Picasso. Endlessly drawing

 

 Centre Pompidou

18 october 2023 - 15 january 2024 

Anne Lemonnier, assistant curator, Musée national d’art moderne 

Johan Popelard, curator of drawings and prints, Musée national Picasso-Paris 

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Pablo Picasso's passing, the Centre Pompidou is organising "Picasso. Dessiner à l'infini" (Picasso. Endlessly Drawing) in collaboration with the musée national Picasso-Paris. The exhibition highlights the most prolific part of his creation by bringing together nearly a thousand works: notebooks, drawings and engravings, most of which come from the collection of the musée national Picasso-Paris. From his youthful studies to his final works, for Picasso, drawing was a constantly renewed place of invention around the power of the stroke, ranging from serpentine lines to hatched drawings and proliferating compositions, from the delicate nuances of pastels to the deep blacks of ink. 

This journey through the graphic work, a sort of compulsively kept private diary, the notebooks being the most precious examples, immerses us in the heart of the artist’s work. The exhibition showcases the extraordinary collection of the musée national Picasso-Paris, coming from the artist's studios and preserved by him until his death. The non-linear visit overturns the strict chronological order, enabling resonances to be established between different periods and contrasting well-known masterpieces with drawings presented for the first time. 

"Picasso. Dessiner à l'infini" is the greatest retrospective ever organised of the artist's drawings and engravings, plunging visitors into the maelstrom of Picasso's creative processes. 

At the same time, the musée national Picasso-Paris presents the Sophie Calle exhibition entitled "À toi de faire, ma mignonne" (Your Turn, Darling), act 2 of the Celebration that explores the idea of disappearance, which is central to the artist's work. 

Célébration Picasso 1973-2023 : 50 exhibitions and events to celebrate Picasso 

2023 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Pablo Picasso's passing and thus places the year in the context of the celebration of his work in France, Spain and internationally. To celebrate 

Picasso's heritage today means questioning what this major oeuvre for western modernity represents today. It means demonstrating its living, accessible and contemporary aspects. 

Célébration Picasso 1973-2023 is introduced by the musée national Picasso-Paris, the leading lender and coordinator of the event, and Bernard Picasso, grandson of the artist and president of the FABA and of the Málaga Picasso Museum. It is organised around some fifty exhibitions and events to be held in reputed cultural institutions in Europe and North America and which, together, with the help of reinterpretations and original approaches, enable us to review 

the state of studies and comprehension of Picasso's oeuvre. 

Together, the French and Spanish governments wished to support this large-scale transnational event. The commemoration will thus be punctuated by official celebratory events in France and Spain, and will conclude with a grand international symposium in December 2023, coinciding with the opening of the Picasso Studies Centre in Paris. 

 

Pablo Picasso, 

Acrobat, 1930 

MP120, musée national Picasso-Paris 

© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée national Picasso-Paris) / Adrien Didierjean 

© Succession Picasso 2022 

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Françoise, 1946 - Pablo Picasso Acceptance in Lieu, 1979 © musée national Picasso-Paris (MP1351), © Succession Picasso 2023.

Chagall at work Drawings, ceramics and sculptures 1945 - 1970

 

Centre Pompidou 

4 October 2023 - 26 February 2024

Curators

Anne Montfort, curator at the Cabinet d'art graphique, Musée national d'art moderne

and Valérie Loth, curator at the Cabinet d'art graphique.

The exhibition brings together an ensemble of works that joined the collection in 2022 thanks to the generosity of Bella and Meret Meyer. One hundred and twenty-seven drawings, five ceramics and seven sculptures by Marc Chagall have enriched

the Centre Pompidou collection, one of the most representative and extensive

collections of the artist's work, in particular of his pre-war creative output.

These donations have been organised around three themes: preparatory drawings

for the costumes and stage curtains of Igor Stravinsky's "The Firebird" ballet, reprised by the New York Ballet Theater in 1945, sketches and models for the ceiling decorationcommissioned from the artist in 1962, and an ensemble of ceramics, collagesand sculptures made between the 1950s and the early 1970s.

