Art Of The Day Weekly
#447 - from 3 November 2016 to 9 November 2016
Enrico Lionne, L’attesa, 1919, oil on canvas, 114 x 79 cm, Galleria d’Arte Moderna Giannoni, Novara.
IN THE AIR
When Italy was the capital of Art Nouveau
REGGIO EMILIA – When tourists go by on their way south, they rarely stop in this town. Yet Reggio Emilia is an historical place: it was here that the national Italian flag was unfurled for the first time. This was also one of the hotbeds of labor disputes of which Bertolucci made a remarkable description in his movie Novecento. The city of Emilia has a new - temporary – asset to attract visitors: it is hosting an ambitious retrospective on Liberty, the Italian version of Art nouveau. While Gallé, Guimard, Mucha are household names, the Italian interpreters, though many, had a hard time finding their place in the sun in the 1900 movement. The exhibition makes amends by grouping together some 300 works of art. There are painters like Duilio Cambellotti and Ettore Tito, sculptors like Leonardo Bistolfi and Pietro Canonica, billboard artists, authors of the superb posters for the exhibitions in Torino in 1898 and 1902. But as we know, the Liberty movement, like its European cousins, is a complete discipline that thrives on the union of the arts. One can go down to Palermo to see the masterpieces by architect Ernesto Basile, or go discover a jewel nearby, the thermal baths of Salsomaggiore, orchestrated by ceramics and glass artisan Galileo Chini (1873-1956), one of the favorite artists of the King of Siam.
• Liberty in Italia, artisti alla ricerca del moderno at Palazzo Magnani, 5 November 2016 to 14 February 2017.
EXHIBITIONS
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Coign of Vantage, 1895, oil on canvas, 58.9 x 44.5 cm, Collection of Ann and Gordon Getty.
Alma-Tadema, the warm wind of Antiquity
LEEUWARDEN - He was a from the same region as Mata Hari, from the Frise. Like her he became wealthy far from the Netherlands. But his native country never forgot him, and today it dedicates a complete retrospective. While he was excellent in portrait painting and in medieval reminiscence (Queen Fredegonda at the Death-Bed of Bishop Praetextatus), Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) found his favorite universe in the Antiquity. He nourished his soul and his work with travels to Greece and to Italy, in particular to Pompeii where he meticulously measured the ruins and accumulated an imposing library of 4000 volumes which today are at the university of Birmingham. He could summarize an historical event (the Triumph of Titus) as well as recreate the intimate atmosphere of young lovers or of women bathing. In a shiny new and light filled museum, financed by a generous donation from successful architect Abe Bonnema, the retrospective with 80 paintings also includes the icons, in particular the remarkable Roses of Heliogabalus. We also admire the panels painted by friends nd neighbors, such as Lord Leighton, to furnish the glamorous, 64-room mansion in London, which had formerly belonged to Tissot. A section with the projection of excerpts of peplums shows the lasting influence of Alma-Tadema on Hollywood directors, al the way to the most recent Gladiator by Ridley Scott.
• Alma-Tadema, At Home in Antiquity at the Fries Museum, until 7 February 2017.
THE ABC OF NEW EXHIBITIONS
Alechinsky, at Matisse's
LE CATEAU-CAMBRÉSIS - The Aiguilles, from Port-Coton to Belle-Ile-en-Mer, fascinated young Matisse in 1896. One hundred and ten years later, in 1996, painter Alechinsky in turn made a go at them. The result is presented at the Musée départemental Matisse. From 5 November 2016 to 12 March 2017.
Boccioni (a centennial)
TRENTO - He was a Symbolist, with a touch of Liberty but mainly a Futurist. His career came to a sudden stop when he died prematurely at war. One hundred years after his demise, Boccioni (1882-1916) is back with 67 paintings at the MART. From 5 November 2016 to 19 February 2017.
Friant, a naturalist
NANCY - Painter Emile Friant (1863-1932) has been widely forgotten. The museum of Fine Arts has put him back on the billboard by turning him into one of the last four Naturalist painters and by showing recently restored works. From 4 November 2016 to 27 February 2017.
Mesopotamia, our origins
LENS - History begins at Sumer that was the title of a successful book by historian Noah Kramer. By substituting one term by another, the Louvre Lens looks through the funds of his older Parisian brother to show to what point our civilization is indebted to the residents of the fertile Crescent, currently wrapped up in endless wars. From 2 November 2016 to 23 January 2017.
Sorolla, a lover of the land
LA CORUNA - He is known as the painter of the sea and of water. But Sorolla also set up his easel in the countryside and in the mountains, a can be seen in this retrospective at the Fundación Barrié. From 4 November 2016 to 26 February 2017.
ARTIST OF THE WEEK
The unbearable lightness of Tino Sehgal
In an old issue of French science magazine Science & Vie after WWII, a housewife complained that she could not tell if she had eaten chicken or fish, as the former had been fed with fishmeal. When dealing with works by Tino Sehgal, with all due respect, we have the same problem: we suppose it is art, but we don’t understand very well what it is made of. Dance? Theater? Video? Music? There is the art of conversation when the persons who accompany you take you by the arm and tell you their lives; an ounce of fright when strong performers prevent you from leaving the room; some gardening, be it a short sprint with those groups of young people who run all around the palais de Tokyo. We don’t need to understand the artist’s aim to find the work as a whole stimulating: it appeals to our different senses (don’t miss the room where dancers rub by you in total darkness), and we are forced to lower our guard...
• Carte blanche à Tino Sehgal at Palais de Tokyo, until 18 December 2016.
BOOKS
Gilles & Pierre
The famous duo has been producing these excentric images and retouched them with a certain corny style for forty years now. This art form of theirs started in the effervescent 70s, what were called the "Palace years" (for the famous nightclub of the time) and was nourished by a gay and exotically influenced iconography, mostly by the sweet images of popular Egyptian songs. It resisted well into the XXIst century. Pierre Commoy (born in 1950) and Gilles Blanchard (born in 1953) met at the inauguration of the Kenzo boutique on place des Victoires in 1976. The younger one of the two was crazy about the photobooths and collages, the elder took photos. The two together gave birth a a specific artistic style, shown for the first time in the magazine Façade in 1976: photos enhanced in bright colors, circled with strass, gold and flowers. Among the icons the pair dealt with are Catherine Deneuve, Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Hagen, Arielle Dombasle, Zahia and more recenlty Béatrice Dalle as Lucrecia Borgia. A very corny who’s who, interspersed with ironic self portraits in which the two represent themselves as a wedding couple, as presidents, and even as Tamul mafia leaders.
• Pierre et Gilles, 40, Flammarion, 2016, 400 p., €95
OPENINGS OF THE WEEK
INHABITED BY OBJECTS
8 November 2016 - BRUSSELS - CAB
A contemporary reflection on the Demountable house of Jean Prouvé (1944)
IN BRIEF
PARIS - The Salon International du Patrimoine Culturel will be held from 3 to 6 November 2016.
PARIS - The Photo Saint-Germain festival will be hed from 4 to 20 November 2016.
TORINO - The Artissima contemporary art fair will be held from 4 to 6 November 2016.