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JULY - AUGUST 2015 The bimonthly electronic journal of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation
EDITORIAL TEAM
Georgia Alevizaki, Paraskevi Gerolymatou, Andreas Georgiadis, Maria Koutsomallis, Alexandra Papakostopoulou, Kleio Panourgias, Irene Stratis Designed and edited by
Τ 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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with Marie Koutsomallis, curator of the exhibition MAN RAY, Visages of the Woman
e d ucation A L progra m s for c h il d ren
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"Who’s hiding behind the mask?" in Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, Moca - Andros
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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Constantine Manos, Watching the dance in the village square, Elympos, Karpathos, Greece, 1966
FORMER BEGF SCHOLARS
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Adonis Volanakis
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
This is the 13th issue of the periodical, informative communication we make sure we maintain with our friends and the increasing number of members of the public who follows us. This year’s summer exhibition, as already announced, is dedicated to Man Ray, the celebrated American artist who, apart from famous photographer, was also a talented painter, sculptor, designer, engraver and inventor of objects that continue to cause interest and admiration. The exhibition is thematic and refers to the ‘Visages of the Woman’. The interview with Marie Koutsomallis, who is responsible for the conception, initiation and curation of this very important exhibition that consists of 150 works of all categories, as well as the authorship of the trilingual, 350-page catalogue that accompanies it, offers analytical details and compositional approaches to the subject. The thematic originality, attempted for the first time, has received an enthusiastic response for Greek and overseas art-lovers and visitors. It is with great pleasure and joy that we also bring you a very interesting interview with Adonis Volanakis, a Foundation scholarship holder. Mr Volanakis, who completed undergraduate studies in Fashion and Theatre Costume Design, continued with postgraduate studies is Stage Design at Saint Martin’s College in London. The interview is published on occasion of the presentation of his work from the 1st July, within the framework of the Athens Festival under the title The Holy Bachelorette in The Wedding Cave. The timeliness of the Man Ray exhibition offers us the opportunity to publish a famous photograph from our collection, by the celebrated Constantine Manos entitled Watching the dance in the village square, Elympos, Karpathos, 1962. Warm thanks to all those who participated in the process for post-graduate studies abroad in the subjects announced for the academic year 2015-2016: Architecture, The Economics of Art and Art and the Internet. In closing, we wish to thank the readers of this newsletter and note that we remain at their disposal via all social media channels to share experiences, impressions and any other observations they may wish to make. Kyriakos Koutsomallis Director
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INTERVIEW
In MAN RAY’s mind I N T E R V I E W F R O M T H E C U R AT O R M A R I E K O U T S O M A L L I S BY ANDREAS GEORGIADIS
Friday 26 June, 8.30 am, Chora, Andros. The weather is slightly autumnal but luckily appears to be improving. At the Museum of Contemporary Art, preparation levels have reached their peak. Only a few hours left to finish everything. Kiki’s name to be straightened in Room 3, the fringe on the curtain to be cut in Room 4, final lighting and humidity checks to take place in Rooms 5 and 6, the metronome to be wound and so much more… Everything must be perfect and, more importantly, finished today. The first guests will be arriving soon. 4.30 pm: myself and Maria Koutsomalli, the exhibition’s curator and inspiration move through the rooms one-by-one to ensure that everything is as it should. She does not hide her satisfaction with the result. This is her first exhibition curation, in a space so familiar and on a subject that she has been working on for over a year. Now assured, we can talk about the hows and the whys of the exhibition which will open to the public in less than 24 hours. Not so much about the thematic axis (already familiar to readers of the G magazine), but more about the artist himself upon whom the exhibition’s narrative is based.
