Exhibition | Imperial Nature: Flora, Fauna, and Colonialism in India
Press release (23 January 2014) from the MIA:
Imperial Nature: Flora, Fauna, and Colonialism in India
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 18 January — 20 April 2014
Curated by Risha Lee
European and Indian histories have long been interlaced. During the 17th and 18th centuries, as English colonial rule intensified, the two cultures melded and converged, producing bold depictions of nature. Imperial Nature: Flora, Fauna, and Colonialism in India at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) showcases these representations, commissioned by Indian princes and increasingly powerful European colonial patrons, to reveal an artistic and scientific confluence that reshaped the way we view the natural world. The exhibition features twenty-nine works on paper, two textiles, a film, and multimedia elements.
One of the MIA’s newest curators, Dr. Risha Lee, Jane Emison Assistant Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art, organized the exhibition. “Imperial Nature will be the first exhibition of historical Indian art in nineteen years at the museum,” she stated. “Beautiful works of art grew out of this complex period in Indian history, and we are thrilled to present such rare depictions of nature to Minnesota audiences.”
At the heart of the exhibition are eleven ‘Lady Impey’ paintings on loan from the private collection of Elizabeth and Willard Clark, major collectors of Asian art from whom the MIA received a large gift of Japanese works in 2013. A British colonialist in Calcutta, Lady Mary Impey commissioned Indian painters to illustrate birds from her private menagerie, resulting in several hundred images that owe as much to European natural science as India’s rich painterly tradition. Before Lady Impey’s time, botany had a colonial enterprise in India, owing to the commercial and medicinal value of Indic plants. In the time of Lady Impey’s bird paintings, botany became an elevated science, lifted above the realm of mere commodity. In Imperial Nature at the MIA, the paintings will be exhibited for the first time. The exhibition will also feature artworks on loan from the Nancy Wiener Gallery and Arader Gallery.
Imperial Nature is composed of five distinct sections:
• India’s global trade networks in the 17th and 18th centuries
• Princely Indian paintings of nature
• Lady Impey’s Menagerie
• Natural History in India, including selections from the Hortus Indicus Malabaricus, a 17th-century Dutch multivolume work on the identification and function of Indian plants
• Charulata, a film by Satyajit Ray depicting the Indo-European encounter in colonial Calcutta
In addition, the exhibition features an ambient soundtrack of birdsong consisting of birds portrayed in Lady Impey’s paintings. As the exhibition is located in the Cargill Gallery in the MIA’s lobby, the subtle sounds will immediately welcome visitors into the alluring elements of Indian depictions of nature.
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Risha Lee and Catherine Asher ǀ Imperial Nature: Flora, Fauna, and Colonialism in India
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Thursday, 3 April 2014, 7:00pm
Risha Lee and Catherine Asher will speak on topics related to Imperial Nature: Flora, Fauna, and Colonialism in India, on view through April 20. This exhibition showcases representations of nature, commissioned by Indian princes and increasingly powerful European colonial patrons, resulting in an artistic and scientific confluence that reshaped ideas about the natural world. Admission: $10; $5 MIA members; free for members of the Asian Art Affinity Group. To reserve tickets, call (612) 870-6323 or reserve tickets online.
Risha Lee is the Jane Emison Assistant Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art at the MIA. Catherine Asher is a professor of art history at the University of Minnesota.
Exhibition | Caravaggio to Canaletto
My apologies for (once again) being so late with this exhibition, which recently closed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The catalogue, however, is still available from Artbooks.com. -CH
Caravaggio to Canaletto: The Glory of Italian Baroque and Rococo Painting
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 26 October 2013 — 16 February 2014
Curated by Zsuzsanna Dobos
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The Museum of Fine Arts’ exhibition titled Caravaggio to Canaletto will present the leading styles, outstanding artist figures as well as the extraordinary wealth of genres, techniques, and themes of 17th- and 18th-century Italian painting through more than 140 works by 100 masters, including nine paintings—the highest number by a single artist included in the displayed material—by the period’s prominent painter genius, Caravaggio.
