Category: Exhibitions
Antoine Watteau: Art - Market - Crafts
November 5 2021
Video: Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new exhibition dedicated to Antoine Watteau opened in the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin last month. The show is entitled ANTOINE WATTEAU. ART – MARKET – CRAFTS and will run until 9th January 2022.
According to the exhibition's blurb:
2021 is the 300th anniversary of the death of the French painter Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). The fame of the artist, who was already celebrated in his lifetime, extends down to this day, and his works are coveted collector’s items. After the Louvre in Paris, the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg has the most important collection of this artist’s paintings. Under the motto “Art – Market – Crafts” a special exhibition at Charlottenburg Palace will honour this outstanding 18th century painter. At the centre of the exhibition stands one of Watteau’s major works: the Shop Sign of the Art Dealer Gersaint. Purchased by Frederick the Great (1712-1786) in 1746, the painting has been considered a masterpiece since its creation. Originally designed as a means of commercial advertising and as the Parisian dealer’s “shop sign”, to this day the picture raises questions of contemporary relevance concerning the marketing, trading, and collecting of art, as well as our intellectual engagement with it.
Giovan Francesco Caroto Exhibition for 2022
November 4 2021
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that the Palazzo della Gran Guardia in Verona will be hosting a major exhibition dedicated to Giovan Francesco Caroto (c.1480-1555) in 2022. The exhibition will be organised into nine sections and will contain over 100 works in total by Caroto and his contemporaries.
The show will run from 12th May 2022 - 2nd October 2022.
Female Power at Schiphol Airport
November 4 2021
Picture: Rijksmuseum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Visitors of Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands will be able to enjoy a new display dedicated to the portrayal of women and pictures by women artists from the 17th - 19th centuries. The Rijksmuseum Schiphol have recently installed a temporary exhibition entitled Female Power which will run for an entire year.
According to the press release:
The Rijksmuseum is keen to devote greater attention to the under-acknowledged part played by women in Dutch cultural history. As part of this process, this year we hung three works by female artists in the museum’s Gallery of Honour. The Rijksmuseum has also initiated multipronged research into the role of women in Dutch cultural history and the representativeness of the Rijksmuseum collection. As part of this research we are conducting a survey of the number of female makers and artists and tracing their life stories, while also finding more detailed information about the women depicted in the paintings. In addition, female collectors, patrons, donors and curators will be scrutinising the collection and the institutional history of the museum.
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The works on display include paintings by the female artists Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750) and Cornelia van der Mijn (1709-1782), as well as portrayals of strong women such as Salome and Maria Magdalen. A particularly interesting story lies behind the double portrait of the two close friends Josina Clara van Citters and Anna Maria Gool, who are exemplary of women in Dutch history who dared to go off the beaten path; they lived together for a large part of their lives.
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Frustratingly, I can't seem to find any pictures of the paintings in the airport itself. I'd be grateful to any reader who might be passing through it in the near future with a camera phone!
Rubens: Picturing Antiquity
November 2 2021
Picture: Getty Publications
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Getty Villa in Los Angeles will be opening their latest exhibition next week entitled Rubens: Picturing Antiquity.
According to the exhibition's blurb:
Passion for the art and literature of classical antiquity inspired the dynamic Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). Presented amid the antiquities collection at the Getty Villa, this exhibition juxtaposes the artist’s exhilarating drawings, oil sketches, and monumental paintings with rarely shown ancient objects, including exquisite gems owned by Rubens himself. Heroic nudes, fierce hunts, splendid military processions, and Bacchic revels attest to the artist’s extraordinary ability to translate an array of sources into new subjects.
The exhibition will run from 10th November 2021 until 24th January 2022. The exhibition catalogue, edited by Anne T. Woollett, Davide Gasparotto, and Jeffrey Spier, is already available to purchase online.
Return Journey. Art of the Americas in Spain
November 2 2021
Picture: Prado
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Prado in Madrid opened a new exhibition last month called Return Journey. Art of the Americas in Spain.
According to the museum's website:
Return Journey. Art of the Americas in Spain, sponsored by Fundación AXA, recounts a little known phenomenon: the fact that following the conquest of Latin America and until its independence, more works of art arrived in Spain from that continent than from Flanders or Italy and that the movement of works was not one-directional, from Spain to Latin America, as is generally suggested. These thousands of objects, many of them created by indigenous or mestizo artists, often make use of materials, subjects and techniques unknown in Spain, while their creation reflects a range of intentions: reaffirmation of the dominance of the imperial power or the identitary aspirations of the Creole elites, as well as documentary, devotional and aesthetic reasons.
The exhibition will run until 13th February 2022. For who can't make it, the museum's website features a virtual tour at a cost of €2.50.
