PARIS, FRANCE.- Musée d’Orsay presents today Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918), on view through February 3rd, 2008. This exhibition has been jointly organised by the Réunion des musées nationaux with the support of Pro Helvetia, Swiss Foundation for culture. Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) is the first exhibition in France of the painter’s work, since the monograph organised for him in 1983 at the Musée du Petit Palais in Paris. This temporary exhibition, part of the programme started by the museum in 1995 for exhibiting great artists from foreign schools, comes two years after the Musée d’Orsay acquired one of the artist’s major paintings, Le Bûcheron (The Woodcutter, 1910). Over the last twenty years, studies and exhibitions devoted to Hodler have highlighted new aspects of his work (the preparation and publication of an annotated catalogue, exhibitions in Geneva, Zurich, Munich, etc). The exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay aims to redefine the sources and the ge ... More
November 14, 1840 - Monet was born on the fifth floor of 45 rue Laffitte, in the ninth arrondissement of Paris. was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise. During the early 1880's Monet painted several groups of landscapes and seascapes in what he considered to be campaigns to document the French countryside. His extensive campaigns evolved into his series' paintings. In the 1880s and 1890s, Monet worked on "series" paintings, in which a subject was depicted in varying light and weather conditions. His first series exhibited as such was of Haystacks, painted from different points of view and at different times of the day. Fifteen of the paintings were exhibited at the Durand-Ruel in 1891. He later produced series of paintings of Rouen Cathedral, poplars, the Houses of Parliament, mornings on the Seine, and the water-lilies on his property at Giverny. Monet was exceptionally fond of painting controlled nature: his own garden in Giverny, with its water lilies, pond, and bridge. He also painted up and down the banks of the Seine.Monet died of lung cancer on December 5, 1926 at the age of 86 and is buried in the Giverny church cemetery. Monet had insisted that the occasion be simple; thus, only about fifty people attended the ceremony. (www.wikipedia.org)
November 13, 1903 - Pissarro died in Éragny-sur-Epte on November 13, 1903 and was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. He was a French Impressionist painter. His importance resides not only in his visual contributions to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, but also in his patriarchal standing among his colleagues, particularly Paul Cézanne. Known as the "Father of Impressionism", Pissarro painted rural and urban French life, particularly landscapes in and around Pontoise, as well as scenes from Montmartre. His mature work displays an empathy for peasants and laborers, and sometimes evidences his radical political leanings. He was a mentor to Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin and his example inspired many younger artists, including Californian Impressionist Lucy Bacon. Pissarro's influence on his fellow Impressionists is probably still underestimated; not only did he offer substantial contributions to Impressionist theory, but he also managed to remain on friendly, mutually respectful terms with such difficult personalities as Edgar Degas, Cézanne and Gauguin. Pissarro exhibited at all eight of the Impressionist exhibitions. Moreover, whereas Monet was the most prolific and emblematic practitioner of the Impressionist style, Pissarro was nonetheless a primary developer of Impressionist technique. Pissarro experimented with Neo-Impressionist ideas between 1885 and 1890. Discontented with what he referred to as "romantic Impressionism," he investigated Pointillism which he called "scientific Impressionism" before returning to a purer Impressionism in the last decade of his life. (www.wikipedia.org)
November 12, 1996 - The Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart was opened in 1996 as the new »museum for the present« of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, following a lengthy phase of reconstruction and conversion orchestrated by the architect Josef Paul Kleihues. Built in 1847 as the terminal of the Hamburg-Berlin railroad line, and converted into a transport and building museum in 1906, the Hamburger Bahnhof – following more than four decades of dereliction in the aftermath of World War II – had now found a new calling within the association of state museums. As a museum for the present, the Hamburger Bahnhof’s profile extends beyond the presentation of fine arts to encompass a range of aspects which have come to be associated with art in contemporary society: media, everyday culture, discussions, music, performances, and readings.The Joseph Beuys Media Archive, which is incorporated into the Hamburger Bahnhof, plays a central role in the realisation of this objective. The archive’s main task is to collect and archive existing film and sound material by and about Beuys, and to make this material available to the public. This video shows Joseph Beuys´ Untitled from 1970.
