Art Of The Day Weekly
#288 - from 31 January 2013 to 6 February 2013
La banda Picasso, a movie by Fernando Colomo, released in Spain 25 January 2013. Courtesy Alta Classics.
IN THE AIR
Did Picasso steal the Mona Lisa?
Picasso’s life is an endless flow. No single period of his life went by without love affairs, anecdotes, encounters and scandalous events … Here is a new one, undoubtedly not well known publicly but indeed one of the most colored. On 22 August 1911, the Mona Lisa was robbed from the Louvre museum. The first suspect was Belgian Géry Piéret who had already served himself at the Louvre a few years earlier to some Phoenician statuettes. He had handed them over to Apollinaire and to … Picasso, who seems used them as models for the Demoiselles d’Avignon, the painting that launched Cubism. Hence his being called into the police station. That is the beginning of the movie La banda Picasso, by Spanish director Fernando Colomo, who brings back to life the Paris of the ‘Années folles’ with various characters, among which Braque, Max Jacob, Gertrude Stein and Fernande Olivier. Is the Old Continent going through an identity crisis? No way! The movie presents a Spanish genius, a Belgian crook and a writer of Polish origin, all involved in the robbery of an Italian painting, was shot in Budapest…in French. Long live Europe!
• La Banda Picasso by Fernando Colomo, with Ignacio Mateos (Picasso), Pierre Bénézit (Apollinaire). At Spanish movie theaters on 25 January 2013.
EXHIBITIONS
Felice Casorati, Conversazione platonica, 1925, Collezione privata. © Felice Casorati, by SIAE 2012
Fascism and art
FORLI – The exhibition Novecento in Mussolini’s native town presents the major artists of the beginning of the XXth century to describe the atmosphere in Italy in the period between the two world wars. The fascist regime found the official art they were in search of in a “return to order”, that is in a neo-classic figuration, built on the ruins of Futurism and that exalted the images of housewives, strong men, the conquests of power. It wished to leave a mark in time, and chose monumental figures to do so –that can be seen in the architectural works of the EUR district in Rome or the train station in Milano - and in the large murals, in painting or mosaics, that strained to make a link with the tradition of the Quattrocento. Those who bent to the wishes of Fascism or who avoided any open opposition (Balla, Casorati, Sironi, Funi, Wildt) were rewarded with orders, invited to the major celebrations (Mostre del Novecento Italiano or Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista). The others, such as Renato Guttuso, would only be known after the war.
• Novecento at the Musei di Sano Domenico, from 2 February to 16 June 2013.
THESE EXHIBITIONS OPEN THIS WEEK...
Eluard, mad about art
EVIAN - The Palais Lumière dedicates an exhibition to a retrospective on Paul Eluard (1895-1952), the engaged poet as well as leading actor in the artistic avant-gardes, a friend of Ernst and Dalí (who took his wife Gala away from him), of Cocteau and of Picasso. The exhibition groups together manuscripts and personal objects as well as a part of his important collection (photo: Eluard and Breton by Man Ray). From 2 February to 26 May 2013
Gilles Caron, a flashing reporter
LAUSANNE - Gilles Caron died in Cambodia when he went to shoot the conflict on the Vietnamese border. The photo-reporter (1939-1970) left us some of the icons of the sixties. The Musée de l’Elysée presents 140 photographs, from May 68 to the war in Biafra, including the portraits of famous people such as Gainsbourg or de Gaulle. From 30 January to 12 May 2013.
Gold from Peru
MONTRÉAL – Pérou : royaumes du Soleil et de la Lune presents at the musée des Beaux-arts nearly 400 objects, borrowed from some forty international institutions. Among them there is the “Peruvian Mona Lisa”, a frontal ornament in the shape of cat with the tentacles of an octopus, presented for the first time out of its country. From 2 February to 16 June 2013.
Schinkel, the call of Greece
MUNICH – A herald of neo-Greek architecture in Germany at a time when the country was in search of unity and national references, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, well-known architect, was also a talented painter, as can be seen in the retrospective at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung. From 1st February to 12 May 2013.
At Pietro Bembo's
PADOVA – Which paintings did the great humanist Pietro Bembo have at home? It is the question the exhibition at the Palazzo del Monte wishes to answer. And it brings together works by Raphael, Perugino and Francia scattered all over the world … From 2 February to 19 May 2013.
