March 2012
Vienna Celebrates Klimt’s 150th Birthday
Jazz Performers Work Their Magic Just Outside Paris
The Banlieues Bleues Jazz Festival takes
place this year from March 11 to April 13.
The Paris jazz festival takes the northern towns of St
Denis, Pantin and others by storm every year in the early spring, proffering a
dizzying program of jazz talents from around the world.
It features a full roster of performances from new and
established artists from around the globe, including Spanish Harlem Orchestra,
Napoleon Maddox, Mary Halvorson, Christian Laviso Trio and the Joëlle Léandre
Sudo Quartet. All genres, from Afro-Cuban rhythms, New Orleans style, to acid
and experimental, are represented.
This year's festival takes place at 20 different venues
across the Seine-St-Denis region, making up several towns in Paris' northern
suburbs. Main metro/RER stations include Aubervilliers - Pantin - Quatre
Chemins, Porte de Pantin and Stade de France/St Denis. To reserve tickets,
email bb@banlieuesblues.org or call +33 (0)1 49 22 10 10. Advance
reservations are highly recommended as shows sell out quickly. Website: http://www.banlieuesbleues.org/accueil.php?BB_SSID=562ebb5a185dc9322e7296ddb219d5ca
George Rouault Exhibition Now On At Utah Museum Of Fine Arts
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is currently
presenting Georges Rouault: Cirque de l’Etoile Filante (Circus of the Shooting
Star). The show, an exhibition of etchings and
wood engravings, will be on view in the UMFA Emma Eccles
Jones Education Gallery from February 3 to May 13. The show encourages adults
and children to explore circus themes through art, art making, and programs.
Artist Georges Roualt was fascinated by the circus, a world
where superficial brightness was underscored by overwhelming sadness. The
images in his portfolio of etchings, Cirque de l'Etoile Filante (Circus of the
Shooting Star), demonstrate Rouault's attempt to
reveal the "reflection of paradise lost."
Rouault, La
petite Ecuyere, 1935
On loan to the UMFA from the Syracuse University Art
Galleries, this exhibition comprises color etchings that introduce the
portfolio and wood engravings illustrating Rouault's text. Begun in 1926 and
published in 1938, the portfolio was the product of Rouault's collaboration
with Parisian publisher and art dealer Ambrose Vollard. Their partnership
proved to be one of the most productive in the history of printmaking.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fun-filled family guide
and in-gallery activity. Website: http://umfa.utah.edu /
Flemish Artist Show At Hermitage Amsterdam Extends Its Run
The exhibition ‘Flemish Painters from the Hermitage’ in the
Hermitage Amsterdam will be extended for a further three months until June 15.
Originally set to close in March, the show featuring the work of the great Flemish
painters Rubens, Van Dyck & Jordaens, accompanied by the work of well-known
contemporaries. The show displays a magnificent overview of 75 paintings and
some 20 drawings, including numerous masterpieces by the three great artists of
the Antwerp School of Painting. accompanied by the work of well-known
contemporaries.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) (left)
will be a special focus of the exhibition, represented by 17 paintings and many
drawings. Rubens’s influence and followers will be examined in detail, devoting particular attention
to the elegant and refined portraits of his greatest pupil, Anthony van Dyck
(1599–1641). The third great master of the Flemish school, Jacob Jordaens
(1593–1678), did not study with Rubens but was influenced by him. His
impressive paintings invite viewers to share in his exuberant Flemish joie de
vivre. Even his history paintings have a Flemish ambiance.
It is the first time that this superb collection is being
shown in the Netherlands. Many of these paintings were acquired by Catherine
the Great in the eighteenth century. With the aid of an audio tour, a film, and
computer displays, the exhibition also offers a close look at Flemish art and
the history of the Flemish art collection at the St. Petersburg Hermitage museum.
The vitality of seventeenth-century Antwerp comes to life on a special wall of
the exhibition that shows painters’ studios, churches, and monuments in word
and image. Website: www.hermitage.nl
New Degas Exhibition At Musée d’Orsay Opens March 13
This is the first major exhibition to be
devoted to Edgar Degas (1834-1917) in Paris since the 1988 retrospective at the Grand
Palais. Degas and the nude ties in with the Musée d'Orsay's ambition to
publicize the latest teachings on the great masters of the late nineteenth
century, and follows the institution's homage to Claude Monet (1840-1926) and
Edouard Manet (1832-1883).