The backbone of the selection is formed by the 34 principal works from the internationally highly acclaimed Italian Baroque and Rococo collection of the museum’s Old Masters Gallery, which will be complemented by 106 masterpieces arriving in Budapest from sixty-two collections of eleven countries, such as the National Galleries in Washington and London, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Museo del Prado and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and the Galleria Borghese in Rome. The material commands international attention since such a large-scale, comprehensive exhibition surveying the entirety of Italian painting as the one in Budapest has not been put on for decades anywhere in the world.
Some years ago the Museum of Fine Arts set itself the ambitious goal of presenting 15th- to 18th-century Italian painting in two consecutive exhibitions, unprecedented in its scope in Hungary. The first one, titled Botticelli to Titian, held in 2009–2010, attracted 230 thousand visitors, and thus became one of the most successful shows in the history of the museum.
The next, representative exhibition devoted to 17th- and 18th-century Italian painting will be the closing event of the Italian-Hungarian Cultural Season 2013 in Hungary. The two centuries of Italian art surveyed by the exhibition were determined by the Baroque style, which prevailed during the period all over Europe. The early Baroque, which had started at the end of the previous century saw the rise of the naturalism of Caravaggio and his followers, as well as the Bolognese School of Classicism linked to the Carracci. High Baroque, which lasted more than fifty years, was characterised equally by the dynamic style of the so-called master decorators, Baroque Classicism, and early Romanticism. We can talk about the Late Baroque period from the last decades of the seicento, when the tradition of the great masters was carried on in a somewhat empty, routine-like way. The Baroque Era ended in the 18th century with the luxurious Venetian Rococo, while in the middle of the century, also referred to as settecento, the beginnings of Neoclassicism started to appear. The artists of the various painting schools and styles of the 17th and 18th centuries were driven by the same desire: to imitate reality, strive for realistic depiction and create the illusion of tangibility, for which they had the whole range of artistic means at their disposal.
The exhibition will survey the period in eight chapters, starting with Caravaggio, whose activity in Rome brought radical change to painting, going on to the Baroque replacing Mannerism, and ending with the development of Rococo and Classicism, and the introduction of their masters. The opening section will display two early works by Caravaggio—one of them Boy with a Basket of Fruit—which will be followed by some religious compositions of Caravaggist painting, including two versions of Caravaggio’s Salome. The third section will showcase classicising Baroque linked to the names of Lodovico, Agostino and Annibale Carracci, while the fourth unit will present the spreading and flourishing of Baroque art. The fifth section will give an overview of the bourgeois genres of the still-life, the landscape, the portrait and the genre portrait, followed by the part devoted to the main stylistic trends of the 18th century. The last two sections will provide a glimpse into 18th-century painting in Venice and introduce the veduta (townscape), which became a popular genre at that time, through four Venetian townscapes by Canaletto.
The exhibition is implemented at the highest standard, thanks to the collaboration of nearly fifty Hungarian and foreign curators specialising in the period, and is accompanied by a Hungarianand English catalogue. The exhibition is curated by Zsuzsanna Dobos, art historian at the Old Masters Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts.
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From Artbooks.com:
Dobos, Zuzsanna, ed., Caravaggio to Canaletto: The Glory of Italian Baroque and Rococo Painting (Budapest: Museum of Fine Arts, 2013), 458 pages, ISBN: 978-6155304187, $130.
Contents include
• J. Jernyei-Kiss, Italian Painting in the 17th and 18th Centuries
• J. Spike, Caravaggio and the Caravaggesque Movement
• D. Benati, The Carracci Academy: From Nature to History
• C. De Seta, The Grand Tour: The European Rediscovery of Italy in the 17th and 18th Centuries
• A. Vecsey, The Reception of 17th- and 18th-Century Italian Painting in Hungary: Taste and Collecting
Catalogue | Art and Music in Venice
This catalogue accompanies the exhibition Venice: The Golden Age of Art and Music, which opened last weekend at the Portland Museum of Art. From Yale UP:
Hilliard T. Goldfarb, ed., Art and Music in Venice: From the Renaissance to Baroque (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013), 240 pages, ISBN: 978-0300197921, $65.