Pisano, the Spaniard from Montparnasse
PARIS – An unknown painter, a contemporary of Antoni Clavé, a representative of Spanish culture exiled during Franco’s era, Eduardo Pisano (1912-1986), is shown at the musée du Montparnasse. From 1st February to 17 March 2013.
AUCTIONS
Charles Le Brun (1619-1690), The Sacrifice of Polyxena, 1647, Oil on canvas, 179 x 131 cm. Estimate: €300,000-500,000
A diamond as big as the Ritz
PARIS – To find a painting by a great master in a family home and become wealthy overnight? There is no need to have an old aunt in the countryside or a dusty attic for the fairy tale to come true … The latest event occurred at the most famous hotel in the workld, the Ritz on place Vendôme where Hemingway and Chanel each lived. In fact it is in the suite occupied by the fashion designer until 1971 that this beautiful composition from 1647 was found. It was not unveiled during a routine inspection but rather during the renovation campaign that is to last two years. At the bottom of this Sacrifice de Polyxènethat shows the daughter of Priam condemned to torture in order to avenge the death of Achilles. The experts have identified the monogram of the smooth operator under Louis XIV, CLBF, that is “Charles Le Brun Fecit”. In 2014, when the hotel reopens, no more Le Brun! It will have been sold off at an auction much earlier …
• Le Sacrifice de Polyxène will be sold in Paris, at Christie’s, on 15 April 2013 (estimate €300 000 to €500 000).
ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Gianni Berengo Gardin, Normandia, 1993 © Gianni Berengo Gardin/Contrasto
Berengo Gardin and his million snapshots
VENICE – A prolific photographer and author of more than 200 books and over one million snapshots, Gianni Berengo Gardin –born in 1930- documented the last half century in Italy. He is a witness, like Depardon, of the closing of insane asylums or like movie director De Santis of the decline of rice paddies in Piedmont, and he had a humanist look on living beings and objects. He took snapshots of the human comedy, whether in the Gypsy communities or at the Biennale of Venice and drew up a very complete x-ray of Italy through its monuments for the Touring Club Italiano. In this new exhibition space that was the home of artist Mario de Maria at the beginning of the XXth century, more than 130 photographers describe his itinerary, especially in black and white (“Color distracts the photographer” he liked to say), integrating his foreign coverage and photographs never shown before.
• Gianni Berengo Gardin is shown at la Casa dei Tre Oci, from 1st February to 12 May 2013.
BOOKS
The art of puzzles
Honoré is well known for his successful literary puzzles. Here is a competitor – though posthumous. Pierre Garcette passed away in 2003 at the age of 63. He celebrated his favorite artists through invigorating assemblages of images and letters. Once they are deciphered they reveal the names of Dali, Hans Hartung or Modigliani. The book will not be presented at the Frankfurt book fair as it is simply impossible to translate! Unless some genius succeeds in doing the same exploit as with Disparition by Pérec, a novel without the letter “e”, that became A Void in English). Thus – if we take a try at it in English - a cane, allow (let) and direction (to) become Canaletto, a call and a lot become Jacques Callot. The objective is not to reach perfect phonetics as you may have guessed, the eye and the spirit simply demand a touch of folly and weird associations of ideas. Walt Disney becomes a question (what), this with a Latin accent (dis) and the negative in old English (ney), and Gainsborough, who enjoyed placing the Andrews spouses in the country side, becomes an investor (gains) that is not too interesting (bore). This could keep more than one person busy over the long winter evenings!
• Rébus d’art by Pierre Garcette, Editions de La Martinière, 2013, 144 p., €12
IN BRIEF
ANGOULÊME – The 40th Festival international de la bande dessinée will be held from 31 January to 3 February 2013.
BRUSSELS – The 6e Truc Troc, the market that allows a person to exchange a work of contemporary art for an object or a service, will be held at Bozar from 1 to 3 February 2013.
GENEVA – The 2nd edition of the modern and contemporary art fair, Art Genève, will be held from 31 January to 3 February 2013.
LONDON – The 212 000 paintings that belong to the British public collections, distributed over 3217 different venues, will now all be accessible over internet as a result of a common project between the Public Catalogue Foundation and BBC.
