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DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 The bimonthly electronic journal of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation
EDITORIAL TEAM
Georgia Alevizaki, Paraskevi Gerolymatou, Andreas Georgiadis, Maria Koutsomallis, Alexandra Papakostopoulou, Maria Skamaga, Irene Stratis Designed and edited by
Τ +30 210 - 7252896 www.moca-andros.gr | www.goulandris.gr
CONTENTS
IN PLACE OF A PROLOGUE
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By Kyriakos Koutsomallis, Director of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation
INTERVIEW
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Paraskevas Karasoulos
I N S I D E T H E F O U N D AT I O N ' S P E R M A N E N T C O L L E C T I O N
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Christo, Packed Coast
FORMER BEGF SCHOLARS
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Assi Dimitrolopoulou
I N T E R N AT I O N A L L I S T I N G S / C U LT U R E A list of major art shows around the world
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I N P L A C E O F A P R O LO G U E
We are very happy to include in the current issue of our online bulletin a thoughtprovoking interview with Paraskevas Karasoulos, accomplished poet, thoughtful lyricist, and publisher. Place, time, and the individual are the concepts that form the backdrop against which his multifarious cultural activity is conceived and takes place. Karasoulos uses prose, poetry, music, and the arts to take us back to the source of a philosophy of “beauty”. Also to be found in this issue is an engaging interview with former winner of the BEGF Scholarship, architect and set designer Asimina Dimitrolopoulou. A prolific and challenging set designer, writer, and instructor, Dimitrolopoulou focuses on an investigation of contemporary approaches in scenography and of an architecture of the stage. As regards the Foundation’s exhibition program, we would like to inform our readers that the Andros Museum of Contemporary Art will remain open through the winter months, with an exhibition of works from its permanent collection. We would also like to inform all interested parties that the thirty first edition of the Foundation’s Scholarship program has already been announced. Scholarships will be granted in the following areas: 1.
Art and the Internet (Cultural Technologies and Communication)
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Architecture
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Art Economics
Finally, let us once again remind you that you can connect with us on all social media platforms to share your views, thoughts and observations. Kyriakos Koutsomallis Director
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INTERVIEW PA R A S K E VA S K A R A S O U LO S
Creative fixations are an artist’s Agathodaemon; his compass across time The fruit of a new collaboration between yourself and Dimitra Galani, a book-CD titled Allios (A different way) was released only a few months ago. As a lyricist you speak in these thirteen songs about a woman in search of an opening, a new path in her life. Is there perhaps an underlying symbolism here that connects the story of that woman to Greek society and its need to steer a different course? The songs in this album were based on this idea for a quasi-narrative whose protagonist, a lonely woman, experiences a profound existential crisis at a turning point in her life. Waking up from a bad dream she decides to make a new start in life, to see her past, present, and future in a different way. This working hypothesis was conceived as an allusion to our shared experience of the here and now, as a direct reference to what we are currently going through. Absolutely. Both Dimitra and myself believe that the Crisis that has befallen the country is first and foremost a massive collective identity crisis, a crisis in orientation. It is more or less about giving our lives new meaning. That is precisely where both the title and content of this project come from. Dimitra and I sat talking for hours and hours on end about everything, since what artistic claims would rise out of this encounter after all these years would need to be strong. We have to change. We have to look at everything in a different way if we are to survive as a nation, and as individuals and their lives at this particular time in this particular place. Tell us about the creative bond you share with Dimitra Galani. I have often said before that Dimitra Galani is by now to me the voice to my words. She is like my homeland in the world of songwriting. Having been in this creative and personal relationship with her for so many years I can now say that she is much more than a mere performer of my work; that she represents something much deeper than a simple inter-
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INTERVIEW
pretation of it. This relationship has always stood on a foundation of mutual admiration. I think that’s what has nurtured it, what has sustained it and helped it grow. But, you know, there is no better, more exalted feeling for a lyricist to experience than that which comes when one writes songs to be sung by a great performer who moreover happens to be the very source of inspiration for the songs themselves, the “hero” of those songs. Well, this has always come naturally for me and Dimitra. Her life, our relationship, her way of being present in her life and her art, has always incited me to start telling one tale or another. He life is a source of inspiration for storytelling. And that’s why it has been easy for us to collaborate as we have, to share this deep understanding and the success it inevitably leads to. Is the music what originally inspires you to write the lyrics to a song or is it the other way around, meaning that your inspiration for a song antedates the music, that it is somehow self-sufficient?
