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Art Of The Day Weekly

#313 - from 12 September 2013 to 18 September 2013


Martin Schongauer (around 1445/50–1491), Studies of Peonies, about 1472/1473. Bodycolor and watercolor, 25,7 x 33 cm The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles © The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Dürer exhibition at Städel Museum, Frankfurt)

OUR 50 EXHIBITIONS THIS FALL (1ST PART)

We are back in place and off to a new season! Specialists even claim the recession is on the way out. Nothing better to pump up the autumn program of major exhibitions… Actually, the European calendar has rarely been so rich. From the pre-Colombian splendors to Malevic, from the Kanak civilization to Antonello da Messina, we have 50 very valuable suggestions. May those we have forgotten –there will undoubtedly be one or two – forgive us. We will make up for this faux-pas in our next newsletters. We start this week with Ancient Art and Civilizations and Photography and will continue next week with Modern and Contemporary Art.

CIVILIZATIONS


Clothing clasp, decorated with animal figures. 680-650 BC. Gold. H.10, L. 17 cm, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia (exhibition at musée Maillol).

The myth has lived on for five centuries! And is not about to go away. Certain treasure hunters continue to dig through the foothills of the Ecuadorian Andes in search of Atahualpa’s lost treasure … The British Museum prefers to rely on concrete evidence, and based on the collections of the Museo de Oro of Bogota, it presents in Beyond El Dorado the splendors of the cultures of Colima and Quimbaya, less-known than their Peruvian and Bolivian cousins (17 October to 23 March 2014). On 16 October fans of the musée Guimet will attend the opening of the major exhibition on the discovery of the unique site of Angkor in Cambodia (16 October to 13 January 2014). One day before and until 26 January, the leader of this impressive trio will be the musée du quai Branly with the Kanak culture from New-Caledonia as the special guest. It will present some 300 works of art, including spears, masks, etc. To wait patiently for this month of October of all civilizations, we can already feast on the Etruscans who will come in force to the musée Maillol (18 September to 9 February), or take a peek at Congo Basin at the musée Dapper (9 October 2013 to 6 July 2014).

OLD MASTERS


Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), Portrait of a Clergyman, 1516. Oil on parchment on fabric, 41,2 x 32,7 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington © Washington, National Gallery of Art (exhibition at Städel Museum, Frankfurt).

The battle between Italian masters and Northern masters seems rather well-balanced. We are all impatient for the retrospective at the Louvre on the Renaissance in Florence , from 26 September to 23 February 2014, but we are just as curious to see how the MART in Trento and Rovereto will treat such a rare and enigmatic painter as Antonello da Messina (5 October to 12 January 2014). The Accademia in Venice will shoot -for the stars?- first with Leonardo da Vinci (10 October to 10 January 2014), presenting most of all drawings (). In Frankfurt, the Städel will pay tribute to a giant, who has been reproduced a thousand and one times, a genius of self-portraits, of introspection, but also in animal and botanical illustrations: Dürer (23 October to 2 February 2014). In Brussels, another elder master is back, one of the pioneers in oil painting: Roger van der Weyden, at the Musées royaux des beaux-arts (10 October to 26 January 2014). He contributed to define a severe and mystic image of Spain, but one will have to go to Italy, to Ferrara to the Palazzo dei Diamanti, to admire Zurbarán (14 September to 6 January 2014) before touring the monasteries in Extremadura. His contemporary Velasquez is the guest of honor at the Prado with the portraits he did in the last part of his life, up to his death (8 October to 9 February 2014).


Attributed to Ski Ke, The Second Zen Patriarch in Contemplation (detail), 13th century, Tokyo National Museum, Japan, Image:TNM Image Archive (exhibition at V&A Museum).

We already saw him in Brussels but you cannot see too much of such an artist as him. At the Petit Palais, in Paris: Jordaens (19 September to 19 January 2014), whose Baroque creations equal those by Rubens. To spice up things we can add in a little exoticism, and go off to London for an escapade to Australia, offered by the Royal Academy of Arts (21 September to 8 December) and then we shall slip off to the Victoria & Albert to discover the Masterpieces of Chinese paintings 700 to 1900 (26 October to 19 January 2014), somewhat obscured by the younger generation’s way of breaking price records at Sotheby’s and Christie’s. If you are in need of nature, aim for Douai and its Chartreuse for the northern lights in the landscapes by Corot (5 October to 6 January 2014) or run off a while to Versailles right at the heart of the season dedicated to the landscape artist of the Sun-King, Le Nôtre (22 October to 23 February 2014).

PHOTOGRAPHY


Erwin Blumenfeld, Cecil Beaton, 1946. Gelatin silver print, vintage print. Private Collection, Switzerland © The Estate of Erwin Blumenfeld (exhibition at Jeu de paume).

Paris takes the biggest slice in this field and takes the lead with one of the most talented and mysterious photographers of his generation, the star at Magnum who then isolated himself in a sort of shamanic retreat, Chilean photographer Larraín. The interpreter of the beauty of Valparaiso is presented at the fondation Cartier-Bresson (11 September to 22 December). His neighbor Salgado, well known for his pioneering reports on the new gold fever in Brazil and for his commitment in favor of the environment will be shown at the Maison européenne de la Photographie, in Paris (26 September to 5 January 2014). The perfect portraits by Yousuf Karsh are shown at the fondation Mona Bismarck (16 October to 26 January 2014). A fashion wiz, Blumenfeld is expected at the Jeu de paume while the Fondation Cartier will draw up a panorama of Latin American pfotography (19 November to 6 April 2014).

IN BRIEF

DIJON - The musée des Beaux-Arts inaugurated on 7 September its renovated section dedicated to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

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EUROPE - The Journées du patrimoine 2013 –European Heritage Days 2013- will be held on 14 and 15 September 2013 in France and various countries in Europe.

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ISTANBUL - The 13th Biannual of contemporary Art of Istanbul will be held from 14 September to 20 October 2013.

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LYON - The 12th Biennale of contemporary art of Lyon will be held from 12 September 2013 to 5 January 2014.

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MARSEILLE - The musée d'histoire de Marseille will reopen on 12 September 2013 following a complete redesign of the architecture and the museographic itinerary.

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PARIS - The Parcours des mondes, the international fair of primitive arts, is being held from 10 to 15 September 2013 in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

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OPENINGS OF THE WEEK