Art Of The Day Weekly

Osiris vs. Madame Butterfly

The fascination exerted by Egypt is not about to die: our over technological and rational world cannot resist the call of Osiris. The Institut du monde arabe shows the fruit of the diggings of the ancient cities of the Nile delta, which paid an annual tribute to him that in many ways remains mysterious (as of 8 September). Closer to home, the Celts (at the British Museum as of 24 September) are also among the favourites of the public at large. These people with no genetic unity, pushed towards Europe’s North-West limits by the Roman expansion, fascinate us by their science of jewel making, their abstract art and their cultural universe including music, language and the druids. They influenced Art nouveau designers as well as the tenants of the New Age philosophy. It is the same type of attraction Japan had when it was rediscovered by the Western world at the end of the XIXth century. While artists such as Van Gogh and Bonnard drew a good part of their inspiration from that culture, it was also a means to look into a wealthy religious pantheon through culture, as can be seen in the Buddhism of Madame Butterfly at the MEG in Geneva (as of 9 September). Congo is in the heart of Africa, and while the Fondation Cartier opened the country’s contemporary creation to us (since 11 July), the Metropolitan Museum in New York opens the door of the jungle of its past, which begins for us with the diplomatic gifts of the XVIth century -ivory, clothes made out of raffia -, up to the powerful “figures of power” pierced with nails used to slow down the European colonisation (as of 18 September). The Louvre (starting on 24 September) and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (as of 11 September), for their part, launch themselves into a prospective exercise: what will our world look like in 2050?

Images of the woman, from Botticelli to Fragonard

He is the founder of modern painting, a figure comparable to that of Dante in literature, who was almost his contemporary, at the turn of the XIVth century. But it is not easy to show Giotto since a great part of his works is frescoes that cannot be removed from their venue. Therefore the Palazzo Reale in Milano (since 2 September) turned to panels and altarpieces, among them the spectacular Baroncelli and Stefaneschi polyptychs. Botticelli is easier to move about, with his image of aerial grace. His existential problems- he was attached to Savonarole who burnt part of his work -, he met an extraordinary vogue since he was rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites. This true revival is explored in Botticelli Renaissance at the la Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (as of 24 September). The Medicis, back in Florence following the Republican interludes, rested their power on an elaborate visual propaganda, signed Bronzino, Vasari or Salviati, as can be seen in Portraits at the Medicis courtat the musée Jacquemart-André (as of 11 September). Another golden age was that represented it seems by Fragonard and his XVIIIth humorous, light and especially loving century, at the musée du Luxembourg (as of 16 September). Another vision of this tormented century is that of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun , one of the rare feminine artists of her time, shown at the Grand Palais (as of 23 September). Her long nomadic life – she died at the age of 87 in 1842 –allowed her to experience up close the upheavals of the Revolution and of the Restauration period after having been the portrait painter of Marie-Antoinette.

Tzara, Balla, Villa Flora...

Next to the large retrospectives of the major painters, the tendency is to delve into hybrid and peripheral figures such s writers, critics, gallery owners or museum directors. We have recently seen beautiful exhibitions dedicated to Kenneth Clark or Michel Leiris. Tristan Tzara, the founder of Dadaism, has been chosen for this beginning of the exhibition season at the musée d’Art moderne et contemporain in Strasbourg (as of 24 September) with a selection of 450 works by his friends, from Arp to Zadkine. Other actors of the avant-gardes are in the limelight: Piet Mondrian, the apostle of geometry, is welcome to the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin (as of 4 September) which shows what he produced before he entrusted lines: this includes portraits and landscapes! The Fondazione Magnani Rocca, near Parma, studies the career of Giacomo Balla by reading it in light of the manifesto of 1915, Futurist Reconstruction of the universe (as of 12 September). Norwegian artist Edvard Munch is honoured twice: at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, where he is confronted to Van Gogh himself (as of 25 September) to understand how the two artists dealt with comparable themes such as landscapes or isolation? On that same day the Albertina in Viena inaugurates its own retrospective of Munch, by bringing together 120 of his works, including paintings, prints and drawings. A more recent creator but just as prolific, Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam (the son of a Chinese man and a descendant of slaves) is presented at the Centre Pompidou with 300 works that show the genesis of a tropical Surrealism largely cultivated in Paris (as of 30 September). Two transversal exhibitions take us to different worlds: at the Musée d’Orsay, the universe of prostitution and courtisans in the XIXth century is shown (as of 22 September) while Villa Flora, at the musée Marmottan-Monet, shows the cozy universe of a Swiss family, the Hahnlosers, who had a passion for Bonnard and the Nabis (as of 10 September).

A hymn to photography

In 1982, an elderly Brassaï wrote a letter to the mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, to thank him. Indeed, a French public institution had finally bought his photos! The Americans had started much earlier and even the French museums had already shown an interest in his drawings and paintings. But not his photographs. By tracing the genesis of a recent and emblematic collection, started in 1980, this book helps the reader measure the spectacular emergence of a discipline, which not long ago was still considered as merely documentary. The 21,000 snapshots at the Maison européenne de la photographie include the greatest names of the XXth century, from Cartier-Bresson to Bill Brandt, from Alvarez-Bravo to Irving Penn. But it also comprises mythical series such as the American by Robert Frank, or New York by William Klein, with a significant Japanese presence, up to the most recent tendencies in landscaping, in photo-journalism or still lives (the bombs and mines shot by Raphaël Dallaporta like objects of luxury on a black background. This is a sensitive and impressive reflection of our times.
• Une collection. Maison européenne de la photographie, directed by Jean-Luc Monterosso, Actes Sud, 2015, 424 p.

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18 September 2015 - TOURCOING - Le Fresnoy

The 17th annual gathering of new and striking images

Our selection of new exhibitions

2050. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FUTURE

BRUSSELS - The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium present a unique and innovating project built around the future! Paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos, installations and digital art works: over 70 works of contemporary art question our future at the horizon of 2050. From 11 September 2015 to 24 January 2016.

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