Art in NYC: Felix Vallotton Exhibition at the Met Museum

November 11, 2019November 11, 2019 arts-NY 1 Comment

Art in NYC: Felix Vallotton Exhibition at the Met Museum

The Met Museum presents Felix Vallotton: Painter of Disquiet, a retrospective of the most notable paintings and art prints depicting the fin-de-siècle Paris

On view from October 29, 2019 – January 26, 2020

Felix Vallotton, Five O’Clock, 1898 — Five O’Clock, 1898, Distemper on cardboard, Private collection / Photo © Fondation Félix Vallotton, Lausanne

A fascinating exhibition of major works by Felix Vallotton tells a provocative story about life in Paris at the turn of the 20th century. Covering all the major phases of Vallotton’s oeurvre, the exhibition starts with his early prints and woodcuts. These early works were made at the beginning of artist’s career when he experimented with steep perspectives and flat images of the Nabis circle principles. The exhibition also showcases powerful oil paintings of the genre scenes, nudes, and landscapes of his mature period.

Well-known to art historians but not widely recognized by the public, Vallotton’s works are a mix of keen observation, wry wit, and subtle yet potent critique of the hypocrisy of bourgeoisie and the sinful pleasures of Belle Epoch France. His early prints and woodcuts made on a gamut of topics from the docile scene with music instruments to observations of everyday life to the street riots are examples of a mastery of detail and minimalist touch. While clearly demonstrating the strength of the technique, his works seemed to fall in-between the styles and artistic movements of his time. This leaves the impression that he either came too late for the expressive art of such painters like Ingre who was a strong influence for Vallotton or too early for the New Objectivity style of the 1920s.

Emphasizing his upbringing in a strict Protestant family in quiet Switzerland, the exhibition conveys Vallotton’s point of view as an outsider to the fast-moving city life. He immediately sees the dissonance between the newly established canons and their twisted morality, but is restrained in his critique. While executed with very fine detail that at times allude to the influence of the Old Masters in the use of reflections and light, the ambiguity of the scenes leave many questions unanswered. The openness to interpretation is what makes Vallotton’s art so potent. After all, this probably was the artist’s goal and he achieved it with the utmost elegance.

In addition to Vallotton’s famous woodcut cycles, there are expansive paintings of landscapes, nudes, and discrete encounters with a multitude of subtleties, mysterious perspectives, and odd angles.

Coming to New York after a triumphant show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, this is the first retrospective of Vallotton’s work in New York in 30 years. It is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in collaboration with Fondation Félix Vallotton, Lausanne.

Discover this amazing artist while sampling the thrilling artworks on view at The Met. Felix Vallotton: Painter of Disquiet is on view form October 29, 2019 – January 26, 2020.

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Art in NYC: The Renaissance of Etching at the Met Museum

October 30, 2019October 30, 2019 arts-NY

Art in NYC: The Renaissance of Etching at the Met Museum

The Met Museum presents The Renaissance of Etching exhibition with works by Durer, Parmigianino, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

The exhibition is on view from October 23, 2019 – January 20, 2020

Etching by Cornelis Anthonisz (Netherlandish, 1507–1553). The Tower of Babel — Cornelis Anthonisz (Netherlandish, 1507–1553). The Tower of Babel, 1547. Etching. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Image courtesy of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Organized by The Metropolitan Museum in New York City and The Albertina Museum in Vienna, Austria, The Renaissance of Etching exhibit delves into the discovery of the medium by an armor etcher in the late 15th century in Germany to its wide appropriation by the Renaissance artists all over Europe by the mid-16th century. An innovative approach to image printing flipped the old process of etching on its head. Before it was an expensive decoration on the metal armor worn by a few wealthy patrons, now the metal plate became a tool to produce print on paper. Once the process was fully developed, the medium got widely embraced by the artists as it made possible to produce large quantities of artwork relatively cheaply. Every artist working at that time period got involved in making the prints varying the colors and adding nuanced characteristics of the art schools and worldview.

The exhibition curators organized the works in chronological order starting from the German printmaker and armor decorator Daniel Hopfer who is credited with inventing the medium. He influenced Durer to start experimenting with the technique. Several of Durer’s phenomenal prints from The Albertina and other museums are included in the exhibition. Rapidly spreading across the continent, the art of etching was mastered in Italy by Parmigianino, the Renaissance artists in France, and later flourishing in the Netherlands where the printing shops employed the professional etchers to mass-produce the original drawings done by such masters as Lucas van Leyden, Peter Bruegel the Elder among many others.

There are about 125 artworks in the exhibition including the armor, etchings, drawings, metal plates, and engravings. It captures a fascinating time of rapid change in everything from the climate and weather patterns to technology, religious believes and a new societal order that swept the European continent from the mid-15th to mid-16th century. As the curators note, it may require a return visit to The Met to fully appreciate a vast gamut of visual information offered by the assembled collection.

Following its presentation at The Met until January 20, 2020, the exhibition will travel to the Albertina Museum on February 12 – May 10, 2020.

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Art in NYC: The Colmar Treasure at the Met Cloisters

July 26, 2019July 26, 2019 arts-NY

Art in NYC: The Colmar Treasure at the Met Cloisters

A Medieval Jewish Legacy, the Colmar Treasure exhibition highlights the tragedy of persecution by featuring the art and jewels hidden away around 1349 by a Jewish family from Colmar in Alsace (France)

Jewish ceremonial wedding ring from the Colmar Treasure at the Met Cloisters — Jewish ceremonial wedding ring, from the Colmar Treasure, ca. 1300– before 1348. Musée de Cluny – Musée national du Moyen Âge, RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

The Met Cloisters presents the precious objects of Colmar Treasure from Musee de Cluny in Paris alongside the Judaica from its collection and the private funds. The Cloisters are situated in a picturesque medieval castle surrounded by the lush greenery of Fort Tryon Park, which overlooks the sprawling Hudson River. The exhibition is curated by Barbara Drake Boehm, the Paul and Jill Ruddock Senior Curator, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters.

