Author: xerkss

Van Gogh’s celebrated Sunflowers, kept at the National Gallery in London, is about to travel beyond the borders of the United Kingdom! The iconic painting, together with other illustrious artworks of the museum, will arrive in Australia and Japan with the Botticelli to Van Gogh exhibition: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London. This is an unmissable appointment with some of the most remarkable paintings of European art.

Surely, the painting is one of the most visited attractions of the National Gallery. However, to leave the British capital there will also be Botticelli’s artworks and other flagships kept in the famed museum.

Since its acquisition, Van Gogh’Sunflowers has only been lent abroad three times. The first in 1955 to Paris and to Amsterdam in 2002 and 2013.

Van Gogh’Sunflowers: the history

Sunflowers are a series of oil paintings on canvas realized between 1888 and 1889. Already in Paris, in the late summer of 1887, the artist painted some cut sunflowers, part of a series now divided between the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Kunstmuseum in Bern.

The Dutch post-impressionist painter loved sunflowers for the vibrancy of their colors. However, Van Gogh loved these flowers also because they were not elegant and refined, but strong and sturdy.

The series of Van Gogh’Sunflowers in pots, the most famous, was born a period of vitality and optimism, during the summer awaiting the arrival of his friend Gauguin. The letters to the younger brother Theo speak of feverish activity, in anticipation of the arrival of the guest.

Vincent hoped to surprise his friend and convince him to move to Arles, sanctioning a life and artistic partnership. In October 1888, finally, Gauguin arrived in Arles. However, he never considered it a possible home, completely disregarding the hopes of his artistic partner. A prolific period of activity began but characterized by quarrels. These led to a final breaking in December of the same year, with the departure of Gaugin for Tahiti.

Botticelli to Van Gogh Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London

Among the artists featured in the Botticelli to Van Gogh show: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London there will also be works by Tiziano, Turner, Cézanne, Goya and Gauguin himself. Among the key works will be Rembrandt’s Self-portrait at the age of 63 (1669) and Vermeer’s A Young Woman Seated at a Virginal (1670-72).

This detailed exhibition explores illustrious periods in Western European art. On review, there will be the most impressive testimonials of the Italian Renaissance and the Dutch painting of the Golden Age. In addition, there will be a focus on Van Dyck and British portraiture. On display also the Spanish art from the seventeenth century.

This is the largest group of artworks that the National Gallery has ever loaned. In London, the paintings will be off view for over a year.

The collection will go on view at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo in March (3 March-14 June 2020) and Osaka’s National Museum of Art (7 July-18 October 2020). There is already a great fervour for the two Japanese exhibitions since it’s expected to have around one million visitors.
The third and final stage of Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London will be in Australia. The show will reach Canberra in November at the National Gallery of Australia.

The Miami Beach Conventions Center will host a new edition of the Art Basel Miami Beach Show from the 5th to the 8th of December. Expectations for this year are high. In particular, the ones concerning Meridians, the brand new section dedicated to monumental works, installations, and performances.

Meridians at Art Basel Miami Beach Show 2019

Curated by Magalí Arriola, the area is now ready to debut at the 18th edition of the Miami Beach show. Magalí Arriola, who cured as well Latin America at KADIST and Mexico’s participation at the 58th Venice Biennale, is thrilled to steer a project that will open new artistic possibilities for the show:

‘Meridians brings enormous possibilities to Art Basel Miami Beach, creating a vibrant platform for large-scale sculptures, installations, and moving image, as well as for performance – which did not have a dedicated space at the fair until now.’

An exciting plus indeed, that will give this edition a renewed light.  Moreover, Meridians was conceived as the twin sister of Unlimited, the platform designed by the Swiss edition of Art Basel for large projects. Already successful, Unlimited allowed the show to transcend the limits of the traditional exhibition stand.

For this reason, the Miami edition welcomes the new platform with innovative and astonishing artistic projects.

Art Basel, not a classic exhibition

In the beginning, Basel gallerists Ernst Beyeler, Trudl Bruckner, and Balz Hilt created an international art fair that took place in Switzerland back in 1970. The show has been successful from its first edition, with more 16,000 visitors and 90 galleries participating in the event.