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Let us take things from the beginning. Emmanuel Radnitzky was born in America in 1890 to Jewish immigrant parents. Emmanuel, the first child of Melach and Manya Radnitzky, was born in 1890 in Philadelphia. His father had arrived in the USA in 1876 and his mother two years later. As was common in those days, theirs was an arranged marriage and they did not know each other before meeting for the first time at the port. They did, however, have 4 children, of which Emmanuel was the first. The couple did not know English but did everything possible to become integrated into American society. They changed the family’s surname from Radnitzky to Ray so as not to reveal their Belarusian and Ukrainian roots. This was a particularly interesting choice for young Emmanuel who very soon after began working with light as a form of artistic expression... He mentions his family very occasionally in his autobiography. Why? Indeed, there is very little information on Man Ray’s childhood. He refers to those years quite frequently in his autobiography Self Portrait, but always under an artistic light: when he began painting, what his first influences were, who his first teachers were, etc. Most of the information about his family comes from William Baldwin, one of his biographers, who published Man Ray, An American Artist in 1988. It is here that were learn more about his parents, how they survived and what standard of living they had. This information helps us understand how much the Radnitzkys suffered from poverty. They had to move many times because they didn’t have enough money to pay their rent while their mother sewed the family’s clothes. One can well imagine their disappointment when the young Emmanuel – or Manny – decided to turn down a scholarship that would offer him the opportunity to study architecture at university. Although they offered him a room in their house to set up his first studio, he soon decided to distance himself from his family entirely and devote himself exclusively to his art.
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From left: Man Ray with his family and sister Dora, 1896. Man Ray in his studio in Brooklyn, 1910s. Three typographical studies, 1908. Right: Man Ray, Nude, 1912. Man Ray, Self-portrait, 1916. Man Ray, Jean Cocteau, 1922.
When did Many Ray decide to become an artist? In his autobiography he states that he had decided to become an artist at the age of 5 but this cannot be entirely true, and when he took this decision remains a mystery. In contrast, we know which was the first exhibition that changed his way of thinking. It was the Armory Show, which was presented in 1913 in New York, and later travelled to Chicago and Boston. It was the first time that many Americans saw works by foreign artists such as Picasso, Braque, Gris, and Duchamp. As noted by Man Ray, ‘this exhibition gave me the courage to work with large canvases.’
«My mother was a very good woman but she wanted me to be like other people – and I couldn’t. She knew how much I needed to be an artist. That disappointed her. My father was a sweet man, although inadequate, and I loved my sisters and my brothers – but I had to live my life and none of them were capable of accepting the consequences of this decision» Man Ray
There is the impression that Man Ray lived in an era when a single meeting could change an artist life. Is this true? Which do you consider milestones in his career? Thankfully, this is true even in our days. But it is so rare that whoever has the opportunity to live it must not miss it. Although I am convinced that Man Ray would have become an artist either way, I cannot but admit that there were milestone encounters in his life. The list is definitely long: the photographer and gallerist Alfred Steiglitz, through whom he came into contact with great artists and realized that photography was also a fine art. Katherine S Dryer whom asked for his contribution for the establishment of the first Museum of contemporary art in New York. Francis Picabia, Jean Coctaeu and Erik Satie who opened the doors for him to establish contact with Parisian high society. Sylvia Beach who brought him into contact with the great American writers. The Surrealists, the women – mistresses, the list is endless… Last but not least, Marcel Duchamp, the person who really changed his life.
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Let’s talk a little more about this relationship. They met via a common acquaintance, the collector Walter Conrad Arensberg, in Ridgefield, New Jersey. Although Man Ray did not speak French and Duchamp spoke very little English, their friendship was instant and began over a game of tennis. When Man Ray returned to New York they became inseparable. They taught one another their respective language, they played chess well into the night and, of course, ardently supported each other’s work. Together they established the Dada movement in New York, unaware that thousands of miles away, somewhere in Zurich, other artists, including Trsistan Tzara and Hand Arp were thinking the same things and were giving the name dada to this new form of artistic expression. Did they decide to go to Paris together? Yes, in 1921. Duchamp proceded him by a few months and Man Ray followed in July 1921. Already from the first evening Duchamp introduced him to a decisive circle of artists and intellectuals: the future Surrealists, including Breton, Aragon, Éluard and Benjamin Péret. Do you identify elective affinities in the work of these two artists? Of course. As highlighted in an important recent exhibitions abroad, Man Ray and Duchamp were both very talented painters, academically speaking. Like Kandinsky or Malevitch, their early works highlight an entirely different aspect from the one that followed that is, however, particularly attractive. That these talented people decided to turn towards abstraction or the production of readymades shows how inadequate the artistic language of the past appeared to them. Duchamp and Man Ray moreover had another shared interest: they
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Although the mid-war period appears today as an era of bohemian carefreeness, the truth is actually very different
From left: Photogram from René Clair’s film Entr’ acte (Intermission), depicting Duchamp and Man Ray playing chess, 1924. Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, 1916. Anonym, Ο Marcel Duchamp και ο Man Ray, 1963. Right: Man Ray, The Dadaist group, November 1921. From the left, back row: Paul Chadourne, Tristan Tzara, Philippe Soupault and Serge Charchoune· front row: Man Ray (collage), Paul Éluard, Jacques Rigaut, Mick Soupault and Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes.
