Art Of The Day Weekly
#186 - from 30 September 2010 to 6 October 2010
Rare complete skeleton of a carnivorous Allosaure dinosaur, 10.12 mts. long, from Wyoming, U.S.A. The sale at Sotheby's will be on 5 October 2010. Shown during the "Nuit blanche" (Sleepless night) on 2 October, until midnight.
IN THE AIR
Don't go home tonight
Today, nights are used in many ways… In February 2009, in order to satisfy the landslide of reservations in Paris, the Grand Palais remained open 24/24 to welcome visitors to the «Picasso and the masters» exhibition. The same thing happened in Rome last July for the Caravaggio exhibit. The Royal Academy in London had launched the fashion in 1999, with a retrospective on Monet. Ever since, we have witnessed an ever-growing tendency throughout Europe, of the «Nuit des musées» (Museum night), during the month of May. The climax of this night consumption of art is undoubtedly the « Nuit blanche » (Sleepless night), of which Paris will celebrate its 9th edition on 2 October. Last year one and a half million people strolled amidst installations and exhibitions. Just as many –or more- are expected between the three poles this year – Belleville, Trocadéro, the islands of Saint-Louis and la Cité. Among the strong points, there are Chen Zhen at the musée Guimet, Cerith Wyn Evans at the musée Galliera, Erikh Samakh’s fireflies at Hôtel-Dieu or a projection of Michelangelo Pistoletto at the Hôtel-de-Ville. There will be no guard, the rising sun will take care of closing time …
• 9th Nuit blanche in Paris on 2 October from 7pm
EXHIBITIONS
Paul Gauguin, Teha 'amana has many Parents, 1893, Art Institute of Chicago, USA © Art Institute of Chicago, USA, Oil on canvas. Courtesy Tate Modern, London.
All of Gauguin
LONDON - In 2003, we had admired Gauguin’s years in Oceania (1891-1903) at the Grand Palais, the ones that most contributed to the elaboration of his myth: the refusal of the Western world, the wild life in Tahiti. The Tate Modern seizes today all the bohemian artist’s career with some one hundred works. Of course it does not omit the key moment, his years in Pont-Aven or the different techniques used, from ceramics to sculpture on wood. Special lighting is given to his self-portraits (as Christ, as a fisherman, etc.) while his letters and drawings pads help the viewer better understand his way of working. We will have the opportunity to see documents rarely seen, like some of his sources of inspiration, whether ethnographic photos of his time or postcards.
• Gauguin at the Tate Modern, from 30 September 2010 to 16 January 2011. The exhibition will be shown at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, from 21 February to 31 May 2011.
Portrait of Charles II d’Amboise, after Andrea Solario 16th century, oil on panel, 75 x 52 cm, musée du Louvre, département des Peintures, Paris © service presse Rmn/ Gérard Blot
A French Renaissance
PARIS - One says Renaissance, and one thinks Italy. The rest is peripheral. This idea is deeply anchored in our interpretation of History. So it is good now and then to shed some light on secondary landscapes. Such is the case for France around 1500. François Ist had not yet risen to the throne and it seems exaggerated to say the avidity of sovereigns had them «skipping down» to Italy to pick up some souvenirs. Actually, as the nearly 200 pieces gathered here show – altarpieces, sculptures, illuminations, art objects –France, its princes and its artists followed Italy’s Humanist revolution closely. The country was far from being centralized and each pole (Paris, the Champagne area, the Bourbonnais, the Val de Loire, etc.) saw notable creators rise, such as the Maître de Moulins, the Maître de Saint Gilles as well as sculptors, master glaziers, jewelers whose names rarely went down to posterity: this absence of personalization makes this era of fermentation more distant and mysterious to us.
• France 1500 at the Grand Palais, from 6 October 2010 to 10 January 2011. Catalogue RMN.
The exhibition will be shown at the Art Institute of Chicago from 28 February to 29 May 2011.
Exotic bling bling
PARIS – Certain coincidences on the calendar are edifying: following a Summer that was rather moved by the issue of France’s capacity to remain a land of welcome, an unusual exhibition is opening at the museum of Quai Branly. With a both mysterious and evocative title - «Baba Bling» - and under the patronage of President Sarkozy, it shows how a community of immigrants (in this case the Chinese and Indians of Singapour), has produced its own culture, a fusion of those that surround it, in which external signs of wealth are a fundamental element. From the beds with canopies to the embroidered shirts, from the mules with pearls to bright porcelains, this surprising retrospective shows how foreigners can be assimilated while keeping their distinct personality. We can look at it as moment of distraction or as a true history lesson …
• Baba Bling, signes extérieurs de richesse à Singapour at Quai Branly, from 5 October 2010 to 6 February 2011.
