VENICE AND SAINT PETERSBURG. Artists, Princes and Merchants

Centro Culturale Candiani 
18 December 2018 – 24 March 2019

The State Hermitage Museum holds one of the greatest collections of Venetian art in the world. The story of its creation is one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of collecting, with extraordinary and unforeseen discoveries that still surprise us today.



Especially designed for the Centro Culturale Candiani exhibition site in Mestre on the Venetian mainland, the exhibition uses a group of paintings and drawings, some of which have never been shown before in Italy, to document the various routes that took Venetian art to the Hermitage, and in doing so brings to life the historic figures of collectors and merchants.

The works have been selected so that the history of each piece summarises a specific episode that led to the formation of the Venetian art collection at the Russian museum. On display are paintings by the greatest Venetian artists of the sixteenth century, such as Tiziano, Veronese, Tintoretto, Bellotto, Canaletto, Tiepolo and Guardi.

Over 70 works from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, including 20 paintings by great sixteenth to eighteenth-century Venetian masters, which return to Venice after centuries, appear alongside drawings and paintings from the Venetian civic collections, revealing shared aspects of collecting history between Venice and St. Petersburg.

Relations between Venetian artists and their Russian patrons during the eighteenth century will also be explored by presenting drawings by artists whose work is present both in the collections of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and in those of the Hermitage. One such example is Giacomo Quarenghi, 45 of whose drawings, mostly unpublished, are conserved by the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints in the Correr Museum. These will be accompanied by the drawings of Bartolomeo Tarsia, Pietro Antonio Novelli and Francesco Fontebasso, whose work for the Russian court exemplifies some of the most fertile moments of their creativity. Finally, “twin” collections of Giambattista Tiepolo’s work link Venice to St Petersburg: these are the Gatteri and Beurdeley albums, which contain chalk drawings on blue paper, a selection of which will be shown together for the first time. This absolutely original exhibition, with masterpieces lent by one of the largest and most important museums in the world, will be held in an unconventional venue for displaying historic art. The event has been made possible due to collaboration between the City of Venice and the State Hermitage Museum, according to agreements between Italy and Russia for establishing an “Hermitage Italia”.

http://www.visitmuve.it/en/cortocircuito-dialogue-between-the-centuries/venice-and-saint-petersburg/exhibition/

Relations between Venetian artists and their Russian patrons during the eighteenth century will also be explored by presenting drawings by artists whose work is present both in the collections of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and in those of the Hermitage. One such example is Giacomo Quarenghi, 45 of whose drawings, mostly unpublished, are conserved by the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints in the Correr Museum. These will be accompanied by the drawings of Bartolomeo Tarsia, Pietro Antonio Novelli and Francesco Fontebasso, whose work for the Russian court exemplifies some of the most fertile moments of their creativity. Finally, “twin” collections of Giambattista Tiepolo’s work link Venice to St Petersburg: these are the Gatteri and Beurdeley albums, which contain chalk drawings on blue paper, a selection of which will be shown together for the first time. This absolutely original exhibition, with masterpieces lent by one of the largest and most important museums in the world, will be held in an unconventional venue for displaying historic art. The event has been made possible due to collaboration between the City of Venice and the State Hermitage Museum, according to agreements between Italy and Russia for establishing an “Hermitage Italia”.

http://www.visitmuve.it/en/cortocircuito-dialogue-between-the-centuries/venice-and-saint-petersburg/exhibition/

Veronese, Titian, Tiepolo, Canaletto and Guardi
 
Works never before displayed in Italy and which indeed in some cases have never left the Hermitage are on show in Mestre, including two newly-attributed Carlevarijs and a singular late work by Jacopo Tintoretto that has never before been exhibited. 

Marcel Duchamp 100 Questions. 100 Answers.

Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

				Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., (1919) 1964, Color print of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Mona Lisa, pencil and white gouache, 30.1 x 23 cm, Staatliche Schlösser, Gärten und Kunstsammlungen Mecklenburg- Vorpommern, photo: Fotoagentur nordlicht, © Association Marcel Duchamp/ VG BildKunst, Bonn 2018

There are few artists whose work and personality are as fascinating as those of Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968). As the inventor of the readymade who boldly declared an everyday object a work of art, he revolutionised art history and paved the way for conceptual art. His seminal works and writings continue to have an enormous impact on contemporary artistic practice.