Artistic and musical creativity thrived in the Venetian Republic between the early 16th century and the close of the 18th century. The city-state was known for its superb operas and splendid balls, and the acoustics of the architecture led to complex polyphony in musical composition. Accordingly, notable composers, including Antonio Vivaldi and Adrian Willaert, developed styles that were distinct from those of other Italian cultures. The Venetian music scene, in turn, influenced visual artists, inspiring paintings by artists such as Jacopo Bassano, Canaletto, Francesco Guardi, Pietro Longhi, Bernardo Strozzi, Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo, Tintoretto, and Titian. Together, art and music served larger aims, whether social, ceremonial, or even political. Lavishly illustrated, Art and Music in Venice brings Venice’s golden age to life through stunning images of paintings, drawings, prints, manuscripts, textbooks, illuminated choir books, musical scores and instruments, and period costumes. New scholarship into these objects by a team of distinguished experts gives a fresh perspective on the cultural life and creative output of the era.
Hilliard T. Goldfarb is associate chief curator and curator of Old Masters at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Exhibition | The Material World of the Early South
From the press release (10 February 2014). . .
A Rich and Varied Culture: The Material World of the Early South
DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, Colonial Williamsburg, opens 14 February 2014
Curated by Ronald Hurst and Margaret Beck Pritchard
Powder Horn, attributed to Jonathan Sarrazin, Charleston, South Carolina, cow horn, 1762–64 (Winston-Salem, NC: The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts)
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A groundbreaking exhibition examining the material culture of the early South from the 17th century through 1840—the first of its kind to include a wide variety of media—will open at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, one of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, on February 14. A Rich and Varied Culture: The Material World of the Early South will feature a dozen categories of media and represent three geographic regions of the South.
Some 350 objects will be drawn from the Colonial Williamsburg collections, those of 10 other institutions and 14 private collections. Many of the items in the exhibition will be on public view for the first time in a museum setting. Like the culture they represent, the objects are diverse, chronologically telling the story of the region’s population as it expanded westward and southward toward the frontier.
“The early American South has long been depicted as a society that produced almost none of the objects used by its substantial populace,” said Ronald L. Hurst, Colonial Williamsburg vice president for collections, conservation, and museums and its Carlisle H. Humelsine Chief Curator. “However, the opposite is true. Southern artists and artisans generated a vast body of material in virtually every medium. The abundance and diverse cultural resonance of these goods will be powerfully conveyed by the objects assembled for this exhibition.”
Featured in A Rich and Varied Culture will be furniture, paintings, prints, metals (silver and pewter), ceramics, mechanical arts and arms, architectural elements, archaeological objects, rare books, maps, costumes and accessories and musical instruments. These objects are each receiving detailed, exhaustive research that sometimes challenges previous research. In one example, a remarkable painting of Frances Parke Custis, on loan from Washington and Lee University, has recently been identified as the work of the Broadnax Limner, a little-known artist who worked in Virginia during the 1720s. Similarly, an elaborately decorated 1770s ‘dresser’ or hutch was long thought to be a Pennsylvania product, but has proven instead to be the work of a Quaker cabinetmaker working in Alamance County, N.C.