November 11, 1976 - American painter and sculptor Alexandre Calder died in New York shortly following the opening of another major retrospective show at the Whitney Museum. Calder had been working on a third plane, entitled Tribute to Mexico, when he died. Also known as Sandy Calder, he was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing the mobile. In addition to mobile and stabile sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys and tapestry and designed carpets. On January 10, 1977, Calder was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, by President Gerald Ford. (www.wikipedia.org)
November 10, 1925 - He was born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr. in the village of Pontrhydyfen, Wales, near Port Talbot and grew up in a poor, Welsh-speaking household, the twelfth of thirteen children. He was at one time the highest-paid actor in Hollywood. Known for his distinctive voice, he was nominated seven times for Academy Awards for acting, but never won. These are but a few moments of the 20th Century Fox four hour spectacular epic 'Cleopatra' taken from film trailers and other media promotions representing the romance between Marc Antony (Richard Burton) and Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor). Also, it is a reflection of the Egyptian style and culture that seems to be making a comeback into our society. Some of the hairstyles, make-up and clothing of today have origins dating back to this era. (www.wikipedia.org)
November 9, 1853 - American architect Stanford White was born. He was a partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a long series of houses for the rich and the very rich, and various public, institutional, and religious buildings, some of which can be found to this day in places like Sea Gate, Brooklyn. His design principles embodied the "American Renaissance". He designed and decorated Fifth Avenue mansions for the Astors, the Vanderbilts (in 1905), and other high society families. His Washington Square Arch still stands in Washington Square Park, and so do many of his clubs, which were focal points of New York society: the Century, Metropolitan, Players, Lambs, Colony and Harmony clubs. Designed by renowned architect Stanford White, the Gould Memorial Library at Bronx Community College is considered by many to be not only a shining example of neo-classical architecture, but White's most significant work. More than a century after it was built, BCC is working to revitalize the 19th century treasure for full use in the 21st century academic environment. " In 1906 White was murdered by millionaire Harry K. Thaw, leading to a widely-reported trial.
November 8, 1793 - Upon the French Revolution, the royal Louvre collection (supplemented by the collections of the French Academy and confiscations from the Church and from émigrés) became the "Muséum central des Arts" and opened as such in 1793. The Louvre (French: Musée du Louvre) in Paris, France, is the most visited and one of the oldest, largest, and most famous art galleries and museums in the world. The Louvre has a long history of artistic and historic conservation, inaugurated in the Capetian dynasty and continuing to this day. The building was previously a royal palace and holds some of the world's most famous works of art, such as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, Madonna of the Rocks, Jacques Louis David's Oath of the Horatii, Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People and Alexandros of Antioch's Venus de Milo. Located in the centre of the city of Paris, between the Rive Droite of the Seine and the rue de Rivoli in the Ier arrondissement, it is accessed by the Palais Royal — Musée du Louvre Metro station. The equestrian statue of Louis XIV constitutes the starting point of the "axe historique", but the palace is not aligned on this axis. With 8.3 million visitors in 2006, the Louvre is the most visited art museum in the world. (www.wikipedia.org)
November 7, 1929 - The idea for the Museum of Modern Art was developed in 1928 primarily by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (wife of John D. Rockefeller Jr.) and two of her friends, Lillie P. Bliss and Mrs Cornelius J. Sullivan. They became known variously as "the Ladies", "the daring ladies" and "the adamantine ladies". They rented modest quarters for the new museum and it opened to the public on November 7, 1929, nine days after the Wall Street Crash. Abby had invited A. Conger Goodyear, the former president of the board of trustees of the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, to become president of the new museum. Abby became treasurer. At the time, it was America's premier American museum devoted exclusively to modern art, and the first of its kind in Manhattan to exhibit European modernism. Goodyear enlisted Paul J. Sachs and Frank Crowninshield to join him as founding trustees. Sachs, the associate director and curator of prints and drawings at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, was referred to in those days as a collector of curators. Goodyear asked him to recommend a director and Sachs suggested Alfred H. Barr Jr., a promising young protege. Under Barr's guidance, the museum's holdings quickly expanded from an initial gift of eight prints and one drawing. Its first successful loan exhibition was in November 1929, displaying paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, and Seurat. (www.wikipedia.org)
November 6, 1893 - Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky died. He was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. While not part of the nationalistic music group known as "The Five", Tchaikovsky wrote music which was distinctly Russian: plangent, introspective, often modal-sounding. This video features Piano Concerto N 1, III Alegro con fuono, played at The Philharmonie Berlin on October 31, 1988 directed by Herbert von Karajan. Tchaikovsky wrote several works well known among the general classical public—Romeo and Juliet, the 1812 Overture and Marche Slave. These, along with two of his concertos and three of his latter symphonies, are probably his most familiar works, thanks in part to Tchaikovsky's considerable gift for melody, along with the emotional accessibility of his music. Tchaikovsky is well known for his ballets, although it was only in his last years, with his last two ballets, that his contemporaries came to really appreciate his finer qualities as ballet music composer. His final ballet, The Nutcracker, has become among the most popular ballets performed, primarily around Christmas time. He also completed ten operas, although one of these is mostly lost and another exists in two significantly different versions. In the West his most famous operas are Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades. (www.wikipedia.org)