This exhibition explores Degas's evolution in his practice
of the nude, from the academic and historical approach of his early years down
to the inscription of the body in modernity throughout his long career. A
Woman Drying
Her Hair After Her Bath
predominant element in the artist's work, together with
dancers and horses, nudes are presented through all of the techniques used by
Degas, including painting, sculpture, drawing, printing and above all pastel,
which he brought to its highest degree of achievement.
Organized in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, the exhibition takes advantage of the very rich collection of graphic
works owned by the Musée d'Orsay, that are seldom shown due to their fragility.
In addition, loans from other museums, including the New York Metropolitan
Museum and the Chicago Art Institute complement the exhibition. The show runs
to July 1. Website: http://www.musee-orsay.fr
Leipzig Hosts A Year
Full Of Highlights
In 2012 the three divisions of the Thomana, Leipzig's oldest
cultural institution – St. Thomas Church (photo), St. Thomas Boys Choir
and St. Thomas School – are celebrating their 800th anniversary. Leipzig
is marking the occasion with an exciting program of events.
A school was annexed to St. Thomas Church in Leipzig 800
years ago, which went on to produce a boys choir of world renown. In return for
their education and keep, the boys sang at church services, baptisms and
weddings. Today the St. Thomas Boys Choir, which represents the choir and the
school as one entity, remains a flagship Leipzig institution.
Throughout 2012
Leipzig will be hosting a wide range of concerts and exhibitions on the theme '800th THOMANA anniversary – have faith, sing, learn'. The Leipzig St.
Thomas Boys Choir has a reputation for musical excellence which goes far beyond
the boundaries of Saxony.
Thanks to the choir's reputation, Leipzig became an
important, highly esteemed center for music, and many famous composers wrote
works especially for the choir. The most famous Thomaskantor is Johann
Sebastian Bach, who held the post from 1723 to 1750. A bronze statue next to
St. Thomas Church commemorates the great composer.
Bach plays a central role in the anniversary celebrations
this year. The 'St. Thomas Choir Network' exhibition will be at Leipzig's Bach
Museum from 16 March to 22 July 2012 and looks at the everyday life of the
choirboys in Bach's time. From 9 May to 31 July 2012, the Bach Museum is
showing an exhibition about Bach's theological works entitled 'Bach - Bible -
Songbook'. It includes two Bibles from Bach's estate, one of which contains the
composer's handwritten notes.
Every year, Leipzig presents a major international music
festival named after Bach. This
year the ten-day festival is from June 7 to
17 and it is devoted entirely to the St. Thomas Choir anniversary. Eminent
musicians such as the present St. Thomas cantor Georg Biller will be performing
the music of Johann Sebastian Bach in locations where that most illustrious
holder of the post once worked. Visiting choirs, such as New York’s famed St.
Thomas Church’s Choir of Gentlemen and Boys (photo) will also perform on June
15 in the Thomaskirche where Johann Sebastian Bach is buried. The choir will
perform two of Bach’s motels as well as music by Johann Kuhnau, Bach’s
predecessor as Thomaskantor.
Annual Philadelphia
Flower Show Transforms Into A Mini Hawaii In 2012
In 2012, the Pennsylvania Horticultural
Society will take visitors on a trip to a whole new Philadelphia International
Flower Show. Hawaii: Islands of Aloha, this year’s rallying theme, will
introduce a tropical experience that blends next-stage digital technology with
the natural beauty and rich culture of the islands, and so much more. Popularly
referred to as the Nation’s Flower Show, this year’s presentation will take
place March 4 to11 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in center city.
The islands will be celebrated in showcase gardens that
highlight their culture through flowers and landscapes, performances and art.
Guests will have fun, learn more, and be wowed by real-time floral
competitions, the world’s largest lettuce wall, internationally renowned
speakers, and a whole new layout of displays. They will also navigate the Show
and take home ideas on a new Mobile Application. The Flower Show App for
Smartphone users will provide free maps, schedules, special offers, Show
features, and parking advice. As show organizers say, “this is not your
grandmother’s Flower Show … but she’s going to love it!”
