Art Of The Day Weekly
#233 - from 3 November 2011 to 9 November 2011
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (‘The Lady with an Ermine’), about 1489–90. Oil on walnut, 54.8 x 40.3 cm. Property of the Czartoryski Foundation in Cracow on deposit at the National Museum in Cracow © Princes Czartoryski Foundation
IN THE AIR
Leonardo superstar
LONDON - His Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world and the symbol of the Renaissance – by its virtuosity and by the many interests it awakens at the crossing of art, science and architecture. A retrospective of Leonardo da Vinci, announced a long time ago, cannot go by unnoticed, in particular since it brings together some sixty masterpieces: The Virgin of the Rocks from the host museum (the National Gallery), Portrait of a lady from the court of Milan from the Louvre, Lady with the Ermine from the Czartoryski collection (Cracow) and the unequalled series of drawings belonging to the Queen of England, that were discovered by chance in 1778 after being lost for a century. But the cherry on the topping will undoubtedly be Salvator mundi, which appeared by a miraculous coincidence on the dates of the retrospective. Not all specialists believe it is the work of the great Florentine master …
• Leonardo Da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan at the National Gallery, from 9 November 2011 to 5 February 2012.
EXHIBITIONS
Louis Boilly, La Femme de l’artiste dans son atelier(The artist's wife in his workshop), v. 1795-1800. Oil on canvas, 40.8 x 32.5 cm Williamstown, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute © Michael Agee
Boilly, the man for the Who's Who in Paris
LILLE – Louis Boilly (1761-1845) was long considered a minor master. But over the last twenty years he has been re-evaluated continuously. He was prolific in everything (two wives, ten children, dozens of moves, thousands of paintings …), and was catalogued for a long time as a simple chronicler of Paris life. The boulevards, the cafés, workshops, portraits of the Coquettes, of actresses and the children of the bourgeoisie which he rolled out by dozens grew the collections of the XIXth century. He also described the revolutionary era close up, the soldiers as well as the «incredibles», the prisons or the vaccination sessions. His eloquence in painting, his virtuosity clearly inspired from Dutch and Flemish painting make this memory recorder more than the simple note taker of a troubled era. This exhibition brings together nearly 200 works, most of them from the United States where he is much appreciated. It is the first retrospective of this importance dedicated to the artist.
• Boilly at the Palais des beaux-arts, from 4 November 2011 to 6 February 2012.
Art of the day also recommends...
• MADRID – An admirer of Franco, illustrator Carlos Sáenz de Tejada (1897-1958) sketched the Paris fashion between 1920-30 with great virtuosity. To be discovered at the new MuseoABC de la Ilustración. From 24 October 2011 to 19 February 2012.
• NEW YORK – The Guggenheim dedicates a complete retrospective to the “enfant terrible” of Italian contemporary art, simply called Maurizio Cattelan: All. From 4 November 2011 to 22 January 2012.
• PARIS - Samouraï, at the quai Branly museum, plunges into an aspect of Japanese culture that has nourished Western fantasies. From 8 November 2011 to 29 January 2012.
AUCTIONS
Lot 44: Pasquins Windkaart op de Windnegotie Van 't Iaar 1720: satirical Dutch game, echo of the bankrupcy of Law in Paris,the Netherlands, 1720, etching in black, 54 cards. Estimation : 1700-2400 €. Courtesy Millon @ Associés, Paris.
The cards of Europe
PARIS – They were used for entertainment but also to count, to learn history and legends, they could be erotic (often by transparency) and could end their lives as note paper to jot down errands on the side that was not printed… Today’s playing cards do not give an idea of the diversity of their «ancestors». From the illustrations with stencils on the tarot cards of the la Bavarian wedding (circa 1765) to the guessing cards illustrated by Granville (before 1830), from the English satirical, anti-pope games of proverbs, from the Bible history or that or coats of arms, up to the Piquet cards of the Allies during WW I, we have all of society filing in front of us. This very rich collection, accumulated over half a century, is largely affordable: aside from the more rare pieces, in particular the 98 cards from François de Poilly’s Minchiate created around 1720 and estimated at more than 8 000 €, most of the lots are expected to go for less than 1000 Euros.
• Collection Claude Guiard 5 November 2011 at Drouot-Richelieu (Millon & Associés).
ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Markus Raetz, see it for yourself to believe it
A «Yes» becomes a «No», a man with a hat turns into a hare, Magritte’s pipe becomes a spiral: these are some of the metamorphoses Markus Raetz, the Swiss artist born in 1941, is used to. He is a sculptor as much as a photographer, a semiologist as a creator of Land Art. Raetz plays with illusions by showing tat sometimes they are very close to «reality»… His objects change sense according to the point of view: in other times, under the name of anamorphosis, it was very appreciated. But the optical illusions Raetz makes often have a double drawer – to read and savor like small fables or like metaphysical thoughts.
• Markus Raetz, estampes, sculptures at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, from 8 November 2011 to 12 February 2012.
• Markus Raetz, sculptures récentes at the Farideh Cadot gallery, from 8 November to 30 December 2011.
BOOKS
Intimate Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier is often presented as a very severe person. His tight lips and his thick glasses, his air of a seminarian and his missionary shirts, his clear-cut opinions and his uncompromising projects – like the famous Voisin plan that foresaw the razing of a part of Paris – made anyone shy away. It is therefore a surprise to discover he was a teaser, impulsive, lyrical, had a great enthusiasm for Beethoven, Ruskin or for Schuré’s Initiated. It is because we discover here a talent in full genesis, as if halfway between schoolboy and genius. Le Corbusier who wrote these notes to his family was just 20 years old. He worked for architect Behrens, explored the Italian museums or the monuments of Constantinople, spending his evenings at shows («Yes this has been a shameful week: in seven days, four times to the opera, once to a concert. Ô Budget, please do not come ringing again at my ears your screams of heart rendering anguish»), his juvenile enthusiasm is contagious to those around him. While he complains about his un-ironed clothes, his glasses not paid or by thanking them for the chocolate bars that arrived well… A look backstage that gives the character a touch of humanity that his statue as the Commendatore had made him lose.
• Le Corbusier, Correspondance, Lettres à la famille, volume 1, 1900-1925, directed by Rémi Baudoui and Arnaud Dercelles, infolio, 2011, 768 p., 32 €
IN BRIEF
ATHENS- The "Monodrome" at the Athens biennial, the international festival that brings together some one hundred contemporary artists, is now open until 11 December 2011.
AQUILA- The Muspac (Experimental Museum of Contemporary Art) of the city destroyed by an earthquake in 2009 will reopen on 6 November 2011 in another building.
MADRID - The Prado museum has announced it will soon open 7/7, and no longer close on mondays.
MENTON – The musée Jean Cocteau, designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti, opens on 6 November 2011. It will host the 1800 pieces from the Séverin Wunderman collection.
PARIS – The Temps forts Drouot-Montaigne - the greater days - present the most beautiful lots of future sales at Drouot, will be held from 4 to 9 November 2011
PARIS – The Salon international du patrimoine culturel (International Fair of Cultural Heritage) will be held from 3 to 6 November 2011 at the Carrousel du Louvre.
PARIS – Paris Tableau, «the international fair of ancient painting», will hold its first edition from 4 to 8 November 2011 at the Palais de la Bourse.
PARIS – The minister of Culture has chosen Nicolas Bourriaud, the former director of the Palais de Tokyo, as the new director of the Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts.
