Art In Europe

Artists Rob Ryan and Stephen Walter are currently displaying images of London at the city’s Exposure Gallery. The joint exhibition, presented by the gallery and TAG Fine Arts, show each artist’s own unique perspectives of the city and accurately exhibit the talented artists’ creative styles and detailed techniques.

Rob Ryan, who studied fine art at Nottingham and completed his MA in printmaking at the Royal College of Art, creates elaborate works made from cut paper. The artist’s delicately constructed works contain romantic themes -often showing loving couples with clasped hands surrounded by objects like church bells and boats. However, his works are also filled with darkness and portray bits of love, hate, loss, pain, fear and death.

Ryan’s “London Bridge Lady,” commissioned by Elle Magazine to celebrate 25 years of London’s Fashion Week, is fairy-tale-esque (like many of Ryan’s works). In this creation, a fashion queen is perched on London Bridge and over looks the city. She represents the beauty of the global fashion empire, something very central to London’s cultural heritage (see image, left).

Alternatively, Stephen Walter gained inspiration from the unfolding drama of city life. “The Island: London Series” is a collection of detailed drawings that map the 33 individual boroughs, which are then clumped together into one large island. The series, which took two years to complete, requires the use of a magnifying glass and intricately ties the mapping of the city to its historical legacy(dating all the way back to pre-Christian times). The geographically accurate map includes many of London’s main roads, railway lines, landmarks and green spaces. However, the artist also includes idiosyncratic symbols, adding his own unique quality to the map(see image below).

The artist discusses his creations,

“A city’s ability to constantly reinvent itself, building on top of what was before, continually shifting its cultural identity has been a source of enduring fascination.”

Visit ArtDaily to read more about the exhibition.

Berlin is one of Europe’s most thriving art locales. There’s so much to see and do in one of my favorite European cities, that it can be somewhat overwhelming.  However, there are two “must see” exhibitions, so if you’re in Berlin (I’m Jealous) check them out!

Isa Genzken @ Galerie Daniel Buchholz: The artist’s exhibition, “Wind,” pays homage to Michael Jackson in a unique way. Rather than calling attention to the played out themes of the myths and fictions associated with the “King of Pop,” Genzken’s works bring forth notions of the natural force of wind in various ways.  According to one of the exhibition statements, the artists’ works parallel the “paintings of Leonardo da Vinci.”  Genzken uses psychedelic materials, like foil, CDs, spray paint and plastic in making muddled references through the use of consumerist paraphernalia.

“Berlin 89/09: Art Between Traces of the Past and Utopian Futures” @ Berlinische Galerie: Aspects of Berlin’s turbulent, yet interesting history are ubiquitously present throughout the city. Appropriately, for the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the exhibition at Berlinische Galerie portrays an array of art created during the past twenty years that display how the recent history of Berlin (and Germany) have affected various elements of modern society. The survey examines the tension between Berlin’s difficult past and the city’s regeneration occurring today. Highlights include: Fred Rubin’s light-fixture installation, which consists of large 1960s-era glass orbs salvaged from a disused government building, Bjorn Melhus’ video Jetz– Now, which details distruption that took place during the early-1990s official reunification party at the Brandenburg Gate and Norbert Kottmann’s Build Tatlin, a more lighthearted documentation about the artist’s failed attempt to construct Vladimir Tatlin’s skyward-spiraling tower in Potsdamer Platz.

To see the full reviews and descriptions, exact locations and dates of the exhibitions, and more, click here.

For a list of current art exhibitions going on in Berlin, click here.

Last week employees at several major museums around Paris went on strike to protest looming job cuts. While many of the museums remained open during the strike, it seems things will get worse before they get better. Unions have been furiously protesting the government’s plans to replace only half of the retiring civil servants (which will presumably take a huge toll on the Paris Museum Scene — and ultimately, may affect the city’s tourism).

French President Nicolas Sarkozy had promised to cut the budget deficit during his 2007 election. However, the plan Sarkozy once stated would only affect government ministries, has now surpassed its initial pledge, encompassing state-owned organizations (like museums and research institutes). The seven unions called for a strike on December 2nd - and employees at the various museums have met every day to vote on whether or not to keep the strike going.

Unions say demands have not been met, but many employees have returned to work because museum management agreed to speak with them.  This is the case at the Louvre, where the museum’s president, Henri Loyrette, will discuss contracts with union reps.

To read the entire article associated with this post, click here.

