Exhibition | Faces of Terror: Violence and Fantasy
The exhibition closes in Paris this weekend:
Faces of Terror: Violence and Fantasy from David to Delacroix
Visages de l’effroi: Violence et Fantastique de David à Delacroix
Musée de la Vie Romantique, Paris, 3 November 2015 — 28 February 2016
Musée Municipal, La Roche-sur-Yon, 19 March — 19 June 2016
With a collection of more than 100 paintings, drawings and sculptures by David, Girodet, Gericault, Ingres and Delacroix, Faces of Terror presents French forms of fantastical Romanticism. This darker part of 19th-century art reveals a certain strength of spirit and provides a fascinating perspective on imagination during the romantic period.
Romanticism, although often reduced to a feeling of discontentment among the people of the 18th century that was generated by the upheavals of the time, without a doubt expresses the feeling of disenchantment of a whole generation, built on the ruins of the Ancien Régime and the tumult of the French Revolution. In the overflow of extreme emotions these artists skilfully found subjects for a new kind of aesthetic, exploring the dark side of the human soul, at a time when dreams and the irrational were emerging from the latency of Reason and the spirit of the Enlightenment period.
From the end of the 18th century, the form of Neoclassicism adopted by the greatest artists depicted the death of heroes and portrayed the violence of tragedies from ancient history, simultaneously justified by both moral values and academic proprieties. Terror, political upheaval and Napoleonic war generated a much more blatant perspective of horror that was no longer the prerogative of historical paintings. During the period of the Restoration of the monarchy, the development of the mainstream press led to broadcasts of reports of bloody violence across the country, which became topical issues for artists.
The Romantic period focuses on the supernatural and sometimes morbid, and depicts—thanks to an abundant but often unknown production of works of art—a crude reality as well as the strange, dusky figures of spectres and devils from the literature and poetry of the time. This dialogue with the supernatural is notably depicted in representations of the myth of Ossian, or in the success of Dante’s work with the torment of the condemned.
Jérôme Farigoule and Hélène Jagot, eds., Visages de l’effroi: Violence et fantastique de David à Delacroix (Liénart, 2015), 288 pages, ISBN: 978-2359061475, 26€.
Exhibition | Closer: Intimacies in Art, 1730–1930
Now on view at the National Gallery of Denmark:
Closer: Intimacies in Art / Tæt på: Intimiteter i kunsten
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, 11 February — 8 May 2016
Curated by Mikkel Bogh
Jean-Siméon Chardin, Soap Bubbles, ca. 1733–34 (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Something happened in the eighteenth century. Artists gradually turned their attention away from historic and mythological scenes towards the private, intimate realm.
What do moods and emotions look like when expressed in art? And how can intimacy between people be depicted? The exhibition explores these issues by means of more than a hundred spectacular masterpieces and rarely seen gems from 1730 to 1930. At the same time the exhibition looks at how portrayals of intimacy have changed over time.
The concept of intimacy—the sense of being closely attuned to other people, places, spaces or things—has always been in a state of flux, and this holds true in art, too. In the eighteenth century, artists begin to depict intimacy in portraits featuring the artists with their families. In the nineteenth century, they invite observers to enter the intimate spheres of others in works that depict domestic interiors and everyday scenes. The early twentieth century sees the advent of experimental modern art, and at this point artists seek to forge intimate connections between art and observer. The exhibition relates how art became modern when it began homing in on the human face, the body, and everyday objects.
Delve into great masterpieces as well as previously hidden gems—and explore how they depict intimacies in widely different ways. Some display intimacy through close proximity; others by showing private moments, erotic tension, or through sensuousness, tactility and touch. One of the key examples presented at the exhibition is Jean-Siméon Chardin’s Soap Bubbles, which may cause you to hold your breath in order to avoid puncturing the fragile bubble that the boy strives so hard to keep intact.
You can look behind the surface of things as we reveal what lies hidden underneath a pair of traditional landscape paintings. Hinged on the back of quite innocuous-looking paintings you will find depictions of erotic aspects of intimacy that leave little to the imagination, and which are shown publicly for the first time ever at this exhibition.
Closer also delves down into experimental art from the early twentieth century. For example, it takes a close look at Franciska Clausen’s Cerles et Carré: the play of colour, nuance and shapes on the surface draw observers in, demanding very close scrutiny and a proximity that creates a strong sense of intimacy between work and observer.