Music plays a fundamental role in Chagall's oeuvre: closely linked to his vocation

as an artist – appearing in his autobiographical account Ma vie – it was both a source of inspiration and a recurrent subject, but most of all it was a new way of thinking of images. Whether Chagall writing "I myself become a sound" or declaring "I have to make the drawing sing through colour", he always associated music closely with the visual arts and maintained an ongoing dialogue throughout his life with the choreographers of his day.

By creating decors and costumes for "The Firebird", Marc Chagall experimented both with large-format painting and blends of materials. From the first drawings, he integrated the very movement of the dancers into his conception of the costumes. In the same way, when he designed the ceiling of the Opéra, he sought a fusion with the architecture of the Palais Garnier, first imagining its composition in terms of coloured rhythms. 

Profoundly autobiographical, the resulting iconography is both a homage to the great musicians who accompanied him and to the city of Paris, where he found refuge. 

This commissioned work seems to have prompted in the artist a renewed interest in the interplay of materials, whether trying his hand at sculpture, ceramics or including fabrics, lace and papers of all kids in his later collages.

These mature works are representative of Marc Chagall's activity after the Second World War, testifying to his investment in many commissioned projects and the diversification of his practice. They enable us to share the privacy of his studio by showing us the development of a project from the first sketch quickly roughed on a sheet of paper to the finely wrought drawing, both an artwork in its own right and the final stage in the preparation for a painting

Marc Chagall, L’Oiseau de feu, 1945

Collection Centre Pompidou, Paris

Musée national d’art moderne - Centre de création industrielle

Photo: Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Audrey Laurans/

Dist. RMN-GP

© Adagp, Paris

Marc Chagall, Maquette pour le plafond de l’Opéra Garnier :

“Le Lac des cygnes”, 1963

Gift of Mme Meret Meyer en 2022

Collection Centre Pompidou, Paris

Musée national d’art moderne - Centre de création industrielle

Photo: Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Hélène Mauri/

Dist. RMN-GP

© Adagp, Paris

 

Marc Chagall, Couple à la chèvre rouge, v. 1970

Gift of Mme Meret Meyer, 2022

Photo: Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Janeth Rodriguez-Garcia/

Dist. RMN-GP

© Adagp, Paris

Emerging From Darkness: Faith, Emotion and The Body in the Baroque

Hamilton Gallery

December 8th, 2023 - April 14th, 2024

Hamilton Gallery recently unveiled the world premiere exhibition Emerging From Darkness: Faith, Emotion and The Body in the Baroque, presenting over 70 important works by world-renowned baroque masters, including several never-before-seen in Australia.

Drawn from the partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), as well as loans from the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) and private lenders from across the country, Emerging from Darkness will showcase rare and iconic works by the world's most significant baroque artists including Artemisia Gentileschi, Peter Paul Rubens, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Guercino, Lavinia Fontana, Sofonisba Anguissola and Valentin de Boulogne. This collection of historical pieces, displayed together for the first time, will be exhibited alongside works by contemporary artists, Robyn Stacey and Angela Tiatia, who are active in the baroque style today.

One of the most ambitious exhibitions ever held in regional Australia, Emerging from Darkness explores the international movement that changed the course of art at the beginning of the 17th Century, unveiling new insights into the artists and how Baroque continues to influence contemporary art. The exhibition has been curated by Laurie Benson, Curator of International Art, NGV, Dr David Marshall, Assoc. Prof., University of Melbourne Culture & Communications, Dr Lisa Beaven, Senior Research Fellow, La Trobe University and Ian Brilley, Exhibitions and Collections Coordinator, Hamilton Gallery.

Highlights of the show include several paintings by 17th Century female artists who cathartically reinterpret experiences of violence and turmoil while simultaneously voicing strong, feminist messages of empowerment. Featured among these is the Lucretia (1630-5, Italy) by Artemisia Gentileschi, presented to the public for the first time in Australia.

