoolteacher or the sculptor. A socialite in a muslin dress takes of her red slippers to slip into her bath, another has her claws filed down in front of the mirror. A huntsman presents the foot of an animal killed during a hunt, a curser rushes with his package under his arm. They resemble us and make us laugh … The resurrection of this cycle by Christophe Huet, done between 1735 and 1737, consoles us in part for the loss of the masterpiece in this genre, done by Watteau at the castle of la Muette.
IN BRIEF
BOLOGNA-The modern and contemporary art fair, Arte Fiera, will hold its 33rd edition from 23 to 26 January 2009.
LOS ANGELES-Art LA 2009, the contemporary art fair of the city in California, will be held from 23 to 25 January 2009.
NEW YORK- The art market will undergo a new test at Christies' on 28 January 2009, as five watercolors by Turner (four landscapes and a woman's portrait) will be put up for sale by collectors William and Eleanor Wood Prince, who in 2006 had paid the record amount of 36 million $ to ensure a masterpiece by the painter, La Giudecca.
PARIS-The musée d'Orsay has inaugurated a room dedicated to the works donated by Philippe Meyer (1925-2007) - works by Bonnard, Cézanne and Manet. The patron's contribution was equally of major importance to buy the famous Talisman by Sérusier or the Self-portrait with yellow Christ by Gauguin.
PARIS-The report by Hervé Lemoine, curator of national heritage, on the new museum of the History of France, is on line on the website of the ministry of Culture.
PARIS-The Museum Expressions fair, dedicated to museum by-products, will be held at Paris Expo, at Porte de Versailles, on 22 and 23 January 2009.
VENICE-The Contemporary art Centre Punta della Dogana, rumored to be put on hold, will open at the same time as the next Biennale of Venice on 6 June 2009. The space, for which the architecture was entrusted to Tadao Ando, should host the François Pinault collection.