The exhibition is curated by the director of the SMK, Mikkel Bogh, who set out to relate the story of how the intimate sphere and the private, personal body entered the realm of art from 1730 to 1930. The exhibition allows you to get close to more than a hundred works of art, exploring intimacies in paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and photographs—by artists such as Jean-Siméon Chardin, Adolph Menzel, William Bendz, Berthe Morisot and Edvard Munch.
Exhibition | Catwalk: Fashion at the Rijksmuseum, 1625–1960
Mantua purportedly worn by Helena Slicher for her marriage to Aelbrecht baron van Slingelandt on 4 September 1759
(Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum)
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Now on view at the Rijksmuseum:
Catwalk, 1625–1960
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 20 February — 16 May 2016
Curated by Bianca du Mortier; designed by Erwin Olaf
For the first time, the Rijksmuseum presents a large selection of its diverse fashion collection in an exhibition designed by world-renowned Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf.
From February 20 through May 16 2016, six galleries of the Philips Wing will be dedicated to fashion of the Dutch from 1625 to 1960. Starting with garments worn by members of the Frisian branch of the house of Nassau in the Golden Age, the exhibits will feature vibrantly coloured French silk gowns and luxurious velvet gentlemen’s suits of the eighteenth century, classically-inspired Empire dresses, and bustles of the Fin de Siècle—culminating in twentieth-century French haute couture by Dior and Yves Saint Laurent.
Wedding dress, 1759; photo by Erwin Olaf, model is Ymre Stiekema.
As Rijksmuseum Curator of Costumes Bianca du Mortier explains, “The garments presented in this exhibition reflect the stories of the people who wore them. In fashion, the choices of the wearer count—they make him or her a trendsetter or a follower. Even today the clothes of the very rich and powerful always convey a conscious or unconscious message. In that respect, nothing has changed over the last 330 years. These choices are restricted by such factors as budget, opportunity, age, social status, climate, personal likes and dislikes and so forth. And when presented in a museum, there is a final selection: the selection of the Rijksmuseum.”
The exhibition is designed by world-renowned Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf. He states, “The challenge and honour of designing this exhibition . . . for the most extraordinary museum in the Netherlands came at exactly the right moment for me. For several years now I’ve been exploring alternative ways to present my photographic work and to integrate it in installations, sound, video and films as means to immerse viewers in a world that fires and challenges their personal imaginations and, ultimately, sparks a stimulating dialogue between the viewer and the work on view.
Highlights include
• A pair of underpants belonging to Hendrik Casimir I, Count of Nassau Dietz (1612–1640)
• The widest dress in the Netherlands: Helena Slicher’s (1737–1776) wedding gown or mantua, which she supposedly wore at her marriage to Aelbrecht baron van Slingelandt (1732–1801) on 4 September 1759
• An exceptionally precious and fragile dress of blonde silk bobbin lace (1815–1820)
• A silk taffeta cocktail dress by Cristóbal Balenciaga (1951–1952)
The Rijksmuseum’s fashion collection totals some 10,000 items , with men’s, women’s and children’s attire and accessories spanning the period from 1700 until 1960. In addition, the History Department owns the earliest Dutch costumes, worn in the seventeenth century by the Frisian branch of the Nassau family and by the Stadtholder and King William III. Being the oldest costumes collection in the country, having begun in 1870, acquisitions initially emphasized on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but over time gradually expanded to include the first half of the twentieth century. All of the garments comes from the wardrobes of upper-class Dutch men and women, but they were not necessarily made in the Netherlands. Foreign fashion houses and fabrics from all the leading textile-manufacturing countries around the world are amply represented. Acquisitions for the collection are based on historical significance, such as a post-war dress made of silk RAF pilots maps; design relevance, such as Yves Saint Laurent’s 1965 ‘Mondrian dress’; and costume-historical importance, such as a silk taffeta cocktail gown by Cristóbal Balenciaga (1951–1952). Most items were donated or bequeathed, supplemented with purchases.
To coincide with the exhibition, the Rijksmuseum is publishing a richly illustrated ‘Collection Book’ – Costume & Fashion, authored by Curator of Costumes Bianca du Mortier, with contributions from the museum’s textile restorers, fellow conservators, and a specialized colour analyst. The photography is by Rijksmuseum photographer Carola Van Wijk in collaboration with Frans Pegt. Various activities will be organized in conjunction with the exhibition, including a series of lectures by the catalogue’s authors and external experts.
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Symposium | Fashion in Museums: Past, Present, and Future
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 21–22 April 2016
Not only the curator’s and conservator’s point of view will be presented, but also the administrator’s—who is often unfamiliar with costume and fashion’s different requirements and has to be convinced of the steep costs of a fashion exhibit. Experts from leading national and international institutions will present their insights: a conference not to be missed!
