Art Of The Day Weekly
#366 - from 27 November 2014 to 3 December 2014
IN THE AIR
Portrait of the artist in Koons
PARIS – Is Jeff Koons a genius of art who is opening new doors, wrapping up the conceptual approach, or a commercial gimmick, surfing on trends he keeps going thanks to the complicity of the major art galleries? These antagonistic positions should not evolve very much following this new mega-exhibition dedicated to Jeff Koons (the most important ever organized in Europe) as positions are so immovable. It is difficult in any case to define a single style between the golden mirrors, the porcelain busts, the vacuum cleaners in their plexiglass windows, the artificial inflatable animals (they are actually in metal) and snapshot of intercourse with Cicciolina, hidden in a room, from which under-age aesthetes are barred. Whatever our opinion of him may be, there exudes from this mixture a feeling of colourful energy, which is not reduced to kitsch and which we never know if it is serious or mockery, if it is the work of an iconoclast or an iconophile, the work of an artisan or an industrialist. In the end, Koons the chameleon, Koons the media manipulator, keeps all of his secrets and adapts to all interpretations. That is probably the key to his success.
• Jeff Koons at Centre Pompidou, from 26 November 2014 to 27 April 2015.
EXHIBITIONS
Richard Peter, Dresden After Allied Raids, Germany 1945, © SLUB Dresden / Deutsche Fotothek / Richard Peter, sen.
The profession of destroying
LONDON – The one hundredth anniversary of the beginning of World War I gave us to see images from archives rarely seen until now. The survey opens up to other deadly conflicts and this exhibition compares them in an original manner. The time lapse between the “founding” event and the photograph taken determines how they can be put face to face. An hour, a month, a year?The American soldiers shot by Don Mc Cullin under shock after an explosion (Shell-shocked US Marines) hang next to the cathedral of Reims taken by Pierre Antony-Thouret on 19 September 1914, right after German bombs set it ablaze. And Vietnam in 2000, exactly 25 years after the fall of Saigon, is shown close to Nicaragua in 2004, also a quarter of a century after the Sandinista revolution. We do not know how to heal History’s war wounds nor what is the limit to man’s destructive obsession. As is commonly said, “The Sky’s the Limit”.
• Conflict, Time, Photography at the Tate Modern, from 25 November 2014 to 15 March 2015.
Paul Cézanne, Madame Cézanne in a Red Armchair (detail), ca. 1877. Oil on canvas. MFA, Boston, Bequest of Robert T. Paine, 2nd
Feminine version of Cézanne
NEW YORK – The painter who was to revolutionize modern art complied with the most bourgeois conventions in his private life. Cézanne (1839-1906) was ashamed of having a mistress younger than himself and a son to boot and did not dare introduce them to his parents. He did not marry the mother until 1886, when their son was fourteen years old. Hortense Fiquet (1850-1922) was discreet and acted as a subordinate, which led everyone to believe she was unimportant. In reality this exhibition of 24 of the 29 portraits Cézanne made of her show she was his major model.
• Madame Cézanne at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, from 19 November 2014 to 15 March 2015.
Visions of Doig
BASEL – In 2007 at Sotheby’s he was one of the first contemporary artists to go beyond the $10 M threshold with White Canoe. He thus became one of the champions of the return to figurative art. Peter Doig, born in 1959, draws his inspiration from a repertoire that combines media iconography and personal memories. The sublime landscapes of a childhood in Trinidad and Canada have a special place.
• Peter Doig at the fondation Beyeler, from 23 November 2013 to 22 Marchs 2015.
Fondation Maeght without borders
SAINT-PAUL-DE-VENCE – The title, in the form of a joke, is a sentence pronounced by Malraux on the day of the inauguration, in 1964. The sub-title is quite explicit: “When visual arts dialogue with dance, poetry, music”. During the celebrations of the fifty years of this institution which has always aimed at being trans-disciplinary, the organizers have designed a “mosaic-exhibition”. It combines stage costumes by Miró, texts by Picasso and revivals of the famous Nuits de la Fondation Maeght in which poets, musicians and dancers mingled, from John Cage to Merce Cunningham.
• Ceci n’est pas un musée at the Fondation Maeght, from 29 November 2014 to 15 March 2015.
AUCTIONS
Three centuries of Switzerland
ZURICH – If you were asked to name Swiss artists you would immediately think of Hodler, Giacometti and Tinguely, who at different eras conquered a world reputation. But this little country (which would be much bigger if it were ironed, as Godard claims teasingly) has an influence that is far superior to its area or its demographic weight. This auction draws a sort of history that goes back to the 18th century with landscapes by Johannes Meyer II , goes through the 19th century with Alexandre Calame, Auguste Veillon or Segantini, and focuses most of its efforts on the 20th century. While Alberto Giacometti is present, he is only one of the members of the tribe, next to his father Giacomo and his uncle Augusto. If there is one field in which Switzeralnd played a pioneer role it is giving recognition to art brut: the presence of Aloïse, of Wolffli or of Soutter demonstrates this - if it were still necessary. The greater part of the works presented come from the collection of the art merchant Jan Krugier, and include a few surprises such as a letter illustrated by Tinguely. He had accustomed us to huge black and grey machines but shows he was just as capable of colourful explosions.
• Swiss Art 2 December 2014 at Sotheby’s
BOOKS
Street art without borders
The activity was honestly illegal just a few years ago and can still be punished in a certain number of situations. Street art has acquired its place through artists that are mediatised such as Blek le Rat, Jérôme Mesnager or Banksy. This book gives the study drawn up by the association Global Street Art which will transfer the copyrights to the artists whose works are reproduced in the book, an original way of proceeding. While the authors underline rightly so the number of instruments, not limited to aerosol sprays, chalk and paper, we would have liked to see some examples of the recent surprising tendencies such as “yam bombing” or “street knitting”. This highly illustrated journey takes us very far, to various continents, from Athens and Sarajevo to Malasia, Santiago, Cape Town or Sarasota. One regret is not to see France and New York sufficiently represented and Banksy given more importance than other creators (the book is translated from English). But the subject has become inexhaustible – the Global Street Art has an archive with 60,000 snapshots – and now it is a bit difficult to make a choice.
• Street Art, by Russ Thorne, Larousse, 2014, 192 p., €25.
IN BRIEF
BERNE – The Kunstmuseum announced on 24 November 2014 it has accepted the donation of the Gurlitt collection, that extraordinary ensemble of paintings found in 2012 in the home of the son of an art merchant in Munich who collaborated with the Nazis. The collection will be shared between Bern and Germany, where the works suspected of having been confiscated will be kept in view of the possible return to their original owners.
PARIS - The Mac Paris artists' fair will be held at Porte de Champerret from 27 to 30 November 2014.
PARIS - The Art en Capital artists' fair will be held at the Grand Palais from 25 to 30 November 201.
