Art Of The Day Weekly

Mandatory returns

The Hearst Castle, the residence of press lord Randolph Hearst which inspired Orson Welles's movie Citizen Kane, is going to lose two of its paintings. The architectural craze that sucks in millions of tourists on the ocean drive between Los Angeles and San Francisco, has made them accept to give back two works to the heirs of Jewish despoiled owners during WW II, Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer. The decision concerns a Portrait of Alvise Vendramin by a disciple of Tintoretto's and aPortrait of an old man by Giovanni Cariani. A third painting, by a follower of Paris Bordone, will remain in the castle as a symbol of the policy of despoliation carried out by the Nazis. In another genre, there are numerous agreements reached to return to Italy ancient objects bought illegally: the great American museums have all complied and the Getty Museum has even just gotten ahead the call by announcing it will return a fragment of a frescoe. Very few organizations have been refractory. The position of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhaguen, which refuses to give back the Etruscan, bronze harnesses, may soon become unbearable. The movement, which is probably just at its beginnings, worries the large «universal» museums such as the British Museum and the Louvre, built on purchases that are not always defendable. These returns at least have one advantage: they will allow a mixing of the public collections and nourish the art market in regard to fresh works.

The returns of the Hearst castle

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Rivière, a Japanese from France

PARIS - He was one of the great figures of the cabaret of Montmartre, the Chat noir, for wich he perfected a theatre of shadows. Henri Rivière, who lived a long life (1864-1951), marked the end of the XIXth century with his prints, inspired by Japanese art but that dealt more specifically with French themes – the landscapes of Bretagne or the Eiffel tower, of which he left his famous Thirty-six views. When WW I was triggered off, Rivière abandonded printing and dedicated himself exclusively to watercolors, a selection of which is presented. The exhibition draws a great part of its contents from the recent donation (2006) of the fund of the artist's workshop, which also allows to present the notebooks of sketches, various wooden and zinc molds and his personal collection of Japanese prints.

Masson's animals

PARIS – The surrealists were rather attracted by urban landscapes, by the driftings of towns and cities. Even though André Masson (1896-1987) was a member of a group, he was always fascinated by Nature. To prove it, the musée de la Poste has brought together nearly 150 works, paintings as well as drawings or books. The animal kingdom – bulls, chickens, insects – is very varied, often involved in violent activities, and the spieces sometimes crossed with man (the Minotaur) or the vegetable world. A real GMO! The exhibition also includes a small, secret cabinet – an erotic bestiary – to confirm that insipidness or the politically correct are not of interest here.

Sculpture in Champagne

TOURS - Saint Barbe, saint Eloi or saint Christopher, no longer mean anything to our contemporaries. In the XVIth century, the faithful immediately recognized, under the porch or inside the places of worship, thanks to their sculpted attributes, the tower, the pliers or the Christ. The Champagne region was remarkably creative, at the crossroads of Flemish, German and Italian influences. It is the moment of the passage from Gothic to Mannerism that the exhibition refers to, by chosing a gathering in situ, in a church restaured for this occasion, Saint-Jean-au-Marché. The 94 statues, of which two thirds have also been restaured, come from New York, Cleveland, London or Paris.

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Oury's Dufys

PARIS - We all know Gérard Oury (1919-2006) as the director of Grande Vadrouille and Rabbi Jacob, the most famous movies of «French-sytle come dy». But who knows that he was also a student of the Comédie-Française and that thanks to his mother, who rubbed elbows with the artistic world, he spent his youth close to Foujita, Derain, Paul Poiret or Blaise Cendrars? Once he reached success, Gérard Oury started collecting, especially works by Raoul Dufy, whom he had been very close to, but also Gromaire, Foujita or Charles Lapicque. The nearly 300 works of his collection have been put up for sale by his daughter Danièle Thomson. Regarding Dufy, the estimate is nearly 400 000 euros for Bateaux et barques aux Martigues (1907-08) and 600 000 euros for a Scène de pesage from a much later period (1949). The drawings by Villon or Gromaire have been estimated a lot more modestly, at some thousands of euros.