Vienna’s Essl Museum has decided to celebrate its tenth anniversary in a productive and unique way. The museum invited ten international art museums to display work in an exhibition titled “Aspects of Collecting.”  In the vaguely outlined invitation, the ten museums received a budget  and were asked to gather contemporary artwork viewed as “interesting and significant.”

The ten museums were carefully selected based on their differing cultures and socio-political climates as well as with the desire to improve and facilitate future networking connections and to promote intercultural exchanges.

With such loose guidelines, it is interesting to see how museums around the world (from Tokyo’s MOT Museum of Contemporary Art to Zagreb’s MSU Muzej suvremene umjetnosti) have interpreted the task. Of course, the resulting diversity has occurred not only because of the different cultures and nations represented, but also because the range of “interesting and significant” contemporary art is so vast in general.

To read more about the unique exhibition and see the complete list of museums and artists involved, click here.

The Prado Museum in Madrid, one of Europe’s most significant and highly-visited art institutions, currently possesses the world’s greatest collection of Spanish paintings. The museum’s 4,600 Spanish paintings date from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century and include masterpieces from artists like Berruguete, El Greco, and Goya.

Over the past month, the Prado opened 12 new galleries that exhibit over 170 works (all from the 19th century, and many of which are newly acquired or have never before been exhibited). The exhibition, “A New Century in the Museo del Prado” displays the works as an uninterrupted chronology and presents an accurate and detailed overview of Spanish art from the 12th century to the early 20th century.

The new galleries begin with Goya, Neoclassicismand the Origins of the Museum and end with Naturalism, Sorolla and landscapes by Auerliano Beruete (with much not to be missed in between). Highlights from the newly acquired and exhibited paintings include Jose de Madrazo’s “The French Cuirassier,” Jose Jimenez Aranda’s “Penitents in the Lower Church at Assisi,” and Francisco Domingo Marques’ “Large Landscape.”

Art enthusiasts, European History buffs, and anyone who enjoys Spanish culture are sure to enjoy the Prado’s new and expansive exhibition.

To read the entire article, click here.

The Frieze Art Fair opened its doors to previews today, and already news is pouring out of London:

The Guardian is giving their initial review of Frieze - complete with news about Monica Sosnowska removing her giant piece at the last moment.

Impressively casual … the Lisboa 20 stripper. Photograph: David Levene/David Levene (via The Guardian)

Just Jared is reporting the celebrity news from Frieze, including Gwyneth Paltrow’s attendance.

(via JustJared)

…And Reuters is focusing on the recession’s toll on Frieze

An installation is displayed at the Frieze Art Fair in central London in this October 2008 file photo. (via Reuters)

Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese… Venetian Rivalry

The Louvre

09-17-2009 to 01-04-2010

Titian (Tiziano Vecellio), born in Pieve di Cadore, in the Dolomites, came under the Venetian spell through his apprenticeship with the Bellini clan and Giorgione. He swiftly rose to fame in Venice from 1520, then throughout Italy and Europe.

Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti) was born in Venice around 1518. Thirty years stood between him and Titian, who was apparently his master for a while. Yet a mutual disliking seemed to take a firm hold between them, and many commissions or promises of commissions appeared as attempts to outdo or thwart the other man.

Veronese (Paolo Caliari) was born in Verona in 1528. In the 1550s he moved to Venice, where he soon received a large number of commissions from churches or the Doge’s Palace, thereby overshadowing Tintoretto. He apparently became Titian’s protégé or even a pawn in his rivalry with Tintoretto.

These three painters were to rub shoulders for over thirty years, and after Titian’s death in 1576, the other two would continue their mutual confrontation for another dozen years. Though rivals, they also influenced and inspired one another. For each artist, the others’ work was a stimulus that demanded a response. Their contribution to artistic revival was huge in their use of oil on canvas, their focus on “color” as opposed to “line”, and the emergence of easel painting that was to transform not only Venetian art but also the whole of European painting itself.

Artistic competitiveness was not merely a Venetian phenomenon as it was already to be found a few decades earlier in Rome, Florence, and other major cities. Yet in the case of Venice, it did not lead to aesthetic degradation but rather to emulation and a profusion of ideas. Commissions from private sources, churches, and institutions, as well as from foreign clients, poured in. Venetian society did not bestow its favors upon one particular artist but maintained a sense of harmony by sharing out official commissions among an unequaled pool of painters. The paintings’ format and the fact that they were painted on canvas made them very popular and many amateurs collected their works. A host of critics would hold forth upon each artist’s latest offerings, and the general public could compare their work, talent, and progress.

