« Au Temps de Klimt : La Sécession à Vienne » à la Pinacothèque de Paris

Mots-clefs

1897-1898, Au restaurant du jardin, Autoportrait au haut de forme, Bosquet de bouleaux au crépuscule, Broche, Bruno Grimschitz, c. 1890, c. 1893, c. 1898, c. 1900-1905, c. 1902, c.1915, Carl Moll, Chasse fantastique, Femme à la cheminée, Feu follet, Francesca da Rimini et Paolo, Franz von Stuck, Frise Beethoven, Gustav Klimt, Herbert Boeckl, Jeune Homme debout, Josef Engelhart, Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, L'Heldenplatz avec des lilas, Le trésorier, modèle n° G 1035, modèle n° G368, Oskar Kokoschka, Pinacothèque de Paris, Portrait de jeune fille de face

Au Temps de Klimt : La Sécession à Vienne : Affiche © Belvédère, Vienne © Conception graphique: Serge Perraudin – Grapholon.com

PARIS – La Pinacothèque de Paris, en partenariat avec Arthemisia Group et 24 ORE Cultura – Gruppo 24 ORE, souhaite revenir sur un aspect essentiel de l’Art nouveau qui s’est développé à Vienne au début du XXème siècle sous le nom de Sécession. Le rôle de Gustav Klimt dans l’éclosion de ce mouvement est majeur. Le talent et le brio de cet artiste, de ses débuts précoces à ses excés décoratifs où les dorures et l’expressionnisme naissant dominent, sont le socle d’une période nouvelle qui s’est épanouie à Vienne au tournant du siècle. Ce mouvement artistique est en effet à l’origine de la naissance, quelques années plus tard, de l’un des courants majeurs de l’art moderne, l’expressionnisme, qui a fait l’objet d’une exposition au musée en 2011.

Josef Engelhart, Au restaurant du jardin, c. 1893, Huile sur bois, 28 x 26 cm. © Belvédère, Vienne

L’exposition Au Temps de Klimt, la Sécession à Vienne raconte en détail ce développement de l’art viennois de la fin du XIXème siècle, début de la Sécession viennoise, jusqu’aux premières années de l’expressionnisme.

Ernst Klimt, Francesca da Rimini et Paolo, c. 1890, Huile sur toile, 125 x 95 cm. © Belvédère, Vienne

Le coeur de l’exposition s’appuie sur une sélection des travaux majeurs de Gustav Klimt, de ses premières années d’études jusqu’aux grandes oeuvres de son âge d’or comme Judith I (1901) ou la Frise Beethoven, oeuvre monumentale reconstituée à l’échelle et présentée pour la première fois en France.

Gustav Klimt, Judith, 1901, Huile sur toile, 84 x 42 cm. © Belvédère, Vienne

Gustav Klimt, Reconstitution de la Frise Beethoven, 1985, Technique mixte sur plâtre sur chaume, 216 x 3438 cm. © Belvédère, Vienne

Gustav Klimt, Reconstitution de la Frise Beethoven (détails), 1985, Technique mixte sur plâtre sur chaume, 216 x 3438 cm. Photos A.R.T.

Gustav Klimt, Reconstitution de la Frise Beethoven, 1985, Technique mixte sur plâtre sur chaume, 216 x 3438 cm. © Belvédère, Vienne

Gustav Klimt, Reconstitution de la Frise Beethoven (détails), 1985, Technique mixte sur plâtre sur chaume, 216 x 3438 cm. Photos A.R.T.

Gustav Klimt, Reconstitution de la Frise Beethoven, 1985, Technique mixte sur plâtre sur chaume, 216 x 3438 cm. © Belvédère, Vienne

Gustav Klimt, Reconstitution de la Frise Beethoven (détails), 1985, Technique mixte sur plâtre sur chaume, 216 x 3438 cm. Photos A.R.T.

Gustav Klimt, Reconstitution de la Frise Beethoven, 1985, Technique mixte sur plâtre sur chaume, 216 x 3438 cm. © Belvédère, Vienne

Gustav Klimt, Reconstitution de la Frise Beethoven (détails), 1985, Technique mixte sur plâtre sur chaume, 216 x 3438 cm. Photos A.R.T.

Gustav Klimt, Reconstitution de la Frise Beethoven, 1985, Technique mixte sur plâtre sur chaume, 216 x 3438 cm. © Belvédère, Vienne

Gustav Klimt, Reconstitution de la Frise Beethoven (détail), 1985, Technique mixte sur plâtre sur chaume, 216 x 3438 cm.

Gustav Klimt, Reconstitution de la Frise Beethoven (détails), 1985, Technique mixte sur plâtre sur chaume, 216 x 3438 cm. Photos A.R.T.

Un ensemble de documents rares ayant trait à la vie de l’artiste, à sa famille et à ses frères Ernst et Georg, artistes comme lui, avec lesquels Gustav a souvent collaboré, accompagne le visiteur tout au long de l’exposition.

Ernst Klimt, Bébé sur un sofa, 1885, Huile sur toile, Collection privée. Photo A.R.T.

Une attention toute particulière est par ailleurs portée aux premières années de la Sécession et à l’influence exercée sur la formation de l’artiste par les grands intellectuels viennois comme Carl Schuch, Tina Blau, Théodor Hörmann, Josef Engelhart, Max Kurzweil, qui, tout comme lui, ont séjourné à Paris à cette époque. Les personnalités artistiques ayant influencé son art sont évoquées grâce à un choix de peintures provenant du Belvédère, présentées à côté d’oeuvres racontant l’histoire des mécènes du mouvement. L’exposition présente ainsi d’importants chefs-d’oeuvre de la Sécession et de l’avant-garde autrichienne, tels les premières oeuvres d’Egon Schiele et d’Oskar Kokoschka.

Koloman Moser, Forêt de pins en hiver, c. 1907, Huile sur toile, 55,5 x 45,5 cm. © Belvedere, Vienne.

Carl Moll, L’Heldenplatz avec des lilas, c. 1900-1905, Huile sur toile, 60x60cm © Belvedere, Vienne.

Carl Moll, Bosquet de bouleaux au crépuscule, c. 1902, Huile sur toile, 80 x 80 cm. © Belvedere, Vienne.

Gustav Klimt, Femme à la cheminée, 1897-1898, Huile sur toile, 41 x 66 cm. © Belvedere, Vienne.

Gustav Klimt, Portrait de jeune fille de face, c. 1898, Huile sur carton, 38 x 34 cm. Prêt permanent d’une collection privée © Belvedere, Vienne.

Gustav Klimt, Feu follet, 1903, Huile sur toile, 52 x 60 cm, Collection privée européenne, Londres. © Alfred Weidinger

Une dernière section de l’exposition est consacrée aux arts viennois, aux anciens et raffinés métiers de l’artisanat d’art, qui ont donné naissance à des pièces de mobilier et des bijoux précieux, à de splendides céramiques, mais aussi à de complexes reconstructions d’oeuvres et de riches documents historiques, témoignages de la genèse et de l’évolution de grands artistes et d’architectes de cette époque tels Adolf Loos, Josef Hoffmann et à l’Atelier viennois.

 Josef Hoffmann (conception), 3 broches © Galerie bei der Albertina – Zetter, Vienne

Josef Hoffmann (conception), Broche, modèle n° G 1035, 1909, Argent, or, malachite, lapis-lazuli, opale, corail et améthyste, 5,1 x 5,5 cm, Collection privée. © Galerie bei der Albertina Zetter, Vienne

Josepf Hoffmann (conception), Broche, modèle n° G368, 1905. Argent, corail, lapis-lazuli, malachite et pierre de lune, 4,6 x 4,6 cm © Galerie bei der Albertina – Zetter, Vienne

L’exposition présente plus de 180 oeuvres issues des collections du musée du Belvédère de Vienne ainsi que de collections privées. Le commissariat de l’exposition est assuré par Alfred Weidinger, conservateur au musée du Belvédère de Vienne.