While the majority of the objects and paintings in the exhibition come from the various collections of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, several sister institutions are also lending to this important undertaking in an example of unprecedented partnership. Chief among them is The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) at Old Salem Museums and Gardens in Winston-Salem, N.C., with which the Art Museums recently announced a five-year partnership. It is the largest lender with 39 objects. Other lenders include Drayton Hall, a Historic Site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Charleston, S.C..; The Charleston Museum; Washington and Lee University in Lexington; The Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library in Winterthur, Del.; Historic Charleston Foundation; Tennessee State Museum; the University of Tennessee’s Department of Anthropology and McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture; Marble Springs State Historic Site in Knoxville, Tenn.; and The President’s House Collection at The College of Williams & Mary in Williamsburg. Fourteen private collectors are also generously lending to the exhibition. (more…)
Valentine’s Day at the Museum of London
As reported by Nick Clark for The Independent (30 January 2014). . .
Detail of one of eight eighteenth-century plaster tiles discovered in 1962. Click on the image for the full view of another tile (with usual warnings about sexually explicit images).
For one night only. . . amorous visitors to the Museum of London will have the chance to see the steamy side of the 18th century. A series of erotic tiles, detailing various sexual positions and even spanking, will go on display for the first time at a late-night Valentine’s Day event at the site in the heart of the City. The eight tiles were discovered in 1962 after a fire in an upper room of one of London’s most memorable old pubs and remain shrouded in mystery.
Jackie Keily, curator at the museum, said: “We can’t normally display them because they are so graphic. It is a fascinating glimpse into the sexual history of London; so few of these artefacts survive.”
They will be part of an evening event called Late London: City of Seduction which is open to over 18-year-olds only. The tiles were discovered in 1962 following a fire at Ye Old Cheshire Cheese pub on Fleet Street and were handed to the museum shortly after.
The full article, with additional photos, is available here»
Details of Late London: City of Seduction are available here»
Exhibition | Capturing the Castle: Watercolours of Windsor
From the exhibition press release (18 December 2013). . .
Capturing the Castle: Watercolours of Windsor by Paul and Thomas Sandby
The Drawings Gallery, Windsor Castle, 7 February — 5 May 2014
Curated by Rosie Razzall
Paul Sandby, The Lower Ward Seen from the Base of the Round Tower,
ca. 1760 (The Royal Collection)
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Twenty views of Windsor Castle by the great 18th-century watercolourists Paul and Thomas Sandby go on display at the Castle from 7 February. Created from the 1760s to the 1790s, they provide a fascinating insight into life at Windsor during the reign of George III (1760–1820), who used the Castle as an occasional country retreat for his growing family. The drawings will be displayed alongside a number of early guidebooks, showing what visitors to Windsor would have experienced some 250 years ago. 21st-century visitors can use a free app to explore the 18th-century views and compare them with the appearance of the Castle today.
‘The father of English watercolour’, Paul Sandby (1730–1809) and his older brother Thomas (1721–98) were among the founding members of the Royal Academy under the patronage of George III in 1768. They sometimes worked together, with Paul Sandby adding figures to his older brother’s landscapes.
Thomas Sandby was Draughtsman to William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, and came to Windsor in 1746 following the Duke’s appointment as Ranger of Windsor Great Park. After Paul’s arrival in Windsor a few years later, the brothers set about producing views of the Castle from numerous angles and viewpoints, creating an unrivalled visual record of the building and surrounding area.
During this period the Castle became a popular tourist destination—the Precincts were open to the public, and access to the State Apartments was granted upon application to the Housekeeper. The Sandby watercolours show the informality of daily life around the Castle in the mid-18th century. They record soldiers chatting idly with the townsfolk, street traders hawking their wares, and elegantly dressed visitors strolling on the North Terrace, from where they could admire the views across the Thames Valley. The watercolours also document the appearance of the Castle before the major remodelling of the building by George III’s son, George IV, in the 1820s. In Paul Sandby’s View of the Quadrangle, from around 1765, the Round Tower appears significantly lower than it is today. Sixty-five years later it was heightened by some nine metres (30ft), and given Gothic-style battlements and a flag turret, creating Windsor’s now world-famous skyline.
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The Royal Collection Acquires Rare Portrait of Paul Sandby
Paul Sandby, The Quadrangle Looking West, ca. 1765
(The Royal Collection)
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Press release (4 February 2014) . . .