particularly enjoyed experimenting, inventing various machines or using materials not common in painting. Their imagination was perhaps the element that connected them the most and helped them remain friends until Duchamp’s death in 1968. Man Ray’s arrival in Paris coincided with a period of intense fermentation and great movements. Did things move smoothly for him and his art? Probably not as smoothly as it appeared initially. Let us imagine that period for a minute: he arrived in a city where he knew no one, he could not even speak the language and everything seemed unfamiliar. And, in a few hours, he gained new friends who finally make him feel less alone in his efforts to change art radically, he lived in a hotel in the heart of Saint Germain with Tristan Tzara. Philippe Soupault immediately suggested he had a one-man exhibition of his paintings, and he soon met his most important muse, Kiki de Montparnasse. After the initial excitement, came an equally great disappointment. His exhibition at Librairie Six was a fiasco; he didn’t manage to sell a single painting. He then realized that the game was up: if he wanted to remain in Paris, with his new circle of friends, he would have to give up his passion, painting, for photography which would allow him to make enough money to live. So are we talking about an easy or a difficult period for an artist? Although the mid-war period appears today as an era of bohemian carefreeness, the truth is actually very different. Europe had just lived through a terrifying war and society was everything but progressive. For an artist of the era, it was actually very difficult to combat the public’s suspiciousness, contempt and deep conservatism. Talking about his meeting with Kiki de Montparnasse, brought to mind the exhibition’s first section, Man Ray’s ‘Muses’. Shall we talk about them a little? Who they were and what each one offered him. Although Man Ray had already married Adon Lacroix, a poet, in America in 1914 (they
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divorced in 1917), Kiki de Montparnasse is essentially his first muse. She was young – the only common feature among Man Ray’s muses is perhaps the big age difference they all had with the artist – who had learnt, having grown up almost without parents, how to get by on her own. She made a living working as an artists’ model but, very soon, gained a great reputation as a cabaret singer in Montparnasse. She tried to become an actress, she painted, and lived a bohemian life full of excesses. During the 7 years that their relationship lasted she changed a lot, while her alcohol abuse problem made her give up the stage. Despite this, Kiki de Montparnasse offered Man Ray very important moments of inspiration while her bohemian lifestyle helped him release himself from stereotypes. Next was Lee Miller? Exactly. Their relationship lasted only 3 years but was decisive for the artist. Upon her arrival from New York, Lee approach him immediately and asked him to teach her the art of photography. Together, they experimented profusely and their private life was completely intertwined with their professional one. Although twice her age, Man Ray displayed a new aspect of his personality: this liberal artist, who always, until now, accepted that his mistresses also had parallel relationships, became jealous, suspicious and possessive. As revealed by his numerous letters to Lee, he seemed to not recognize himself. When the young girl decided to leave him and return to New York to continue her promising career, he was completely out of control. Man Ray appears to have seriously contemplated suicide but, like all great artist, he managed to channel all his anger, hatred and disappointment into his art. This exorcism, in some way, inspired him to create some of his most important works and four years later he was able to embark on a new, purely friendly relationship with her. During this time he met Méret Oppenheim. Independent and strong, Oppenheim was an artist studying at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. She was part of the Surrealist group and strongly avoided the (degrading and entirely unrepresentative) role of the muse. She inspired
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From left: Photograph from the exhibition. Man Ray, Kiki de Montparnasse, 1921. Man Ray, Lee Miller, 1930. Right: Man Ray, Indestructible Object, 1923 / 1965. Photograph from the exhibition.