Du 12 Février au 21 Juin 2015

Josef Engelhart, Autoportrait au haut de forme, 1892, Huile sur bois © Belvedere, Vienne.

Franz von Stuck, Chasse fantastique, c. 1890, Huile sur toile. Collection Galerie Katharina Büttiker, Art Nouveau – Art Deco, Zurich.

Gustav Klimt, Portrait féminin, c. 1804, Huile sur toile, Belvédère, Vienne (Prêt permanent d’une collection privée). © Belvedere, Vienne.

Gustav Klimt, Portrait féminin, c. 1804, Huile sur toile, Belvédère, Vienne (Prêt permanent d’une collection privée). Photo A.R.T.

Gustav Klimt, Etude de tête féminine sur fond rouge, 1897-1898, Huile sur toile, Klimt Fondation, Vienne. Photo A.R.T.

Herbert Boeckl, Bruno Grimschitz, 1915, Huile sur toile © Belvedere, Vienne.

Herbert Boeckl, Bruno Grimschitz, 1915, Huile sur toile, Détail. Photo A.R.T.

Koloman Moser, Jeune Homme debout, c. 1915, Huile sur toile © Belvedere, Vienne.

Oskar Kokoschka, Le trésorier, 1910, Huile sur toile © Belvedere, Vienne.

Raoul Dufy in Madrid at Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

Mots-clefs

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Raoul Dufy

MADRID – Between 17 February and 17 May 2015 the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza will be holding the first major retrospective on Raoul Dufy in Madrid since the one presented at the Casa de las Alhajas in 1989. The exhibition, which is benefiting from the collaboration of the Comunidad de Madrid, will offer a comprehensive survey of the entire career of this French artist through 93 works loaned from private collections and museums, including the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tate, London, and an exceptional loan of 36 works from the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Although principally featuring oil paintings, the exhibition will also include drawings and watercolours in addition to textiles and ceramics designed by Dufy during the course of his long and prolific career of more than half a century.

Raoul Dufy’s work possesses a complexity that has frequently gone unnoticed. His popular scenes of regattas and horse races meant that by the late 1920s critics and art historians already referred to his work as essentially agreeable and light-hearted. Without ignoring the existence of an undeniably hedonistic facet in his work, the present exhibition moves away from this interpretation in order to reveal the slow evolution of the artist’s particular language, his ongoing quest for new visual solutions and above all, his more introspective side.

Juan Ángel López-Manzanares, the exhibition’s curator and a curator at the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza, has devised a chronologically ordered structure for the exhibition, which follows the development of Dufy’s painting through four sections: his early work (From Impressionism to Fauvism); the period when the influence of Cézanne led him towards Cubism (The Constructive Period); his output as a designer of textiles and ceramics (Decorative Designs); and finally, his mature phase (The Light of Colours).

The exhibition opens with the animated scenes of harbours and markets that Dufy painted in Normandy, as well as in Marseilles and Martigues when he visited the Midi in 1903. In 1905 he moved away from these subjects, gradually lightening his palette and loosening his brushstroke in order to depict scenes of leisure activities in bright sunlight.

While Dufy acknowledged his debt to Impressionism, he soon appreciated the need to go beyond it. He recounted how, when painting on the beach at Sainte-Adresse, he realised the impossibility of capturing the continuous changes of light: “This method of copying nature led me towards the infinite, towards meanders, towards the smallest and most fleeting details. And I was left out of the painting.” While Monet, Sisley and Pissarro had aimed to capture the impressions of the retina on their canvases, the new generation of artists aspired to something more than mere visual satisfaction.

Dufy was impressed by Matisse’s paintings at the 1905 Salon des Indépendants. This discovery led him to change direction in his work: “[…] for me Impressionist realism lost all its charms when I saw the miracle of imagination introduced into drawing and colour. I suddenly grasped the new mechanic of painting.” During the summer of 1906 Dufy fully assimilated the Fauve idiom. In his views of the beach at Sainte-Adresse and of the port and streets of Le Havre decorated with flags for the 14th of July, Dufy gradually abandoned a vibrating brushstroke in order to convey the light through broad zones of colour. His palette became more intense and he abandoned the use of black shadows, replacing them with blue and mauve tones. The aim was no longer to faithfully reproduce exterior reality but to offer a lyrical interpretation of nature in order to arouse emotions through colour.

The Constructive Period
Like many artists of his day, Dufy was profoundly moved by the paintings by Paul Cézanne that he saw in the Salon d’Automne and at the Bernheim Jeune gallery in Paris in 1907. Cézanne’s influence is evident in the orthogonal lines and simplified forms of Boats in Martigues (1907-1908) and in the canvases that Dufy painted in L’Estaque during the summer of 1908 in the company of Georges Braque. The latter reveal the use of much more geometrical forms, a limited colour range and the use of a Cézanne-like constructive brushstroke. In contrast to Braque, however, Dufy did not pursue the path of Cubism but rather experimented with his own language while reviving his earlier interest in colour, as evident in one of the most notable works of this period, The Large Bather (1914).

This section presents for the first time a selection of the drawings that Dufy produced for
Apollinaire’s Bestiary or the Parade of Orpheus, considered one of the first masterpieces of the livre d’artiste. Combining pagan and Christian motifs, the illustrations that Dufy produced for this text are inspired by Medieval and Renaissance works and assist the reader in understanding the essential meaning of Apollinaire’s poetic.

Dufy had already proved himself a skilled printmaker with his first woodcuts of 1907-1908, a technique that Apollinaire considered particularly appropriate for accompanying the quatrains and five- and six-line stanzas in which the Bestiary (his first book of verse) is written. This selection of drawings loaned by the Centre Pompidou allows visitors to appreciate the highly meditated process of the book’s creation while also offering a close-up insight into the working process of a great draughtsman possessed of an impressively secure line and decorative facility.

Decorative Designs
Dufy’s illustrations and prints were the forerunners of a new creative adventure on which he embarked in 1909 when he met the fashion designer Paul Poiret, then later signed a contract with the Bianchini-Férier textile company which lasted from 1912 to 1928. For Dufy, textile design was a continuation of his experiences with printmaking as well as a field for free experimentation with colour. His initial designs reminiscent of his prints gave way to floral and animal patterns in which he liberated himself from his constructivist aesthetic and rediscovered the decorative fantasy that was innate to his artistic personality.

From 1924 onwards, Dufy also focused on ceramics. Working with Llorens Artigas, he decorated jugs and tiles with sinuous designs of bathers, animals and shells. In the so-called Salon Gardens (co-designed with Artigas and the Catalan architect Nicolau María Rubió) reality and fiction combine in the form of original planters for bonsais that evoke different types of traditional western gardens.

The Light of Colours
Dufy regularly visited the south of France after the end of World War I. Inspired by the serene nature and landscape of Provence, he aimed to imbue his work with a new classical harmony. In addition to the sculptural forms of the landscape, the light of the Mediterranean was now a key element in his painting: “The unchanging light of the Mediterranean naturally produces that calm, that classical serenity which is so different to the fleeting effects which the Atlantic or the Channel give to landscapes.”

In his landscapes Dufy thus aimed to reach a synthesis between the splendour of nature and the pleasure of painting outdoors on the one hand, and on the other a desire to establish a strictly visual order associated with his subsequent reflections in the studio. In order to achieve this he structured his landscapes into chromatic strips, organising the highlights and shadows through the light emanating from the colours themselves: “To follow sunlight is to waste time. The light of painting is something else, it is a light of distribution, composition, a light-colour.” Furthermore, Dufy’s previous experience with printmaking and with gouache textile designs enabled him to separate the colour of the figures and objects from their outlines. A duality between exterior and interior is also evident in the artist’s numerous views of open windows and balconies, such as Open Window, Nice (1928), Window onto the Promenade des Anglais, Nice (1938), and The Studio at L’Impasse Guelma (1935-1952). In these works Dufy followed Matisse when establishing a complex equilibrium between the illusionistic transparency of the glass and the opaque surface of the painting.

