Art Of The Day Weekly
#352 - from 26 June 2014 to 2 July 2014
Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, c. 1665, oil on canvas, 44,5x39 cm, Courtesy The Mauritshuis.
IN THE AIR
The return of the girl with the pearl
THE HAGUE – The Dutch museums are out to conquer. Indeed, in less than a year, three of the most famous institutions in the country have reopened following ambitious refurbishment campaigns. In Amsterdam, the Stedelijk was the first to be inaugurated in September 2012, followed by the Rijksmuseum in April 2013, and last but not least the Van Gogh museum a month later. In the capital, a much calmer city, it is now the turn of the Mauritshuis, with its neo-classic building enlarged with a new subterranean part. The size of the museum is well contained but it has an amazing collection of icons from the Dutch golden age. Aside from its uncontested star, the Young girl with the pearl by Vermeer, other wonders hang side by side such as View of Delft by the same author, the Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius, the subject of a recent novel by Donna Tartt, or even the Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt. A true “gallery” as was said in the past.
•The Mauritshuis reopens to the public on 27 June 2014.
EXHIBITIONS
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1875), Young fisherman with shell, 1861-1862, marble, 92x42x47 cm. Washington, D.C., The National Gallery of ArtSamuel H. Kress Collection © Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington
Carpeaux, the Michelangelo of Napoleon III
PARIS – We remember the city of Valenciennes because of the tricked game against the Olympique de Marseille team twenty years ago. We would be wiser if we remembered it as the birthplace of a brilliant sculptor, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. His rather short life –he died at age 48 in 1875, from cancer of the bladder- did not prevent him from receiving various honours. Dumas said of him that he “created more life than life itself”, he who reigned in the court of Napoleon III. In less than a decade he produced monumental works that made him famous: Ugolino and his children in which the influence of his idol Michelangelo is obvious, Dance and the fountain of the Four Parts of the world, preserved in the gardens of the Observatoire in Paris. A retrospective of this size has been awaited since 1975, with some 80 sculptures as well as various drawings of his contemporaries.
• Carpeaux, un sculpteur pour l’Empire at the musée d’Orsay, from 24 June to 28 September 2014.
Original postcard of a Tiki garden Copyright: © D.R.
Sails ahoy towards the Pacific
PARIS – The Pacific ocean and its islands – or rather the myth – had a strong influence among Americans in the middle of the 20th century, and became the symbol of a primary paradise, of an innocence and joy of living which have been erased by the capitalist society. In music, in movies (Bell, Book and Candle with James Stewart and Kim Novak or Mutiny on the Bounty with Marlon Brando), even in the architecture of motels, the tiki top aesthetic had a lasting presence. Here it is recreated for a French public of beginners.
• Tiki pop at the musée du quai Branly from 24 June to 28 September 2014.
Long life to the Primitive artists
FLORENCE – The interest in Italian primitive painters did not begin with art historian Bernard Berenson. As of the end of the XVIIIth century, knowledgeable collectors, such as Bandini, Artaud de Montor or Fesch developed a strong interest in Bernardo Daddi, Fra Angelico or Filippo Lippi. The exhibition retraces the genesis of this passion.
• La Fortuna dei primitivi at the Galleria dell’Accademia, from 24 June to 8 December 2014.
Finally Koons
NEW YORK – He is not yet 60 years old, he is one of the most famous – and expensive – American artists, and yet, he has never enjoyed a global retrospective in his native country which he could feel entitled to. This error has now been corrected with this exhibition of 150 works which is also the last to be organized in the historical headquarters of the Whitney Museum, which is to move in 2015 to the Meatpacking District.
• Jeff Koons at the Whitney Museum, from 27 June to 19 October 2014
OPENINGS OF THE WEEK
AUCTIONS
Lot 136. Heheya Hopi helmet mask, Arizona, United States, leather, paintings, wood, down, feathers, thin cord. Suggested period of manufacturing: Circa 1930 Height: 24 cm. Estimate: €12 000.
The Kachinas are back
PARIS – It has become very touchy to sell Kachina dolls. As the Hopi Indians from Arizona feel these pieces are part of their collective property, last year they took unsuccessful legal action to try to forbid a sale by the Néret-Minet house at Drouot. New discussions will undoubtedly arise with the scattering of this remarkable collection, which includes in particular 47 dolls made by Wilson Tawaquapteva (1873-1960) as well as a very rare “Tiponi” idol. It was sculpted seven centuries ago in magma rock and was exhibited at the short-lived galerie Gradiva owned by André Breton, rue de Seine. Today it is estimated at nearly €200,000.
• Art amérindien et précolombien, collection de kachinas at hôtel Drouot (EVE) on 27 June 2014.
BOOKS
Soulages, older and forever new
When an artist is over 90 years old, and as famous a painter as Soulages, we would think there is not much left to be discovered. It is not the case: the brand new musée Soulages, inaugurated in Rodez at the end of the month of May, presents a permanent collection of 118 papers. These are ink drawings, and actually made with walnut peel, a technique which Soulages turned to as of 1947. Indeed these works have already been shown before, but so briefly and so long ago– in particular during the travelling exhibition of French art in Germany in 1947 – that it seems we have never seen them. They seem brand new: that is the privilege of age. They were protected in drawers, and thus kept their immaculate white colour. The author has known Soulages’ work for 35 years and speaks of an almost mystic revelation, as if he were discovering the wall paintings of a Paleolithic grotto.
• Soulages. Les papiers du musée by Pierre Encrevé, Gallimard, 2014, 256 p., €49.
