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Showing posts from March, 2024

Opening and Closing in August

Jean-François Millet -- one of the most influential artists of the 19th century with his depictions of toiling country folk -- is the subject of a free exhibition in just one room at London's National Gallery that opens on August 7. Millet: Life on the Land  mainly features work from British museums, but has a star attraction in the shape of  L’Angélus from the Musée d'Orsay. On until October 19.  In eastern Germany, Chemnitz is one of this year's European capitals of culture, and one of the major exhibitions on their programme starts on August 10. Edvard Munch -- Angst  in the Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz will recall, in part, a visit by Munch to Chemnitz 120 years ago. And, of course, there'll be a version of The Scream . Until November 2.  On the other side of the country, a rather different offering at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn: an exhibition devoted to the German filmmaker Wim Wenders, creator of Wings of Desire and Paris, Texas , and marking his 8...
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The Artists Are in Revolt

The revolution won't happen overnight, but it's coming. And it will take place in 1874, when the rebels who'll become known as the Impressionists hold their first exhibition in Paris.  To see how the Impressionists got there, and what they were rebelling against, we've come to Cologne, and the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, for an utterly enjoyable exhibition about the art of the 1860s and 70s that found official approval from the French state and from the traditionalist critics -- and the art that didn't. The show is entitled  1863 Paris 1874: Revolution in Art -- From the Salon to Impressionism , and this is the striking image that greets you as you enter, a painting that we've never seen before (it belongs to the Spanish central bank ) but which seems to sum up the entire topic for you in one go.  The Catalan artist Pere Borrell del Caso actually created this trompe l'oeil in 1874, completely independently of the Impressionists. It wasn't originally called ...
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Give Women Painters a Chance!

You know Rembrandt, Watteau and Monet, reads the introduction at the start of  Maestras: Women Masters 1500-1900 at the Arp Museum on the River Rhine. But, it asks, do you also know Fede Galizia, Anne Vallayer-Coster or Marie Bracquemond?  You'll see a few of their paintings in this show. As well as work by Giovanna Garzoni, Rachel Ruysch and Helene Funke too. And they're fantastic pictures, some of them, works that make you go "wow". But will you have learned any more about the artists by the time you've been round, will you know much about them? Perhaps a little bit. But the presentation here is really rather strange. The wall captions only give the picture title, the artist and dates, and the detail of where it's on loan from. There's no discussion of subject matter, context, technique, style or the artist's background at all. An audio guide does provide further information on some pictures and their creators, but the English commentary is delivere...
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It's All About the Pose.... and the Clothes

Go and see John Singer Sargent's paintings at Tate Britain and you come away with the impression of Sargent as an incredibly savvy stylist and promoter of his sitters -- the elite of London, Paris, New York and Boston. That's not to downplay his talent as an artist, because  Sargent and Fashion   shows he was brilliantly skilled, producing images with real staying power. You may not know much now about the people -- then famous -- he painted more than a century ago, but the pictures themselves still exert a fascination.  Flamboyant -- that's perhaps the adjective to use when describing Sargent's most striking works, and flamboyant's definitely the word for Dr Pozzi at Home .  Samuel-Jean Pozzi was a Parisian gynaecologist, with links to avant-garde art circles. You might expect a late 19th-century professional to be portrayed in a dark suit, but Sargent shows Dr Pozzi in a crimson dressing gown, wearing Turkish slippers. Standing in front of red curtain, it's as...
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