Artaujourdhui also recommends
• In Madrid, Bibliotheca Artis consists in presenting the most beautiful pieces from the library of the Prado museum, never shown before to the public. From 5 October 2010 to 30 January 2011.
• The Diamond museum in Antwerp draws up the legend of Napoleon from a different angle with Napoleon and the jewels of the Empire. From 1st October to 31 December 2010.
• The museum of Cluny in Paris presents, through D’or et de feu (Gold and fire) a panorama of art in Slovakia at the end of the Middle Ages. Until 10 January 2011.
AUCTIONS
The night of the dinosaur
PARIS – We will be able to count all seventy teeth curved back in the skeleton of allosaurus presented by Sotheby’s. Indeed it is almost complete. This monstrous lizard lived some 150 million years ago and he is in just as good a shape as was the tyrannosaurus Rex sold by the same house in 1997 for a mere 8.4 million $. Therefore it is expected to sell for a spectacular price. Natural history sales are very much « in the wind»: while an English plesiosaurus is expected to sell for more than 300 000 €, a simple Italian crab (prehistoric mind you!), unveiled near Vicenza, will go for nearly 15 000 €! While not everyone is enraptured by the aesthetic dimension of these old animals, more could be dazzled by the fossilized palm leaf and fish (estimated at 80 000 €) or by a tourmaline from the Jonas mine in Brazil (320 000 €), with its impressive raspberry-colored complexion.
• Histoire naturelle at Sotheby’s (76, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008), on 5 October 2010. Exhibition from 1st to 4th October (until midnight on 2nd October).
ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Gérard Alary, Sans titre, 2006, ink on paper, 130 x 130 cm. Courtesy galerie Polad-Hardouin, Paris.
Gérard Alary: mystery in black
Among his affinities, as Olivier Kaeppelin underlines in the preface to the catalogue, we can note Saura, or Vedova. But we could also include Matthieu, Pollock, Basquiat and Bacon. All huge paintings that express, first of all, a physical commitment, drippings and streaks that show spontaneity and speed. And lots of black, charcoal, soot and pitch. The wealth of black as seen by Gérard Alary (born in 1945) is – in the words of an unforgettable song –both in English and French- that black is black. After overcoming the difficulty of his mother’s demise, whom he had paid a tribute to under the cupola of la Vieille-Charité in Marseille in 2007, the artist reintroduced other colorings in his palette. He did it by small doses in order to protect in his paintings the aspect of a dark mirror in which disquieting heads, mouths and injuries appear.
• Gérard Alary is exhibited at the galerie Polad-Hardouin (86, rue Quincampoix, 75003 Paris) until 9 October 2010.
BOOKS
So British
Ever since the Hundred Years' war, the Brits have nourished a weakness for the former Guyenne and its surroundings. Photographer Rip Hopkins, a well-known member of the Vu agency, went out to meet them in the land of foie gras and potatoes “Sarlat” style, a.k.a. the Dordogne region. As he shares these origins, he sees his uprooted and re-rooted compatriots in a different manner, with just the right dose of eccentricity to render them touching to us. His photographs of them doing headstands in the glebe, posing in their bathrobes in front of a motorcycle, naked on a draft animal, in the bathtub or in a flowered dress in a tree, they seem close to us while remaining, all in all, incomprehensible. The text written by the photographer’s (French) girlfriend gives us some additional keys to unveil this immemorial mystery, what is an Englishman?
• Another Country, Photographs by Rip Hopkins, text by Pauline de La Boulaye, Filigranes, 2010, 128 p., 35 €.
IN BRIEF
FLORENCE – Grande cubo specchiante, the installation by Michelangelo Pistoletto, is presented at the Palazzo Strozzi, as of 1st October 2010.
LONDON – The four artists selected for the 10th Turner Prize will be shown at the Tate Britain as of 5 October 2010.
MADRID – The Prado museum announced the identification of a painting by Brueghel the elder, the The wine of Saint-Martin’s, which belongs to a private collector.
PARIS - Portrait of Madame Florian, a portrait by Giovanni Boldini, was sold for 2.1 million € on 28 September 2010 at Drouot (cabinet Choppin de Janvry et Massol), and thus marked a world record for the artist.
ROME – The 1st International Biennale of antiques will be held at Palazzo Venezia from 1st to 10th October 2010.