him and for three years offered him the opportunity to create important works. She was Man Ray’s only muse with whom he did not have a sexual relationship, is that right? In fact, we do not know if they were lovers. But this detail is, quite possibly, unimportant if one takes into account the clear mutual respect that connected them and the wonderful works that their relationship bequeathed. After these very powerful relationships Man Ray fell in love with two women who happily and with temperance accepted the role of muse without personal artistic ambitions. The first was the young dancer from Guadalupe, Adrianne Fidelin, who remained at his side until 1940. The second, Juliet Browner, also a dancer, was the woman he married and remained at his side for the last thirty years of his life. She met him in 1941 in America and devoted the rest of his life to him; she didn’t hesitate to follow him to Paris in 1951 despite not knowing French. It was she who donated the greater part of his photographic archive to the Pompidou Centre in Paris and who founded the Man Ray Trust to take care of her husband’s intellectual property rights. Man Ray was a multifaceted artist. Although he received fame and money from photography, he never gave up painting. Let’s talk a little about this… He considered himself primarily a painter, it was truly the artistic language he preferred. In the beginning, he used photography clearly to earn a living, and kept painting, as his great love, for his free time. Gradually, he came to terms with the idea that photography could offer him an adequate form of artistic expression and that’s why we see him developing various photographic techniques that could produce highly artistic results. In any case, Man Ray never stopped expressing himself using almost all artistic means, creating drawings, sculptures, readymades, engravings and prints. What he loathed was accepting the label of photographer or painter. He was an artist-explorer. Perhaps this is connected to the fact that Man Ray, nurtured by the great subversive art
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Photograph from the exhibition.
movements, had the courage to explore. This is why he applied all these innovations you describe in photography with the gaze of a pure visual artist. A characteristic example is solarization, a technique already known from 1880 but which was used by Man Ray in a way that produced high artistic results both in portraits and in simple fashion photographs. Luck. How important was it in his life? In an interview for a French channel, Man Ray supported that luck should not be part of the art process. It did however play an important role in his life and work. In 1922 for example, he undertook to photograph Marchessa Casati in her home. The inadequate lighting conditions forced him to shoot using longer expose times. Although she had to remain still, she did the opposite; the result was the famous photograph with the 3 pairs of eyes that was the passport to his later success. How does Man Ray deal with the element of eroticism in his work? Man Ray approached the erotic element in two ways: either in an abstract way as he often did in his paintings, or representationally, always with a twist of his celebrated sense of humour. In neither case, however, do we discern a desire for prettification or prudishness.
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Top Left: Man Ray, Dora Maar, 1936 (solarization). Left:Man Ray, Fashion Photography, 1935 (solarization). Top Right: Man Ray, Luisa Casati, 1922. Top: Man Ray, Mr and Mrs Woodman, 1947. Opposite left: Man Ray, Embrace, 1947.
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Screenshots from the preparations of the exhibitions
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The exhibition is, clearly, impressive. How do you feel as the curator on the eve of the opening? My feelings are varied. On the one hand I feel relief, despite the weariness, and on the other, great nervousness about how the public will respond. I am, of course, exceedingly satisfied by the results of the collective efforts of the Foundation’s team, and I feel deeply moved as this is the first exhibition curation I have undertaken. A chapter is closing here tonight and another one opens tomorrow, after the opening. Thankfully, staying on at the museums over the next 2 months will allow me to enjoy the results of this effort at a different pace. I would like to discuss one more thing. Exhibitions, like theatrical performances have the disadvantage of the ephemeral. I am happy, therefore, that this exhibitions by the Foundation has essentially been recreated in a catalogue that will always remind us of this journey into Man Ray’s life and work and will transport every future reader there anew.
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RECENT NEWS
Who’s hiding behind the mask? EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN AT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART ON ANDROS Within the framework of the exhibition MAN RAY – Visages of the Woman, presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation on Andros, educational programs entitled ‘Who’s hiding behind the mask?’ will be taking place for children aged 6 – 9 and 10 – 13. The aim of this year’s educational programmes is for children to become familiar with the sources of inspiration and creativity of American artist Man Ray. Via an experiential approach to his works, participants will come into contact with avant-garde art movements including Dadaism and Surrealism that will cultivate their ‘gaze’ in relation to readymades and artistic photography, its techniques and the use of other art forms. Through interactive practices and games, young visitors will spend 90 minutes discovering the power of the imprinting of emotions and the genius with which Man Ray captured them with his lens. They will move on with collaborative compositions, will experiment by creating their own Dadaist work and organising a contemporary surrealist exhibition! Duration: 1-31 August To register please call: 22820 22444 Participation cost: 5€
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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
Constantine Manos (b. 1934)
Watching the dance in the village square Elympos, Karpathos, Greece, 1966
Constantine Manos’ lens observes reality but never intrudes on it, his photos characterized by a clarity and sincerity that sometimes verge on the limits of photojournalism. In the sixties, for his Greek Portfolio, this American photographer of Greek extraction travelled around Greece during a crucial period of transition for the country. Much later, he wrote: “I think that in some photographs the picture is more important than the subject – the subject of the picture is the photograph”. In his Greek photos, Manos manages to beguile observers leaving them undecided as to whether they are seduced by the grandfather’s gaze protecting his grandson, the eyes of the young woman in Karpathos or the combination of moment, settings and figures; personal images, yet distant, photographic.