Time and its representation are also present in Dufy’s mature work. For the artist, painting should represent not just the visible but also an accumulation of recollections, traditions and experiences associated with a specific place. His depictions of the modern world thus often include allegorical or mythological elements and classical buildings. This is the case with Port with a Sailboat. Homage to Claude Lorrain (1935) in which Dufy depicts the Colosseum next to an idealised port that recalls both Marseilles and the landscapes by the 17th-century French painter.

In the last years of his life most of Dufy’s work, by this date of a more intimate character, focused on music. The musical environment in which he grew up in Le Havre explains his profound love for this discipline, leading him to seek out visual equivalents to musical sounds throughout his career. One example is Still Life with Violin. Homage to Bach (1952), in which the artist makes use of both a sinuous stroke that strongly suggests musical notation and the power of the colour red to evoke the sound of that instrument.

Black becomes more important in his late depictions of bullfights and in particular in his series The Black Cargo Boat. This subject, which he had first depicted in 1925, returns in a series executed between 1946 and 1953 in which Dufy once again made use of black to covey the maximum degree of luminosity. While Dufy did not aim to make his painting the expression of his emotions, this series can be interpreted as the presentiment of his imminent death.

Butterwick Gallery at TEFAF 2015 Paper (13-22 March 2015)

Mots-clefs

"Log-Rolling", "Suprematist Cross Architecton", 1914, 1928-1929, Alexander Bogomazov, Butterwick Gallery, charcoal on paper, costume design, Dance of the Buffoons, Gouache, Ilya Chasnik, Kiev, Kreshchatik, Le Soleil de Nuit, Leonid Massine, Liubov Popova, Locomotive, Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, Pencil on paper, Sanguine on paper, TEFAF 2015 Paper, The Bridge, watercolor and pencil on paper, watercolour on artist's board, watercolour on paper

Alexander Bogomazov, « Log-Rolling », original work for left hand panel of the 1928-29 triptych, « The Work of Sawyers », watercolour on paper, 25 x 30 cm, 1928-1929. Butterwick Gallery, London (stand 708) – TEFAF 2015 Paper (13-22 March 2015)

Provenance: – Artist’s Family, Kiev
– V. Vitruk, Lvov

Literature: – O. Sidor, ‘The collection of Vladimir Vitruk’, 2008, Lvov, (p. 117)
– E. Koshuba, ‘The Rhythm of creative Will’ 2914, Decorative Arts, Kiev

Exhibitions: – Alexander Bogomazov: Master of Cubo-Futurism – Central House of Artists, Moscow, March 2014 (ill. p. 27)

Liubov Popova, « Untitled« . Gouache, watercolor and pencil on paper, 33.7 x 25.1 cm, 1917. Butterwick Gallery, London (stand 708) – TEFAF 2015 Paper (13-22 March 2015)

Provenance: – Pavel Popov, Moscow (Artist’s brother) – M. Goldberg, Zvenigorod (Stepson of the above) – George Costakis, Moscow (later Athens), acquired c. 1955 – Private European COllection – Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York, acquired 2000 – Private European Collection

Literature: Zander Rudenstine, A (ed.): Russian Avant-Garde Art – The George Costakis Colletion. Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1981

Exhibitions: – Künstlerinnen der Russischen Avant-Garde – Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne. 1979-1980 (cat. n. 66, ill. p. 196) – Gouaches and Drawings by Liubov Popova and Kazimir Malevich – Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York 1986 (cat. n. 8, cover ill.) – Karo Dame – Konstruktive Konkrete und Radikale Kunst von Frauen von 1914 bis Heure – Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau 1995 (ill. p. 62, col.) – Malevich and his Influence – Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein, Vaduz 17 May-7 September 2008 (cat. ill. p. 169) – The Russian Revolution in Art. Russian Avant-Garde 1910-1932 – St Petersburg Gallery, London 3 April – 20 September 2014

Ilya Chasnik, « Suprematist Cross Architecton« . Pencil on paper, 22 x 17.5 cm, 1926. Butterwick Gallery, London (stand 708) – TEFAF 2015 Paper (13-22 March 2015)

Provenance: – Ilya Illich Chasnik (Artst’s Son), Leningrad
– Lev Nussberg, Orange County, Connecticut
– Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York
– Private Collection, London

Literature: – M. Lamac: « Malevich – Le Méconnu in Cimaise – Art et Architecture Actuels », 1928
– L. Shadowa: « Suche und Experiment », Dresden&London, 1978/1982

Exhibitions: – Russische Avantgarde 1910-1930 – Bilder Konstruktionen – Galerie Bargera, Cologne. 31 May-30 Septebler 1978 (p. 78, ill. No. 109) – Ilya Chashnik – Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York. 2 November 1979-15 March 1980 (ill. No 71) – Malevich, Suetin, Chashnik – Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York. 21 October-15 December 1983 (ill. No 48) – Die Grosse Utopie – Die Russische Avantgarde 1915 – 1932 – Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt 1 March-10 May 1992 (ill. p. 184) – Die Grosse Utopie – Die Russische Avantgarde 1915 – 1932 – Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. 5 June-23 August 1992 (ill. p. 184) – The Great Utopia – The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde 1915-1932 – Guggenheim Museum, New York. 10 October 1992- 3 January 1993 (ill. p. 172) – Kasimir Malewitsch, Werk und Wirkung – Museum Ludwig, Cologne 10 November 1995 – 28 January 1996 (ill. p. 167) – Ilya Chashnik Suprematist works 1921-1926 – Central House of Artists, Moscow. March 2012 – The Russian Revolution in Art. Russian Avant-Garde 1910-1932. St Petersburg Gallery, London. 3 April – 20 September 2014

Natalia Goncharova, The Bridge. Oil on canvas, 64.8 x 50.2 cm, 1916. Butterwick Gallery, London (stand 708) – TEFAF 2015 Paper (13-22 March 2015)

certificate from Madame Alexandra Larionov-Tomilina

certificate from Madame Alexandra Larionov-Tomilina

Provenance: – The Artist
– Mikhail Larionov (upon the artist’s death)
– Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne (until 1987)
– Modernism Gallery, San Francisco (until 1996)
– S. Rothschild Collection, Baltimore
– Private Collection, London

Exhibitions: – International Exhibition of Modern Art, Geneva 1920/21 (No. 26) – The Goncharova – Larionov Exhibition – Kingore Galleries, New York. 1922 (No. 15) – Larionov – Gontcharova – Galerie Beyeler, Basel. June – September 1961 (No. 40) -Natalia Gontcharova – Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon. 21 December 1969 – 8 February 1970 (No. 37) – Rétrospective Gontcharova – Maison de la Culture, Bourges. 14 April – 3 June 1973 (No. 42) – Rétrospective Larionov – Gontcharova – Musée d’Ixelles, Brussels. 29 April – 5 May 1976 (No. 110) – Natalia Goncharova – Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. 16 October 2013 – 16 February 2014 (No. 123)

Mikhail Larionov, Le Soleil de Nuit costume design for Dance of the Buffoons (choreography Leonid Massine), watercolour on artist’s board, 38 x 26cm, signed, 1915. Butterwick Gallery, London (stand 708) – TEFAF 2015 Paper (13-22 March 2015)

Provenance: – The Artist, Paris – Private Collection, Arizona – Bonhams Russian Sale, London. 7 July 2010, Lot No. 59

Literature: – The Soul of Russia – Macmillan, London, 1916 (ill. p. 176) – Russian Works on Paper form the Collection of James Butterwick – Kik-Art, Moscow 2011 (ill. p. 10)

Exhibitions: – Œvres de Gontcharova et de Larionow – Galerie Sauvage, Paris. 16 April – 7 May 1918 (177-194) – Œeuvres de Gontcharova et de Larionow – Galerie Barbazanges, Paris. 11-28 June 1919 (237-247) – Artistes Russes (organized by Mir Isskustva) – Galerie La Boétie, Paris. 1921 (as Le Bouffon) – Artistes Russes (organized by Mir Isskustva) – unknown location, Paris. 1921 (as Le Bouffon) – The Gontcharova-Larionov Exhibition – Kingore Gallery, New York. 1922 (as Soleil de Minuit) 97-101 – Russian Line – Sotheby’s , Moscow. 12 March – 30 March 2012. (ill. p. 8) – Acquisitions and Loans – James Butterwick Gallery, London. 30 May – 7 July 2012

