Art Of The Day Weekly
#28 - From 4 January 2007 To 10 January 2007
Happy New Year! Following the holiday break, your weekly newsletter is back . There is little news to give during this time of year and this is a good moment to draw up a statement on the past year and to talk to you about what is awaiting you...
IN THE AIR
An end to art seen as merchandise?
While the year ended on auctions and private transactions for spectacular amounts, there are signs of a beginning of a resistance to this globalisation. First there is the project of the Louvre at Abu Dhabi: an operation that would allow our great national museum to bring in the foreign currencies it so needs to increase its self-financing; but it demands, in exchange, that it temporarely exile a part of its treasures. Françoise Cachin, the former director of the museums of France, declared she was against this «delocalisation» while a petition on line (over the website latribunedelart.com) has been signed by a great number of respectable individuals. The current director of the museums of France, Francine Mariani-Ducray, took the exact opposite position in an article published in Le Monde. The debates were as lively as the ones that took place during the unsuccesful takeover bid by the heiress of the Wal-Mart chain over «The Gross Clinic», a painting by Thomas Eakins, kept at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia for over a century. The deans had accepted a juicy offer of 68 million dollars to sell it. At the end of the month of December, the city's financial elites mobilized and managed to bring together the same amount in order to keep the work of art. Actually, it is a beautiful fable: how capitalism puts into practice the principle of the cultural exception…
MUSEUMS
2007: reopenings expected in France...
The year 2006 was practically monopolized by the opening of the museum at Quai Branly and the energy invested in this Pharaonic and presidential project. In spite of the criticisms from abroad, the museum's attendance figures -far exceeding forecasts- seem to show the public's approval. In 2007, the most visible operation will take place in the province. Following five years of refurbishing, the Fabre museum of Montpellier will re-open on 3 February. It holds one of the most beautiful collections in France, and will be enriched by a Soulages donation. The patriarch of French painting has donated twenty large formats. The rebirth of the museum of the castle of the ducs of Bretagne in Nantes, on 8 February, will be quite more discreet. Another event, this one in the beginning of the Spring, will be the delivery of the Cité de l’architecture, the successor of the museum of French Monuments, whose gestation has been long and painful. The architect of these last two projects is one and the same. Neither Nouvel nor Gehry, but Jean-François Bodin.
...and around the world
Inaugurations are bountiful: it is difficult to follow the rhythm of the new museums. Villa Getty at Malibu in California (Richard Meier), the MUDAM in Luxembourg (Pei), the museum of Denver (Libeskind), which all opened in 2006, already seem far away. Everyone is now focused on what is to come in 2007 and the overdose it wil be. The venerable Pei is still present. He designed the museum of Doha (Qatar) with Jean-Michel Wilmotte. The Prado, a longtime in close quarters, will treat itself to a brick enlargement this coming summer, designed by Rafael Moneo. In America, the Sanaa firm, to be in charge of the Louvre in Lens, will deliver the New Museum in New York, an asymetric pile of translucid parallelepipeds while Akron, Ohio will enrich itself with a structure by futurist artists Coop Himme(l)blau. In the South, Portugal has just given birth to the Ellipse foundation in Cascais, and now increases its stakes with the installation of the Berardo museum in Lisbon. In the meantime, Athens will finally baptize its museum of the Acropolis (Bernard Tschumi). Major construction works wil be triggered off in Israël and Russia, where luxurious private museums are announced. And what about Italy, the homeland of the arts? It is struggling with its ambitious Roman Macro (Odile Decq) and Maxxi (Zaha Hadid) vessels, which for the time being seem to be stranded…
EXHIBITIONS
Soon to come: artists of the past...
