Art Of The Day Weekly
#181 - from 1 July 2010 to 7 July 2010
Marcos López, Il Piccolo Vapore, Buenos Aires 2007, © Rencontres Arles
IN THE AIR
Photo!
For some time now summer cultural pleasures include photography. We increasingly reject the idea of locking ourselves up in an over-heated museum or in a concert hall in the summer heat, but on the other hand it is a lot more tempting to stroll through a cloister admiring its walls covered with photographs, or to admire a slideshow in the fresh air of a Roman arena. The Rencontres d’Arles, created in 1969 and its epigones (such as Photo España, the festival of La Gacilly, etc) are responsible for this, as they have contributed to give photography another dimension. The 60 exhibitions of this edition are developed as promenades: «argentic», dedicated to the survivors of that technique, «rock», focused on the personality of Mick Jagger, or «Luma», which unveils in a great preview the ambitious project of this photography foundation and its building, designed by Frank Gehry. As a sheer coincidence, there is a bridge between art and current events: if Maradona’s team wins the world cup, the «Argentine promenade», including the great León Ferrari and Marcos López, will surely be a success …
•Les Rencontres d’Arles will be held from 3 July to 19 September 2010. Opening days from 3 to 13 July 2010.
EXHIBITIONS
Costume worn by Maria Callas for Norma, an opera by Bellini, costumes by Marcel Escoffier, Opéra Garnier, 1964. Photo CNCS / Pascal François
Dressing up the diva
MOULINS – In the past, in the XIXth century, prima donnas were expected to arrive at the theatre with their own costumes. But with time habits changed and the show producer was then in charge of supplying these great ladies of the stage with their paraphernalia. These adulated goddesses of the opera and theatre were the famous Sarah Bernhardt, Maria Callas or Montserrat Caballé to name some of the greatest. The exhibition focuses on their costumes on stage, an indispensable ingredient of their fascination with their abundance of velvets, pearls, feathers and sequins. It draws from its own collections as well as from those of the Metropolitan Opera of New York, the San Carlo in Naples or the Mutuelle nationale des artistes (National Artists Society) and presents us Sarah Bernhardt’s purse as well as Edwige Feuillère’s costume in l’Aigle à deux têtes, designed by Christian Bérard.
•Vestiaire de divas at the Centre national du costume de scène, until 31 December 2010.
Around the world with Loti
ROUBAIX – Recently we saw his drawings of Constantinople at the time of the Turkish season in France. Pierre Loti, the famous author of the Pêcheur d’Islande or Ramuntcho, is back with his pencil work: la Piscine exhibits some one hundred works, produced through the world, from Tahiti to Senegal, from the gulf of the Kotor to Brittany. For Loti, aka Julien Viaud (1850-1923), this was not a hobby for a successful writer but rather his first bread-wining activity. The Navy officer came from a family of great travelers, and he started his artistic career by publishing his drawings in travel magazines at the end of the XIXth century. At the time travels were long and drawing could still rival photography. Algiers, Hue, Karnac, Easter Island, Brazil or the Marquesas Islands: once he retired to Hendaye, Loti still had his eyes and mind filled with all these distant shores.
•Pierre Loti dessinateur at the Piscine, from 2 July to 12 September 2010.
Tina Modotti, Woman of Tehuantepec, Mexico, 1929, © Galerie Bilderwelt, Berlin
Tina, another Frida
VIENNA – They both lived during the Mexican Revolution, a most troubled and thrilling period; they both had a love affair with a great artist (Diego Rivera and Edward Weston), were themselves great creators and very strong women, and both died very young. It is obvious all that Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and Tina Modotti (1896-1942) had in common. The exhibition concerns the latter, the Italian photographer from Friuli, with her famous images of flowers, her portraits and her series (on the women of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec). The superb Tina was also an actress in silent movies and the model for other photographers. While Weston’s shots are well known, in particular his nudes, most of us will discover the images of her youth showing the determination of the young emigrant who sold hats in California before becoming the darling of Mexico’s intellectuals…
•Tina Modotti, photographer and revolutionary at the Kunsthaus Wien from 1st July to 7 November 2010.