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PARASKEVAS KARASOULOS
The times when I wrote something based on a piece of music that was already there are very few. Usually, the words are there first and they actually evoke a concept that seems to run through the entire album. There are two basic standards I have always tried to apply: first that the lyrics to the songs be autonomous, that they be good enough to stand alone on paper without insulting me or the person reading them, and, second, that each group of songs come together around a central concept that is at the time relevant to my life and current concerns. It is much easier to satisfy both when the words come first. At least that’s what I think. Mikri Arktos, the publishing house and record label which you head, consistently puts out top notch content, whether text, music or image. Allios includes a book of the lyrics to the songs featured in the eponymous album, together with pictures of works by photographer Lila Sotiriou and painter Andreas Georgiadis. Is there an audience willing to support these kinds of choices?
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INTERVIEW
Yes, there is, and it will grow wider and wider if we continue to make these choices. We have chosen to create a beautifully curated, meticulously designed edition, where all contributors have willingly wavered their royalties to help keep the retail price low, because basically we wanted to show both our work and our audience the respect they deserve and because at this hour we need to encourage people to support Greek creative proposals that are worth paying attention to. There is no other way. When times are hard you need to do your best without thinking whether you are winning or losing in the process. Mikri Arktos was established in 1996, that is eighteen years ago. Would you care to venture an assessment of those year’s worth of experience? These years have been an extremely productive period that has known many frustrations but even more joys. When we first embarked on this journey into the world of publishing we had two historic models in mind: the ECM record label and the old Ikaros Books, the publishing house. These were the examples we chose to follow as we traced our own course, which we envisioned as a publishing venture that would include as many art forms as our team could plan and lay out a specific strategy for. In other words, what we wanted to do was publish books, release music albums, actively participate in developments on the local art scene, put together music productions and organize various other events. Our dream was to set up something that resembled an art association more than it did a commercial enterprise. At the same time we wanted our choices to clearly evoke throughout the poetics of our original vision, that is the aesthetics of a world “whose age is that of an eternal Spring”. Looking back it is worth pointing out that for seven years now we have been ECM’s distributors in Greece and I would think that by now Mikri Arktos is considered a very welcoming home for both upcoming and established poets, just like Ikaros was when it was starting out, while art lovers know and appreciate us for our creative approach of Greek art. We have come very close to realizing our dreams. And it took a lot of effort and a lot of hard work. But we made it. We could have settled for less, we could have focused on doing one thing only. Instead, our activity meandered across many different areas hoping to catch the light of all seven stars in our logo, so to speak. Can art’s interventions have the kind of impact that would alter the course of a society in decline, which is no less the result of a crisis of values and institutions than it is that of the economic crisis? Look, art’s mission has always been to engage the mind of a trained audience, to shape their sensibility, their thought, and spirituality. I think that its impact on societies is and has been that it creates the thinking individual, that it nurtures independent, emancipated citizens. That is why it hasn’t always kept on the right side of political and reli-
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PARASKEVAS KARASOULOS
gious establishments. In that sense, its interventions do obviously have an impact, they do cause change to come about and create the conditions for subversive action. Only this kind of change is slow and surreptitious. It does not serve any political ends, nor does it rush to fulfill any historical necessity. And, what is more, it is precarious because in reality it affects all of us differently, it carries a different weight for different people. A song, or book, or movie will not have the same effect on you that it has on me – the depth and quality of that influence will be different. And yet something happens when art finds its mark, something happens to all of us. We know it. We can see it. And we can feel it – on our tongues, in our relationships, in the way we look at things. That is why I feel that art’s engagement with the reality around us is imperative today more than ever before; that art, genuine, true art, is necessary in these troubled times. You have often talked about how crucial the art of songwriting has been to shaping Greek cultural identity. Oral culture has always been the dominant culture in Greece, the result of historical overdetermination for reasons that are largely