Art Of The Day Weekly
#452 - from 8 December 2016 to 14 December 2016
Charles Conder, A Holiday at Mentone, 1888. Oil on canvas, 46.2 x 60.8 cm. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide South Australian Government Grant with the assistance of Bond Corporation Holdings Limited through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation to mark the Gallery's Centenary 1981 © Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
IN THE AIR
Australia, Impressionism on the other side of the world
LONDON - In 1888, preparations were going full speed ahead to celebrate the centennial of the arrival of European colonialists in Australia, i.e. one thousand prisoners at Botany Bay. At the same time, some young painters wished to demonstrate there was a local school. Their memorable exhibition would be held the following year in Melbourne with the strange title, “9 by 5 Impression”, in reference to the format chosen, the dimension of the tops of the cigar boxes on which they painted. But not only: it is also the influence of Monet and the other European artists. A century later, the fame of the great Australian Impressionists had not yet gone beyond the Coral reef: who knows Roberts, Arthur Streeton or Charles Conder? After spending years on the Old Continent, they often simply present themselves as emulators of the French masters, even in the topography: one example is Holiday at Mentone by Conder (a good friend of Jacques-Emile Blanche) does not refer to the French Riviera but rather to a beach near Melbourne. But they are just as capable of capturing the colour and themes proper to the antipodes, such as the wild bays, stations and steamers, mines and forests. This retrospective, motivated by the long term loan to the museum of a painting by Streeton (Blue Pacific) will allow the public to partially fill these gaps.
• Australia’s Impressionists at the National Gallery, 7 December 2016 to 26 March 2017.
EXHIBITIONS
Hervier de Romande, Paul Féval rowing on the Marne, 1890, oil on canvas,128x171 cm, musée de Nogent-sur-Marne.
French suburbs, a passionate subject
RUEIL-MALMAISON – What artist today would dream of taking a day’s vacation to set up his easel in the suburbs of Paris? The word alone brings to mind bedroom communities, shopping malls, urban train stations and highway ramps rather than bucolic scenes. It was not always the case. At the time when travels were not prepared in a click of the internet and when town development had not devastated the shores of the Seine, a stroll through the outskirts of Paris could have a strangely exotic taste. We can understand this as we admire this exhibition of nearly 150 works painted between 1850 and 1950, by known and lesser known artists. Under the Second Empire and the Third Republic, Caillebotte enjoyed Yerres, where his beautiful property may still be visited. Gauguin went to Saint-Cloud before leaving to the Marquises Islands and Pissarro loved Pontoise. The public went there to row boats, on picnics or to get tipsy sipping wine from Suresnes in the guinguettes. The landscape then became industrial, electricity poles and factory chimneys bloomed and the painters - Lhote, Luce, Lugnier among others -continued to paint, to testify of these changes. After 1950 the followers were more discreet and were replaced by photographers. We await the new generation impatiently!
• Peindre la banlieue at the musée Grognard, from 6 December 2016 to 10 April 2017.
THESE EXHIBITIONS ALSO OPEN THIS WEEK
Odilon Redon, Autumn in Médoc, 1897 © Bordeaux, musée des Beaux-Arts, photo Frédéric Deval.
Odile Redon's landscapes
BORDEAUX – Odile Redon (1840-1916) kept loving memories of his childhood, of Nature and landscapes and a house in the Médoc region. This aspect, less known than the symbolic dimension of his work. Here it is treated by theme: trees, the marshes, the rocks, the fantastic vision and refers to some of these fetishist locations, such as the Pyrénées, the Basque country, Domecy, Fontfroide, where one of his main sponsors lived. For the artist’s centennial, the celebration with his native town is taking place thirty one years after his last great local retrospective. At the musée des Beaux-Arts, from 9 December 2016 to 27 March 2017.