Candlelight at the Museum Gouda
October 25 2021
Picture: Museum Gouda
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museum Gouda in the Netherlands will be opening an exhibition dedicated to candlelight paintings in November. This will surely be an interesting show and one wonders exactly how the paintings will be displayed to make the most of these subtle lighting effects.
According to the museum's website (forgive the translation):
Experience a journey through centuries of candlelight in art. Let yourself be transported to an intimate world full of nocturnal tension and drama.
There are few Dutch artists who mastered the play of light and dark as convincingly as Rembrandt van Rijn, Gerard van Honthorst and Godfried Schalcken. They used the candle in many of their paintings as a direct or indirect source of light. Their paintings are still able to enchant the viewer and, as it were, draw them into the performance.
The exhibition will run from 13th November 2021 till 27th March 2022.
Update - A reader has been in touch with the following recommendation:
I might add that December 10, 2021 is Candle Night in Gouda. I have experienced the event many years ago and it was beautiful! My parents are from a small town not far from Gouda and it’s famous candles (they do not drip) and a visit near Christmas was magical for any child.
Gilded Figures: Wood and Clay Made Flesh
October 22 2021
Picture: Time Out
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York have recently opened a rather brilliant sounding exhibition entitled Gilded Figures: Wood and Clay Made Flesh.
According to their website:
This splendid exhibition will offer a rare glimpse of a major art form from the Hispanic World 1500–1800: polychrome sculpture. Building on the legacy which Archer M. Huntington left the museum, the institution has added to its holdings of this material so that today the HSM&L boasts the finest collection of these works outside Spain. Until recently, this vivid sculpture went largely unnoticed, but now it elicits enthusiastic responses. Even so, Gilded Figures is the first event in New York to feature this art form in the last 20 years. The over 20 sculptures exhibited will not only attest to the high level of artistic production, but they will also include major works by women artists and show how the stylistic conventions of Spain were adapted in the New World.
The exhibition will be accompanied by some rather interesting lectures and events and ultimately will run until 9th January 2022.
Becoming Famous: Peter Paul Rubens
October 21 2021
Video: Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart will be opening their exhibition Becoming Famous: Peter Paul Rubens tomorrow. The gallery will be live streaming their official opening at 18.00 (Stuttgart time), in case anyone wants to follow on YouTube.
According to the gallery's website:
The exhibition shows how, in the early years of his career, Rubens laid the foundations for his later success. Rubens left Antwerp for Italy in 1600 to study the art of Antiquity and the Renaissance as well as the work of his contemporaries. He steadily expanded his network of influential connections: he became court painter to the Duke of Mantua, portrayed members of the most influential families in Genoa and successfully competed with other artists.
After his return to Antwerp, Rubens set up a high-powered studio, which, thanks to an efficient division of labour, was able to produce large numbers of quality paintings in comparatively little time. The artist’s signature bold visual language became his trademark. The prominent placement of his works in churches and distinguished collections and the wide dissemination through the medium of print make Rubens a sought-after brand.
The exhibition shows some ninety paintings and works on paper from the museum’s own holdings as well as important loans from international museums and collections. It is curated by Prof. Dr. Nils Büttner and Dr. Sandra-Kristin Diefenthaler. The exhibition is realized in cooperation with the Rubenianum in Antwerp and the Academy of Fine Arts.
The exhibition will run until 20th February 2022.
'Largest Ever' Paris Bordone Exhibition for 2022
October 21 2021
Picture: KHM
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news from Italy that the Museum of Santa Caterina in Treviso will be hosting the 'largest monographic exhibition ever held' on the Paris Bordone (1500-1571). The exhibition will include loaned works from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and also the Uffizi Galleries in Florence and the Vatican Museums. This spectacle will be curated by Arturo Galansino, director of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation in Florence, and Simone Facchinetti, researcher at the University of Salento.
The exhibition will run from 25th February 2022 until 26th June 2022.
Leiden Collection Hoogstraten on Display
October 20 2021
Picture: The Leiden Collection
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Leiden Collection have shared news that their picture of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus by Samuel van Hoogstraten is on display within the Changing Forms exhibition at the Frances Lehman Loeb Center in Arlington, New York. This painting isn't usually on public display, which makes this a perfect opportunity to go and see the work in person.
According to the exhibition's blurb:
This Focus Gallery exhibition explores the rich concept of metamorphosis—with links to art, myth, science, and the exchange of knowledge—in the late seventeenth-century Netherlands. The paintings, drawings, prints, and illustrated books on view include artists’ renderings of Ovid’s Metamorphoses from around 1600 by Virgil Solis, Abraham Bloemaert, and Hendrick Goudt. This tradition contributed to a dynamic moment later in the 1600s, when painters such as Godefridus Schalcken, Willem van Mieris, and Samuel van Hoogstraten created their own mythological imagery. Meanwhile, the book market for Ovid kept pace and contemporaries explored biological metamorphosis in lavishly illustrated insect studies like those by Johannes Goedaert, Jan Swammerdam, and Maria Sibylla Merian. Works in the exhibition come from Vassar collections and include significant loans from Cornell University, Bard College, Lehigh University, and The Leiden Collection—the preeminent private collection of Dutch art in the United States.