He is known for his beautiful views of Windsor, providing a fascinating insight into life at the Castle during the reign of George III (1760–1820). Now, 250 years later, a portrait miniature of Paul Sandby (1731–1809), ‘the father of English watercolour’, will go on display in a new exhibition at Windsor Castle and return the artist to the royal residence where he made his name. One of only a few known images of the artist, the miniature has been acquired by The Royal Collection Trust for the Royal Collection, which holds one of the world’s largest groups of work by Paul Sandby and his older brother Thomas. The miniature will be shown alongside some of Paul Sandby’s most famous views. The exhibition, Capturing the Castle: Watercolours of Windsor by Paul and Thomas Sandby, includes 20 works produced from the 1760s to the 1790s by the two brothers. They reveal the informality of daily life at Windsor during the reign of George III, who used the Castle as an occasional country retreat for his growing family.
Despite his successful career as one of the founding members of the Royal Academy, Paul Sandby was rarely painted himself. A half-length portrait, the miniature shows Sandby at the age of 56 against a landscape with Windsor Castle in the background. He wears a blue coat, white waistcoat and cravat, and holds a porte-crayon, used for drawing with pieces of chalk, and an open sketchbook. The miniature was painted in 1787 by the Jersey-born artist Philip Jean (1705–1802), who also produced portraits of the British royal family, including George III and his consort Queen Charlotte.
Born in Nottingham, Paul Sandby arrived at Windsor in the early 1750s, following Thomas’s employment as Draughtsman to William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (uncle to George III), who had been appointed the Ranger of Windsor Great Park in 1746. The brothers set about producing views of the Castle from numerous angles and viewpoints, creating an unrivalled visual record of the building and surrounding area.
The watercolours record soldiers chatting with the townsfolk, street traders hawking their wares, and elegantly dressed visitors strolling along the North Terrace and admiring the views across the Thames Valley. One particularly noticeable difference between the 18th-century Castle and that today is documented in the Sandbys’ watercolours: in The Quadrangle, Windsor Castle, looking west, c.1765, the iconic Round Tower appears significantly lower. It was heightened by some nine metres (30ft) 65 years later, as part of the George IV’s remodelling of the Castle. Gothic-style battlements and a flag turret were added, creating Windsor Castle’s now world-famous skyline. (more…)
Exhibition | Samuel Hieronymus Grimm, 1733–1794
From Bern’s Kunstmuseum:
Samuel Hieronymus Grimm, 1733–1794: A Very English Swiss
Kunstmuseum, Bern, 17 January — 21 March 2014
Curated by William Hauptman with Therese Bhattacharya-Stettler
Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1733–1794) is being presented in a comprehensive exhibition for the very first time. He pursued a career as topographer, illustrator, caricaturist and painter of watercolors, acquiring quite a reputation especially in England.
Grimm was born in Burgdorf and was initially devoted to poetry. Around 1760 he became interested in painting and took lessons with Johann Ludwig Aberli (1723–1786). In 1765 he went to Paris to continue his art studies with Jean-Georges Wille (1715–1808). There Grimm focused on landscape painting, going on long hikes with his art teacher in the countryside. In 1768 he moved to London, where he stayed for the rest of his life, working as both an illustrator and a caricaturist. With biting humor Grimm portrayed British society, fashion and politics. Around 1773, he was commissioned by Sir Richard Kaye to paint to watercolors. Kaye was to become one of his most devoted patrons, giving Grimm carte blanche to capture everything he found ‘unusual’. 2600 watercolors and drawings illustrating everyday subjects in Britain, the country’s architecture and the mores of its people were the outcome of Kaye’s patronage, producing a veritable illustrated encyclopedia of Georgian England during the 18th century. Grimm had numerous additional well-known personages as his patrons whom he accompanied on trips in England and Wales.