Various artistic contests gave a clearer picture of how rivalry among artists was a vital source of artistic revival and creation. Patrons would ask artists to design a very thorough introductory drawing (a modello) on a predetermined subject, whether for the Sala Grande of the Libreria Marciana, for the Sala dell’Albergo of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, for the Marzeri altar in the church of San Giuliano, or for the Grand Council chamber of the Doge’s Palace; a painted modello was apparently required only in the case of the competition to design the “Paradise” fresco for the Grand Council chamber of the Doge’s Palace.

I just read a really interesting article at The Art Newspaper discussing the new and exciting contemporary art scene in Athens, Greece.  Know best for its rich history of Ancient art, the Greek capital is quickly becoming a hot spot for new art, with Gagosian adding a new space in the city.

Work by Manolis Baboussis in ReMap

From The Art Newspaper:

Collector Dakis Joannou remains a significant presence through his Deste Foundation, which shows rotations of works by Jeff Koons, Maurizio Cattelan, Robert Gober, Pawel Althamer and Urs Fischer, among others. But Deste is no longer the only game in town. The Athens Biennale—founded in 2007 by Deste director Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, critic Augustine Zenakos and artist Poka-Yio—put the city on the international contemporary art festival circuit. The second edition (until 4 October) presents more than 150 artists from 30 countries in six separately curated shows, which have drawn visitors despite a venue lacking air conditioning in the former Olympics complex outside the city centre. “Athens was an unexplored place within Europe, a kind of intermediate place in the periphery, but this is changing now,” says Poka-Yio.

Larry Gagosian announced on 25 August that the next addition to his international network of galleries will be in Athens. He will open a 90 sq. m space on upscale Merlin Street on 25 September with a show of Cy Twombly, an artist fond of alluding to classical antiquity. “I am delighted to open a space in the historic city of Athens and we look forward to becoming part of the thriving contemporary art scene of this extraordinary city,” stated the press-shy dealer in the press release. The presence of hugely wealthy Greek collectors and clients is likely to have motivated the new venture, which expands a constellation that includes New York, London, Beverly Hills and Rome and an office in Hong Kong. The director of Gagosian Athens will be Marina Livanos, a shipping heiress whose father’s legendary sisters Athina and Eugenia were married, respectively, to Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos (Athina to both). Marina Livanos, whose family collects art, recently married Andreas Martinos, nephew of Dinos Martinos, another of the country’s top collectors.

Another sign of change in the city is ReMap (until 4 October), a project that allows galleries and independent art groups to exhibit in the city centre during the biennales. A young developer, Iasson Tsakonas, invites exhibitors to install shows and site-specific works in dozens of properties he owns in the Kerameikos and Metaxourgeio neighbourhoods and has encouraged other owners to contribute their properties for exhibitions as well. The district (known as “KM”) includes an important ancient necropolis, but is largely a mix of empty lots, run-down early 20th-century neoclassical apartment buildings and flimsy post-war tenements, many occupied by brothels, drug dealers and immigrant squatters. Bars and restaurants have begun to crop up, but Tsakonas envisages cutting-edge art and architecture transforming the area into a culturally vibrant catalyst for the city’s renaissance.

click here to read the full article

From the AFP:

PARIS — Paris’s Picasso museum closed on Monday for a two-year, 30-million-euro (43-million-dollar) renovation of one of the world’s major galleries devoted to the Spanish-born master.

On the eve of the closure more than 5,800 people seized a last chance to view the collections, housed in a 17th-century mansion in the historic Marais quarter, which was open free of charge, a museum spokesman said.

Opened in 1985, the national Picasso museum houses a 5,000-strong collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, photographs and documents, but only a fraction are on display at any one time due to space restrictions.

Tracing the artist’s prolific career, most of the exhibits were left to the French state upon his death in 1973, with others donated by his family including his last wife Jacqueline.

In the coming weeks, the collection will be packaged up and shipped under tight security to government warehouses for the duration of the works.

Loans of Picasso artworks will also be put on hold, while the museum uses the renovation as a chance to digitise and restore part of its collection.

Financed in part by travelling exhibitions over recent years, the renovation will see the museum’s available display space doubled from some 1,000 square metres (10,750 square feet) to more than 2,000, reopening in February 2012.

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