acknowledged today. The folksong and our art-historical tradition were shaped orally and it is therefore very easy to see why songs have always been so important to us Greeks. The art of the song was always an art of the masses, and as such was by definition a politically engaged art, with roots going deep into the heart of Greek society and wielding a massive influence over it. And it was no accident that the music industry, the song’s reproductive mechanism as it were, was the first to suffer from the Crisis, even before the Crisis had knocked on the door of Greek society itself. And so it was that the Greek song – unprotected by the proper state institutions – drifted right into the hands of the market and of transnational corporations which are pretty blunt about their own interests. It has yielded, but I would like to believe that it will soon witness a new wave of creativity of which new works will be born, new artists will emerge to make new proposals. We have been through many years of drought in that respect, making do with songs from our past. It is time we sang about our present. We love singing about what we live through in this place. It connects us; the song is a major tool of cultural mediation, just like poetry. It breathes life into our language and ensures its survival. At any rate, it is no easy matter to reconstruct a defunct cultural market, but if we do make it it will be in healthier, more enduring ways and that is a bet worth winning. I also hope that priority will not be given to its commercial aspect alone, but more so to its more profound artistic concerns, to its appropriateness and necessity. That’s what we all want. To sing songs about our own time and its concerns. Has the passage of time made writing easier or not? How hard is it to “speak” today amidst all the confusion of this transitional age?
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INTERVIEW
I would think that what makes things harder is not the passage of time, but the problems that are a result of the particular adversities we are currently faced with. It is really difficult to write in a period that is as volatile, as deconstructive, and as provisional as this one. That is why Discourse seems to be “clearing its throat in embarrassment” most of the times. It is required, by its very constitution, to be ahead of its own time, to look into the future before the future is even conceived as such, to speak of the universal decline of the West and in doing so to be unsparing, visceral. It is a great responsibility for an artist to shoulder and that is I think why both poetry and prose appear to be rather distracted and fazed in these circumstances. And that is why I feel that we must keep on writing, publishing, being active, especially in these circumstances, even if we have no great masterpieces to show for ourselves. On the contrary, the point is to continue to engage, to not lose touch with the realities taking shape around us – often in our absence. Are there any ideas or themes that seem to be returning to your work over and over again; that you’d say they were actually a mark of your work? There are three concepts that form a continuous thread running through my work as a lyricist: place, time, the individual – I have been preoccupied with them from a very young age and they continue to “haunt” me. Anyway, if they relate between them, they create a life, a concrete life with a name and surname, so to speak. Whether creatively or not, it doesn’t really matter, these notions trace the boundaries of our microcosm and macrocosm. It is precisely in the way these relate that our individual identities take
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PARASKEVAS KARASOULOS
shape and, consequently, no collective identifications or adjustments can take place without it. That is why in Treis Teleies [(Ellipsis) an anthology of songs I have written reaching up to two years ago) I tried to structure the material at hand on the basis of these three concepts that have been the starting point for my work. Creative fixations are an artist’s Agathodaemon; his compass across time. Would you perhaps care to confide in us about your plans for the future, both as regards Mikri Arktos and your songwriting? At Mikri Arktos we have resolved to go full speed ahead on our plans, especially at this hour when we feel that artistic and intellectual production have more than their usual intrinsic value, that they take on an added political significance. We would like to believe that now more than ever we can be of service to our country. We release music and books, we organize exhibitions, we continue to introduce new artists in all areas covered by our activities, we continue our support of ECM and its productions, including the brilliant recordings of Greek artists in the label’s roster. In the last three years we have been more active than ever before; always insisting on selecting and promoting the most challenging projects. And seeing the circle of our friends expand, their support become ever more generous and enthusiastic. On a personal level, although Allios is still in its infancy, in the sense that it was released barely a few months ago, I am already working on two new albums for the coming year, one of which will be an album of children’s songs. But it is still too early to say more. At any rate, I plan to be around. Present and ready to fight.
