Art Of The Day Weekly
#299 - from 18 April 2013 to 24 April 2013
Keith Haring, Untitled, 1982. Courtesy Keith Haring Foundation and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels. Sumi ink on paper, 271,8x406,4 cm. © Keith Haring Foundation (exhibition at Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris and Centquatre).
IN THE AIR
Haring, the comeback
PARIS – Keith Haring (1958-1990), the prodigal artist, had a promising future when he died so young. Just like his contemporary, Jean-Michel Basquiat. But he is back in force. Paris is offering him, simultaneously, two exhibits with a total of 250 works of art. The one at the musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris recounts his itinerary in detail as well as the themes that inspired him - racial and sexual discrimination, the unbridled strength of the media, the threat of a nuclear apocalypsis and, obviously, the fight against AIDS that he would eventually lose. The one at the Centquatre will show the large format paintings, such as The Marriage of Heaven and Hell as well as sculptures. On the eve of their inaugurations, on 17 April, a special auction was held at Sotheby’s. The product of the works graciously given by 26 artists, ranging from François Boisrond to George Condo (€361,900), will be assigned to another creation by Haring, the one at the Necker-Enfants malades hospital. The 27 metre long fresco spans over the emergency staircase of the pediatric surgery ward. Haring did it in three days, 28 to 30 April 1987, at the height of his most frenetic period. It has not aged well and the time has come to save it, as eight other monumental works of his already restored.
• Keith Haring, The Political Line at the musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris and at Centquatre, from 19 April to 18 August 2013.
EXHIBITIONS
Tamara de Lempicka, La belle Rafaëla, May 1927. Oil on canvas, 77,5 x 105,4 cm. Private Collection © Tamara Art Heritage / Licensed by Museum Masters International NYC / ADAGP, Paris 2013
Tamara de Lempicka, an icon of Art déco
She met, all things considered, the same fate as Frida Kahlo. She was a discreet artist during her life, and has become an international superstar fifty years after her demise. Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980), a Polish aristocrat had a long and adventure-filled life. She went from Warsaw to Cuernavaca, going through Copenhaguen, Paris and New York; she was a countess and then a baroness, she was married twice but was also openly a lesbian. She came to represent the cold elegance of Art deco. Her characters in acid green or bright blue clothes, with expressionless faces, mixed into geometric settings with metallic colors: all this sums up a cosmopolitan world living on borrowed time -the one of the roaring twenties, with its thin women and aristocratic seducers …
• Tamara de Lempicka at the Pinacothèque de Paris, from 18 April to 8 September 2013.
These exhibitions also open this week…
Rediscover Dalou
PARIS – A contemporary of Rodin, Jules Dalou (1838-1902), was nonetheless not as well treated by posterity as the great master. The Petit Palais dedicates an ambitious exhibit to this great sculptor and fervent defender of the French republic. From 18 April to 13 July 2013.
Morain, visual memory
PARIS – André Morain is not well-known by the public at large. Yet as a photographer, he illustrated half a century of contemporary art, from the Nouveau Réalistes to our day. The Maison Européenne de la Photographie offers him the retrospective he deserves. From 17 April to 16 June 2013.
New York, New York
ROME – In Empire State, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni draws up a portrait of New York contemporary art and presents 25 artists from different generations, from Takeshi Murata (photo) to Julian Schnabel. From 23 April to 21 July 2013.
AUCTIONS
From one Crillon to another
PARIS - A concierge box at €800, a Louis XVI style lingerie chest at €400, an Italian treasure hunt game from the XVIIth century at €150, pairs of curtains starting at €200, a Lalique Champs-Elysées chandelier at €3000, a Christofle dessert cart at the same price, and from the same house a multitude of champagne buckets, bells, candelabrae, Bernardaud soup terrines and egg cups as if they were going out of style… There is also the made by César in 1982 or the armchairs by Sonia Rykiel. The Crillon hotel is carrying out the cleaning-up of the century. The Parisian palace is changing life styles and auctioning all of its furniture, chinaware, tapestries which had been the joy of all its fortunate hosts. In total there are 3500 lots, among them a beautiful wine catalogue that will accompany five days of sales. The hotel, which Eisenhower had turned into his head-quarters in 1944, closed on 30 March 2013. It will reopen in 2015 with a completely reviewed decoration. Sic transit gloria mundi…
• Auction at Artcurial from 18 to 22 April 2013.
ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Ron Mueck, Woman with Sticks, 2009. Mixed media. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth © Ron Mueck Photo Courtesy Hauser & Wirth, London.
Ron Mueck, a special kind of reality
This is the second retrospective the Fondation Cartier dedicates to the artist. This honor could be due to his capacity to attract the crowds - his exhibition in 200 is to date the foundation's most popular one. Or to his unusual art. Ron Mueck, born in 1958 is Australian and resides in London, where he conceives sculptures of everyday women and men in extremely banal poses - such as in bed or on the beach under a parasol, or standing with a plastic bag in their hand. One automatically thinks of the hyperrealism of Duane Hanson but Mueck's characters are out of proportion – either tiny or, especially gigantic -, that they become monsters. Their extremely realistic finish, from their wrinkled skin to the iris of the eye, from the little blood vessels to the bristles of the unshaven beard turn it into a field of study. The public turns around them, fascinated or disgusted, like the indiscrete Google Earth camera: man, a universe all to himself…
• Ron Mueck is shown at the Fondation Cartier, from 16 April to 29 September 2013.
OPENINGS OF THE WEEK
BOOKS
Requiem for the postcard
The introduction says it all, quoting 800 M postcards sent in France in 1918, 300 M in 2012. The fall of this figure is truly outstanding, but not as much as the lack of luster of the themes. Postcards sent today are either of a typical landscape or reflect a tasteless jokes repeated at nauseam when on the beach. A century ago, these two categories existed or course as we can see in this book that holds the most beautiful samples of a personal collection. But they were accompanied by many others: declarations of love, cards with puzzles, cards with jokes and allegoric cards, collages of newspaper clippings or dried plants and photographic assemblies. There is also of course a very special group, that of personalised cards, completely painted, drawn or typographed by the sender. Internet has dug the grave of this terasure of creativity, as th einstant characteristic of e-mails has deprived us from a huge pleasure, that of awaiting the arrival of the mailman.
• Je vous aime, devinez qui ? L’art de la carte postale, by Francine Stalport, La Martinière, 2013, 192 p.,€22.
IN BRIEF
BRUSSELS – The 31st edition of Art Brussels, the modern and contemporary art fair, will be held from 18 to 21 April 2013 at Brussels Expo.
BRUSSELS – The Slick Brussels contemporary art fair will hold its 2nd edition from 19 to 21 April 2013 at the Wild Gallery.
COLOGNE – The Art Cologne contemporary and modern art fair will e held from 19 to 22 April 2013 at Koelnmesse.
MADRID – The Art Madrid Maestros Fair, dedicated to artists well known in the XIX and XX centuries, will hold its 1st edition from 24 to 28 April 2013 in the station of Chamartín.
PARIS – Le Louxor movie theater, a "folie" of the beginning of the XXth century, in Egyptian taste, had been closed since 1987. It reopened 18 avril 2013 after various years of refurbishment.
WARSAW – The Museum of the Jewish history in of the Jews in Poland, designed by Finnish architect Rainer Mahlamäki, will open on 20 April 2013 on the site of the old Ghetto.