Marcel Duchamp, From or by MARCEL DUCHAMP or RROSE SELAVY/Box in a Valise, (1941) 1966, Series F, Cardboard box covered with red leather and lined with red cloth, miniature replicas and color reproductions of works by Duchamp, 41.5 x 38.5 x 9.9 cm, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, © Association Marcel Duchamp/ VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018.

For the first time, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart is presenting its extensive Marcel Duchamp holdings and the appurtenant Serge Stauffer Archive in an exhibition.

Seminal pieces from the Staatsgalerie’s collection,

 

among them the Bottlerack,



the painting Study for The Chocolate Grinder No 2

Marcel Duchamp, La Bagarre d'Austerlitz (The Brawl at Austerlitz), 1921, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart © Association Marcel Duchamp / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018

and the window object La Bagarre d’Austerlitz,

will be shown alongside a selection of international loans.

The display is complemented by a unique archive put together by the Swiss artist and Duchamp scholar Serge Stauffer (1929- 1989). The exhibition is the first to present the ‘100 Questions’ Stauffer put to Duchamp in 1960 as part of a correspondence that went for many years. Duchamp’s ‘100 Answers’ offer important insights into the artist’s intellectual and creative practice and bear witness to the depth of Stauffer’s unusual research.

Catalogue

The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue published in German and English by Prestel Verlag with essays by international experts:

Edgar Degas: The Private Impressionist

Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL
Dec 22, 2018 – Mar 24, 2019

The works in the exhibition show an unexpected side of Degas — namely as a masterful draftsman, . In addition to drawings, etchings, lithographs, and monotypes, the show features Degas’ photographs and a bronze sculpture. The exhibition also includes more than 40 works on paper by Degas’ artist colleagues, including Mary Cassatt, Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingres, Honoré Daumier and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Many of the subjects commonly associated with Degas’ work are featured in this exhibition, including ballerinas, horses and jockeys, café concert singers, bathers, beach scenes, and portraits of Degas’ peers.

“The exhibition presents Degas lovers with an intimate glimpse at his early drawings, as well as works from his more mature period during which he created the unique visual explorations of Parisian life that have gained him global renown,” Rich said.

Ballerinas were Degas’ most familiar subject, and he was known for depicting them often in scenes of everyday life.
 

For example, a lithograph from 1889, “Danseuse prés de la poêle,” depicts a ballet dancer not rehearsing or performing but standing beside a stove reading a newspaper.

The earliest of his works in the show is an 1853 graphite drawing of his brother Achille, created when Degas was 19 years old and his brother was 15. In the portrait, Achille sits comfortably, slightly slouched and with one arm draped informally over the back of the chair upon which he sits, while appearing to look out just beyond the viewer as if lost in thought.

The self-portraits in the exhibition — including a view in profile and an etching — illustrate how Degas saw himself as a young artist and help viewers visualize the man behind the legend. Many etchings in the show, like an 1857 self-portrait, speak to Degas’ manner of creating art and to his eye for the future commercial potential for his work,

Etchings in the exhibition are from plates Degas sold to Ambroise Vollard, an art dealer, publisher and distributor of prints by contemporary master artists. Before selling his etched plates to Vollard around 1910, Degas canceled them by incising a few thin lines through the final plates to make any further printings from them — especially any made after his death — notably less pristine than those first ones he printed by his own hand.

“Prints made from Degas’ canceled plates look like they have scratches in them as a result, but this was Degas’ intention when he sold the plates for future printing,” Rich said.

Although the plates and the cancellation lines are rendered by Degas, prints made from the canceled plates can forever be distinguished by their imperfect compositions. Degas wanted Vollard’s and others’ future versions of his prints to be distinct from those impressions made during his lifetime, Rich said. “The posthumous life of many of Degas’ works — including his now-beloved bronze sculptures which were cast only after his death after models found in his studio — offers a fascinating art history lesson in itself.”