November 5, 1913 - Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley in Darjeeling, West Bengal, British India. She won two Academy Awards for playing "southern belles": Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939) and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), a role she had also played in London's West End. She was a prolific stage performer, frequently in collaboration with her husband, Laurence Olivier, who directed her in several of her roles. During her thirty-year stage career, she played parts that ranged from the heroines of Noël Coward and George Bernard Shaw comedies to classic Shakespearean characters such as Ophelia, Cleopatra, Juliet and Lady Macbeth. Lauded for her beauty, Leigh felt that it sometimes prevented her from being taken seriously as an actress, but ill health proved to be her greatest obstacle. Affected by bipolar disorder for most of her adult life, she gained a reputation for being a difficult person to work with, and her career went through periods of decline. She was further weakened by recurrent bouts of tuberculosis, with which she was first diagnosed in the mid-1940s. She and Olivier divorced in 1960, and Leigh worked sporadically in film and theatre until her death from tuberculosis. (www.wikipedia.org)
November 4, 1946 - American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe was born in New York. He was known for his large-scale, highly stylized black & white portraits, photos of flowers and male nudes. The frank, erotic nature of some of the work of his middle period triggered a more general controversy about the public funding of artworks. Mapplethorpe made most of his photographs in the studio. Common themes were flowers, especially orchids; portraits of famous individuals, including Andy Warhol, Deborah Harry, Richard Gere, Peter Gabriel, Grace Jones, and Patti Smith (Patti Smith's portrait was inspired by Durer's 1500 self-portrait) and nude works that include homoerotic imagery from classic nudes to sadistic and masochistic acts. Mapplethorpe is best known for his Portfolio X series, which sparked national attention because of its explicit content and the funding of the effort by the NEA, When it became known that Mapplethorpe was infected with HIV, the prices for his photos increased dramatically. In December 1988 his photos collected $500,000 each. Mapplethorpe died on the morning of March 9, 1989, in a Boston, Massachusetts hospital from complications arising from AIDS; he was 42 years old. His ashes were buried in Queens, New York, in his mother's grave, marked 'Maxey'. (www.wikipedai.org)
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LONDON.- Christie's is pleased to announce the first ever European auction of Modern and Contemporary Australian Art to be held on 12 December 2007 in London. Showcasing the scope of Australian art from Impressionist and Post War Art through to the present day, the 98 lot sale will include important works by masters of the field including Frederick McCubbin, Sidney Nolan, Charles ... More
Os Gemeos - The fish that ate shooting stars (detail) (2006).
SITTARD, THE NETHERLANDS.- Museum Het Domein presents Os Gemeos - The flowers in this garden were planted by my grandparents, a solo exhibition Contemporary Art with installations, paintings and murals. 'The flowers in this garden were planted by my grandparents' is the first solo exhibition in the Netherlands of Brazilian twin brothers Os Gemeos. ‘The Twins’ (1974, São Paulo), ... More
Fanny Sanin, Acrylic No. 2 (detail), 2005; Acrylic on canvas, 54” x 52”.
ROME.- Instituto Italo-Latino Americano presents The Chromatic Structures of Fanny Sanin, 1974-2007, on view December 4, 2007 until January 11, 2008. “For the city of Rome, accustomed to great artists, it will be a privilege to receive the Colombian master painter Fanny Sanin at the Gallery of the Instituto Italo-Latino Americano. After a few minutes of attentively examining the ... More
BERLIN.- Daadgalerie presents Guy Ben-Ner - Stealing Beauty, on view 1 December 2007 – 31 Januar 2008. Guy Ben-Ner gained widespread recognition with his filmic installations of scenes set and recorded in restricted spaces, e.g. the artist’s kitchen. Without the use of elaborate props, the artist and his family appear in these films as actors. In his works, Guy Ben-Ner investigates and ... More
DUBLIN, IRELAND.- The first solo exhibition in Ireland by the leading young German artist Thomas Scheibitz opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday 14 November 2007. about 90 Elements/TOD IM DSCHUNGEL comprises some 30 new paintings, sculptures and works on paper, all direct from the artist’s studio. It also includes a new architectural build ... More
Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, El salto mortal, 2007, Pencil on paper, waxed, 24,5 x 17 cm. Images courtesy Sprovieri Progetti.
LONDON.- Sprovieri Progetti presents Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, on view November 30 - January 31 2008. Demons, ghosts, creatures of myth and gloomy dreams reawaken in the diminutive drawings of Sandra Vásquez de la Horra. Born in Viña del Mar in Chile in 1967, the artist will exhibit her visionary, wax coated works at Sprovieri Progetti for her first solo show in the UK. ... More
Art Museum Announces Long-Term Endowment Fund MYRTLE BEACH, SC.- The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum announces the establishment of an endowment fund, the first in the Museum’s history. The endowment fund was created from funds given to the Museum earlier this year in the form of a Charitable Remainder Unitrust created by longtime museum supporter Dr. Richard Lee Jackson. ... More
Arno Rafael Minkkinen: Self-Portraits NEW YORK.- Arno Rafael Minkkinen: Self-Portraits from Four Decades will be on view at Barry Friedman Ltd, November 15–December 22, 2007. The exhibition is a survey of the Finnish American photographer's striking images from 1971 to a broad selection of new works never seen before. An opening reception will be held on November 16 from 6 - 9 PM at the gallery's new Chelsea location at ... More
Beyond Icons: Contemporary Chinese Art in Miami MIAMI.- Beyond Icons: Contemporary Chinese Art in Miami, an exhibition featuring the work of eight artists will be presented in the Miami Design District, from December 6 - 9, as part of the Art Loves Design exhibitions, during Art Basel Miami Beach. An opening reception will be held December 6, from 7 p.m. – midnight, at the exhibition space, located at the Newton Building, 3901 NE ... More
PhotoGallery / Giorgio de Chirico and Greece: Voyage through Memory at The Onassis Cultural Center