The exhibition will run until 19th December 2021.
Jordaens at Home
October 15 2021
Video: Frans Hals Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem have opened a fantastic exhibition today entitled At Home with Jordaens. Amongst the triumphs of the exhibition is the recreation of a room in Jordaens's house with a set of surviving ceiling paintings, a project that looks very exciting indeed.
According to the museum's blurb:
Where the Northern Netherlands had Frans Hals, Rembrandt and Vermeer, in the Southern Netherlands they had their own Great Three: Jordaens, Rubens and Van Dijk.
This exhibition focuses on Jacob Jordaens, with his great flair, worldliness, individuality and typicalities. Jordaens made portraits, historical scenes and genre paintings until well into his old age. His next of kin were often a source of inspiration to him. His home served as his showroom and the room where he received his – wealthy – clients was spectacularly decorated with his own work.
Especially for this exhibition a reconstruction of that reception room will be made in the Frans Hals Museum, which enables visitors to feel as if they were ‘at Jordaens’ home’ for a moment, surrounded by many works that have never been shown together before.
The show will run until 30th January 2022.
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The soundtrack to this video tops the list of the most confused I've ever heard. Does adding such cacophonous racket really attract a younger more vibrant audience, I wonder?
As it happens, I think Jordaens must have been a rather musical fellow. He painted himself playing or holding a lute at least three times, alongside depicting himself as a bagpipe player. I wonder if there is any more evidence to prove this theory.
Spanish and Italian Drawings at the National Library of Spain
October 14 2021
Picture: bne.es
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Library of Spain in Madrid are opening a new exhibition tomorrow on Spanish and Italian Drawings of the Sixteenth Century. Drawing from their own collections consisting of more that 77 folios, many of the works on display have never been exhibited to the public. Spanish artists represented in the exhibition include the likes of Damián Forment, Pietro Morone, Luis de Vargas (Angelino de Medoro); Gaspar Becerra, Blas de Prado, Francisco Pacheco and El Greco. The Italian drawings are represented by works by Niccolò Circignani, Ludovico Cigoli, Jacopo da Empoli, Alessandro Casolani, Pietro Sorri and newly attributed works to Orazio Samacchini, Nosadella, Camillo Procaccini and Bartolomeo Passerotti, Agostino Carracci and Guido Reni.
The show will run until 16th January 2022.
Curator Talks on Vermeer
October 14 2021
Picture: Dresden Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
CODART (Network of Curators of Dutch and Flemish Art) have drawn attention to a series of online lectures (in various languages) presented by leading curators on various subjects relating to Vermeer. These lectures will be scheduled between October and December, coinciding with Dresden's current Vermeer exhibition.
Among the lecturers included will be the likes of Uta Neidhardt, Gregor Weber, Betsy Wieseman, Silke Gatenbröcke, Xavier Salomon, Friederike Schütt, Katja Kleinert, Bart Cornelis and Uta Neidhardt.
Attendance is free although registration is required.
Experience Goya in Lille
October 13 2021
Video: PBALILLE
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Palais des Beaux-arts de Lille will be opening their latest exhibition later this week. Experience Goya will feature more than 80 original works, half by the artist, in what it describes as an 'immersive, aesthetic and sensory experience [with] (videos and soundscapes etc.)'. The exhibition will also include later piece that show a response to Goya's work, including examples from Delacroix, Manet, Dali and many other artists running up to the present day.
The show will run until 14th February 2022.
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Speaking as someone who is rather sensitive to music, I do wonder if the soundtrack to the video above is enhancing or off putting...
Whistler: Art & Legacy - Limiting Collections
October 13 2021
Picture: The Hunterian
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Hunterian Museum in Glasgow's exhibition Whistler: Art & Legacy will be closing at the end of this month. However, the museum are putting on a fascinating panel discussion on 19th October 2021 on the topic of 'Historical limitations on the use of museum collections: the ethics of change'. The inspiration came from the bequest rules surrounding the Hunterian's vast collection of Whistler works, which limit their display to Glasgow only.
The panel will include Dr Xavier Bray, Director of the Wallace Collection, London, Duncan Dornan, Head of Museums and Collections at Glasgow Life, Dr Grishka Petri, Honorary Research Fellow (University of Glasgow, School of Culture & Creative Arts), Dr Elena Cooper, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, CREATe, University of Glasgow.