The collection featured in the exhibition belongs to Robert Flynn Johnson, an art historian and art connoisseur, who curated the show from the works he has amassed over the past four decades.  

 

Edgar Degas

The great French artist Edgar Degas (1834–1917) once said, “I would like to be illustrious and unknown.” To a large degree, his wish has been granted. By the time of Degas’ death, more than ninety years ago, his art had become famous; his reputation since then has only grown.

Yet the individual who was so accomplished in many artistic endeavors—from drawing, painting, and printmaking to sculpture and photography—has remained elusive. Unjustly labeled a misogynist because of his frank depiction of women, and a cynic because of his biting wit, Degas was, rather, arguably the keenest artistic observer of human nature since Rembrandt. And, although often aloof to strangers, Degas shared warmth and loyalty with his family as well as with a wide circle of friends, which included some of the greatest writers and artists of the epoch.

The works by Degas in this exhibition consist of twenty-four drawings, twenty prints, eight photographs, three monotypes, one sculpture, and a letter, all from a single private collection. The collection endeavors to illuminate the background and personality of Edgar Degas the man, as well as to present his genius as an artist. The subject matter of these works by Degas is often quite personal. 

In addition to three rare self-portraits, the collection includes depictions of his father, his brother Achille, an Italian niece, his loyal housekeeper Sabine Neyt, and the wife of a patron, Madame Ernest May; three portraits of Édouard Manet and two of Mary Cassatt; and drawings after antique sculpture and Old Masters such as Mantegna and Michelangelo. Works touch upon three notable themes of Degas’ oeuvre: the human body, horse racing, and the ballet. Also included is a group of brilliant color aquatints after Degas monotypes by Maurice Potin, which were commissioned shortly after the artist’s death by the owner of the original monotypes, Degas’ friend and dealer, Ambroise Vollard. An additional selection of more than forty rare works of art on paper enriches the exhibition. These pieces are by well-known artists, many of whom were friends of Degas.

Enriching the exhibition are an additional selection of more than forty rare works of art on paper by well-known artists, many of whom were friends of Degas, including Giovanni Boldini, Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Marcellin Desboutin, Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Alphonse Legros, Adolph von Menzel, Gustave Moreau, Henri Regnault, William Rothenstein, Alfred Stevens, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Joseph-Gabriel Tourny. 

The exhibition is further enhanced by several drawings by Pierre-Georges Jeanniot, one of Degas’ closest friends during the final decades of his life. The group of Jeanniot drawings comprises portraits of the sculptor Albert Bartholomé and Degas’ younger disciple Jean-Louis Forain, three self-portraits, and two exceedingly rare portraits of Degas himself, who was famous for his reluctance to pose. These works have never before been exhibited together publicly and provide a delightful exploration into the art and personality of one of the most skilled, intelligent, and complex artists in the history of art.

This exhibition is co-curated by Robert Flynn Johnson, Curator Emeritus of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.and Louise Siddons, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Curator of Collections at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater.

A hardcover full-color 126 page catalogue has been published with a preface by Degas expert, Ann Dumas, Curator of The Royal Academy, London, & other essays.

This exhibition, formally titled “Edgar Degas, The Private Impressionist: Works on Paper by the Artist and His Circle,” was organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions in Los Angeles, in association with Denenberg Fine Arts in West Hollywood.

Complete list of works
 

Courtauld Impressionists: From Manet to Cézanne

National Gallery, London  
17 September 2018 – 20 January 2019

For the first time in London for 70 years the National Gallery displays major Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterworks from the Courtauld Gallery, purchased in the 1920s by Samuel Courtauld (1876–1947). These will be shown alongside paintings from the National Gallery’s own collection which the businessman and philanthropist financed and helped acquire.

This exhibition of over forty works is centred around the loan of 26 masterpieces from the Courtauld Gallery, which is closing temporarily in September 2018 as part of a major transformation project: Courtauld Connects. With the largest number of works from Courtauld’s private collection ever to be seen at the National Gallery, Courtauld Impressionists: From Manet to Cézanne traces the development of modern French painting from the 1860s to the turn of the 20th century.