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I N S I D E T H E F O U N D AT I O N ' S PERMANENT COLLECTION
Christo (b. 1935)
Packed Coast
(Project for Australia, near Sydney) Pencil, polyethylene, twine, crayon and tracing paper on board, 71 x 55 cm, 1969
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, his wife and collaborator, are best known for their temporary, large scale environmental works. They began in the early sixties by packaging and wrapping objects and then progressed to incursions on architectural sites and tracts of land. Their aim has been to change our perception of given realities; to startle the observer. The metamorphosis of the cityscape or landscape is an aesthetic event which turns an island into a giant painting or a building into a sculpture, on the other, the exhaustive discussions, the effort to acquire permits, finding the right team and convincing the authorities is a political task. Indeed, the wrapping of the coasts, islands, buildings needs years of planning and a large team of engineers and collaborators. The wrapping of Little Bay, in Sydney, Australia, to which Packed Coast refers, took 17.000 manpower hours to be completed, 15 professional rock climbers, 110 labourers, architecture and fine art students, artists and teachers. Brian Cleary, a member of the team involved in the wrapping of Little Bay in Sydney, Australia, in 1969 recalls: “Little could be prepared us for that morning. We had almost finished, and perhaps it had already served its purpose; local artists were ecstatic, environmentalists had made their inspections and pronouncements on behalf of the potentially endangered fairy penguin nests, a bevy of brown nuns had stepped warily over the biscuit snow-scape as shivering, bikini-clad models were photographed amongst the billowing fabric, not to mention the mammoth work of Christo’s photographers, Shunk and Kende, patients in pyjamas and robes from the adjoining hospital had incorporated the phenomenon into their afternoon walk, a visiting wizard had claimed it as his own concoction, and throughout Sydney, people were questioning whether things had been better as they were, or like this! Even Jean in the suburbs had an opinion. But now it was in complete tatters, torn to shreds by a storm through the night. Christo and Jeanne-Claude went into a huddle, John Caldor, the project’s local coordinator was probably contacted, Christo walked off and surveyed the work… We were back in business; we’d start again and finish it. The stupendous amount of organizing had guaranteed the result.” Packed Coast is one of the preparatory drawings that made the actual wrapping possible. Christo and Jeanne-Claude believe that they need to raise the funds for their environmental works solely through the sale of drawings, scale-models and original lithographs instead of turning to sponsors or seeking grants, so as to freely follow their vision. For Little Bay, property of the Royal Prince Henry Hospital, they used million square feet of erosion control fabric (a synthetic woven fibre usually manufactured for agricultural purposes) and 56.3 kilometres of polypropylene rope. The coast remained wrapped for a period of ten weeks, then all materials were removed and recycled.
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FORMER BEGF SCHOLARS
Assi Dimitrolopoulou Fellow BEGF scholar 1994-1995, Set design and Theatre.