Artaujourdhui also recommends
•In Arles, the Réattu museum unveils the work of photographer Pierre Jahan through 150 images, in particular from the 1930s to the 1950s. From 4 July to 30 October 2010.
•The Fondation de l’Hermitage in Lausanne welcomes the exhibition Edward Hopper that attracted 400 000 visitors in Milano. Until 25 October 2010.
•In Brussels, the musées royaux des beaux-arts dedicate a retrospective to one of the great iconoclasts of Belgian art from the XXth century, Marcel Broodthaers. From 2 July to 26 September 2010.
AUCTIONS
The Cauchon Hours, use of Rheims, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum, Estimate: £800,000 - 1,200,000 (lot 34)
Exceptional illuminations
LONDON – The rarity of objects is often in proportion to their price and therefore we should witness some lovely auctions on 7 July. The lots of bibliophilism from the Arcana collection, of which 48 will be put under the hammer at this sale, are indeed unique pieces. How could it be otherwise with these pages from a gradual, or the psalter that belonged to the grandmother of English King Henry V, French king Francis I’s book of hours illuminated by maître de François de Rohan or this bible from Bologna from the end of the XIIIth century (that may sell for more than 3 million £)? At the time all was done by hand, from the text to the illustrations, for wealthy sponsors, ready to pay … and capable of waiting. There will also be a few less expensive opportunities, such as the manuscript from Bohemia from 1420 on vellum (Christ de douleurs, 50 000 £) or among the incunabula: a Ars moriendi printed in Venice in 1490 in the workshop of Johannes Clein and Piero Himel (50 000 £) or a fundamental botanical work such as the Gart der Gesundheit printed in Mayence in 1485 (200 000 £).
•Collection Arcana at Christie’s on 7 July 2010.
ARTISTS OF THE WEEK
Vietnam Memorial. Washington D.C., 1983-1986, © Wendy Watriss
Watriss and Baldwin, with America in their hearts
They pursue what they like and stick to it, and for fifty years now they have been carrying out, first alone, then together and sentimentally attached since 1971, a remarkable documentation work on contemporary America. The themes have changed over the years as Wendy Watriss and Frederick C. Baldwin grow older, but they have maintained the same enthusiasm of their younger years. From the Ku Klux Klan, an obstacle to the process of racial equality, to the «boomerang» effects of orange agent used in Vietnam, from the life of a county sheriff to the commitment of the union dock workers in Savannah, the two photographers invite us to see a slice of life in the United States. They are the founders of FotoFest in Houston, and have kept the fire going for social reports that had been particularly vivid during the Great Depression with Lewis Hine or Dorothea Lange. Their work is neither a plea nor a denunciation, but simply a praise of independent photojournalism.
•Wendy Watriss and Frederick C. Baldwin at the Maison de la photographie Robert Doisneau, until 10 October 2010.
BOOKS
The aesthetics of science
If we are to believe this essay, we would affirm that art and science are linked. Under the following chapters - «Living Systems», «Human Biology», «Robotics», «Algorithms», and others, it shows how artistic creation closely follows scientific progress. And vice versa. From Kira O’Reilly, who took samples of her own blood by using glass balls, to Garnet Hertz, who has a cockroach from Madagascar manipulate a robot, contemporary creation aims at being at the forefront of research. Bar codes, robotic clothing, digital creatures, interactive microbes or facial simulators: our ancestors’ scissors and brushes are put away in the attic and the computer is the new «indispensable» medium. And in the while it sets a few burning questions on the dangers of bio-engineering or the simple concept of beauty…
•Art+Science, by Stephen Wilson, Thames & Hudson, 2010, 38 €.
IN BRIEF
BERKELEY – The agency Diller Scofidio & Renfro has been chosen to design the future building of the Berkeley Museum of Art.
BERLIN - Judas' Kiss, a painting by Caravaggio stolen in Odessa in 2008 has been found in Berlin by the German and Ukrainian police.
DENVER – The Biennal of Americas groups together works and installations by 24 contemporary artists from the continent, from 1 to 31 July 2010.
LONDON - The Masters Painting Week offers a series of events and exhibitions on the ancient masters from 3 to 9 July 2010.
ROME – The Vatican announced on 22 June the discovery, in the catacombs, of the most ancient known representations of apostles Paul and Peter, from the second half of the IVth century.