Working with creative wizards from Klip Collective and GMR
Design, Flower Show Executive Director Sam Lemheney tapped into new motion
graphics to magically transform waterfalls into lava flows and sculptural forms
into breaking waves. As visitors enter the halls, they will be transported to a
new world, one with a multi-dimensional sensory experience amid a canopy of
tropical flowers that rivals the Pacific paradise.
The 2012 Flower Show will unveil an expanded Designer’s
Studio, a venue devoted to the introduction of flower varieties and inspiring
designs. Daily competitions by professional and amateur flower arrangers will
be critiqued on the spot by judges and audience members. This participatory
attraction will put the REAL in reality programming.
The 2012 Flower Show also will pay tribute to the talents of
the people of Hawaii in the Hawaii Village, which will offer demonstrations,
crafts and merchandise in the Grand Hall. Shop for handmade, natural items for
home and garden. Other activities reflecting Hawaiian culture during the show
will include hula, music and fire dancing performances, a Family Lounge of
children’s activities, and a “man cave” filled with all the trappings of a
happy island hideaway.
Revenues
from the Flower Show benefit the year-round work of the Pennsylvania
Horticultural Society, and this year will support City Harvest, the innovative
program that brings together a network of urban farmers, provides green job
training, and grows fresh For information and to purchase tickets for the
Flower Show, visit www.theflowershow.com.
For behind-the-scenes stories and previews of the Show, visit the Flower Show
Blog, Facebook and Twitter pages.
Japanese Artist
Takashi Murakami Debuts in the Middle East
For his first exhibition in the Middle East and one of his
largest to date, Japanese artist
Takashi Murakami will immerse visitors in a
fantasy world that captures his distinct perspective on contemporary culture.
Presented by Qatar Museums Authority (QMA), Murakami
– Ego will be on view from February 9 to June 24, 2012 in the Al
Riwaq exhibition space, located next to the Museum of Islamic Art on Doha’s
Corniche in Qatar. The exhibition, which functions as a giant self-portrait and
offers a look inside the artist’s mind, features new monumental works of art, a
variety of multi-media objects and environments, new modes of display, and
important series presented in their entirety for the first time.
Following major retrospectives at the Museum of Contemporary
Art, Los Angeles, and at the Château de Versailles, Murakami – Ego is an exclusive presentation and the final
chapter in the worldwide trilogy of exhibitions that have established Takashi
Murakami as one of the most fascinating artists working today. Curated by
Massimiliano Gioni, the exhibition will feature more than 70 works from 1997 to
the present, on loan from leading international institutions and private
collections, as well as several new works created especially for this show. The
provocative title is drawn from Murakami’s desire to create an exhibition that
is “a dialogue with one’s own ego,” reflecting the artist’s struggle to create
a private fictional universe in response to a growing information overload.
Murakami – Ego features a number of monumental works
in a large, nearly 2,300-square-meter exhibition space, as well as ten
galleries containing focused displays of Murakami’s themes and methods. The
exhibition gives the impression of walking inside a three-dimensional self
portrait, as visitors step inside the mind of an artist that is populated with
hundreds of different characters. The exhibition brings together a number of
important series within the artist’s oeuvre which have never been fully
assembled before, providing a rare opportunity to observe the full scope of the
themes and methods which have defined his work.
Murakami – Ego launches Qatar-Japan 2012, a year-long
series of cultural, sporting and business-related events in Qatar and Japan to
commemorate the enduring friendship between the two countries. The events will
showcase the unique aspects and the shared interests of each culture, promoting
awareness and appreciation of each nation’s achievements.
For the exhibition, Murakami also has been able to realize
his largest painted work to date. Arhat Painting (working title, 2012),
stretches 100 meters, wrapping around three sides of the main gallery space,
and is divided into four 25-meter sections devoted to wind, forest, fire and
mountain. Conceived as a response to the recent natural disasters in Japan, the
work draws on traditional historical painting to create a contemporary monument
to the power of nature in Japanese life. Inspired by paintings produced by
Japanese monks over 600 years ago in response to earthquakes, floods and
political turmoil of the period, the work is a stylistic departure for the
artist. "With the recent disasters, I was able to experience firsthand the
way that such catastrophes have served as the origin point for the spread of
Japanese religion and culture,” says Takashi Murakami. “In the sense that
Japan's artistic tradition developed in the same way, this new piece is for me
a kind of Guernica."
Another grand work created for the exhibition is a massive
circus tent that serves as a theater for Murakami’s recent animated films.