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FORMER BEGF SCHOLARS
Adonis Volanakis BEGF scholar 2002-2003, in Scenography.
We are talking on occasion of your work being presented from 1st July within the framework of the Athens Festival under the title The Holy Bachelorette in the Wedding Cave, an installation that combines many visual arts elements with narrative features. Talk to us about it. The Holy Bachelorette in the Wedding Cave is an artistic installation that unfolds within the vast expanse of the industrial space A on Piraeus Street. Within this space, the visitor encounters a forest or wedding dresses and torrents of fabric. In the heart of the space there is a perennial loom that weaves new fabric out of old wedding dresses that are cut up on the spot. At the same time, I collected questions on subjects that women relate to deeply and would like to ask other women. Then I filmed many different answers in Greece and New York which are projected in the space among the wedding dresses. The absent bodies in the empty wedding dresses are embodied by the video-projections of the women. I am very interested on how the conversation among women is woven. In Greece we all need to listen to, understand and empower the female narrative. This is what I am trying to do. Let’s listen again to the renowned Penelope, Odysseus’ wife. I believe that deep inside she did not desire her husband to return. You stated that you are interested in the female narrative. What are the characteristics that make it particularly interesting these days? My work is not connected to contemporaneity. The female narrative is a subject that has preoccupied humanity for centuries. The conditions therefore that my work refers
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www.adonisvolanakis.com Adonis Volanakis | Greek Festival 2015 mmm.weddingcave.wordpress.com blind date #12
to are deeply archetypal. Their expressions that appear in each era are simply the framework and not the content. The fact that women today are at a privileged threshold, comparatively to the past, so that their voice or scream can be heard, pushed me to try and open up the space so that this threshold is the exit threshold. I need to be in female spaces. Women have a large arena in which to ‘gestate’, to realise spaces and co-habit. Equality, motherhood and companionship are milestones in this narrative. Why did you select these topics? This project did not have a curator. The group of women with whom I worked were the true curators. The process through which they shared the issues that concern them highlighted motherhood, companionship and their position towards other genders as the main issues around the exercise of identity that pervades us all on a daily basis. Is the cross-thematic approach to art and the co-existence of the visual arts with other art forms – an approach that clearly concern you - a sign of the times, a personal concern or something else? My choice to study sculpture and theatre in Britain and cinematography in Finland, as well as my desire to exist with multiple borrowings between the visual and representative arts finally highlighted my true and essential need, that of collaboration. Interdisciplinarity was historically recorded already from the Renaissance, and the past years that I have been in New York have offered me exactly this. Our era requires the
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artist to come out of his studio, to realise the human connections with the various communities with which it is associated and linked. The centre of gravity has moved from high technique – thankfully – to the possibility for art to move both artist and viewer. Knowing good mathematics or philosophy is a tool for creative exploration. If I am not mistaken, Althuser had said: ‘Plain mathematician, plain ass. Plain painter, the same. Plain man, the same.’ There is no female-male dipole. You have spoken of the age of ‘blindness’ that characterised Greek society in the pre-crisis era. Could one say that art was an ‘accomplice’ in this? Of course art was the accomplice to a dominant, consumerist lifestyle. Quite removed from spirituality. And by using this particular word I mean the spirituality of human relationships. People today have been shaken and we have begun talking about politics, not in the narrow sense of the word, but in the broad sense, i.e. the politics that relates to interpersonal relationships and expands cumulatively. The hydra as table where people come to discuss, refuting their identities and knowledge as one would on a beach on a starry night around the fire. It may sound a little – or even very – romantic but this relationship with the simple things is what we all need to regain in Greece. You teach art and politics at the University of NY. What are the most valuable elements one entity must take and develop from another in order to answer some of humanity’s intense problems of today? The work we do at the department is based mainly on how art comes to the table of each community. The politics created by art and the art created by politics. It is not easy to offer answers. If we can continue to pose questions on issues of identity, privileges, participation in public debate, right to creativity, recognition of difference, incorporation of the foreign, if we can become more human in other words.