The exhibition, arranged chronologically in 12 sections - each devoted to a different artist – includes the works of such key figures as Daumier, Manet, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, and Bonnard. The exhibition also focuses on the vision, taste, and motivation of Courtauld as he shaped two collections: one for his and his wife’s own enjoyment, and the other for the nation, with equal tenacity and dedication.

Highlights from Courtauld’s private collection, now part of the Courtauld Gallery, include

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 'La Loge (Theatre Box)', 1874 © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

Renoir’s 'La Loge (Theatre Box)' (1874),



Cézanne’s 'The Card Players' (about 1892–6)




and 'Lac d’Annecy' (1896),



Toulouse-Lautrec's 'Jane Avril in the Entrance to the Moulin Rouge' (about 1892),



Manet’s 'A Bar at the Folies-Bergère' (1882),



and Seurat's 'Young Woman Powdering Herself' (about 1888–90).

These hang alongside major works acquired for the national collection through the Courtauld Fund. This was set up in 1923 by Courtauld himself for the acquisition of modern French paintings and the works that were purchased now form the core of the National Gallery’s post-1800 collection.

 

They include Renoir’s At the Theatre (La Première Sortie) (1876–7);



as well as Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières (1884),



Cézanne’s Self Portrait (about 1880–1)



 and Van Gogh’s A Wheatfield with Cypresses (1889) which were the first paintings by these three artists to enter a British public collection.

Courtauld started collecting on a grand scale in the early 1920s after he became chairman of his family firm, one of the world’s most successful synthetic fabric manufacturers. His family, of Huguenot origin, had settled in London at the end of the 17th century as part of a community of French silversmiths and silk weavers.

In 1922 he and his wife Elizabeth made the first purchases of modern paintings for their private collection that eventually grew to more than seventy works. While these works, which today form the core of the Courtauld Gallery’s holdings of French art, are now much-loved, they were frowned upon in Britain at the time. When in 1923 Courtauld started to fund and shape the collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works that are now at the National Gallery, he transformed the representation of modern French art in the UK.

Courtauld’s taste had been shaped by childhood trips to the National Gallery and travels to museums, galleries, and collections on the Continent. Two exhibitions of French Impressionist paintings in London in the late 1910s and 1920s had a profound impact on Courtauld.

On seeing a painting by Cézanne in London in 1922, Courtauld recalled: ‘At that moment I felt the magic, and I have felt it in Cézanne’s work ever since.’ He believed that ‘unfettered imagination, human emotion, and spiritual aspiration go into the creation of all great works, and a share of the same qualities is needed for the reading of them.’ The exhibition shows how Courtauld was dedicated to the transformative power of art and the importance of art history, laying the foundations for the work of the Courtauld Institute of Art and Gallery.

This exhibition is a collaboration between the National Gallery and the Courtauld Gallery.



Don Quixote and Sancho Panza
Honoré-Victorin Daumier
about 1855



Music in the Tuileries Gardens
Edouard Manet
1862



Young Spartans Exercising
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas
about 1860



The Boulevard Montmartre at Night
Camille Pissarro
1897



Hillside in Provence
Paul Cézanne
about 1890-2



Portrait of Elena Carafa
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas
about 1875



Woman seated in a Garden
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
1891



The Skiff (La Yole)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
1875



At the Theatre (La Première Sortie)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
1876-7




The Channel of Gravelines, Grand Fort-Philippe
Georges Seurat
1890



Place Lafayette, Rouen
Camille Pissarro
1883




Déjeuner sur l'herbe
Edouard Manet
about 1863-8



Te Rerioa
Paul Gauguin
1897



Jane Avril in the Entrance to the Moulin Rouge
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
about 1892



Banks of the Seine at Argenteuil
Edouard Manet
1874



Farm in Normandy, Summer (Hattenville)
Paul Cézanne
about 1882



Bridge at Courbevoie
Georges Seurat
1886-7



The Table
Pierre Bonnard
1925



Blue Balcony
Pierre Bonnard
1910



Nevermore
Paul Gauguin
1897

Great review with lots of images

Magritte and Dali

Opening at The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL on December 15, Magritte and Dali is a first-of-its-kind special exhibition dedicated to the world’s two most celebrated surrealists, Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali. The exhibit runs through May 19, 2019.