One can imagine the panel will represent a majority of those in favour of change, especially as the panel contains representatives of institutions who have successfully overturned rules of bequests in recent times.
Young Poland at the William Morris Gallery
October 12 2021
Video: William Morris Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The William Morris Gallery in London has recently opened their latest exhibition entitled Young Poland: An Arts and Crafts Movement (1890 – 1918).
According to the gallery's online blurb:
Young Poland: An Arts and Crafts Movement (1890 – 1918) is the first major exhibition to explore the decorative arts and architecture of Young Poland (Młoda Polska), an extraordinary cultural movement that flourished in response to Poland’s invasion and occupation by foreign powers.
Originating in Kraków and the nearby village of Zakopane at the foot of the Tatra Mountains, Young Poland sought inspiration in local folk traditions, wildlife and craftsmanship while collapsing the distinction between the fine and applied arts. Developing themes explored in a critically acclaimed book by its curators (Lund Humphries, 2020), the exhibition is the first in the world to position Young Poland as an Arts & Crafts movement, revealing strong stylistic and philosophical affinities with the work of William Morris and John Ruskin.
The show will run until 30th January 2022.
Holbein: Capturing Character
October 12 2021
Picture: Getty Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Getty Museum in Los Angeles will be opening their latest Old Masters exhibition next week. Holbein: Capturing Character has been co-organised in partnership with the Morgan Library and Museum in New York.
According to the exhibition's blurb:
Holbein: Capturing Character is the first major exhibition dedicated to the artist in the United States. Spanning Holbein’s entire career, it starts with his early years in Basel, where Holbein was active in the book trade and created iconic portraits of the great humanist scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–1536). Holbein stayed in England in 1526–1528 and moved there permanently in 1532, quickly becoming the most sought-after artist among the nobles, courtiers, and foreign merchants of the Hanseatic League. In addition to showcasing Holbein’s renowned drawn and painted likenesses of these sitters, the exhibition highlights the artist’s activities as a designer of prints, printed books, personal devices (emblems accompanied by mottos), and jewels. This varied presentation reveals the artist’s wide-ranging contributions to the practice of personal definition in the Renaissance. Works by Holbein’s famed contemporaries, such as Jan Gossaert (ca. 1478–1532) and Quentin Metsys (1466–1530), and a display of intricate period jewelry and book bindings offer further insights into new cultural interests in the representation of individual identity, and highlight the visual splendor of the art and culture of the time.
The exhibition catalogue, edited by Anne T. Woollett, with contributions by Austėja Mackelaitė, John T. McQuillen, and others, is available here.
The show will run from 19th October 2021 - 9th January 2022 and will then move to the Morgan Library and Museum between 11th February 2022 - 15th May 2022.
'Les Animaux du Roi' at Versailles
October 12 2021
Video: Château de Versailles
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Palace of Versailles have opened their latest exhibition today entitled Les Animaux du Roi.
According to the website's blurb:
The exhibition aims to illustrate the bond between the Court of Versailles and animals, whether “companion animals” (dogs, cats and birds, mainly), exotic beasts or “wild” creatures. No study of the Palace during the reign of Louis XIV would be complete without considering the Royal Menagerie, which the Sun King had installed close to the Grand Canal. It was home to the rarest and most exotic animals – from coatis to quaggas, cassowaries to black-crowned cranes (nicknamed the “royal bird”) – constituting an extraordinary collection in which the king took ever greater pride.
The exhibition, which seems to feature a great deal of old master paintings, will run until 13th February 2022.
Titian's Vision of Women in Vienna
October 8 2021
Video: KHM
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna opened their latest exhibition this week. Titian's Vision of Women: Beauty, Love, Poetry focuses on images of Venetian Women in the context of sixteenth century ideals and contemporary society.
One of the great successes of the exhibition is the reunion of three of Titian's most iconic images including "La Bella" from Florence, the Hermitage’s "Young Woman with a Plumed Hat" alongside the Kunsthistorisches Museum's "Young Woman in a Fur" :
The exhibition will run until 16th January 2022.
Hunting for Butterflies at the Galleria Carlo Orsi
October 7 2021
Picture: Galleria Carlo Orsi
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Galleria Carlo Orsi in Milan have recently opened a curious sounding exhibition on the reasons that people collect works of art. A caccia di Farfalle. Lo spirito del collezionista (Hunting for Butterflys - The Spirit of a Collector) features works by Pompeo Batoni (Lucca, 1708 - Roma, 1787) (pictured) Lorenzo di Credi (Firenze, 1456/1459 - 1536) and Giorgio Gandini del Grano (Parma, inizi XVI secolo - 1538) and reflects on themes such as joys, obstacles, stumbles, passions, loves and mistakes.
Although the exhibition will run only till 5th November 2021 the exhibition catalogue has been published online for free (in Italian).