Alexander Bogomazov, Kreshchatik, charcoal on paper, 30 x 32 cm, signed, Kiev, 1914. Butterwick Gallery, London (stand 708) – TEFAF 2015 Paper (13-22 March 2015)

Provenance: – Artist family, Kiev
– Gift from Vanda Vitoldovna Bogomazova to Yuri Ivakin (1969)
– G. Ivakin, Kiev
– Private Collection, Moscow

Literature: Ukrainian Avant-Garde – Mistetstvo, Kiev 1996 (ill. p. 77)

Exhibitions: Alexander Bogomazov – Musée d’Art Moderne, Toulouse. 21 June – 28 August 1991 Alexander Bogomazov – State Museum of Ukrainian Fine Art, Kiev. December 1991 – January 1992 Alexander Bogomazov: Master of Cubo-Futurism – Central House of Artists, Moscow. March 2014 (ill. p. 13)

Alexander Bogomazov (1880-1930), Locomotive. Sanguine on paper, 30 x 26 cm, 1915. Butterwick Gallery, London (stand 708) – TEFAF 2015 Paper (13-22 March 2015)

Provenance: The Artist’s widow, Kiev; Purchased from the above in the early 1970’s; Private collection, Paris

Literature: Exh. cat. Alexander Bogomazov, Toulouse, Musee d’Art Moderne, 1991, p. 34; Ukrainian Avant garde, Mistetsvo Publishers, Kiev, 1996, p. 99

Exhibitions: Toulouse, Musee d’Art Moderne, Alexander Bogomazov’, 1991

Butterwick Gallery, London. Directors: Natasha Butterwick, James Butterwick. Russian Art 1890-1930. Russian and European 19th and early 20th century works.

Kunsthaus Zürich presents ‘Master Drawings: 100 Years of the Prints and Drawings Collection’

Mots-clefs

'Childhood portrait of Thekla Maria Auguste, 1919, Albrecht Dürer, Apollo, around 1818, ca 1501−05, ca 1795−96, ca 1845, ca 1910, ca. 1880, Countess of Thurn-Valsassina', Dadabild, Das Schiff, Die Strasse von Tarascon, Ein Festtag in Zürich, Emil Nolde, George Grosz, Johann Rudolf Schellenberg, Joseph Mallord William Turner, Juli 1888, Landschaft in der Provence, Marie Ellenrieder, Pastel on paper, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Wiesenstück

Albrecht Dürer, Apollo, ca 1501−05. Kunsthaus Zürich.

ZURICH.- In 2015, the Collection of Prints and Drawings of the Kunsthaus Zürich celebrates its 100th birthday. To mark this event, the exhibition ‘Master Drawings’, which runs from 23 January to 19 April 2015, brings together approximately 120 selected drawings from the 16th to the 21st centuries, including works by Raphael, Albrecht Dürer, Henry Fuseli, J.M.W. Turner, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Alberto Giacometti, Cy Twombly, Erik van Lieshout, Jorinde Voigt and others.

Unlike the classic collections of prints and drawings assembled by princes and scholars or libraries, the Collection of Prints and Drawings of the Kunsthaus Zürich has its origins in a group of amateur artists and autodidacts who came together in 1787 to create the Künstlergesellschaft, or society of artists. They kept a ‘Malerbuch’, or painting book, to which each member regularly submitted drawings and watercolours.

Johann Rudolf Schellenberg, Wiesenstück, ca 1795−96. Kunsthaus Zürich.

OLD MASTERS, CLASSICAL MODERNISM, CONTEMPORARY ART
With some 95,000 works on paper, the Collection of Prints and Drawings is now an institution of considerable size. The organizers of the anniversary exhibition set out to choose the best, most representative and most surprising works from among the 37,000 hand drawings. They include pieces by Raphael, Palma Vecchio, Perino del Vaga, Taddeo Zuccaro, Cavalier d’Arpino, Guercino, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Leu, Tobias Stimmer, Jost Ammann, Hans-Jakob Plepp, Rudolf Meyer, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Rudolf Schellenberg, Salomon Gessner, Anton Graff, Henry Fuseli, Théodore Géricault, J.M.W. Turner, Alexandre Calame, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Käthe Kollwitz, Max Ernst, Picabia, Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Hans Richter, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Alberto Giacometti. The big names from earlier periods in art history up to the time of Classical Modernism are also represented, as are outstanding contemporary artists such as Cy Twombly, Bruce Nauman, Miriam Cahn, Aleksandra Mir, Erik van Lieshout, Jorinde Voigt and others.

Marie Ellenrieder, ‘Childhood portrait of Thekla Maria Auguste, Countess of Thurn-Valsassina’, around 1818. Pastel on paper, 38.8 × 32.4 cm. Kunsthaus Zürich.

AN INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE THAT SPANS NUMEROUS GENRES
Today, thanks to its innovative exhibition programme, acquisitions in the fields of drawing, prints, photography, film, video, multiples and installations, as well as cooperations and loans, the Collection of Prints and Drawings is part of an impressive network that includes the world’s most prestigious museums. Since 2005, the building in the passage between Rämistrasse and Hirschengraben has been home not just to the prints and drawings but also the curators, the conservation department and the study room for registered visitors. Photographic, video and film works, prints and collages are stored and restored here, and made ready by our scientific staff for exhibitions at the Kunsthaus and elsewhere. The museum stages regular exhibitions of current positions in contemporary art, key areas of the collection and new acquisitions.

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Ein Festtag in Zürich, ca 1845. Kunsthaus Zürich.

COLOUR EXPERIMENTS, TROMPE L’ŒIL, SOCIAL CRITICISM
Bernhard von Waldkirch, conservator of the Prints and Drawings Collection, has spent a year and a half assembling the anniversary exhibition, assisted throughout by an academic advisory board. The selection he has arrived at, together with Dr. Gian Casper Bott, Dr. Christina Grummt and Dr. Paola von Wyss-Giacosa, focuses on drawing in its original sense; for all the differences in technique, medium and function, it is the art of drawing in its purest form that remains pre-eminent. Late-Baroque experiments with colour, pin-sharp ‘trompe-l’œil’ architectures, charcoal portraits that appear almost three-dimensional, romantic landscapes and subtle social criticism – the breadth of the topics is mirrored by the diversity of the techniques expertly deployed. Extending over several hundred square metres in the historic and modern sections of the Kunsthaus, the exhibition presents the drawings immediately alongside paintings and sculptures. Enthusiasts and connoisseurs alike will be impressed by the delicate paper’s ability to assert its presence in this environment: from the format of a pocket mirror to a vast plate measuring 2 x 6 metres that covers an entire wall. Regular public guided tours will focus on the inherent properties of the works as well as the latest research findings.

Paul Cézanne, Landschaft in der Provence, ca 1880. Kunsthaus Zürich.

ZURICH.- En 2015, le cabinet des estampes et des dessins du Kunsthaus Zürich fête son centenaire. Pour l’occasion, du 23 janvier au 19 avril 2015, l’exposition «Six siècles de dessins» réunit quelques 120 dessins de choix du 16ème au 21ème siècle – dont des œuvres de Raphaël, Albrecht Dürer, Johann Heinrich Füssli, William Turner, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Alberto Giacometti, Cy Twombly, Erik van Lieshout et Jorinde Voigt.

À la différence des cabinets d’estampes classiques, qui remontent à des collections et à des bibliothèques princières ou scientifiques, la collection graphique du Kunsthaus Zürich a pour origine un cercle d’artistes amateurs et autodidactes qui se regroupèrent en 1787 en une société d’artistes. Ils tenaient ce qu’on appelait un «livre de peintres», qui s’enrichissait régulièrement de dessins et d’aquarelles de chacun des membres.

Vincent van Gogh, Die Strasse von Tarascon, Juli 1888. Kunsthaus Zürich.