It will be difficult to avoid them, since the impressionnists flower again each year like chestnut trees. In 2007, they are announced on Bitish lands with landscapes by Renoir (21 February at the National Gallery) and «Unknown Monet». Are these two terms compatible? That will open on 16 March at the Royal Academy. The symbolist current counts on Spilliaert (at the musée d’Orsay, starting 6 March) and on Redon (Schirn Kunsthalle, Francfurt, as of 27 January), as well as on a retrospective in Ferrara (Palazzo dei Diamanti, starting on 18 February) to counter the impressionnist offensive. Amateurs of more antique forms of art will have some beautiful pieces to nurture themselves on: Tintoretto at the Prado (30 January), the Gupta, the Golden age of Indian civilization (at the Grand Palais on 1st March), ancient Armenia followed by Praxiteles, the hero of Greek sculpture, at the Louvre (21 and 23 March). If you are interested in a few more original offers, do not miss Jacques Stella, a representative of the French XVIIth century, in Toulouse (at the Augustins, starting on 16 March) and his counterpart Philippe de Champaigne in Lille (in April). Genoa will celebrate Luca Cambiaso (Palazzo Ducale, 3 March), the Albertina in Vienna will show the wonders of the Biedermeier style (2 February).
...and creators of today
The ever present Picasso will be associated to the circus world thi stime, at the Gianadda foundation (9 March). Surrealism and its relations with design will be dissected (Victoria & Albert Museum, 29 March). Such touching figures as Pascin and Othon Friesz will be back, respectively at the Maillol museum ad the Piscine de Roubaix (14 and 18 February). Some contemporary pairs will become the talk of the town -briefly-, such as Gilbert & George at the Tate Modern (15 February) then Pierre & Gilles for a large retrospective at the Jeu de Paume (in June). And finally a European movement some claim was shot down by the CIA in order to leave the coast clear for Pop Art ; the New Realists led by Klein, César and Arman (at the Grand Palais, on 12 March). In the wake of Roland Barthes and Michel Butor, exibitions on writers are going full speed. Klossowski, Beckett and Char will attack simultaneously, the first two at the Centre Pompidou (14 March and 2 April), the third at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (4 May). Movie director David Lynch, the author of Eraserhead, will be the guest of the Cartier Foundation as of 1st February.
MARKET
Christie's crushes out the competition
It has been a golden year for the major auction houses. We will not easily forget the modern and impressionnist art sales in November in New York with accumulated results for one billion dollars in just a few days. Christie’s and Sotheby’s, which had an accumulated result of 5.9 billion dollars in 2005 (3.2 billion for Christie’s and 2.7 for Sotheby’s) should go past the 7 billion line in 2006, while keeping the same place on the podium. In France as well, Christie’s- owned by François Pinault who just inaugurated his foundation in Venice this year- is a true bulldozer. Its income there has gone up to 200 million euros, i.e. a 75% increase in regard to the previous year. Drouot, with its myriad of auctioneers, is still in front (500 million in income) but its growth rate (+18%)does not follow in line with the the multinational competitor. Artcurial is right behind and doing well. It has been strengthened by the arrival of the Tajans and has now overcome the 100 million euro threshhold. Sotheby’s, Christie’s rival throughout the world, only reaches one third of its income in France (62 million euros). It is beaten by Tajan which remains an importnt actor on the Parisian scene, in spite of the desertion of its founders.
IN BRIEF
BRUSSELS – The exhibition «Hergé collector», planned by the Musées royaux des beaux-arts for March 2007, has been canceled. The reason given is the competiton by the Hergé retrospective at the Centre Pompidou.
PARIS- The North tower of the church of Saint Sulpice will be entirely restaured by… 2011. The works, to last 4 years, are estimated at 28 million euros. It had been damaged during the war in 1870, and risked falling to ruins.
PARIS – The Louvre has enriched its collection of British painting with the entrance of a painting by John Martin (1789-1851), the Pandemonium, still in its original frame. It was bought from a New York art dealer.
ROME – Villa Torlonia will re-open after 20 months of restauration. It was the home of an important Roman family, as well as of Mussolini, who turned it into a bunker. The palace now hosts a museum of the Roman School (Mafai, Trombadori, etc).
TOTNES (ENGLAND) - Opened in 1961 in the Devon countryside, the Dartington College of Arts, a magnet of hippy culture which has welcomed creators like Ravi Shankar or Gilbert and George, could be forced to close. According to the Dartington Estate, there is not enough funding to maintain the college in its premises.
TURIN - Artissima, the contemporary art fair recently shaken by the departure of its director, Roberto Casiraghi, is seeking new partners. Talks have been held with Bologna Fiere, the organizer of Arte Fiera, as well as with Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, the duo behind the successful Frieze fair in London, and Samuel Keller, from Art Basel.