On loan from the NGA is the Self-portrait (1623, Belgium) by Peter Paul Rubens. Arguably the most influential baroque artist working in Europe in the 17th Century and regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time, Rubens’ masterpieces include religious and mythological paintings, royal portraits, eroticism, evocative landscapes and brutal battles scenes.

Featured among the loans from the NGV is The Martyrdom of St Lawrence by Spanish painter Jusepe de Ribera, whose unfettered naturalistic approach epitomises how baroque artists treated Christian art.

Emerging From Darkness is a once in a lifetime opportunity for local residents and visitors to the Southern Grampians region to experience these and many other world-renowned baroque works, supported by the Victoria Government’s Regional Events Fund through Visit Victoria.

Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Steve Dimopoulos, says, “We’re proud to support Hamilton Gallery in this remarkable exhibition of baroque masterpieces, which is set to attract thousands of visitors to Hamilton and the region over the summer and school holidays.”

Minister for Creative Industries, Colin Brooks, adds, “For more than 60 years Hamilton Gallery has been supporting the creative and cultural life of the region. This latest exhibition is a great example of how our regional galleries punch above their weight and collaborate with others to present world-class exhibitions and activities.”

Tony Ellwood AM, NGV says, “Seen in the context of a sizable and thematic exhibition, this unprecedented loan of more than forty major works from the NGV’s Collection will provide visitors with fresh perspectives on this influential period of art history.”

Images

 

Artemisia Gentileschi

Lucretia

c.1630-35

Oil on canvas

Private collection

NGV  

Jusepe de Ribera 

Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence 1620-24 

oil on canvas 

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne  

Purchased with funds donated by Allan and Maria Myers and Andrew Sisson, 2006 

  

Lavinia Fontana 

Mystic marriage of Saint Catherine 1574-77 

oil on copper 

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne  

Felton Bequest, 2021 

  

Nicolas Régnier 

Hero and Leander c. 1625-26 

oil on canvas 

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne  

Felton Bequest, 1955 

  

Guido Reni 

Study for the centaur, Nessus c. 1620 

red and black chalks, heightened with white 

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne  

Felton Bequest, 1923 

  

Luca Giordano 

Saint Sebastian being cured by Irene c. 1653 

oil on canvas 

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne  

Felton Bequest, 1934 

The Nazarenes: Germany’s 19th Century Avant-Garde Artist

See: https://victorianweb.org/painting/german/gossman.html for images and more information

Gallery 19C is presenting an exhibition The Nazarenes:  Germany’s 19^th Century Avant-Garde Artists on view from November 30, 2023, until January 31, 2024.  The objective of Gallery 19C since it was founded in 2016 by Eric Weider and Polly Sartori has been to present a more comprehensive understanding of 19^th century European art, and to create a narrative that told the stories of artists - important artists - who have been long overlooked and often forgotten.  Paris was the center of the cultural and creative landscape at this time, and the French artists and movements that changed the trajectory of art history will always be celebrated, but so much more was happening, and not just in France but all over Europe.  Therefore, in recognition of other artistic innovations, Gallery 19C is delighted to now focus on the most significant movement to come out of Germany in the 19^th century - the Nazarenes. 

 

Rebelling against the rigidity of classical training, combined with the goal of revitalizing the spirit of Christian art, The Brotherhood of Saint Luke (der Lukasbund) was formed on July 10, 1809.  The founding group was made up of a cross-section of German youth from various cities and states.  Almost a year later, in May 1810, the members embarked for Rome and settled at the abandoned cloister of Sant’Isodoro.  They became nicknamed I Nazareni (The Nazarenes) because of their unusual coiffure, with hair worn long and parted in the middle, they imitated Christ’s appearance. The Nazarenes were avant-garde, they were popular, and their influence was far-reaching.  Today, not as well-known as the English Pre-Raphaelites but arguably just as rebellious, the Nazarenes were the first anti-academic, anti-establishment movement in 19^th century European art.

