Art Of The Day Weekly
#280 - from 22 November 2012 to 28 November 2012
Salvador Dalí, Self-portrait with Raphael’s neck, c. 1921. Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 53 cm, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí/Adagp, Figueres, Paris, 2012 (exhibition at Centre Pompidou, Paris)
IN THE AIR
A record for Dali?
PARIS – It was held last century, in 1979, when the artist was still alive. But it still holds the record of attendance for an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou: 840 000 visitors. Naturally, the organizers and among them Jean-Hubert Martin-who had another great success with ‘Les Magiciens de la Terre’ - and architect Oscar Tusquets who had staged the one in 1979, will have their eyes focused on the meters, though of course they deny …This new major Dali happening is not a simple remake but its dimensions are just as impressive, with over two hundred works. The great classics such as the ‘soft clocks’ or the illusions and optic games will not be alone. The aim of the exhibit is to show the wide variety of Dali’s production, without hiding his darker sides such as his flirtations with Franco’s dictatorship but by showing his pioneering role in staging the artist for the media or in presenting a performance as a genre in its own right.
• Dali at the Centre Pompidou from 21 November 2012 to 25 March 2013.
EXHIBITIONS
Antony Van Dyck, Samson and Delilah, oil on canvas, 152,3 x 232 cm, ca. 1618-1620. London, Dulwich Picture Gallery.
Van Dyck, the quickest painter in the world
fMADRID – He would surely have appeared in the Book of records of his time. Antony Van Dyck’s pictorial production between 1615 and 1621 would have been enough to place him among the great masters of the XVIIth century. Between those two dates that mark his entrance to the workshop of his mentor, Rubens, and his departure to Italy, he produced 160 paintings. That comes out to nearly one painting every two weeks. A mind-blowing rhythm since furthermore they were not always small. Some of them were two meters wide, such as the The bronze serpent from the Prado or l’The entry of Christ into Jerusalem (Indianapolis Museum of Art). He carried out this frenetic work as he simultaneously helped his patron and produced an abundant number of drawings. In 1615, Van Dyck had just left his childhood town, Antwerp. He was only 15 years old… Therefore the Prado had no problem setting up with the help of the Boijmans van Beuningen museum in Rotterdam and a great number of international lenders, a very wealthy exhibit with some one hundred works of art that show the fullness of the youth’s genius. The museum decided this merits an experience and decided young adults between the ages of 15 and 25 will benefit from free admission on the last Friday of each month …
• El joven Van Dyck at the Prado museum, from 20 November 2012 to 3 March 2013.
These exhibitions also open…
Bartlett's dolls
LAUSANNE- La Collection de l’Art brut presents the first large retrospective dedicated to Morton Bartlett (1909-1992), an American childless graphic artist, who created his own family …by making plaster dolls. From 23 November to 14 April 2013.
Fifty years of Russian art
LONDON - The Saatchi Gallery dedicates two ambitious exhibitions to Russian art: the one of 1960-80 in Breaking the Ice (from 21 November 2012 to 24 February 2013) and current creations in Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union (from 21 November 2012 to 5 May 2013). Photo: a work by Gosha Ostretsov.
Loutherbourg is back in Alsace
STRASBOURG - Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg (1740-1812) painted shipwrecks, pastoral scenes and battles and was admired by Diderot before leaving to England where he carried out he major part of his career. The musée des Beaux-Arts offers him his first real retrospective in his native town. From 17 November 2012 to 18 February 2013.
AUCTIONS
Lot 63, Pendant in the shape of an owl. El Viejo, Region of Guanacaste, Costa Rica 200 to 600 A.D.. Dark green semi-translucide shiny jade. Estimate: €4000-5000. Courtesy Binoche & Giquello.