LE PLUS VASTE FONDS DE DESSINS DE FÜSSLI ET DE HODLER

En 1915, le directeur Wilhelm Wartmann établissait le premier «Inventaire des dessins et des estampes». On doit à son initiative l’entrée au Kunsthaus du plus vaste fonds de dessins de Johann Heinrich Füssli et de Ferdinand Hodler. Wartmann faisait connaître ces acquisitions dans des expositions et des catalogues de collection. Des achats ciblés et des donations permirent également à des dessins de maîtres anciens italiens, néerlandais et suisses de rejoindre la Heimplatz. Avec la première extension du Kunsthaus en 1925, les usagers de la collection graphique et de la bibliothèque bénéficièrent pour la première fois d’une vaste salle d’étude et de lecture, qui pouvait aussi accueillir des expositions dans les étages supérieurs – des services tout à fait exceptionnels pour l’époque.

Emil Nolde, Das Schiff, ca 1910. Kunsthaus Zürich © 2015 Stiftung Seebüll Ada und Emil Nolde

MAÎTRES ANCIENS, MODERNITÉ, ART CONTEMPORAIN

Avec ses 95 000 œuvres sur papier, la collection graphique est désormais une institution respectable. Pour l’exposition du jubilée, il a fallu choisir parmi 37 000 dessins les meilleurs, les plus représentatifs et les plus surprenants. Les grands noms de l’histoire de l’art ancien jusqu’au modernisme y sont représentés: Raphaël, Palma Vecchio, Perino del Vaga, Taddeo Zuccaro, Cavalier d’Arpino, Guercino, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Leu, Tobias Stimmer, Jost Ammann, Hans-Jakob Plepp, Rudolf Meyer, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Rudolf Schellenberg, Salomon Gessner, Anton Graff, Johann Heinrich Füssli, Théodore Géricault, William Turner, Alexandre Calame, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Käthe Kollwitz, Max Ernst, Picabia, Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Hans Richter, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Alberto Giacometti. Mais y figurent également des artistes contemporains exceptionnels comme Cy Twombly, Bruce Nauman, Miriam Cahn, Aleksandra Mir, Erik van Lieshout, Jorinde Voigt.

George Grosz, Dadabild, 1919. Kunsthaus Zürich © 2015 ProLitteris, Zürich

UN RAYONNEMENT INTERNATIONAL DANS DE MULTIPLES GENRES

Grâce à une pratique d’expositions innovante, à des acquisitions dans le domaine du dessin, de la gravure, de la photographie, du film, de la vidéo, de l’art multiple et de l’installation, et à des coopérations et des prêts, la collection graphique est aujourd’hui en lien constant avec les musées les plus renommés du monde. Installés dans le passage situé entre la Rämistrasse et le Hirschengraben, les dessins et gravures partagent leurs locaux avec les curateurs, le département conservation et la salle d’étude accessible à la demande. Photos, vidéos, films, gravures et collages y sont non seulement conservés et restaurés, mais aussi scientifiquement préparés en vue des expositions, au Kunsthaus ou ailleurs. Au musée, des expositions sont régulièrement organisées pour présenter des démarches actuelles de l’art contemporain, des œuvres remarquables de la collection, ou les nouvelles acquisitions.

Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Mouvement de lignes, 1939. Kunsthaus Zürich.

EXPÉRIENCES AVEC LA COULEUR, TROMPE-L’ŒIL, CRITIQUE SOCIALE

Pendant un an et demi, cette exposition anniversaire a été préparée par Bernhard von Waldkirch, conservateur de la collection graphique, aidé d’un comité scientifique. La sélection opérée par le conservateur en collaboration avec Dr. Gian Casper Bott, Dr. Christina Grummt et Dr. Paola von Wyss-Giacosa met l’accent sur le dessin au sens le plus premier du terme: derrière la diversité des techniques, des traitements et des fonctions, l’authenticité du geste reste toujours au centre du propos. Expériences chromatiques du baroque tardif, architectures en trompe-l’œil d’une netteté de gravure, portraits au fusain à la plasticité saisissante, critique sociale subtile: le spectre des thèmes abordés est aussi large que celui des techniques utilisées avec brio. L’exposition, qui occupe plusieurs centaines de mètres carrés dans les parties historiques et modernes du bâtiment, fait voisiner ces dessins avec les tableaux et sculptures. Les connaisseurs comme les novices seront impressionnés de voir avec quelle facilité le fragile papier s’impose dans cet environnement, que son format soit celui d’un miroir de poche ou d’une immense feuille de 2 mètres sur 6 occupant tout un mur. Des visites guidées régulièrement organisées révèleront aux visiteurs les propriétés de ces œuvres et les résultats des plus récentes recherches.

DES ŒUVRES REPRODUITES POUR LA PREMIÈRE FOIS EN COULEURS

L’histoire de la collection graphique au Kunsthaus Zürich est retracée dans une publication représentative dans laquelle 100 œuvres, dont beaucoup pour la première fois, sont reproduites en couleurs et en pleine page, accompagnées de commentaires de spécialistes. Cet ouvrage relié de grande qualité, comptant 240 pages et 120 reproductions, paraît en allemand aux éditions Scheidegger & Spiess. Il est disponible à la boutique du Kunsthaus pour CHF 55.-, ainsi qu’en librairie

2015 Winter Antiques Show in New York showcases 3,000 years of timeless art and design

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'Maximilian' lounge chair, 1880, “bouquetière”, Candelabrum, circa 1630, circa 1690, circa 1740, circa 1942, Desk and Chair, Egyptian bronze, England, George II Mahogany Windsor Chair, George III Satinwood and Marquetry inlaid secretary bookcase, Harlem Street Scene, Heart-and-Hand Love Token, Herter Bros., Hiram Powers, Jacob Lawrence, John Singer Sargent, John Vesey, King Willem III, marble bust, Mayhew & Ince, Proserpine, Queen Mary II, seated cat, Turner’s-Thrown Fruitwood Armchair

Herter Bros., NY. Desk and Chair, 1880. Maple, at Associated Artists. 

NEW YORK, NY.– Ancient Egyptian bronze sculpture, gilded Herter Brothers side chairs owned by John Pierpont Morgan, and paintings by celebrated American artists William Merritt Chase, John Singer Sargent, and Childe Hassam, will gather for the 61st year of the Winter Antiques Show from January 23-February 1, 2015 at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. The Show is America’s most prestigious antiques show, providing museums, collectors, dealers, design professionals, and first-time buyers with opportunities to see and purchase exceptional pieces showcased by 73 renowned experts in American, English, European, and Asian fine and decorative arts, from antiquity through the 1960s. Every object exhibited at the Show is vetted for quality and authenticity.

“The Winter Antiques Show offers unparalleled access to the world’s most exquisite and astounding historical objects—and this year is no different,” said Peter Pennoyer, the renowned classical architect who together with his wife Katie Ridder, the celebrated interior designer, are the Show’s 2015 Honorary Co-Chairs. Ms. Ridder continued, “We both feel that timeless pieces with history add a distinctive character to today’s interiors, whether the spaces are designed to evoke a period of yesterday or even something a bit more contemporary. We’re thrilled to be part of the Show, and look forward to seeing all of its remarkable design opportunities.”

Exhibitor Highlights:

• Fine English furniture will reign supreme as the Winter Antiques Show welcomes four new UK-based leaders in the field: a pair of commodes (c. 1775-80) by Mayhew & Ince at Apter-Fredericks Ltd.; an early Turner’s armchair (c. 1630) and a George II Mahogany Windsor Chair (c. 1740) at Thomas Coulborn & Sons Ltd.; and a George III Satinwood and Marquetry inlaid secretary bookcase (c. 1790) at Hyde Park Antiques.

Pair of commodes, circa 1775-80 by Mayhew & Ince at Apter-Fredericks Ltd.

Early Turner’s-Thrown Fruitwood Armchair, England, circa 1630 at Thomas Coulborn & Sons Ltd.