Over the past two decades most of the blockbuster fashion exhibitions around the world have centered around present day fashion designers and were more or less offered to the respective institutions as a complete package including the extensive marketing and publicity apparatus of the fashion brand. This is a far cry from Diana Vreeland’s original concept (1983–84) of a museum celebrating a contemporary designer—in her case Yves Saint Laurent—by presenting a retrospective curated by the museum and presented by them.
In a speech delivered by renowned fashion journalist Suzy Menkes (International Vogue Editor) at the Rijksmuseum in June 2015 she called for a return to museum curated exhibitions based on in-depth research of their own collections which hold so many amazing yet unexplored treasures. With the exhibition Catwalk, Fashion at the Rijksmuseum, the museum puts a renewed step in this direction by presenting a cross-section of its costume collection—the oldest in the country—in a setting designed by renowned Dutch photographer, Erwin Olaf.
Speakers
• Gieneke Arnolli (Fries Museum, Leeuwarden)
• Ninke Bloemberg (Centraal Museum, Utrecht)
• Bianca du Mortier (Rijksmuseum)
• Johanna Hashagen (Bowes Museum, UK)
• Johannes Pietsch (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich)
• Ellinoor Bergvelt and Christine Delhaye (University of Amsterdam)
• Angelika Riley (Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg)
• Alexandra Bosc (Palais Galliera, Musée de la mode de la Ville de Paris)
• Mila Ernst (Digitaal platform Modemuze)
• Sue-an van der Zijpp (Groninger Museum)
Details are available here»
Installation | Kent Monkman’s ‘Scent of a Beaver’
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Now on view at the University of Michigan:
Scent of a Beaver: An Installation by Kent Monkman
University of Michigan, Institute for the Humanities, Ann Arbor, 21 January — 26 February 2016
Based on the rococo masterpiece The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Scent of a Beaver is a sculptural installation that features the artist Kent Monkman’s alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle dangling on a swing between a French and English general. With Miss Chief dressed in an opulent silk and fur gown, the work functions as a metaphor for the power relationships between the major players that shaped the social fabric, political structures, and economy of North America. True to Monkman’s modus operandi, Scent of a Beaver takes on white-washed, colonialist notions of history and overturns them, employing kitsch as a path toward self-determination and veering away from painful, misrepresented histories. It is this sort of conversion that is at the crux of Monkman’s powerful work—the transformation from age-old traditional stories which distort and oppress into something a little fantastical, a bit cathartic, and ultimately redeeming.
Kent Monkman is well known for his provocative reinterpretations of romantic North American landscapes. He explores themes of colonization, sexuality, loss, and resilience—the complexities of historic and contemporary Native American experience—in a variety of mediums including painting, film and video, performance, and installation. Monkman’s glamorous diva alter-ego Miss Chief appears in much of his work as an agent provocateur, trickster, and supernatural being who reverses the colonial gaze, upending received notions of history and indigenous people.
More information and installation photos are available from a piece by Sarah Rose Sharp for Hyperallergic (18 February 2016).
Exhibition | Heavy Retro: Painted Furniture, 1750–1850
Painted chest, inscribed P.J.D 1802.
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Now on view at Stockholm’s Nordic Museum:
Rejält Retro: Målade Allmogemöbler, 1750–1850
Nordiska Museet, Stockholm, 21 October 2015 — 4 September 2016
The well-made, durable, patterned, and colorful are clear trends today, and just what characterizes rustic furniture from the 1700s and 1800s. Rejält Retro features grandfather clocks, cabinets, boxes, and chests—over fifty items from across the country, against a contemporary background in unexpected combinations.
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Det välgjorda, hållbara, mönstrade och färgstarka är tydliga trender idag, och precis vad som utmärker allmogemöblerna från 1700- och 1800-talen. I Rejält retro visas golvur, skåp, skrin och kistor, drygt femtio utvalda statusobjekt från hela landet, mot en modern bakgrund i oväntade kombinationer.
Vilka är dagens statusmöbler? En exklusiv soffa kanske? Danskt 50-tal eller modernisternas designikoner? I en välbärgad bondgård för 200 år sedan motsvarades de av kistan, skrinet, skåpet och golvuret. Mycket var väggfast och platsbyggt men det här var möbler man kunde ta med sig om man flyttade. Och med stora ytor perfekta för målad dekor.