 

Gallery 19C’s exhibition will feature a major work by Johann Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869), one of the original founders of the Nazarene movement.   His Banishment of Hagar from 1841 is unquestionably among the most important works by Overbeck to have appeared on the market for decades.  Paintings by Overbeck are extremely rare, as he executed only a few works in oil and most of these are in German museums.  Also highlighting the exhibition are four paintings by Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow (1788-1862), including Saint George slaying the Dragon, circa 1820, which was commissioned from the artist by Princess Marianne of Prussia.  The centerpiece of an enormous fireplace screen, Saint George originally decorated the Princess’s apartments in the Hohenzollern’s city palace in Berlin. The creativity of the Nazarenes finds full expression in two paintings by Joseph Führich (1800-1876) – The Triumph of Christ and Mary’s walk across the Mountains. The Triumph depicts Christ as Salvator Mundi enthroned on a chariot, adored by his Mother.  He is flanked by the four Evangelists shown in the shape of their symbolic animals – Mark, the lion: Luke, the bull: John the eagle and Matthew, the angel, and the four Church Fathers, including St. Jerome and Pope Gregory.  Führich’s depiction of Mary’s walk across the Mountains, depicts the moment Mary, upon learning from the Angel Gabriel that she will give birth to the Son of God, leaves Nazareth to visit her cousin Elizabeth on the other side of the mountains.  This theme, only mentioned in the Gospel of Luke, had attracted little attention as a subject prior to Führich’s interpretation. Rather than showing a naturalistic Holyland terrain, Führich instead chose to imbue the landscape with flora and music-making angels. 

 

The exhibition also includes works by Eduard Julius Bendemann, Julius Benno Hübner, Franz Ittenbach, Johann Richard Seel, Alexander Maximillian Seitz, as well as major examples of German Romantic painting by Johann Anton Koch and Arnold Böcklin.

 

A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition and will feature a comprehensive essay and individual entries for each painting written by Dr. Cordula Grewe, author of The Nazarenes-Romantic Avant-Garde and the Art of the Concept.

Rembrandt broke new ground with lead-based impregnation of canvas for The Night Watch

 

New research has revealed that Rembrandt impregnated the canvas for his famous 1642 militia painting ‘The Night Watch’ with a lead-containing substance even before applying the first ground layer. Such lead-based impregnation has never before been observed with Rembrandt or his contemporaries. The discovery, published today in Science Advances, underlines Rembrandt's inventive way of working,  in which he did not shy away from using new techniques.

The surprising observation is yet another result from Operation Night Watch, the largest and most wide-ranging research and conservation project in the history of Rembrandt’s masterpiece. It resulted from advanced analysis of an actual paint sample taken from the historical painting. First author of the paper is Fréderique Broers, a researcher at the Rijksmuseum and PhD student with professors Katrien Keune (University of Amsterdam), Koen Janssens (University of Antwerp) and Florian Meirer (Utrecht University). Her research forms part of the research project 3D Understanding of Degradation Products in Paintings of the Netherlands Institute for Conservation+Art+Science+ (NICAS), funded by the Dutch Research Council NWO. Broers and coworkers employed a combination of x-ray fluorescence and ptychography to identify and visualize sub-microscale chemical compounds in the lower layers of the canvas. By sampling the small Night Watch paint fragment at DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Hamburg), they discovered the lead-rich layer below the quartz-clay ground layer of the canvas. 