Starting off with architecture you then went on to complete a very interesting program of studies in theater and film set design. As you look back now would you say that the latter was a natural next step in the trail you followed or does it feel as if you had to leap into a different world altogether? I studied architecture at the National Technical University of Athens. It was something I had wanted even as a child. I used to write about it in elementary school compositions, and passing my entrance exams was to my mind a huge success. Already at the age of twelve I had began reading drama. I was intrigued by the way theater approached human nature. While a student at university I began wanting to become more involved with theater, set design being one of the ways in which I could pursue this. Upon graduating I left for the States, Los Angeles specifically, where I enrolled at UCLA to continue my studies in architecture. I soon realized I was more interested in the university’s theater department, especially in the design for theater and entertainment media program. However, tuition fees being too high I had to return to Greece, following which I left for Paris where the level of university education is excellent and universities are stateowned. Set design is organically linked to architecture ever since the time of the Renaissance: consider Serlio’s treatise on architecture which includes a discussion of set design. Set design, whether for film or the stage, is a matter of space. But how a set designer with a background in architecture will go about approaching it may be different to how another one will who has a different educational background. In my personal history the space of the stage and that of architecture have overlapped to the point of being indistinguishable, and I have always looked at them through the same “lens”. Besides, I never gave up my architectural practice although I gradually became more involved with interior design. The actual difference between a stage set and
Left: costumes for a production of The Manifesto of War (Part I), directed by Roula Paterakis, starring Dimitris Lignadis, Eleni Erimou, Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Small Theater of Ancient Epidaurus, 2014. Above left: sets and costumes for a production of Dimitri Psathas’ The Robber Cries Thief!. Directed by Vassilis Myrianthopoulos, starring Iro Mane, 2013. Above right: sets and costumes for a production of V. Nevrokopli’s The Story of Music, directed by Th. Espiritou, The Athens Concert Hall, 2008.
an architectural space is time, the time it takes to realize a given project, which in stage design is sometimes shorter. And then there is also the ephemeral nature of the work itself: in theater a stage set is built to last a short period of time. After the end of the production, it ceases to be and exists in time only in the form of photographic documentation, or as memory-based “architecture” in the viewer’s mind. Would it be correct to argue that what unites architecture and set design is creative vision? And what perhaps separates them is the element of freedom: there are many rules to be followed in the practice of architecture, while set design seems more liberal in this respect. Has it helped you find your own voice and use it to express yourself? This is a very interesting question and I will be very open in answering it as I think it has more of a philosophical foundation. Any given day in our lives can be creative, our whole lives can be creative, the birth of child is creative, everything can be looked at through the prism of creativity and I feel that doing so is a sign of optimism and hope. Freedom on the other hand is what all citizens should abide by in their lives. Both in creativity and freedom there are rules to be followed, but neither is undermined by this fact. As far as I am concerned it is the notion of space that brings together architecture and set design. Both are creative and leave room from freedom and both have rules. It might seem that a stage set is more “liberal” than a work of architecture but this is far from the truth. Everything we do has its own rules and its own audience. Sometimes set design can prove less flexible than architecture as the complexity of human nature makes its rules harder to conceal. Personal style, my own voice as you put it, is something one builds irrespective of the art form that materializes or visualizes it, and it is about personal choices and setting per-
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sonal “rules”, not to mention breaking them. In that sense it may be looked for in every art form, be it architecture, music, or set design. The notion of space is very important in my book, and I believe in a kind of “dramaturgic set design”. By this I am referring to the creative aspect of set design. Set design must take part in the theatrical act contributing its own “text”, its own reading of the drama, and adding yet another point of view from which viewers can approach it. A little while ago you participated in a many-day event organized by the Department of Theater Studies at the University of Peloponnisos where you currently teach, under the title New Visions in Contemporary Greek Theater. The topic itself suggests a need to investigate and at once sounds like an encouragement. What then might be the elements of a desired or perhaps even necessary new vision in contemporary Greek theater? Yes, I did organize that many-day event at the University’s Department of Theater Studies last Spring aiming to familiarize students with major emerging artists in Greek theater today. As you very eloquently put it it was about both inspiring reflection and encouraging a younger generation that is now being fostered in academic institutions. The event encouraged interaction between students and artists. It was not designed as a conference, but was more open. Teaching is another area that allows great room for creativity. Considering the economic predicament in which the nation and its universities now find themselves, I try my best to instill in my students a love for learning and the theater. Let me call your attention here to the live visual installation titled I Have Nothing That is My Own that students in my set design class and myself put up in the abandoned Nafplion home of poet Nikos Karouzos. It is a project we will be taking to the Prague International Quadrennial Set Design Exhibition, which I feel is important in terms of using our tradition to make the voice of Greece heard outside Greek borders. I hope the university’s finances will allow us to attend the exhibition in person. A vision is possible first of all as a result of a desire for a vision and secondly as something that one actually “envisions”, or “dreams about”. The idea is to look ahead through your own existence, connect past and present, and keep the memory of tradition alive. Every
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FORMER BEGF SCHOLARS
Left: costumes for the film “DOS- a love story in reverse”, scenario-directed by Stathis Athanassiou, starring Giorgos Karamichos, Marina Kalogerou, 2010. Up: production design, costumes for the film “Three days of happiness”, scenario-directed by Dimitris Athanitis, 2010.