The distinctive feature of Art Basel was to expand the concept of artistic enjoyment. Through special attention to new artistic mediums, the event has kept over the years a prominent place among modern and contemporary art events.

In 2002 Art Basel debuted in Miami Beach where it featured 160 galleries from 23 countries and attracted 30,000 visitors. Moreover, in 2015 there was its inaugural show in Hong Kong, another great success for Art Basel with over 60,000 visitors.

Art Basel Miami Beach Show 2019

This year’s fair sees the participation of 269 galleries, from 33 countries. In particular, the 2019 edition has numerous Asian galleries, including Magician Space (Beijing), ROH Projects (Jakarta),  10 Chancery Lane Gallery and Hanart TZ Gallery (Hong Kong).

Among the new exhibitors in the main section “Galleries” there are Peter Blum Gallery, Hanart TZ Gallery, High Art, hunt kastner, Gaga, Catriona Jeffries, Karma, Maisterravalbuena, Galeria Jaqueline Martins, and Revolver Galería. On the other hand, the “Position” section dedicated to emerging artists will feature 14 galleries presenting solo projects. Among the scheduled exhibitions, there are Manal AlDowayan‘s Watch Before You Fall from the Sabrina Amrani Gallery and the Canadian artist Tau Lewis‘s sculptures from Cooper Cole.

Other tree platforms characterize the Miami event. The “Nova” area which sees the participation of 25 galleries presenting a maximum of 3 artists; the “Survey”, dedicated instead to the works prior to 2000; and finally the “Edition” section dedicated to art prints.

Meridians will provide the show with a unique opportunity to present ambitious projects, opening the path to monumental art in Miami!

Almost fifty years after the personal exhibition of 1970, the rooms of Palazzo Reale in Milan return to host the work of Giorgio De Chirico.

The artist is undoubtedly among the main exponents of metaphysical painting. Born in Volos, Grece 1888, and grown up in Italy, De Chirico is a controversial and beloved artist, a visionary genius.

Considered by Apollinaire the most surprising painter of his generation, he represented a unique alternative to cubism since the self-portrait of the Metropolitan in 1912.

Exceptional voice of his time, De Chirico is a creator whose art quest the connection between things. He removes timeless and spaceless settings from the contexts. The result is intriguing, mysterious. Today the retrospective on show at the Palazzo Reale in Milan allows an updated reading of the Pictor Optimus.

Giorgio De Chirico and his metaphysical painting

The exhibition clearly highlights the poetic-philosophical component in the artist’s works. Unlike other figurative painters, De Chirico is never didactic. He stays in a suspended dimension that sees the most profound mysteries in the simplest things. 

The painter deconstructs the everyday elements, as well as the classicist monumentalism of the twentieth century. The sensitivity of the artist emerges from the chromatic choices to the play of light and shadows. Actually, everything in its artistic interpretation, from the subjects to the perspective, serves to represent emotions and metaphysical concepts.

In addition, De Chirico manages to be extraordinarily theatrical, and not by chance, he also worked as a set designer. Everything through his paintings becomes a show full of charm and restlessness.

The humanoid entities he represents, which often evoke mythological episodes, communicate pain, absence, and love, beyond every transcription of reality.

Even if the artist’s style is immediately recognizable, his was an evolving path. De Chirico is an artist who reinvents himself. He doesn’t attribute to art a limited dimension. Pictorial styles and philosophical approaches are only mediums through which the idea takes shape. The style also becomes a mysterious divinity whose true essence stands in something that is uncatchable.

De Chirico, painter-philosopher at Palazzo Reale

The Palazzo Reale in Milan hosts around 100 works from the most important collections in the world. According to the criticism, the retrospective is one of the most interesting Italian proposals in recent years. Thanks to curator Luca Massimo Barbero, director of the Institute of Art History of the Cini Foundation in Venice, De Chirico returns to Milan as a protagonist.

Above all, the show immediately aroused enthusiasm even the youngest. Actually, the exhibit became an art phenomenon on social media. Eight rooms with a sober and essential layout, retrace the entire evolution of the controversial artist.

