Home > ArtoftheDay Weekly > #439 - from 8 September 2016 to 14 September 2016

Art Of The Day Weekly

#439 - from 8 September 2016 to 14 September 2016

IN THE AIR

Kandinsky and Marc, the men who loved colours

BASEL – It is useless to repeat what we have always said before, that is that the months right after the summer will be everything but dull. The terrorist threat, the Brexit, tension in Turkey and in Ukraine, theup-coming US elections and the departure of football star Ibrahimovic: regardless, museums continue to offer an abundance of exhibits. But who’s complaining? Herewith we give you a list of must-does in the form of a calendar, so you don’t miss a queue! The Fondation Beyeler launches the first shot by bringing together two men who were already close in real life: Kandinsky, who would become one of the founders of abstraction, and Franz Marc, whose short career ended abruptly at Verdun in 1916. As of 1908 they led the Blaue Reiter movement in Munich, and the exhibition refers to that friendship that would lead to the famous Almanac (which one of the rooms in the exhibit is dedicated to) and two major works such as Grands Chevaux bleus, the Vache jaune or the chromatic explosion named Composition VII painted by Kandinsky in 1913, lent by the Tretiakov gallery - his major painting.
Kandinsky, Marc & Der Blaue Reiter at the Fondation Beyeler, from 4 September 2016 to 22 January 2017.

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8 September


Bergasol sunglasses, project, 1975. Courtesy Arts décoratifs.

Roger Tallon, Mr. TGV

PARIS – His name is often associated to that of the double-decker TGV that started rolling in 1995. But designer Roger Tallon (1929-2011) had many other talents. Over his six decades of creation, he left us a mixer for whipped cream, a letter basket, a shoe brush and some 400 other objects. They range from the smallest to the largest – he started his career with Caterpillar-, from the ashtray to the cherry-picker. He also designed the cable car of Montmartre or the layout of the magazine Art Press. The exhibition at Arts décoratifs, which will satisfy all specialists, is complemented by the archives he has deposited there: 71 cardboards cover 38 linear meters!
Roger Tallon, le design en mouvement at Arts décoratifs, from 8 September 2016 to 8 January 2017.

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9 September


Louis Faurer, Market Street, Philadelphia, 1937. © Louis Faurer Estate

Louis Faurer, the eye of Philadelphia

PARIS – One can only see the knees, a white cane and a small box full of lighters. Hand written cards – whose hand?- say “Both eyes removed - Wounded - I am totally blind”. This photograph taken in 1937 sums-up the art of photographer Louis Faurer (1916-2001): a science of details, concern for the underdog, empathy for the lonely souls. It is not surprising he was from Philadelphia, the solidarity town (etymologically it means “brotherly love”). He was 21 years old, refused a job in California in the Disney studios and spent his life tracking street movement. As of 1947 he settled in New York, where he became a close friend of Robert Frank’s. The street lover that he was had to put a stop to his career in 1984 after a car hit him.
Louis Faurer at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, from 9 September to 18 December 2016.

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10 September


Anonymous, Portrait of Janello Torriani, 16th century, modified 17th century, oil on canvas, Museo Civico Ala Ponzone.

Torriani, the engineer of Charles V

CREMONA – We know the last details about Kim Kardashian and the daily discotheque schedule of runner Usain Bolt. But we know much less about Janello Torriani, not even when he was born. It is believed it was circa 1500. We would gladly exchange the insipid avalanche of news regarding stars and VIPs for some additional information on this exceptional character who fascinated Charles V with his robots. He more or less invented the gearwheel, the lift pump, suspension, and perfected the most sophisticated clock in the world. During his free-time he designed the so-called Gregorian reform of the calendar. He died in à Toledo in 1585, where he sometimes ran into a neighbor, another migrant called Theotocopoulos, aka El Greco. But it is his native town, and that of Stradivarius, that pays him the tribute expected for the last five centuries. They say “better late than never”. But who are they? • Janello Torriani at the Museo del Violino, from 10 September 2016 to 29 January 2017.

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11 September


Paolo Venini, Vases, Incisi series, 1956-57.

Venini, a life for glass

VENICE – He was born in 1895, the year of the first Biennale of Venice. He could only be worthy of such a good year, and thirty years later, the year of the major exhibition on decorative arts in Paris, Paolo Venini founded his own glass workshop in Murano. He directed it with talent, like a true orchestra director, until his death in 1959. The precious translucent or opaque containers (made possible by the pulegoso glass, the one full of air bubbles) that came out of there bear the stamp of famous inventors such as Giò Ponti or Piero Fornasetti. But the most exciting piece is not on exhibit. It is the 2.50 mts. tall statue inspired from the flexuous body of Josephine Baker that created a sensation at the Salon d’automne in Paris in 1928 and whose fate is unknown.
Paolo Venini e la sua fornace at the Fondazione Cini, from 11 September 2016 to 8 January 2017

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14 September


Henri Fantin-Latour ,By the Table, 1872, oil on canvas, 161 x 223 cm, Paris, musée d’Orsay © Rmn-Grand Palais (musée d’Orsay) / Photo Hervé Lewandowski.

Fantin-Latour, the inventor of group portraits

PARIS – “Each of his paintings is an act of consciousness. He excels at painting figures in the air where they live, he gives them a warm and flexible life”. It was Zola himself who judged the work of Fantin-Latour in 1880. At the age of 45, the painter from Grenoble was then at the height of his art. He had already done most of his group portraits that can be read like the “who’s who” of his time. That is what makes them so attractive to us in our time. Take for example By the Table from 1872 with such a befitting title. We see Verlaine and Rimbaud: the following year they would have a huge fight in Brussels during which Verlaine almost killed his young friend. But who is this Elzéar Bonnier-Ortolan with a bird’s name, wearing a top-hat? A poet and a translator, but also an enlightened mind who, at the age of 21, wrote in the Revue pratique de droit français, a vibrant indictment against the death penalty. And how about Léon Valade? He was a poet from Montparnasse, a member of the Club des Hydropathes, who was also capable of doing a play on words about an actress in a robe. Jean Aicart, Ernest d’Hervilly, Camille Pelletan: all of these men deserve to be better known.
Fantin-Latour, à fleur de peau at the Musée du Luxembourg, from 14 September 2016 to 12 February 2017.

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IN BRIEF

PARIS - The Biennale des antiquaires will be held from 10 to 18 September at the Grand Palais.

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PARIS - Parcours des Mondes, the primitive arts fair, will be held from 6 to 11 September 2016 in the district of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

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PARIS - The Traversées du Marais, a pluridisciplinary event that is held in the eponymous district, will take place this year from 9 to 11 September.

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PARIS - Manolo Valdés will have an outdoor exhibit on place Vendôme from 8 September to 5 October 2016.

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VEVEY - Images, the photography festival, will be held from 10 September to 2 October 2016.

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OPENINGS OF THE WEEK