Greek artist will choose their own “filters”, and follow their own rules. There may be similarities rooted in education and shared experiences, but artists generally strive for self expression through a voice that is their own and that’s what’s important. Greek theater has great momentum and can make its mark both in Greece and abroad, but it needs funding. I have taken part in various international theater festivals and what I hear being repeated over and over again is that “there is good theater being done in Greece”, but there is also the need for a sustained policy of extroversion. More is being done in that direction today compared to twenty years ago, but I think we can do even more and be assisted in this more systematically from both state and private institutions. What are currently the most important developments in set design internationally? Does set design in Greece partake of these developments? In what direction is it evolving? Set design is linked to directing and as such does not evolve independently of it. At the same time it is always informed by developments in the visual arts and architecture. Generally speaking, there is an ongoing international dialogue probing the issues of form and its treatment, visual “language” and its formulation, “meaning” and its interpretation. There is also an ongoing international debate about where a given system is going whose impact on art often seems to thwart visions rather than create them as it should. It is true that the use of new media has been introduced into the world of theater for some years now and its contribution has often been decisive. At times it feels like little more than mere razzle-dazzle, at others there is real substance to it. Everything depends on the relationship between the medium used, an artist’s particular vision, and the potential appeal of that vision. Greece is part of the world out there and is actively involved in developments in a manner that is specific to her and with a voice that is her own. Information today flows and spreads easily and rapidly. At the same time there is an effort
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Up: painted sketches of costumes for the show “Pelican” by A. Strindberg, directed by Roula Pateraki, 2000. Right: painted sketch for the show “The dream of a ridiculous man”, by F. Dostoevsky, directed by Roula Pateraki.
to create a dramatic idiom that is specifically Greek, whether in terms of text, directing, or costume and set design. Greece has always been a small country with limited resources, a fact whose impact is more visible when it comes to the more ambitious productions. I remember working at the Paris Opera in the late 90s and realizing at some point that the cost of a particular moment in a ballet production (there was a rain of rose petals falling on the stage every night) amounted to the cost of an entire theater production with a cast of four in Greece. It sounds outrageous. And that was a time when the country seemed to be prospering, right after it was awarded the Olympics in 1997. Greece is always a willing and concerned participant [in international developments] and that’s a good thing, but there is no protective glass around art and art is certainly not a protected species. Society runs on ahead and art must catch up and respond to it; it must come up with new visions. Greek society seems increasingly focused on the efforts of the individual. Private initiative comes to replace the state and major institutions as these become more and more withdrawn. Everyone wants to play a part but more and more frequently we seem unable to manage our egos. We are as extroverted as we are self-centered. Theater, like all art forms, depends on the economy. Greece is blessed with many talent-