Protection against moisture

It was already known from earlier studies that Rembrandt had used a quartz-clay ground on the Night Watch. In earlier paintings he had used double grounds, consisting of a first ground containing red earth pigments followed by a second lead white containing ground. The large size of The Night Watch may have motivated Rembrandt to look for a cheaper, less heavy and more flexible alternative for the ground layer. Another issue he had to overcome was that the large canvas was intended for a damp outer wall of the great hall of the Kloveniersdoelen (musketeers’ shooting range) in Amsterdam. It had been reported that under humid conditions the common method of preparing the canvas using animal glue could fail. A contemporary source on painting techniques written by Théodore de Mayerne suggested impregnation with lead-rich oil as an alternative. This may have inspired Rembrandt for his unusual impregnation procedure to improve the durability of his masterpiece.

Computational imaging

The presence of this lead-containing ‘layer’ was discovered by the first-ever use of correlated x-ray fluorescence and ptychographic nano-tomography on a historical paint sample. This was performed at the PETRA III synchrotron radiation source at DESY. X-ray fluorescence is used to investigate the distribution of relatively heavy elements (calcium and heavier). Ptychography, a computational imaging technique based on experimentally obtained datasets, is capable of visualizing even the lightest elements and organic fractions. 

Analysis of the micro sample taken from The Night Watch revealed that on the side of the sample closest to the canvas support a homogenous layer of dispersed lead was present in the ground layer. Since lead components were not to be expected in the quartz-clay ground layer, this was a rather puzzling observation. The results were then combined with the lead distribution map of the full Night Watch, obtained by X-ray fluorescence scanning of the painting in the Rijksmuseum’s Gallery of Honour. This map reveals the presence of lead throughout the painting and suggests application using large semi-circular brushstrokes, supporting the assumption that it results from an impregnation procedure. Even an imprint of the original strainer onto which the canvas was stretched when the preparatory layers were applied, is visible in the lead distribution map. This brings us yet another step closer to understanding Rembrandt’s creative process in painting The Night Watch, as well as its current condition. 

Publication details

Fréderique T.H. Broers, Ige Verslype, Koen W. Bossers, Frederik Vanmeert, Victor Gonzalez, Jan Garrevoet, Annelies van Loon, Esther van Duijn, Anna Krekeler, Nouchka De Keyser, Ilse Steeman, Petria Noble, Koen Janssens, Florian Meirer, Katrien Keune: Correlated x-ray fluorescence and ptychographic nanotomography on Rembrandt’s The Night Watch reveals unknown lead “layer”. Science Advances, 15 December 2023. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj9394

Impressionists on Paper: Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec

Royal Academy of Arts 

 25 November 2023 - 10 March 2024  

 The Royal Academy of Arts presents Impressionists on Paper: Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec, an exhibition exploring how Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists in late 19th-century France radically transformed the status of works on paper. During this period, drawings, pastels, watercolours, temperas and gouaches were increasingly perceived as more than just preparatory techniques, and became autonomous works of art, claiming a shared aesthetic with painting. Featuring around 80 works on paper, by artists including Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Eva Gonzalès, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Odilon Redon, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Vincent van Gogh, amongst others, the exhibition focuses on this crucial shift in how these works were viewed.  

The avant-garde artists known as the Impressionists came to prominence during the late 1860s and early 1870s, first exhibiting in Paris as a group in 1874. They shared a concern to depict scenes from everyday life and to address contemporary issues, which encouraged them to challenge traditional attitudes to drawing and seek innovation. Vivid colour, a quick, loose touch, and daring viewpoints, together with a deliberate lack of finish, were their means of capturing the fugitive effects of nature as well as vignettes of modern life. Moreover, the portability of drawing materials greatly facilitated direct observation and the recording of scenes on the spot. 

The eight Impressionist exhibitions, held in Paris between 1874 and 1886, included a large number of works on paper and reflected their shift in status. This was also encouraged by dealers who recognised the economic advantage of exhibiting and selling works on paper.  

The exhibition opens with works from the early years of Impressionism (the 1860s and 1870s), including 

Degas’ enigmatic Woman at a Window, 1870-71 (The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)), executed in essence (oil paint diluted with turpentine), and a delicate study in pastel by Gonzalès, entitled The Bride, 1879 (Private collection). 