Skåpet var den möbel som ett nygift par vanligtvis skaffade när de skulle sätta bo. Helst ett som stod på golvet, ett ståndskåp, med både hans och hennes initialer. Kistan hade den nygifta kvinnan med sig till det nya hemmet, fylld med dyrbara inredningstextilier. En möbel med gamla anor och högt symbolvärde. Skrinet hade ett symboliskt värde som förvaring för trolovningsgåvan – handskar, psalmbok och sjal. När kvinnan i vittnens närvaro tackat ja till skrinet var trolovningen klar och offentliggjord. Golvuret var precis som skåpet en modebetonad statusmöbel. Få använde det som klocka. Många urverk tillverkades i Mora och såldes över hela landet. Men själva möbeln, golvursfodralet, tillverkades lokalt.
Allmogekonst är konst skapad av folk på landet, för folk på landet. Under ungefär hundra år, från mitten av 1700-talet till mitten av 1800-talet, blomstrade allmogens möbelmåleri. Det typiska för dessa möbler är stiliserade mönster, starka färger som blymönjerött och pariserblått, att flera stilar blandas och att hela ytan fylls ut med dekoration. Allmogemålarnas ambition var att göra mönster, inte att avbilda verkligheten.
Reportage från lyxiga hem påverkar hur vi inreder hemma i dag och så även förr. I vissa områden är allmogemöblerna tydligt påverkade av herrgårdsmodet och de möbler som tillverkades av städernas skråsnickare. Då är motiven också mer verklighetstrogna.
Display | Majestic Mountain Retreats
From the Norton Museum of Art:
Majestic Mountain Retreats: 17th- and
18th-Century Monumental Chinese Landscape
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, 6 February — 15 May 2016
Wang Jiu, Chinese, Landscape in the Manner of Wang Meng, dated 1774; hanging scroll, ink on paper 136.8 x 64.1 cm (Nortom Museum of Art; photography by C.J. Walker)
Inspired by Stormy Landscape, likely painted in the late 1730s to mid-1740s, and the most recent hanging scroll added to the Norton’s Chinese Collection, the three works in this installation depict mountain retreats. The inscription and artists’ seals on Stormy Landscape, suggest that it is a painting of a Taoist monastery. It is reminiscent of extant Taoist mountaintemples in Fujian province not far from the artist’s home. The other two works are, Waterfall in a Bamboo Grove, probably painted in the mid-17th century, and Landscape in the Manner of Wang Meng, dated 1744.
Display | John Cornforth, A Passion for Houses
Now on view at the Paul Mellon Centre:
John Cornforth, A Passion for Houses: Material on the
Georgian Town House from the Cornforth Library Donation
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, 8 February — 27 May 2016
Curated by Charlotte Brunskill, Frankie Drummond Charig, Emma Floyd, and Jenny Hill
The second Drawing Room Display, curated by Research Collections staff, focuses on material donated to the Paul Mellon Centre from the Estate of John Cornforth. The display concentrates on the town house in the 18th century and will run from February until May 2016.
Bookplate for John Cornforth, designed by Reynolds Stone (1909–1979).
John Lawley Cornforth (1937–2004) was an architectural historian who wrote numerous articles for Country Life from 1961 to 1993 and worked for the National Trust for many years. His specialism was the 17th- and 18th-century country house, but he also wrote extensively on the town house and its interiors. John Cornforth’s personal working library was donated to the Paul Mellon Centre, through the auspices of the National Trust, in August 2004, shortly after his death. This collection, from which staff selected nearly 800 books and journals, increased the Centre’s already extensive holdings on the history of the town and country house and added considerably to the previously small collection on eighteenth-century decorative arts. He also donated to the Centre’s Photographic Archive the collection of photographs taken for his book, Early Georgian Interiors, published posthumously by Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre in 2004.
The display consists largely of materials donated from Cornforth’s collection but will also include a number of works about John Cornforth or written by him drawn from the rich holdings of the Centre’s library. The holdings relating to John Cornforth are just one of the many points of entry to study the town house of the 18th century in the Research Collections. The Centre’s Archive holds relevant material in, for example, the Oliver Millar Archive and the Brinsley Ford Archive on interiors and architects for this period.
This display is the second in a series featuring material drawn from the Paul Mellon Centre’s own Research Collections. Display and accompanying booklet produced by Charlotte Brunskill, Frankie Drummond Charig, Emma Floyd and Jenny Hill.