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FORMER BEGF SCHOLARS You once mentioned that is possible for an artistic expression to not contain any specific messages. Is this possible? (either consciously or unconsciously) Immanuel Kant taught us that art does not need a specific meaning and message. As noted by my dear friend Dimitris Martidis ‘each viewer is a different artwork.’ The death of the author was sealed by Roland Bart and the aim of every work is to emancipate viewers to co-author their own. What are the subjects that concern you currently and are at the centre of your immediate artistic plans? The notion of collaborative leadership is something that concerns me a lot and I am working on this specific project with a group of women that on 21 July at 21:00, in the installation space, will be holding readings of excerpts from the ‘The Penelopiad’ by Margaret Atwood. This is an idea that stemmed from a meeting I had with the author in New York and developed into a unique experience in many respects. The work narrates, using the oral tradition which Homer also used to write the Odyssey, Penelope’s story from her own perspective. It is, in other words, an attempt to approach the famous myth, not through the eyes of a male author but of a woman. For this exact reason the composition of the team is quite pluralistic, if I can use this term. The women are all from different backgrounds, age groups and, therefore, each brings her own element and her own perspective to the story we narrate. As noted by Calliope Panagiotidou, an actress and one of the participants: ‘It is nice to try and create not a homogenous group but a group that is ostensibly heterogeneous, whose ‘ingredients’, however, have been combined in a way that the absence of a voice, that specific voice, with its background, differentiates the narrative of the story in a catalytic way. This, like much more, is connected essentially, to the acceptance of difference and, by extension, its advocacy. Danae Sozou, poet, adds: ‘People are connected, among others, by common goals. The acceptance of an invitation, learning the operation and the processes of a team meeting for the first time, but the internal result, i.e. learning to be a group, that fine point where power games must balance out, is simultaneously an opening out of the discussion, of the world, of the self. It is clearly connected to ability but it also has to do with connection and emotion, with encouragement, as each member of the team is also connected to other teams and wishes to connect with at least one more: the audience. The final moment relates to the consonance of all the chords together, the voice of each of us and our voice.’
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INTERNATIONAL LISTINGS / CULTURE
LONDON National Gallery Sansovino Frames
«Frames in Focus: Sansovino Frames» is the first in a series of exhibitions on frames for artworks which brings together 30 exceptional and characteristic examples from Venice and Veneto. Duration of exhibition: 1/4 – 13/9/2015 www.nationalgallery.org.uk
LONDON
THE COURTAULD GALLERY Unfinished … works from the Courtauld Gallery
This exhibition brings together paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints from the Renaissance to the beginning of the twentieth century, that have – for better or worse – been described as ‘unfinished’. Many of the works on display were cancelled by the artist or were not completed following his death, offering an exciting glimpse into the interruption of the artistic process. Duration of exhibition 18/6 - 20/9/2015 www.courtauld.ac.uk
Liverpool
Tate Liverpool Jackson Pollock – Blind spots
This is the first exhibition after 30 years to focus on one of the artist’s less know but exceptionally powerful artistic periods: the black pouring period (1951-53). The exhibition brings together the largest number of works of this period, contemporary drawings and a series of almost unknown and rare sculptures that offer a new perspective of the work of one of the twentieth century’s most famous Duration of exhibition: 30/06 – 18/10/2015 www.tate.org.uk
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P ari s
Musee RodiΝ: Robert Doisneau Sculptors and Sculptures
This exhibition on photographer Robert Doisneau at the Rodin Museum looks back at the documentary filmed during the casting of the sculpture ‘Penseur’ as well as the photographer’s interest, throughout his career, on sculptures in public spaces and in the studio. Duration of exhibition: 14/3-19/11/2015 www.musee-rodin.fr
A m s ter d a m
Rijk smuseum Gardens Joan Miró