Colmar, a town in the modern-day Alsace region of France, was part of the Holy Roman Empire in the 14-century and traded hands between Germany and France up until World War I. A fast-growing and wealthy wine region, the town was a home for a thriving Jewish community that built a synagogue, a mikveh, and a school there.

The Colmar Treasure was accidentally discovered on Rue de Jiefs in 1863 during the construction of a confectionary shop. First kept in the private hands, in 1923 it was acquired by Musee de Cluny in Paris. While personal and small in its size, the stash of rings, coins, delicate silver belt, and appliqué, and the rest of the decorative objects discovered in Colmar presents a cautionary tale of hope, intolerance, tragedy, and societal betrayal in medieval Europe. The collection serves as a cautionary reminder of the past tragic mistakes driven by intolerance and mistrust.

Visit the exhibition, stroll the Cloisters, and admire the art that celebrates piety, devotion, sacrifice, and mercy. The Colmar Treasure occupies only one small hall of the museum but it tells a profound story. On view from July 22, 2019 – January 12, 2020.

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Art in NYC: Hans Haacke at the New Museum

November 30, 2019November 30, 2019 arts-NY 1 Comment

Art in NYC: Hans Haacke at the New Museum

Hans Haacke: All Connected, an exhibition of artworks from the 1960s to the present is on view at the New Museum until January 26, 2020

Hans Haacke, Gift Horse, 2014. Commissioned by the Mayor of London’s Fourth Plinth Program. © Hans Haacke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. Photo: Gautier Deblonde

A retrospective of works by conceptual artist Hans Haacke at the New Museum is the first major survey of the artist’s works in 30 years. It presents the artist’s oeuvre from the 1960s to the present.

Renown in the art world for his interest in the systems, from mechanical to environmental to social, Haacke’s explorations in the field of investigative art made a splashy headlines in 1971 when his exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum was canceled because it included Shapolsky et al Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a Real-Time Social System which probed the real estate dealings of the landlords of Manhattan’s slums. This time Shapolsky et al is on view at the New Museum.

The exhibition also includes Haacke’s kinetic and mechanical art which was created at the start of his career in Germany in the early 1960s. It progresses throughout the years to the recent Make Mar-a-Lago Great Again arrangement from 2019.

Spread over the four floors and the lobby, there are loaded installations that cover such topics as the troubled corporate sponsorship of the arts, the duplicity of business culture, and the societal biases in how the public values and appreciates the art. Haacke’s famous entry for the Fourth Plinth project was Gift Horse, 2014. Conceived in 1998, the project selects artwork for a temporary exhibition on the unoccupied corner on the Trafalgar Square in London. A tribute to Scottish economist Adam Smith, the bronze skeleton of the thoroughbred with the electronic ribbon which displayed the ticker feed from the London Stock exchange (for the exhibit at the New Museum it displays a feed from the New York Stock exchange) was commissioned by the Mayor of London to stand alongside the permanent sculptures of King George IV and the two generals Henry Havelock and Charles James Napier.

The exhibition is a strong reminder about the societal disharmonies of the past and current times. Stroll through the galleries, ponder over the peculiar physics of wave formation or condensation process which are the subjects of Haacke’s early period, participate in the museum visiter’s survey as a participatory piece of art, and get deep into an uneasy relationship between the business and the art.

Hans Haacke: All Connected exhibit is on view at the New Museum from October 24, 2019 – January 26, 2020.

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Beyond NYC: Mark Dion Follies at Storm King Art Center

September 20, 2019September 20, 2019 arts-NY 1 Comment

Beyond NYC: Mark Dion Follies at Storm King Art Center

Storm King Art Center presents a survey of works by an American conceptual artist Mark Dion titled Follies; on view until November 11, 2019

Mark Dion, Hunting Blind (The Dandy Rococo), 2008/2019; photo by Jeffrey Jenkins / Courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles

The rolling hills and wooded greenery of the Storm King Art Center make a perfect site to display the architectural follies created by the conceptual artists Mark Dion. Known for his scientific installations and exploration into momentous obsessions, Dion’s follies which are presented as self-contained thematic stations, can be found on the vest outdoor grounds of the park and at its museum galleries.

The peculiar structures by Dion are situated around the North Woods, Meadows, and South fields sections of the park. They fit so perfectly to the surrounding nature that they require some effort to be found. Rewarding those who are brave enough to venture into the woods and to the far parts of the center, the art tells stories about various traits of human behavior and life circumstances. Some of the installations are created for interactive use. Others can only be observed from afar. But a unifying theme for the art is its gentle nudge to look at the conventional objects in a new light as symbols and symptoms of affection.

Mark Dion, Dana Sherwood, Conservatory for Confectionery Curiosities, 2008/2019; photo by Jeffrey Jenkins / Courtesy the artists and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles

The 9 pieces positioned outdoors explore a human interest in nature, environments, scientific observation, and even confectionary temptation. The works housed indoors closely scrutinize the dark sides of life choices. Both mellow and sharp, the artworks emphasize the disruptive nature of even simple action. The exhibition review in the FT notes that “hunting, finding, collecting, measuring, preserving — these activities common to art, sport and science merge in Dion’s work”. This kaleidoscope of objects makes a parallel to the prior centuries personal collections of curiosities. It fascinates and makes one pause to rethink humans’ relationship with the environment. Look around, contemplate, and wonder about a way to bring more harmony into everyday life. Visit the Storm King Art Center and enjoy Mark Dion: Follies exhibit!

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Category: Art