Covered with the artist’s signature Eye pattern, the tent epitomizes how
Murakami uses mass entertainment to convey serious content. A number of the
artist’s inflatable sculptures also are on view, including the actual Kaikai
Kiki balloons featured in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Website: www.qma.org.qa
New Shows At Palazzo Strozzi Highlights Past And Present American Artists
The stately 15th century Palazzo Strozzi, a
landmark in Florence, is now includes the new Center for Contemporary Culture
Strozzina, a must-go destination for lovers of modern art. In March, American
Dreamers. Reality and Imagination in Contemporary American art opens March 3. The exhibition comprises a
reflection on the work of artists who use fantasy, imagination and dreams to
build alternative worlds to the 
increasingly complex reality of life
today. Artists featured include Laura Ball, Adrien Broom, Nick Cave, Will Cotton,
Adam Cvijanovic, Richard Deon, Thomas Doyle, Mandy Greer, Kirsten Hassenfeld,
Patrick Jacobs, Christy Rupp. This exhibition is organized by the CCC Strozzina
in conjunction with the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, New York.
A second exhibition opening March 9 at the Strozzi is Americans
in Florence: Sargent and the American Impressionists.
2012 marks 500 years since the death of the explorer Amerigo
Vespucci,, who was the
first to identify the New World of North and South America
as separate from Asia and from whom America was named. The exhibition is designed to celebrate the strong ties linking
the Old World and the New, and the cosmopolitan ambiance that bound the city to
the New World forever, transmitting European culture and sophistication to America.
The exhibition explores the American impressionists' relationship with Italy,
and with Florence in particular, in the decades spanning the close of the 19th
and dawn of the 20th centuries. The exhibition will contain works by painters
who, while not explicitly subscribing to the new style, were nevertheless
crucial masters for the younger generations: men such as Winslow Homer, William
Morris Hunt, John La Farge and Thomas Eakins. These will be followed by the
great forerunners, artists such as John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt and James
Abbott McNeill Whistler, who could boast of strong cosmopolitan leanings. The
main part of the exhibition will comprise works by artists of remarkable
quality who spent time in Florence and who deserve to be better known. Their
number includes members of the American impressionist group known as the Ten
American Painters: William Merrit Chase, John Henry Twachman and Frederick
Childe Hassam. Franck Duveneck also played an important role in fostering
relations between American and local artists by putting together the “Duveneck
boys“, a group that included his wife Elisabeth Boott and the painter Joseph
Rodefer De Camp.
It will also include the works of American women artists,
who contributed to the cultural osmosis between America and the Old World, a
shining example of this trend being Mary Cassatt. Both shows close July 15.
Website: http://www.strozzina.org/en /
Visual Art Festival Takes
First Place Glasgow This April
Visual art happens all year round in Glasgow but for two
weeks every two years, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art puts it
firmly in the spotlight. This year the biennial Glasgow International Festival
of Visual Art (GI) will take place across the city from April 20 to May 7.
Packed with events, talks and tours as well as major
world-class exhibitions, some by artists living in the city and others by
leading international figures, the GI Festival offers a unique moment in the
British cultural calendar and presents Glasgow’s art scene at its liveliest and
best, including significant commissions of new work such as the major public
art project Lowlands by Susan Philipsz (for which the artist was nominated and
went on to win The Turner Prize 2010.
For a full, event-packed 18 days during 2012, the Festival
will again present some of the best in contemporary art in an array of spaces
and locations, including key venues such as the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA)
and Tramway, through to artist-run collectives and newly discovered spaces in
the city. Website: http://www.glasgowinternational.org
Portugese City Of Guimarães
Named A 2012 European Capital Of Culture
The Portugese city of Guimarães is has been
named a European Capital of Culture in
2012, sharing that designation with the Slovenian town of
Maribor. The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by the European
Union for a period of one calendar year during which it is given a chance to
showcase its cultural life and cultural development. As the first capital of Portugal,
Guimarães is known as the place where the country was born. The historic center
of Guimarães was declared a World Heritage Site in 2001 by UNESCO.
Guimarães is distinguished by its heritage, its inspiring
landscape, its entrepreneurial capacity, its sense of belonging and the
dynamism if its inhabitants. The origin of the city of Guimarães goes back to
the tenth century since it was here, in 1128, the Portuguese nation was founded
and D. Afonso Henriques was recognized as the first king of Portugal.