Rare George II Mahogany Windsor Chair, England, circa 1740 at Thomas Coulborn & Sons Ltd.

George III Satinwood and Marquetry inlaid secretary bookcase, circa 1790 at Hyde Park Antiques.

• Museum quality paintings by famed American masters will be prevalent at the 2015 Show: Boy in Red: Portrait of Josiah Lasell (c. 1895) by William Merritt Chase and Royal Palms, Melena, Cuba (c. 1895) by Childe Hassam at Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc.; The Candelabrum (1885), an impressionist portrait study by John Singer Sargent at Adelson Galleries; Sunrise at Mid-Ocean (1907), a significant seascape by Thomas Moran, at Schwarz Gallery; and Harlem Street Scene (c. 1942) by Jacob Lawrence at Jonathan Boos, LLC.

John Singer Sargent, Candelabrum. Oil on canvas, 1885. Signed lower left by John S. Sargent at Adelson Galleries.

Thomas Moran, Sunrise at Mid-Ocean. Oil on canvas, 1907 at Schwarz Gallery.

Jacob Lawrence, Harlem Street Scene, circa 1942 by  at Jonathan Boos, LLC.

• Showcasing the breadth and diversity of the show are a dozen exhibitors in early to mid-20th century design. This year’s highlights include a pair of iconic leather, aluminum, and steel Maximilian lounge chairs (c. 1958) designed by John Vesey at Liz O’Brien; colorful Italian glass at Glass Past; and a French desk and armchair (c. 1925), made of fine mahogany and leather, by Louis Süe and André Mare at Maison Gerard.

John Vesey (1925-1992), pair of iconic leather, aluminum, and steel ‘Maximilian’ lounge chairs, circa 1958 at Liz O’Brien.

• Maintaining the Show’s strong American core are more than 15 Americana dealers, and important folk art pieces will be exhibited by many: a paper and watercolor Heart-and-Hand Love Token (c. 1820) at Olde Hope Antiques, Inc.; a vibrantly decorated Pennsylvania cornercupboard (1863) at new exhibitor Kelly Kinzle; a handsome pair of portraits of a young couple seated in red chairs, attributed to George G. Hartwell of the esteemed Prior Hamblen School, at Frank & Barbara Pollack American Antiques & Art; and an early ambrotype if a calls of students and their teacher (c. 1855) at David A. Schorsch-Eileen M. Smiles American Antiques.

A group of nine colorful and charming love tokens. One with associated note dated ‘1848’, and two noted as Philadelphia origin, at Olde Hope Antiques, Inc.

• Sculpture from all ages will be especially prevalent in 2015, due to the addition of two new exhibitors specializing in the medium: an Egyptian bronze seated cat (c. 715332 BC), perhaps used as a vessel for a mummified cat, at Rupert Wace Ancient Art Limited; a marble bust of Proserpine by famed American sculptor Hiram Powers at new exhibitor Conner • Rosenkranz, LLC; Tete de Femme (1929), a bronze art deco bust by Gustave Miklos at The Fine Art Society; and Saul Bazerman’s mid-century Self-Portrait (c. 1952) at Gerald Peters Gallery.

An Egyptian bronze seated cat (c. 715332 BC), perhaps used as a vessel for a mummified cat, at Rupert Wace Ancient Art Limited.

A marble bust of Proserpine by famed American sculptor Hiram Powers at Conner.

A bronze art deco bust by Gustave Miklos at The Fine Art Society.

• Exhibitors in Chinese and Japanese material add to the Show’s eclectic mix: a rare Chinese export porcelain tureen and cover modeled as a goose (c. 1750) at Cohen & Cohen; a Yayoi Neolithic earthenware vessel (c. 2nd -3rd century AD) at Joan B. Mirviss, Ltd.; a pair of paintings depicting Chinese women accompanied by pipes and pets (c. 18th century) at Martyn Gregory; and a pair of green and yellow Fu Lions (c. 1662-1722 AD) at Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc.

A pair of paintings depicting Chinese women accompanied by pipes and pets, circa 18th century, at Martyn Gregory.

Pair of Chinese Green Glazed Biscuit Porcelain Fu Dogs, Kangxi period, AD 1662-1722, at Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc.

• After an intense search, Aronson of Amsterdam (a 134 year old family firm specializing in Dutch Delftware) has recently reunited a pair of unusual bouquetieres depicting Their Majesties King Willem III and Queen Mary II (c. 1690). The figures are attributed to The Greek A Factory, where Queen Mary ordered many magnificent pieces of Delft for Hampton Palace. The pair will be exhibited together for the first time at the 2015 Winter Antiques Show.

Pair of unusual bouquetieres depicting Their Majesties King Willem III and Queen Mary II, circa 1690, at Aronson of Amsterdam.

• Objects with noteworthy provenance include a Herter Brothers “Pompeian” side chair (c. 1880) that was probably commissioned for John Pierpont Morgan’s lavish Madison Avenue mansion at Associated Artists, LLC; an English Palace Wall Regulator (c. 1770) by John Arnold that was commissioned by a member of the Russian royal family for Catherine the Great at Thomas Coulborn & Sons Ltd.; a Chinese Famille Verte quandrangular vase (1662-1722 AD) from the collection of Henry Clay Frick at Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc.; and a grand scale Chippendale looking glass (c. 1760) that was part of the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary project and was discussed in correspondence between Franklin and his wife at Bernard & S. Dean Levy.

An English Palace Wall Regulator (c. 1770) by John Arnold that was commissioned by a member of the Russian royal family for Catherine the Great at Thomas Coulborn & Sons Ltd.

Nationalmuseum Sweden announces new acquisition: Watercolours by Ivar Arosenius

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1907, 1908, Evil Powers, Ivar Arosenius, The Caliph’s Golden Bird

Ivar Arosenius, Evil Powers, 1907. NMH 61/2014. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum.

STOCKHOLM.- Nationalmuseum has acquired two watercolour paintings showing two different sides of the publicly loved artist Ivar Arosenius. Evil Powers is a jocular personification of evil, depicting a she-dragon with her young. The second work is a sketch for a fairytale series entitled The Caliph’s Golden Bird.Over the years, Nationalmuseum has continuously added works by this artist to its collection.

Ivar Arosenius died of complications resulting from hemophilia on 1 January 1909 at the age of just 30. In his short life he had led a dissolute, bohemian existence, but in later years he had settled down, married, and fathered a daughter, Lillian, whom he worshipped. He left behind a treasure trove of paintings, many of which reflect the circumstances of his life and feature a distinctive, dreamlike, fairytale atmosphere. The majority are small-scale watercolours, in which bizarre and burlesque elements are mixed with seriousness and quiet melancholy. The repertoire of themes includes the eternal riddles of life and death, and questions of good and evil. Some of the works also contain allusions to the seven deadly sins, including lust and gluttony. In the spirit of Bellman and Fredman, Arosenius often preaches a somewhat trite gospel of epicureanism in these works, suggesting that if you have a glass in your hand and a girl on your knee, you can sit back and watch the world go by with gentle indulgence.

Although Arosenius’ talent was recognized early on by the city art museum in his native Gothenburg, Nationalmuseum owned very few of his works for the longest time. Not until a major solo exhibition was staged in 1978 did the museum take the opportunity to enhance its collection with extensive acquisitions from the artist’s descendants. Over the years, these have been continuously supplemented by additional acquisitions. Another two works were purchased in 2014, further highlighting the broad scope of the artist’s oeuvre.

The first, titled Evil Powers, is dated 1907 and depicts a personification of evil in veiled, jocular form. In a sterile cliff landscape surrounded by black rocks, a she-dragon has given birth and is suckling some 20 bickering young reptiles. Some of them, having had their fill, have contentedly begun to explore their surroundings. One is doing its business on the ground, and at bottom left another has sniffed out and sunk its teeth into a black-clad clergyman. The scene plays out in pale green moonlight, which imbues the image with an air of terror.