Giorgio De Chirico is certainly a pioneer of art. From a solitary and different avant-garde, he represented an alternative imagination. Moreover, the great peculiarity of the artist lies in an enigmatic and often alchemic conception of painting.

The Milanese retrospective dedicated to the artist is on stage until 19 January 2020.

The contemporary art exhibition created in 1991 by Thierry Raspail and Thierry Prat is ready to astonish the audience with notable changes. The Biennale de Lyon coming this year at its fifteenth edition, focus on emerging artists and new art spaces. Above all for this edition, the artistic direction chose an open and free approach. The theme is not by chance linked to the fluidity. This choice comes as a result of willing to represent an inclusive concept of art, one that embraces diversity and new ideas.

Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art 2019

This year the kermesse is taking place for the first time at the former factory Fagor and will be on display until January 5, 2020. However, this isn’t the only area dedicated to the exhibition. Official locations for the event are as well the Mac Lyon and the Street of Presqui’Île. Here, an urban vision of art brought to incredible creations that seem melt in the city. This year multi-site Biennale includes four complementary platforms located across the region: Veduta, Young International Artists, Associated Exhibitions and Résonance.

Veduta favors the relationship between artists and residents while the Young International Artists is entirely dedicated to emerging creators. The Associated Exhibitions include a collection of shows from the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Villa du Parc, and Couvent de la Tourette, among others. Lastly, the Résonance proposes events that represent fully the region’s vibrant art scene, often inspired by artist collectives and cultural institutions.

Actually, the most remarkable among the novelties is for sure the artistic direction of Isabelle Bertolotti and the curatorial team from the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (composed of Adélaïde Blanc, Daria de Beauvais, Yoann Gourmel, Matthieu Lelièvre, Vittoria Matarrese, Claire Moulène, and Hugo Vitrani).

This year’s edition is unprecedented in scale to any other. The Fagor Factory added more than 29,000 sqm to the event. 

The curators picked more than 50 artists coming from Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Kostërrc, Lyon, Moscow, Saint-Étienne, Oslo, Mexico City, Rome, Paris, Zürich and many other cities around the world.

XV Lyon Biennale, Là où les eaux se mêlent

The exhibition formula of the Lyon Biennale favors harmonious fluidity. The works presented are set up seamlessly, leaving the viewers free to choose their path. Almost all the works have been created specifically for the spaces that house them.

Even if it might be wrong talking about a main theme, surely the idea of ​​flow is at the base of the whole exhibition. The title of the event includes a quote from Raymon Carver, Là où les eaux se mêlent, (“There, where the waters mingle”). The flow is a free meeting of ideas, thoughts, matter, and cultures. It is happy chaos, in which each artwork finds an incredible expressive force!

This year, the event will be spectacular. The works taking part in the event include works by Malin Bülow, Shana Moulton, Eva L’Hoest, Simphiwe Ndzube, and Minouk Lim.

In conclusion, the purpose of this Biennale is to involve the viewer. The extra-large dimensions of the installations are aimed precisely at building a scenario of which the visitor is curious about. That’s the future of art in Lyon Biennale’s eyes!

Contemporary Art in Turin

The art of desire is on stage in Turin. The evocative city in Piemonte hosted the 2019 edition of Artissima, Italy’s largest contemporary art fair, from 1 to 3 November.

There are cities that, by history or vocation, tend to be more elitist and contemporary than others. Turin is among them. The city boasts museums like the Castello di Rivoli, that collects works of art among the finest preserved in Italy.

Artissima reinterprets contemporary art. Over 190 galleries from all over the world participate in the event every year. This year, the special appointment surprised the audience with a truly challenging theme.

Artissima 2019: between desire and censorship

This year’s theme was the relationship between art and censorship. Ilaria Bonacosa, curator of the event, highlights the historical role of art in breaking down the boundaries of the unknown. Where a dilemma arises between an idea and society, art becomes a daring intermediary. By overturning the rules, art emancipates what is considered a taboo. The boundaries between normal and exceptional fade and creativity becomes a political tool.

Actually, this unique ability of art must be protected and adapted in a modern key. This is the message expressed through the Turin art appointment. The director Ilaria Bonacosa underlines how the communicative expression has changed. If until ten years ago there was social opening and a sense of inclusion, now we live in a world where walls multiply. The curator wonders how art develops in light of these changes.