Guimarães is the seat of a densely populated district with
more than 160 000 inhabitants, and as such is the second largest municipality
outside the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto in terms of residents and
has one of the youngest populations in Europe. Almost 50% of its inhabitants
are less than 30 years old. Alongside the traditional significance of the
textile industry, other sectors have emerged with a higher technological
element and having a significant economic impact, confirming the strategic
importance of the University of Minho as a generator of knowledge and
innovation for the city and the region.
Louvre To Open New
Islamic Arts Wing This Summer
The Louvre is planning to open a new architectural structure
that will house the
museum’s new Arts of Islam galleries this
summer. The structure has a roof designed to look like a floating sheet of
silk, a reference to the Islamic headscarf.
Hailed as the museum’s most important architectural feat
since its glass pyramid debut in 1989, the project that will house the Paris
museum's well regarded collection of Islamic objects, largely neglected in the
past quarter century, was launched by former President Jacques Chirac in 2002.
Six years later his successor, Nicolas Sarkozy, laid the first stone.
The 3,500 square-meter space, including two additional
underground levels, sits in the Louvre's main courtyard. The roof's transparent
composition allows light to pass through, revealing the museum's classical
architecture The new Islamic Arts pavilion will house around 3,000 exhibits,
representing 1,300 years of history and an area covering three continents, from
Spain to India and South-East Asia just beyond.
This is one of the museum’s biggest development projects
since the Grand Louvre renovation and expansion project, symbolized by the
construction of the bold pyramid designed by Ieoh Ming Pei and opened to the
public in 1989. “Islamic Arts had been marginalized for too long, tucked away
in a small section of the museum’s Department of Oriental Antiquities. What we
needed was an appropriate space to showcase one of the most significant
collections of its type in the world,” explains Henri Loyrette, Director of the
Louvre.
Costing around €100 million overall, this vast project was
financed to the tune of 30% by the Louvre and French Government. Other donors
include Saudi Arabia (€17 million), Morocco, Kuwait, Azerbaijan and the
Sultanate of Oman.
Louvre’s Islamic Arts Department: http://www.louvre.fr/en/departments/islamic-art
Clark Art Institute Offers
New Ways To Interact With Its Permanent Collection
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is presenting
its renowned permanent
collection in an entirely new way with
Clark Remix, a dynamic salon-style installation featuring some 80 paintings, 20
sculptures, and 300 of the institute’s finest examples of decorative arts. Two
new interactive programs, uCurate and uExplore, accompany the exhibition,
offering visitors a unique opportunity to actively engage in the curatorial
process and providing virtual access to the Clark’s collection. These
innovative applications will allow visitors to learn more about the collection
using computers, tablets, and touchscreens available in the galleries, or on
their own personal devices. Opening February 12, 2012, Clark Remix will be on
view through 2013 in the Manton Research Center on the Clark’s campus.
Inspired by intimate sixteenth-century Kunstkammern (private displays of art) and visually dynamic
nineteenth-century salon exhibitions, Clark Remix features surprising groupings
of works from different periods and places hung in close proximity. Paintings
of Roman ruins are displayed alongside paintings of American seascapes; a
Renaissance Madonna painting rests amidst femmes fatales; and silver teapots
are displayed opposite bronze ballerinas, inspiring visitors to consider
juxtapositions among the works.
The digital applications uCurate and uExplore spark
inspiration and provide information on the works featured in the exhibition.
Accessible at touchscreens and computer kiosks in the galleries, uCurate
invites users to choose from more than 250 works featured in Clark Remix to
create their own virtual exhibitions in a 3D version of one of the Clark’s
special exhibition galleries. Users are afforded the opportunity to make
decisions about their installations in much the same way that curators design
an exhibition: choosing which works to incorporate, the arrangement of works on
walls and on pedestals, the color of the walls, and the development of an
introductory curator’s statement. Users may post their designs on the Clark
website and share them online via social media outlets.
silver objects made for aristocratic English sideboards
confront the more restrained but equally proud wares made in the American
colonies; dainty teacups and saucers surround boldly modeled bronze ballerinas;
an English milk jug once owned by Benjamin Franklin sits beside salt dishes
balanced on the backs of grasshoppers. Website: www.clarkart.edu