Over 20 sculptures from international museums and private collections by Spanish artist Joan Miró (1893-1983) are on display in the free access gardens of the Rijksmuseum. After Henry Moore and Alexander Calder, this is the third in a series of planned ‘open’ exhibitions. Duration of exhibition: 19/6-11/10/2015 www.rijksmuseum.nl
B ilbao
Guggenheim museum Jeff Koons
A retrospective exhibition of the innovative work of Jeff Koons, one of the most strange personalities of the era’s art world. Koons has a unique style that allows seemingly contradictory concepts to coexist harmoniously in his work. Duration of exhibition: 9/06 – 27/09/2015 www.guggenheim.org
VIENNA
ALBERTINA MUSEUM Lee MIller
A retrospective of the work of Lee Miller (1907-1977) with over 100 artworks on display at the Albertina Museum. Her work is characterised by surrealist images in the fields of fashion, travel, portraiture but also war-time correspondence. In this exhibition, emphasis has been placed almost exclusively on previously unpublished works. Duration of exhibition: 8/5-16/8/2015 www.albertina.at
Ma d ri d
Prado museum: Ten Picassos from the Kunstmuseum Basel
The Museo del Prado is presenting ten masterpieces by Pablo Picasso from the Basel Kunstmuseum collection; ten works from Malaga, Picasso’s birthplace, that date from between 1906 and 1967. Duration of exhibition:18/3 – 15/09/2015 www.museodelprado.es
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INTERNATIONAL LISTINGS / CULTURE
VENICE 56th BIENNALE
The opening of the now established Venice Biennale is on 9 May. It will run until 22 November 2015. www.labiennale.org
ROME
SCUDERIE DEL QUIRINALE Arte della Civiltà Islamica.
The al- Sabah collection consists of 35,000 Islamic and Middle Eastern art objects and is undoubtedly one of the most important in the world not only in terms of numbers but for the quality and originality of the art works it contains. Duration of exhibition: 25/7-20/9/2015 www.scuderiequirinale.it
Du s s el d orf
Museum Kunstpalast: Wim Wenders – Landscapes. Photos
On occasion of the artist’s 70th birthday (he was born in Dusseldorf in 1945), this exhibition presents another side of the internationally acclaimed director: a selection of 79 largescale photographs shot without the use of artificial lighting or a tripod. The director admits: photographic work is the other half of my life. Duration of exhibition: 18/4 – 16/08/2015 www.smkp.de
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V enice
Palazzo Ducale: Henri Rousseau – Archaic candour
The title of the exhibition derives from the subjects of the paintings on display and refer to wild nature and the famous jungle scenes Rousseau tended to paint. The exhibition also includes paintings of life in the town and in the countryside and portraits of friends. Duration of exhibition: 6/3– 6/09/2015 palazzoducale.visitmuve.it
N ew York
NEUE GALERIE: Russian Modernism. Cross-Currents of
German and Russian Art, 1907-1917. This exhibition is dedicated to the modernist movements that dominated German and Russian art at the beginning of the 20th century. Their development was almost parallel and often intersected. This is the first exhibition by an American museum to concentrate exclusively on the important artistic relations between these two countries.
Duration of exhibition:14/05– 31/08/2015 www.neuegalerie.org
Swit z erlan d
Fondation Beyeler: Marlene Dumas - «The Image as Burden»
Marlene Dumas is undoubtedly among our era’s top painters and artists. Her work is dominated by the human figure. This exhibition was designed in close collaboration with the artist and brings together a selection of one hundred paintings and drawings, several of which are quite rare, offering an overview of her work from the mid-1970s to this day. Duration of exhibition: 31/5– 06/09/2015 www.fondationbeyeler.ch
N ew York
N ew York
ΜΟΜΑ: From Bauhaus to Buenos Aires: Grete Stern and Horacio Coppola The first large exhibition to concentrate on two exceptional personalities of avant-garde photography who lived and worked on both sides of the Atlantic.
Duration of exhibition: 17/05– 4/10/2015 www.moma.org
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends
This exhibition brings together around ninety paintings and engravings of portraits of artists, writers, actors, dancers, musicians, many of whom where Sargent’s close friends. It explores the friendships between Sargent and his models as well as the importance of these relationships in his life and art. Duration of exhibition: 30/06 – 04/10/2015 www.metmuseum.org
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B E Goulandris Foundation Ίδρυμα Β Ε Γουλανδρή 30