Costa Rica, the land of jade
PARIS – Carlos Balser was a very colorful character. Born in Lichtenstein, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean on board banana boat to search his fortune in Costa Rica n the twenties. He launched himself into the hotel business by opening the Grand Hôtel. He also created the hotel Don Carlos that still exists in the capital, San José. A talented artist, he was also the author of frescoes in the cathedral. As if this should not suffice, he was also a noted archaeologist and carried out diggings in various areas in the country, specializing in jade. He dedicated many studies to the semi-precious stone and helped the national museum acquire pieces by buying them from illegal diggers, the huaqueros. The backbone of this sale is made up of the collection of a Dutch friend of his: zoomorphic and anthropomorphic pendants, tubular pearls, amulets, elements from necklaces and earrings from the regions of Nicoya, Guanacaste or Vereh. And they are automatically followed by the obsessing question, why are there so many objects in jade in Costa Rica though no mine has yet to be found in the country?
• Collection de jades du Costa Rica at the hôtel Drouot (SVV Binoche & Giquello) 26 November 2012
ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Yue Minjun, The Execution, 1995, oil on canvas, 150 x 300 cm. Private collection. © Yue Minjun
Yue Minjun, a laughter that leaves you cold
PARIS – He is the ‘painter of laughter’. Yue Minjun became famous for his portraits of pink faced characters swollen by a smile that puts shivers down one’s spine. Born in 1962 at Daqing in China, he only really began his artistic career in 1985 when he started his studies at the Ecole normale in Hebei. He graduated four years later, just as the student revolt was crushed on Tien Anmen square. The event left a permanent mark in the artist who defined his ‘style’ during a stay in an artistic community near Bejing. A static smirck, a form of defense, which he puts on all his characters he reproduces to infinity like products in series. That was at the beginning of the 1990s, when China opened up to the world and Yue Minjun would become one of the musketeers of the new Asian gard. In auctions his works go for prices previously unconceivable: $6 million in 2007 for The Execution, inspired from Manet’s painting on the death of emperor Maximilian.
• Yue Minjun is shown at the Fondation Cartier, until 17 March 2013.
BOOKS
Instructions to becoming an artist
When they launch themselves on the art market, beginners often suffer from excessive enthusiasm and a great lack of practical information. This book cools down the former and abundantly supplies the latter. In the form of short interviews with different actors (artists, gallery owners, agents, collectors, fair organizers, etc.) the author deals with major questions such as how to knit links efficiently with galleries? How to sell in auctions? How to take part in fairs? How to answer a public order? How to declare one’s revenue? VAT, insurance, the artistic 1% or copy rights are all looked into and explained through concrete cases or personal experiences. France has approximately 60 000 artists of which only 8000 expose regularly. How to take the leap? This vademecum offers a series of keys and can be usefully completed by reading two other books from the same collection, signed by Sophie Blachet: Où exposer en France et Où exposer en Europe.
• Réussir sa vie d’artiste, mode d’emploi by Brigitte Camus, lelivredart, 2012, 252 p., €19.50
OPENINGS OF THE WEEK
IN BRIEF
ISTANBUL – The modern and contemporary art fair Contemporary Istanbul will be held from 22 to 25 November 2012. It will be accompanied by the Art Istanbul event, a week of exhibits and debates in the city’s main galleries.
LIANZHOU (China) – The Festival de photographie will be held from 23 November to 26 December 2012 on the same theme of 'Narration and narrative forms'.
MONTEVIDEO – The 1st Biennale of contemporary art, called El Gran Sur, will open on 23 November.
PARIS – Art en capital brings together four fairs (Salon des artistes français, Comparaisons, Salon des artistes indépendants, Salon du dessin et de la peinure à l’eau) and brings together nearly 2000 artists at the Grand Palais, from 27 November to 2 December 2012.
STRASBOURG – The 17th edition of ST-ART, the European contemporary art fair, will be held from 23 to 26 November 2012.
SENLIS – The musée d’Art et d’Archéologie will reopen on 24 November 2012, after five years of works. It holds in particular a collection of ex-voto from the forest of Halatte, wooden sculptures from the Renaissance and rooms dedicated to Thomas Couture and Séraphine de Senlis.