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FORMER BEGF SCHOLARS ed and highly skilled set designers, but before they can express their vision they need access to the necessary resources. Production costs are being squeezed to no end, at least not a visible one. It seems as if there is no big Stop sign waiting for us down the road, so to speak. I fear that the pressure generated by a lack of funding breeds amateurism in art, especially in the theater. Set designing, like the practice of other art forms, is a profession and it must be treated as such by everyone involved. Many things are at risk, threatened with tremendous consequences, and they must be protected by ourselves as much as by the state and private institutions. You have designed the sets and costumes for numerous theater and film productions. Which would you pick out among them as representing the most joyous encounters between your own creative genius and that of the director or writer? It is true that I have been involved in many productions and the encounters of which you speak are at times pleasant, at others not so much, just as in life. I am happy to say I have not had any uncomfortable encounters either because I have been lucky or because I got the feeling early on that the end would be unfortunate, and so did not go through with the collaboration to begin with. I have had plenty of fortunate collaborations with people – directors, writers, and actors – with whom we shared a common vision and that made things flow, and the end result was really good. In the absence of a common vision it is not easy to get good results. Not that there is no meaning to be had in conflicts, but then the conflicts need to be creative. However, it is not really only a matter of people, but rather one of circumstance. The right conditions will help collaborations grow, and these conditions are not impervious to such things as finances, the producer’s own circumstances, the level of coordination, etc. There have been people I met at the very beginning of my career in the theater and in cinema, who trusted my creative vision and gave me a job although I had not even had an assistant’s post yet, and I thank them for that trust. Also, the BEGF Scholarship I won was crucial for me at that particular moment when it came. I am happy that my involvement with the cinema has come up, because that’s where my career in set design began and it is an art form that I love very much. I have not worked on many films but care deeply for them all. I really wish I could work on a new film project today. If suddenly everything fell into place so that you could work on a new project what would you like that to be? It sounds like a dream! There are so many things I’d like to do. I have so many dreams. I have for some time now worked on a research-based live visual installation that aims to explore a new and personal “language of images”, which I would like to see travel across Greece and abroad. And there are other dreams as well, such as designing the sets and costumes for an opera production. It is a genre I am very fond of. Like I said, I’d love to go back to working on a film again. None of the above though means I would be betraying my beloved theater. I hope these are all things I can do in my own country.
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INTERNATIONAL LISTINGS / CULTURE
LONDON
TATE MODERN Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963-2010
This Polke retrospective offers a panorama of the surprising range of media the artist used over the fifty odd years of his career. The exhibition has been organized in collaboration with MoMA, New York. Exhibition runs from 9 October 2014 through to 8 February 2015 www.tate.org.uk
LONDON
NATIONAL GALLERY REMBRANDT – LATE WORKS
Bringing together well-known masterpieces and rare drawings and prints the exhibition examines the themes that seem to have preoccupied the artist as he was growing old: self-control, experimentation, light and the observation of everyday life, the work of other artists even, as well as expressions of intimacy and reflection, conflict and reconciliation. Exhibition runs from 15 October 2014 through to 18 January 2015. www.nationalgallery.org.uk
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liverpool
TATE LIVERPOOL - ANDY WARHOL
This is the first ever Warhol retrospective to be presented in Northern England. It brings together more than100 of the artist's works, attesting the massive legacy of one of the most influential artists in the postwar period, and a central figure in the movement of Pop Art. Exhibition runs from 7 November 2014 through to 8 February 2015. www.tate.org.uk
LONDON
TATE BRITAIN Late Turner: Painting Set Free
The first extensive exhibition of JMW Turner's later work sheds light on an especially creative period in his painting (1835-1850) during which the artist would paint some of his most resonant and celebrated works.