Hartung and the lyrical artists
LANDERNEAU - Hans Hartung (1904-1988) had an adventurous past as a member of the Foreign Legion, and was one of the great interpreters of XXth century abstraction. Here he is put face to face with other important artists, from Degottex to Traquandi, from Gottlieb to Polke. At the Fonds Hélène et Edouard Leclerc, from 11 December 2016 to 17 April 2017.
Russian revolutionary art
NEW YORK – How did Russia manage to impose itself as « the place to be » for major avant-gards, since the eve of the Revolution to the dictatorship of Stalin? That is what “A Revolutionary Impulse” studies, based on the very wealthy collection of the MoMA, from Alexandra Exter to Rodchenko, including Maiakovsky and Popova. At the MoMA, from 3 December 2016 to 12 March 2017.
Manzu's spirituality
ROME – Sculptor Giacomo Manzù (1908-1991), went through the XXth century working on themes linked to faith for such sponsors as the Vatican. This exhibition puts him face to face with another giant of XXth century art, Lucio Fontana, known for his tagli (canvases with holes) – as both participated in the contest for the doors of the Duomo of Milano in 1950. At Castel Sant’Angelo, from 8 Decembre 2016 to 9 March 2017.
AUCTIONS
Lot n°5: Twenty-five armatures of arrows, jaspe, rock chrystal and flint. North Africa, Neolithic period. H: 1 to 5,5 cm. Estimate: €1000-€1200
Memories of prehistoric times
PARIS – Prehistory will be the talk of the town next week as the copy of Lascaux 4 will open. It is not easy today to get near the remnants of those far-away times, as a great number of those grottos are now closed to the public. Nevertheless, we can still build up a cabinet de curiosités that goes back to the Neolithic times (until circa -3,000 years) starting with every-day objects, such as sharpened and polished flint, graters and hardies and arrow heads. The question regarding the origin of the objects is always a touchy one but many of these objects have been going around since thee interest arose in the subject and became universal at the end of the XIXth century. The simple beauty of these objects is sometimes surprising and when they are put together they can create greatly aesthetic compositions, as can be seen in this auction with the series of arrows – with flanges, with a stalk, ribbed, or round.
• Préhistoireat Drouot-Richelieu, 13 December 2016 (Millon)
BOOKS
Sweet school days of the past
Raymond Lambert (1889-1967) was born in Elbeuf, trained in the Havre and then at the Arts décoratifs in Paris where the father of Paul Morand was one of his teachers. The painter is practically unknown today. Yet, under a rather transparent pseudonym – Raylambert – he was acclaimed by stars such as Picasso and Dali. The latter saw in him “the missing link” between Benjamin Rabier and Hergé. That is because the genius of Raylambert, though he delved into advertising, theater settings and postcards, was especially incarnated in a specific field: the illustration of school books. Over a thirty year period, as of 1931, he contributed to upturn the sinister punishments of the Third Republic. He worked for the greatest publishing houses - Delagrave, Belin (who published this work), Magnard or Didier – he imagined labels that brightened up lessons of arithmetic, history, geography, and citizenship education and even gave grammar an almost friendly aspect.
• L’école enchantée de Raylambert, par Daniel Durandet et Yves Frémion, Belin, 2016, 208 p., €29.90.
IN BRIEF
HELSINKI - The town council rejected on 7 December 2016 the project of a local Guggenheim Museum outpost.
LONDON - The 2016 Turner Prize has been awarded to Helen Marten
LUXEMBOURG - The first edition of the Luxembourg Art Fair will be held from 8 to 11 December 2016, with 80 galleries.
LYON - The traditional Fête des Lumières will be held from 8 to 10 December 2016.
PARIS - The new salon Galeristes groups together 27 "committed" galleries at the Carreau du Temple in a setting designed by architect Dominique Perrault.
PARIS - The Grand Musée du Parfum will open on 13 December at 73, rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré.
OPENINGS OF THE WEEK
HAMLET, AKI KURODA
8 December 2016
The Japanese artist illustrates Shakespeare's famous play (Gallimard)