This first exhibition to examine the artists in a sole pairing provides an in-depth review of the common threads and creative divergences in their distinctive bodies of work from the late 1920s to the 1940s. During this frenetic and productive period, the two artists displayed works in the same Surrealist exhibitions and passionately explored the techniques and aesthetic points of view which contributed to their respective reputations as monumental figures in art history. Together, their work proposes a stirring challenge to the world of appearances and hints at the deep mystery of life.

Shortly after arriving in Paris In 1929, a young Salvador Dali met fellow surrealist Rene Magritte. A few months later, Magritte joined surrealist poet Paul Eluard and his wife Gala on a visit to Dali at his home in Cadaques. The sultry summer gathering proved auspicious in the parallel stories of Dali and the Avant-garde: Gala fell in love with Dali and remained with him in Cadaques, becoming his muse and chief promoter for the rest of her life.

From that moment on, Magritte and Dali would remain aware of each other’s progress along the shared road toward building a new and disruptive art form, each firmly committed to implementing practices that generated fuller freedom of imagination. Their works during this period also shared several visual themes, which are explored throughout the exhibit.

The works on display span about 20 years, from the 1920s through the 1940s, a time when the painters were the toast of Paris, hobnobbing with all of the famous names of that city’s avant garde. The two were friends, united in their fantastic imagery that challenges reality and questions everyday thoughts and actions.

“Rene Magritte is a quintessential figure in the surrealist movement and is celebrated around the globe.  We are proud to provide the first and only opportunity to see his and Dali’s works displayed solely together in the U.S.” said Dr. Hank Hine, Executive Director of The Dali. “This special exhibition continues our dedication to providing our community and the world at large with the essential visual works of our era.”

Showcasing carefully curated, exemplary pieces from Magritte’s and Dali’s distinctive bodies of work, Magritte and Dali pushes back the curtain to reveal what lies beyond the simple appearance of painted images. The two preeminent surrealists opened the mind to an alternative view of the world, constantly challenging reality.

Following its presentation at The Dali Museum, Magritte and Dali will travel to the Magritte Museum in Brussels.

“Magritte and Dali” is organized by The Dali Museum in partnership with The Magritte Museum (a part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium) and is co-curated by Dr. William Jeffett, Chief Curator of Exhibitions at The Dali Museum, and Michel Draguet, General Director of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. 

 IMAGES

Magritte & Dali takes viewers on a journey from the late 1920s to the early 1940s, the period when the two artists’ careers overlapped. Although both had very different approaches to their respective paintings, they were equally committed to implementing practices that challenged reality and generated fuller freedom of imagination and experience. Their works also employ several shared themes, which are explored throughout the exhibit.

Magritte paintings on display include  



Le Baiser [The Kiss] (1938),

 René Magritte (1898-1967). La Magie noire (Black Magic), 1945. Oil on canvas, 79 x 59 cm; Inv. 10706. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels © 2018 C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo Credit: Banque d’Images, ADAGP / Art Resource, NY

La Magie noire [Black Magic] (1945)




 L’Oiseau de ciel [Sky Bird] 1966,  
 

René Magritte (1898-1967). Dieu n’est pas un saint (God Is No Saint), ca. 1935-36. Oil on canvas, 67.2 x 43 cm. Inv. 11681. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels © 2018 C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo Credit: Banque d’Images, ADAGP / Art Resource, NY

Dieu n’est pas un saint [God Is No Saint] (ca. 1935-36).

René Magritte (1898-1967). L'Île au trésor (Treasure Island), 1942. Oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm; Inv. 10708. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, 

 

Salvador Dalí, 



Salvador Dalí, Portrait of Gala, c. 1932. Oil on panel. Collection of the Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, F: (USA) 2018 © Salvador Dalí. Fundacio Gala- Salvador Dalí. (Artists Rights Society), 2018.

 

Salvador Dalí. Old Age, Adolescence, Infancy (The Three Ages), 1940. Oil on canvas. Collection of The Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, FL (USA) 2018 ©Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, (Artists Rights Society), 2018. In the USA: © Salvador Dalí Museum, Inc., St. Petersburg, FL, 2018