Art Of The Day Weekly
#493 - from 30 November 2017 to 6 December 2017
Edgar Degas, Danseuses bleues, ca 1893, oil on canvas, 85.3 x 75.3 cm, Paris, musée d’Orsay, gift Dr and Mrs Albert Charpentier © Musée d’Orsay Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt.
IN THE AIR
With Degas, dance is a way of life
PARIS – Edgar Degas produced magnificent nudes, in particular in pastels, remarkable ‘snapshots’ of the cotton office in New Orleans, scenes in cafés, or horse races. But the painter (1834-1917) acquired an international reputation through his small dancers from the Opéra. Once we look these images up on Internet we will be convinced! How could an exhibition present this theme which no longer creates any debate, and which has lost part of its provocative dimension? There still remain the old, libidinous men in the foyer of the Opéra, whose abusive presence echoes current subjects. But everyone seems to have forgotten the true scandal brought about in 1881by Degas’ Danseuse de 14 ans (14 year-old dancer), judged too realistic and with vulgar features. The Musée d’Orsay has chosen an original idea, the look of Paul Valéry, an esthete and a great artist of the French language. Thus, the text Degas Danse Dessin, written in 1937, twenty years after the death of Degas, and published by art dealer Ambroise Vollard, reappears and gives us the opportunity to witness a confrontation similar to the highly successful one between Antonin Artaud and Van Gogh, in the same rooms. Museum visitors love to read, as we can tell from their curved bodies over the various labels placed next to each work of art. In this exhibition they will have the unique luck of nourishing themselves with good literature, since the quotes from the book accompany the works.
• Degas Danse Dessin at the Musée d’Orsay, from 28 November 2017 to 25 February 2018. Catalogue Musée d’Orsay, Gallimard, €35.
NEW EXHIBITIONS
Antonio Donghi, Woman at the Café, 1931, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna di Ca' Pesaro.
Magical realism, the Italian branch
TRENTO - The term was invented in 1925 by German historian Franz Roh, and became part of everday language. It was later applied to other uses. It refers to a return to realism, with a touch of a fable, of fantasy, of poetry, which in the twenties and thirties followed the work of deconstruction of the avant-gardes. Italy was the perfect setting for this new way of looking at daily life, with certain artists who are ignored today, such as Ubaldo Oppi or Achille Funi. Some of them, given the historic circumstances, were accused -rightly or not- of complicty with the fascist regime and were punished after the war. The movement of magical realism was truly explored as of 1988; with an exhibition in particular organized by Maurizio Fagiolo dell'Arco, the specialist of Chirico. The movement was originally anchored in the local fabric, and there are regional versions, be it from Venice, from Milano or from Trieste.
• Realismo magico at the MART, from 3 December 2017 to 2 April 2018.
Toulouse-Lautrec, the art of posters
MARTIGNY – Toulouse-Lautrec had a life worthy of a novel, a club foot that did not prevent him from being a regular in brothels and game rooms, was greatly influenced by Japanese culture, inspired Picasso, and was the emblem of Montmartre and its way of life. Yet his very short career – he died at 37, in 1901- was magnified by his productivity in graphic arts. His hand created wonders, and we should find its freshness again, as it has been wilted by an overdose of chocolate boxes and Parisian perfumes. This private collection includes some one hundred major prints by the legendary artist.
• Toulouse-Lautrec, French Cancans at the foundation Pierre Gianadda, from 1 December 2017 to 3 June 2018
Art, a question of space
BILBAO – Ever since the 60s, with the development of performances, of Land Art, and of installations, art has taken on a volume it had never known, and in some aspects it joined architecture. This retrospective plays with all the generous spaces of the museum by Frank Gehry, and confronts historical figures such as Anthony Caro or Richard Long, and more contemporary talents such as Cristina Iglesias and Julie Mehretu. Coincidentally, it too is the result, as in Orsay, of a special relationship between an artist (Eduardo Chillida) and a writer (Martin Heidegger), who worked together in 1969 on this theme of art and space.
• L’art et l’espace at the Guggenheim Museum, from 5 December 2017 to 15 April 2018.
© 2017 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Adagp, Paris.
Return trip Paris-Mexico
LYON - While Frida Kahlo did not have much a liking for France, where she only stayed for short periods, Diego Rivera spent much more time in the country and among other friendships enjoyed Picasso’s. On the other hand, Artaud and Breton were fascinated by Mexico. This retrospective brings together some 300 works by Léger, Gleizes or Siqueiros that illustrate the rich relations between the artists of the two countries in the XXth century (image: (Ill. Diego Rivera, The architect Jesus T. Acevedo, 1915-1916, oil on canvas, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, México).
• Los Modernos at the musée des Beaux-Arts, from 2 December 2017 to 5 March 2018.
Régnier, a great follower of Caravaggio
NANTES – Among the brotherhood of Caravaggio inspired artists, Nicolas Régnier (1588-1667) corresponds to the model of the painter from the North –born in Maubeuge -, who followed the call from Italy. He spent three fourths of his long life there, first in Rome, then in Venice. This is the first retrospective dedicated to him. We will soon dedicate a detailed paper to the exhibition.
• Nicolas Régnier, l’homme libre, at the Musée d’arts de Nantes, from 1sr December 2017 to 11 March 2018
PAINTING OF THE WEEK
Massimo d’Azeglio, a solved mystery
TORINO – His name never went past the Italian border. Yet Massimo d’Azeglio (1798-1866) is one of the main intellectuals of the Italian Risorgimento, having been a painter, a writer, a thinker and a man of action – as prime minister before Cavour-. He was also the son-in-law of the great writer Alessandro Manzoni: each town in Italy has a street or a school bearing his name. Few portraits have been as famous as this one done in the 1830, of which this exhibition does a detailed study. It also offers a scoop, by unveiling Giuseppe Molteni (1800-1867) as the artist of what was long considered a self-portrait.
• Un mistero svelato, il ritratto di Massimo d’Azeglio, at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna, from 29 November 2017 to 25 February 2018
OPENINGS OF THE WEEK
ALBERT BITRAN
1 December 2017 - PARIS - Galerie Convergences
The artist (born 1929) and his lifelong obsession with Edgar Degas