The second watercolour is very different in nature, its exotic features evoking the fairytale atmosphere of the Arabian Nights. It is one of many sketches and proposals prepared by Arosenius in 1908 for a fairytale series without text entitled The Caliph’s Golden Bird. The story tells of the caliph’s goose, famous for laying golden eggs, which escapes but is caught by a poor peasant boy on whom fortune is smiling. In the end, the boy is granted the hand of the princess and half the kingdom by the grateful caliph.

Ivar Arosenius, The Caliph’s Golden Bird, 1908. NMH 62/2014. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

New Visiting Masterpiece exhibition features Gustav Klimt’s ‘Adam and Eve’

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1913, 1917-1918, Adam and Eve, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Two Nudes (Lovers)

Gustav Klimt, Adam and Eve, 1917-1918. Oil on canvas © Belvedere, Vienna

BOSTON, MASS.- For the first time in its history, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is displaying a painting by Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862–1918)—among the most important artists of the early 20th century. The exhibition, Visiting Masterpiece: Gustav Klimt’s Adam and Eve, features Klimt’s monumental Adam and Eve (1917-1918) alongside the MFA’s life-sized portrait of a couple, Two Nudes (Lovers) (1913), painted by Klimt’s Viennese friend and colleague, Oskar Kokoschka (Austrian, 1886–1980). On view January 17-April 27, 2015 in the Charlotte F. and Irving W. Rabb Gallery, the exhibition also includes a selection of works on paper by Klimt and his contemporaries from the MFA’s holdings. Adam and Eve—on loan from the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna—gives visitors a taste of the artist’s signature style, including his sensuous approach to the nude and his bold experimentation with pattern, color and finish. Just five years separates the painting from Two Nudes (Lovers), which shares many features with Klimt’s work—ambitious scale, daring experimentation with form and finish, and, above all, a fascination with sexuality. Together these paintings demonstrate how avant-garde artists in turn-of-the-century Vienna adapted traditional subjects to radical new ends.

“Klimt’s images capture the imagination of contemporary viewers. The combination of his sinuous lines and radical patterning—the contrast between naturalism and abstraction—are as inviting and exciting today as they were in early 20th-century Vienna,” said Ronni Baer, William and Ann Elfers Senior Curator of Paintings, Art of Europe.

Both Adam and Eve and Two Nudes (Lovers) reflect a relatively liberated side of turn-of-the-century Vienna, where Freud first practiced psychoanalysis and both artists conducted passionate affairs. But these paintings also indicate an ambivalent attitude toward women and a pessimistic view of relations between the sexes. In Adam and Eve—which was left unfinished in Klimt’s studio upon his death—Eve’s left hand would almost certainly have held the fatal apple, though Klimt chose to represent not the moment of Eve’s temptation and fall, but her creation from a rib of the sleeping Adam. In Two Nudes (Lovers), the figures seem to circle each other against a background of blue-green vegetation—Eden, perhaps, but not quite paradise. Complementing the two paintings are drawings by Klimt, who was a prolific draftsman. In these works on paper, Klimt studied gestures, poses and expressions to convey a particular psychological state. In Portrait of a Young Woman (about 1914) and Woman in Kimono (1917–18), the downcast eyes and turned heads suggest anxiety or pensiveness in contrast to the assertive face and open eyes of Eve.

Nearly 30 years Klimt’s junior, Egon Schiele (Austrian, 1890–1918) first met Klimt in 1907. Schiele’s drawing, Kümmernis (Sorrow) (1914), and his watercolor, Schiele’s Wife with her Little Nephew (1915) convey raw emotion through agitated lines and distortions of the human form. Like Klimt, Schiele’s figures occupy ambiguous spaces, though unlike Klimt’s sensual Eve, Schiele’s female figures defy traditional notions of beauty. The installation also includes a work by Swiss modernist painter Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918), who came to know Klimt through the Vienna Secession, an exhibition society devoted to raising awareness of artistic developments outside Austria. His poster, Secession (Ver Sacrum) (Sacred Spring) (1904), was made for the Vienna Secession exhibition of 1904. The final object in the exhibition is for a poster for Fromme’s Calender (1899) by Koloman Moser (Austrian, 1868–1918), a close associate of Klimt’s and a founder of the design collaborative, Wiener Werkstätte. The enigmatic image and the woman’s intense, almost hypnotic gaze underscore the anxiety of fin-de-siècle Vienna.

Visiting Masterpieces at the MFA
Gustav Klimt’s Adam and Eve is the latest presentation of the MFA’s Visiting Masterpieces series, which highlights important loans, often complemented by works from the MFA’s collection. Recent Visiting Masterpieces have included a connoisseurship study of Caravaggio and an in-depth look into the theft and recovery of Piero della Francesca’s Senigallia Madonna (1470s). In 2013, MFA visitors had the opportunity to see two of the great masterpieces of French painting in America hanging side by side: Paul Cézanne’s The Large Bathers (1900–1906) from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the MFA’s own Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? (1897–1898) by Paul Gauguin. Earlier Visiting Masterpieces included The Capitoline Brutus, a rare bronze bust of a Roman statesman dating to around 300 BC; Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Dance in the Country and Dance in the City (both 1883), on loan in 2012 from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, juxtaposed with the MFA’s Dance at Bougival (1883); and Vincent van Gogh’s The Sower (1888), lent in 2010 by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which was paired with the MFA’s painting The Sower (1850) by Jean-François Millet.

Oskar Kokoschka, Two Nudes (Lovers), 1913. Oil on canvas. Bequest of Sarah Reed Platt © 2015 Fondation Oskar Kokoschka / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ProLitteris, Zürich

Pablo Picasso’s painting ‘Femme’ from 1937 now on view at the Getty through March

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. Paul Getty Museum, “Demoiselles d’Avignon” period, Femme, Pablo Picasso

Femme (“Demoiselles d’Avignon” period) 1907, Pablo Picasso. Oil on canvas, 119 x 93.5 cm. © 2014 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

LOS ANGELES, CA.– Pablo Picasso’s 1907 painting Femme is on temporary display at the J. Paul Getty Museum through March 2015. The painting, which closely relates to Picasso’s famed Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907, Museum of Modern Art, New York), will hang in the Getty Museum’s West Pavilion alongside portraits by Edouard Manet and Paul Cézanne, 19th-century masters whom Picasso greatly admired.

“This work represents a pivotal moment in Picasso’s career, marking the first experiments with fractured space that culminated in his revolutionary painting Les Desmoiselles D’Avignon of the same year and the creation of cubism,” says Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “Thanks to our Conservation Partnership Program and the support of the Getty Museum Paintings Council, over the next three months our visitors will have a unique opportunity to experience one of the landmark moments in modern art as if it were still happening ─ the fractured composition still carving itself into space around the woman’s head and the blocks of color still being laid out in form-defying blocks. Even alongside our Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces, this striking work of modern art is a commanding presence that announces in explosive and uncompromising terms that a new approach to painting has arrived.”

Femme was created while Picasso was working on his masterwork Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, a notorious brothel scene that stands out as a radical break from his earlier blue and rose periods. In this painting, Picasso’s burgeoning interest in compressed divided space and African masks is fully evident.

Femme is part of the collection of the Beyeler Foundation in Basel, Switzerland and was brought to the Getty by their chief conservator, Markus Gross, who spent three months doing research related to the painting, working with Getty Museum conservators and Getty Conservation Institute scientists, to develop a conservation protocol for the work. When the painting returns to the Beyeler Foundation in Switzerland, Gross and his team will use the conservation protocols developed at the Getty to guide future work on the painting. While at the Getty, Femme was extensively studied using x-radiography, ultraviolet light, and multi-spectral imaging, among other techniques.

Said Gross about his time at the Getty: “For a conservator to work here is a kind of heaven. The facilities are the best in the world. And the collaboration and networking with colleagues has been extraordinary. While here, I worked with experts and lived with visiting scholars—art historians and conservators—the constant exchange of ideas was very fruitful.”

The J. Paul Getty Museum’s Paintings Conservation Department has a long-established program of bringing important paintings from around the world for conservation, study, and display at the Museum. Scientists from the Getty Conservation Institute—which works to advance conservation practice through research, education, applied field work, and the dissemination of knowledge—were consulted extensively on this project. The Getty Research Institute, which holds one of the world’s most important archives for the study of modern and contemporary art, was also an important resource.