The 24-page booklet is available here»
Exhibition | Parties and Entertainment at Court
Charles-Nicolas Cochin the Younger, Le bal des if (The Yew Tree Ball), etching. Masked ball held on the night of 25–26 February 1745 in the Great Gallery at Versailles, to celebrate the marriage of Louis Dauphin of France (father of Louis XVI) and Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain (Wikimedia Commons).
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Opening this fall at Versailles:
Parties and Entertainment at Court / Fêtes et divertissements à la Cour
Château de Versailles, November 2016 — March 2017
As the political monarch he was, King Louis XIV took “grand entertainment” to the height of its magnificence, making Versailles a venue for celebrations and shows that were ever more grandiose, extraordinary and fantastical. With his eye for human psychology, he understood that the political framework he had forged demanded this “society of pleasures, which gives the people of the Court an honest sort of familiarity with (the sovereign), and touches and delights them more than can be said.” Everyday life at the French Court needed many forms of entertainment. The extraordinary character of royal events was intended to astonish the Court, the kingdom and Europe. Each of his successors, in accordance with their tastes and changes in fashion, preserved this tradition of splendour and creativity in entertainment. The exhibition aims to present the extraordinary variety of entertainment put on at the Court of Versailles, including hunting, shows, comedies, operas, concerts and individual music playing, walks, outdoor games and sport, other games, fires and illuminations, over a fairly long period stretching from Louis XIV to the Revolution. The approach is not designed to be an exhaustive one, but one that shares the feelings of the times through a choice of major works with plenty to delight the eyes and imagination. The curators have relied on scientific expertise in each of these domains.
Exhibition | Versailles and American Independence
Auguste Couder, Siege of Yorktown: General Rochambeau and General Washington Give Last Orders before an Attack, October 1781, oil on canvas, 1836 (Versailles, via Wikimedia Commons)
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This summer at Versailles:
Versailles and American Independence / Versailles et l’Indépendance américaine
Château de Versailles, 5 July — 2 October 2016
This exhibition aims to reveal the importance of Franco-American relations at the end of the French Ancien Régime. By assisting the rebels, King Louis XVI showed he was in favour of new ideas, and for nearly a decade the Palace of Versailles, the centre of French government and authority, was a key location for independence and its promotion. The political and military alliance between France and the United States had a lasting effect on artistic principles; there was no such thing as major or minor art, as the infatuation with America found a unique place in everyday objects at Court and in popular American, English and French posters.
Note (added 13 July 2016) — A more complete posting for the exhibition is available here.
Exhibition | By Dawn’s Early Light: Jewish Contributions
Moses Lopez, A Lunar Calendar, of the Festivals, and Other Days in the Year, Observed by the Israelites: Commencing Anno Mundi, 5566, and Ending in 5619, Being a Period of 54 Years: which by the Solar Computation of Time, Begins September 24th, 1805, and Will End the 28th of the Same Month in the Year 1859: Together with Other Tables Useful and Convenient … Newport, RI, 1806 (Princeton University Library).
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From the Princeton University Art Museum:
By Dawn’s Early Light: Jewish Contributions to American
Culture from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War
Princeton University Art Museum, 13 February — 12 June 2016
New-York Historical Society, 28 October 2016 — 12 March 2017
Living in an age when Jews are fully integrated into so much of America’s public and popular culture, it is difficult to imagine a time before they shone on the stage and printed page. Such a future for Jews was scarcely imaginable in the crucible years after the birth of the United States. In the colonial period, there was little precedent for Jews speaking for themselves vocally and volubly in the public arena. At the dawn of the Republic, they were new to American public life. Yet as the United States started its grand experiment with liberty, and began to invent a culture of its own, Jews, too, began a grand experiment of living as equals. In a society that promised exceptional freedom, this was both liberating and confounding. As individuals, they were free to participate as full citizens in the hurly-burly of the new nation’s political and social life. But as members of a group that sought to remain distinctive, freedom was daunting. In response to the challenges of liberty, Jews adopted and adapted American and Jewish artistic idioms to express themselves in new ways as Americans and as Jews. In the process, they invented American Jewish culture, and contributed to the flowering of American culture during the earliest days of the Republic.
This exhibition, organized by the Princeton University Library, consists of more than 160 books, maps, manuscripts, prints, and paintings, including some of the earliest novels, plays, scientific treatises, and religious works produced by Jews in the United States. The exhibition is based on the loans and gifts to Princeton University of Leonard L. Milberg, Class of 1953, as well as loans from museums, libraries, synagogues, and private collections.
Note (added 8 March 2017) — The original posting did not include the New-York Historical Society as a venue.
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