Inviting at the discovery of contemporary art outside of traditional artistic paths, Artissima invites people to consider how social media has changed the use of art. While on the one hand, these platforms have made art more accessible, on the other, their ability to discern content is criticized. The art censorship itself takes on new connotations. The issue of nudes is particularly relevant. Classic images, considered legitimate for hundreds of years, are often obscured by social media. The censorship seems to be unable to filter the contents, not recognizing the cultural and artistic heritage of many works of art.

The desire, theme of Artissima 2019, is therefore not to be understood in a sexual key; it is an artistic desire, desire for free creative expression. Through some of the works exhibited, further reflections on censorship come to mind. Actually, it doesn’t always apply to external impositions but sometimes is imposed by the creator. Self-censorship thus becomes another expressive filter to consider and analyze. However, the last message does not change: art is free, and when it is not, it must be released.

Artissima 2019 exhibition projects

Among the most notable works of this edition, there was “Abstract Sex: We don’t have any clothes, only equipment”. The project highlights how artificial means influence human identity. It represents a dystopian future where the same reproduction will be questioned to the advantage of cloning.

This year’s appointment also stood out for the creation of a project entirely dedicated to families, Artissima Junior, in which children explore their creativity, painting a contemporary work together with artists.

An area of ​​the event was dedicated to Berlinde De Bruyckere. The exhibition presented the sculptural works of the Belgian artist. The ancestral themes of pain and memory emerge, together with the need for transformation and evolution.

Paul Gauguin’s revolutionary portraits

Paul Gauguin is one of the major voices of French post-Impressionism. Public recognition of his talent came posthumously with an exhibition of his work in Paris in 1906.

Appreciated by Pablo Picasso and Henry Matisse, in his art he used exaggerated body proportions and geometric designs, referencing the Primitive art of foreign cultures.

He is probably the first European artist to prefer exotic subjects, his paintings of Polynesia are famous worldwide. However, the artist revolutionized the portrait painting as well, capturing the personality of his subjects with an unmistakable style.

Currently, Paul Gauguin’s portraits are displayed for the first time at the National Gallery in London.

Visionary art in Paul Gauguin’s works

Gauguin reinvented the painting of his time with powerful and visionary images. As for his friend Vincent Van Gogh, the anecdotal aspect of his life sometimes dominates his work as an artist. 

Today a major exhibition at the National Gallery highlights a less known aspect of his work, his portraits.

In his artistic research, Gauguin reaffirms the fundamental values ​​of painting. His imaginative creativity places him in an opposite relationship with Monet and his supporters. For these, art is inspired by what is tangible and real. Literary and philosophical symbols are set aside for the benefit of what is concrete.

On the other side, Gauguin is a conceptual portraitist. In his representations there is something wild, opposed to any form of academicism. The French artist is an outsider, whose portraits provoke the viewer. Above all, the artist often paints himself in front of his own creations. A narcissistic personality emerges together with a perception of art where the creator is at the center. In Christ in the Garden of Olives (1889), he represents himself as Christ on the eve of his betrayal.

Paul Gauguin’s portraits at the National Gallery

The National Gallery, London displays the first-ever exhibition devoted to the portraits of Paul Gauguin until 26 January 2020. The show includes about fifty artworks among paintings, three-dimensional objects, and drawings from public and private collections worldwide.

In addition, the exhibition highlights the variety of mediums used by Gauguin, emphasizing a particularly voracious expressive need. 

This show goes beyond Gauguin’s definition of post-impressionist. Actually, it’s the first time that the French visionary artist receives such an important recognition for having revolutionized portraiture.

The National Gallery in London, in collaboration with the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, brings together artworks from different collections. The loans come from major institutions including the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.

Gauguin is one of those artists about whom people seem to know everything, except the essential. In order to give due recognition to his incredible talent, the National Gallery revisits the artist’s controversial image. 

The depth hidden by the vivid colors used by the great French master confirms the historical significance of his imaginary. Gauguin is a precursor of his time. He represents a dreamy, visionary aesthetic destined to influence the most remarkable artists of later generations.