Exhibition runs from 10 September 2014 through to 18 January 2015. www.tate.org.uk
PA R I S
CENTRE POMPIDOU Marcel Duchamp. La peinture, mĂŞme
The show brings together almost 100 works by Duchamp, focusing especially on his preliminary drawings and studies for The Large Glass (La grand verre, 1915-1923). Exhibition runs from 24 September 2014 through to 5 January 2015. www.centrepompidou.fr
PA R I S
ORANGERIE - EMILE BERNARD
A painter and print-maker, as well as art critic, writer, and poet, Emile Bernard is a key figure in the history of modernism. In the late 1880s, Bernard developed a style of painting known as Cloisonnism, which was adopted by Gauguin, Van Gogh and the Nabis. In 1891 over the role of symbolism in painting, Bernard moved to Kairo where he reexamined the kind of schematic stylization and primitivism that was central to the work of the Symbolists. Exhibition runs from 17 September 2014 through to 5 January 2015. www.musee-orsay.fr
PA R I S
GRAND PALAIS HOKUSAI
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is today the most celebrated Japanese artist in the world. His works evoke the spirituality and soul of his homeland, adroitly blending traditional values in Japanese art and the artist's own western influences. The exhibit features 500 outstanding works. Exhibition runs from 1 October 2014 through to 18 January 2015. www.grandpalais.fr
MUNICH
ALTE PINAKOTHEK - CANALETTO
The Alte Pinakothek presents the first comprehensive exhibition of the work of Bernardo Bellotto (known as Canaletto) in Germany. Major works from all the different periods in the artist's work allow viewers to trace Canaletto's many travels across Europe in the age of the Enlightenment. In 1761 he visited Munich, where he painted a panoramic view of the city and two vedute of Nymphenburg Palace. Exhibition runs from 17 October 2014 through to 18 January 2015. www.pinakothek.de
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INTERNATIONAL LISTINGS / CULTURE
VENICE
MUSEO CORRER THE POETRY OF LIGHT
Museo Correr, presents over 130 works produced between the 15th and 19th centuries in Venice: Mantegna, Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Tiepolo, Piazzetta, and Canaletto, not to mention foreigners including Callow and Sargent among others. Exhibition runs from 6 December 2014 through to 15 March 2015 www.correr.visitmuve.it
BASEL
FONDATION BEYELER SAISON COURBET
An extensive survey of the work of Gustave Courbet, one of the most important precursors of Modernism: the show features his seminal landscapes, self-portraits, and nudes, especially his representations of female nudes by the water. His famous work L'origine du monde will be shown for the first time in Europe outside of France. Exhibition runs from 7 Sept. 2014 through to 18 Jan. 2015. www.fondationbeyeler.ch
VIENNA
Kunsthistorisches Museum Velรกzquez
This is the first exhibition of the work of Spanish master Diego Velรกzquez (1599-1660) to take place in a German-speaking country. Apart from his signature portraits of royalty, the show features still lifes, religious and mythological subjects, thus offering an overview of his oeuvre. The exhibition is a collaborative project for which the Kunsthistorisches Museum teams up with Madrid's Museo Nacional del Prado, London's National Gallery, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Exhibition runs from 28 October 2014 through to 15 February 2015. www.khm.at/
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VIENNA
LEOPOLD MUSEUM ALBERTO GIACOMETTI
This is a tribute to one of the most important sculptors of the twentieth century (19011966). Alberto Giacometti's works rank today among the world's most expensive artworks. Exhibition runs from 17 October 2014 through to 26 January 2015. www.leopoldmuseum.org
ΜΟΜΑ
NEW YORK
The exhibit features Matisse's paper cut-outs: as many as 120 works created between 1943 and 1954, many of which have never been shown before. Exhibition runs from 12 October 2014 through to 8 February 2015. www.moma.org
MONTREAL
MONTREAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS VAN GOGH TO KANDINSKY
The exhibition features a selection of works that are representative of the French and German avant-gardes of the early 1900s. Included are works by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne, and Kandinsky. Exhibition runs from 11 October 2014 through to 25 January 2015. www.mbam.qc.ca
NEW YORK
ΜΟΜΑ Jean Dubuffet
The show draws its content from the Museum's permanent collection, charting Dubuffet's gradual turn toward complete abstraction through a selection of paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, and books illustrated by the artist. Exhibition runs from 18 October 2014 through to 5 April 2015. www.moma.org
WA S H I N G TO N
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART EL GRECO
The National Gallery of Art organizes this exhibition to commemorate the fourth centenary of the death of El Greco. The exhibition features 11 works both from the gallery's permanent collection and from other Washington- area collections. Laocoön (16101614), his only mythological work is also included. Exhibition runs from 2 November 2014 through to 16 February 2015. www.nga.gov
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B E Goulandris Foundation Ίδρυμα Β Ε Γουλανδρή 26