The exhibition continues with an examination of the 1880s, when the Impressionists held their last group exhibition in Paris. Works in this section include van Gogh’s The Fortifications of Paris with Houses, 1887 (The Whitworth, The University of Manchester), combining graphite, chalk, watercolour and gouache, and one of Monet’s luminous landscapes in pastel, Cliffs at Etretat: The Needle Rock and Porte d’Aval, c.1885 (National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh).

The exhibition concludes with works from the 1890s and 1900s, which saw an ever-growing appreciation of works on paper and a proliferation of exhibitions of the medium.  It was also a golden age of pastel, exemplified in Degas’ Dancers on a Bench, c.1898 (Glasgow Life Museums, Glasgow), one of his last renderings of a ballet scene. The final section also includes examples of Cézanne’s meditative watercolours, Toulouse-Lautrec’s indelible images of the urban underworld of Montmartre and Redon’s glowing poetic reveries. 

The French avant-garde artists’ interest in drawing and the remarkable range of their production had far-reaching consequences. The hierarchical distinction made between painting and drawing ceased to exist. Freedom of execution and a laissez-faire attitude to materials provided an impetus that allowed the world to be depicted in more imaginative ways, leading to developments in 20th-century art such as Abstract Expressionism. This exhibition offers an insight into the innovations made by Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists in their drawings, which are often still relatively unknown but are no less radical than their paintings.  

Accompanying Publication 

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with texts by Christopher Lloyd, former Surveyor of The Queen’s Pictures; Leïla Jarbouai, Chief Curator at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; the conservator Harriet K. Stratis, formerly of the Art Institute of Chicago; and Ann Dumas, Curator, the Royal Academy of Arts, London. 

Images

Edgar Degas, Dancers on a Bench, c. 1898. Pastel on tracing paper, 53.7 x 75.6 cm. Lent by Glasgow Life (Glasgow Museums) on behalf of Glasgow City Council.  Bequeathed by William McInnes, 1944. Photo: © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection

Georges Seurat, Seated Youth, Study for 'Bathers at Asnières’, 1883. Black conté crayon on laid paper, 31.7 x 24.7 cm. National Galleries of Scotland. Purchased by Private Treaty 1982

Claude Monet, Cliffs at Etretat: The Needle Rock and Porte d’Aval, c. 1885. Pastel on wove paper, 39 x 23 cm. National Galleries of Scotland. Accepted in lieu of Inheritance Tax by H M Government from the estate of Miss Valerie Middleton and allocated to the Scottish National Gallery, 2016

Edgar Degas, After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself, c. 1890-95. Pastel on wove paper laid on millboard, 103.5 x 98.5 cm. The National Gallery, London. Bought, 1959. Photo: © The National Gallery, London

Odilon Redon, Ophelia Among the Flowers, c. 1905-08. Pastel, 64 x 91 cm, The National Gallery, London. Bought with a contribution from the Art Fund, 1977. Photo: © The National Gallery, London

Edgar Degas, Dancer Seen from Behind, c. 1873. Essence (diluted oil paint) on prepared pink paper, 28.4 x 32 cm. Collection of David Lachenmann

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Circus: The Encore, 1899. Black and coloured chalks on paper, 35.5 x 25 cm. Collection of David Lachenmann

Vincent van Gogh, The Fortifications of Paris with Houses, 1887. Graphite, black chalk, watercolour and gouache on paper, 38.7 x 53.4 cm. Photo: © The Whitworth, The University of Manchester. Photography: Michael Pollard

Federico Zandomeneghi, Study of a Woman from Behind, 1890-97. Pastel on cardboard, 48 x 38 cm. Galleria D'Arte Moderna, Milan. Photo: © Comune di Milano – All Rights Reserved

Mary Cassatt, Portrait de Marie-Thérèse Gaillard, 1894. Pastel on paper, 51 x 54 cm. Private collection. Photo: © 2007 Christie’s Images Limited