First major museum exhibition in over 20 years of Egon Schiele’s work on view at the Courtauld Gallery

‘Houghton Hall: Portrait of an English Country House’ at Legion of Honor, San Francisco

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and S. Garrard, Anthony van Dyck, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, Cecil Beaton, Charles Jervas, Cholmondeley Coronet, Cholmondeley Family, Coronation robe and train, David Cholmondeley, Diego Velazquez, Frans Hals, George James, Houghton Hall, J., John Singer Sargent, John Wootton, Lady Sassoon, Marquess of Cholmondeley, Pope Innocent X, R., Robert Walpole, Sir Robert Walpole, Throne of the Prince of Wales, William Hogarth, William Kent

Exterior view of Houghton Hall, Norfolk, England. Photo: Nick McCann

David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, and his wife Rose.

SAN FRANCISCO –  The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco present Houghton Hall: Portrait of an English Country House, an exhibition drawn from the collections of a quintessential English country house. Built in Norfolk in the 1720s for England’s first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, Houghton Hall features suites of grand rooms conceived by architect William Kent as settings for Walpole’s old-master paintings, furniture, tapestries and Roman antiquities.

William Hogarth, The Cholmondeley Family, 1732. Oil on canvas, Marquess of Cholmondeley Houghton Hall.

“Houghton Hall brings to San Francisco a wonderful array of objects from one of Britain’s great country houses, and reflects the history of this magnificent estate across nearly 300 years, from the 18th century to the present day. It is particularly fitting that this exhibition is being displayed at the Legion of Honor, complementing our recently reinstalled collection of British paintings and decorative arts,” said Colin B. Bailey, director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Robert Walpole’s library at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, England. Photo: Nick McCann

Houghton Hall: Portrait of an English Country House tells the story of the structure and its inhabitants through displays that convey key architectural spaces, such as the impressive double-height Stone Hall of marble, stucco and silver limestone; the grand state Saloon, upholstered in red velvet; and the more restrained wood-paneled library, which served as Walpole’s office away from London. Kent’s architectural drawings, also on view, will reveal the geneses of these interiors, which were inspired by both Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and the style of Baroque-era Rome.

John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Sybil, Countess of Rocksavage, 1913. Oil on canvas. Marquess of Cholmondeley, Houghton Hall. Photo: Pete Huggins, by kind permission of Houghton Hall

William Kent was the first British architect to design furnishings in concert with architectural interiors, and a selection of pieces that he created specifically for Houghton Hall will be exhibited. In addition there will be porcelain and silver objects and family portraits and other pictures by notable English painters such as William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds that reflect the aesthetic and historical significance of the house. Other works of art on view will include portraits by Pompeo Batoni, an Italian artist popular among British travelers on the Grand Tour (the traditional journey through Europe undertaken by members of the upper classes), and old master paintings, such as Sir Anthony van Dyck’s Philip, Lord Wharton (1632) and Carlo Maratta’s The Rest on the Flight into Egypt (1650s).

One of a pair of armchairs, ca. 1730. Designed by William Kent; probably made by James Richards. Partially gilded mahogany; beech and oak; original upholstery. Marquess of Cholmondeley, Houghton Hall. Photo: Pete Huggins, by kind permission of Houghton Hall, EX.2013.HH.044.1.2

Walpole’s death, in 1745, preceded a sharp decline in family fortunes. Houghton became occupied intermittently, and many of its old-master paintings were sold in 1779 to Catherine the Great of Russia. The Walpole inheritance passed to the Cholmondeley family and Houghton was rarely used. The house came alive again in the early 20th century when Sybil Sassoon, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, took charge of Houghton in 1919, and worked to restore the house to its former splendor. Sassoon had connections with many artists, most notably the American painter John Singer Sargent, whose paintings she added to the collection along with art works and furniture inherited from her brother, Philip, and pieces of Sèvres porcelain collected by her husband, George Cholmondeley. More recently, the current inhabitants of Houghton have added further works of art such as Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones’s The Prince Enters the Briar Wood (1869), from the Legend of the Briar Rose series.

A view of the Saloon at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, England. Photo: Nick McCann

The Cholmondeleys’ hereditary role as Lord Great Chamberlain, the officer of state in charge of the Palace of Westminster, is shown through several objects, including the gold-embroidered uniform of the marquess, dating from 1900, and the gilded throne of the Prince of Wales, designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, the architect who created the great Gothic Revival interiors of the Palace of Westminster. These objects, along with others featured in the exhibition, afford a rare glimpse into the ceremonial traditions that have survived in Britain and remain part of the culture reflected in great English country houses such as Houghton Hall.

William Kent, architectural drawing for the Marble Parlour at Houghton, ca. 1730. Black and brown ink and brown wash on paper. Marquess of Cholmondeley, Houghton Hall. Photo: Pete Huggins, by kind permission of Houghton Hall, EX.2013.HH.132

“This is a wonderful opportunity for audiences in the United States to experience the delights of Houghton Hall,” says Martin Chapman, curator in charge of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “Here the visitor can see the early work of the groundbreaking designer, painter and architect William Kent, as well as the art treasures that fill this great English house.”

October 18, 2014 – January 18, 2015. Legion of Honor

John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Lady Sassoon, 1907. Oil on canvas, Marquess of Cholmondeley, Houghton Hall.

Cholmondeley Coronet, ca. 1902. Made by R., J., and S. Garrard. Gilt metal, ermine, velvet, silk, and metallic thread. Marquess of Cholmondeley, Houghton Hall. Photo: Pete Huggins, by kind permission of Houghton Hall, EX.2013.HH.062

Cecil Beaton, George and Sibyl, Marquess and Marchioness of Cholmondeley, in their coronation robes, 1937. Gelatin silver print. Marquess of Cholmondeley, Houghton Hall. Photo: Pete Huggins, by kind permission of Houghton Hall, EX.2013.HH.065

Anthony van Dyck, Philip, Lord Wharton, 1632. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Andrew W. Mellon Collection, EX.2013.HH.040

Frans Hals, Portrait of a Young Man, 1646/1648. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Andrew W. Mellon Collection, EX.2013.HH.041

Charles Jervas, Sir Robert Walpole, ca. 1708–1710. Oil on canvas. Marquess of Cholmondeley, Houghton Hall. Photo: Pete Huggins, by kind permission of Houghton Hall, EX.2013.HH.093

Throne of the Prince of Wales, 1847. Designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin; made by John Webb. Gilded wood and embroidered velvet upholstery. Marquess of Cholmondeley, Houghton Hall. Photo: Pete Huggins, by kind permission of Houghton Hall, EX.2013.HH.059.1

Coronation robe and train for Sibyl, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, 1937. Velvet, ermine, and silk. Marquess of Cholmondeley, Houghton Hall. Photo: Pete Huggins, by kind permission of Houghton Hall, EX.2013.HH.100

Uniform worn by the 4th Marquess of Cholmondeley, 1901. Wool and metallic thread. Marquess of Cholmondeley, Houghton Hall. Photo: Pete Huggins, by kind permission of Houghton Hall, EX.2013.HH.060.1

Diego Velázquez, Pope Innocent X, ca. 1650. Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Andrew W. Mellon Collection, EX.2013.HH.043

Cabinet at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, England. Photo: Nick McCann

A view of the Stone Hall at Houghton Hall. Photo: James Merrell

John Wootton, Sir Robert Walpole, ca. 1725. Oil on canvas. Marquess of Cholmondeley, Houghton Hall. Photo: Pete Huggins, by kind permission of Houghton Hall

A view of the Cabinet at Houghton Hall. Photo: James Merrell

George James, The Three Waldegrave Sisters, 1768. Oil on canvas, Marquess of Cholmondeley, Houghton Hall. Photo: Pete Huggins, by kind permission of Houghton Hall

A view of the Stone Hall at Houghton Hall. Photo: James Merrell