Grimm’s great popularity is due to the exactness of his representations; he was renowned for his speed with the pen, his moderate prices, and the perfection of his technique in sketching and painting outdoors. Specialists on British art see in Grimm one of the most talented topographers of his generation, his watercolors leave nothing to be desired and are equal to those of the best British masters of the time.
The exhibition combines examples from every genre Grimm worked in and will be accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue in German and English. Prof. William Hauptman, Lausanne, is curator of the show, a great specialist for the period. Already in 1996 he was in charge of organizing the large John Webber exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Bern. Dr. Therese Bhattacharya-Stettler is co-curator.
William Hauptman, Samuel Hieronymus Grimm, 1733–1794: A Very English Swiss (Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2014), 224 pages, ISBN: 978-8874396627, €35 / $45.
Exhibitions | Frozen Thames: Frost Fair, 1684 and 1814
Press release (29 January 2014) from the Museum of London:
Frozen Thames: Frost Fair 1814 and Frozen Thames: Frost Fair 1684 open at the Museum of London Docklands and Museum of London respectively, from Wednesday 29 January to Sunday 30 March 2014. The mini-exhibitions feature objects, paintings, keepsakes, engravings and etchings from the collection.
Why did the Thames freeze?
The Thames could freeze over not necessarily because it was colder these years, but because the river was much more sluggish and slow flowing than today. There was no embankment and the arches of the former London Bridge was much wider and protected by floating pontoons in front of them which impeded the current. Evidence for this is that after 1831 the old London Bridge—resting on its twenty solid piers—was demolished, and replaced with a new bridge with just five arches. No further Frost Fairs have been recorded since. Narrower and with fewer obstacles, the Thames now flows too fast to freeze, and the Thames Frost Fair is a spectacle we will probably never see again.
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Frozen Thames: Frost Fair 1814
Museum of London Docklands, 29 January — 30 March 2014
George Cruikshank and Thomas Tegg,
Gambols on the River Thames, February 1814.
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To the modern observer, it is a scene from London’s history that is difficult to comprehend. For just under one week, from 1 February 1814 until 5 February 1814, the River Thames, the artery of the city, froze completely solid between London Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge. Exactly 200 years ago this week, Londoners of all backgrounds took to the ice to revel in the event.
Georgina Young, Senior Curator at the Museum of London said: “The 1814 Frost Fair brightened the depths of London’s coldest winters. Imagine a travelling carnival and a street market rolled into one. Coffee houses, taverns and souvenir stalls formed improvised streets across the frozen Thames, with entertainments from skittles to swings ranged all around.”
The only surviving piece of gingerbread bought at the 1814 Frost Fair, is among a variety of objects, paintings, keepsakes, engravings and etchings which will go on display as part of two Frost Fair displays, running in parallel at the Museum of London Docklands near Canary Wharf and the Museum of London in the City of London.
The 1814 Fair was the last of its kind, but it was not the first. Between 1309 and 1814, the Thames froze at least 23 times and on five of these occasions, the freeze was extensive enough to support the weight of festivities, and a Frost Fair was born. The Museum of London collection evidences five Fairs in 1683–84, 1716, 1739–40, 1789 and 1814.
The display at the Museum of London Docklands includes a varied collection of original keepsakes from the 1814 Frost Fair, and important contemporary illustrations of the Fair, including two etchings by satirical artist, George Cruikshank, and a print by George Thompson.
For most people, a Frost Fair on the frozen Thames was a once in a lifetime occasion, and all kinds of mementoes were kept. These include fragments of stone chipped from Blackfriars Bridge, printed keepsakes, and a piece of gingerbread, bought at the Fair, which comes with an original handwritten note, identifying the purchaser as Thomas Moxon. The printed items were produced and sold by enterprising printers, who relocated their businesses onto the ice, turning crisis into opportunity. Indeed, when the Thames froze over, the normal workings of London froze with it—even the Thames Watermen converted their boats into temporary stages, and there are reports that an elephant was led across the Thames by Blackfriars Bridge.
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Frozen Thames: Frost Fair 1684
Museum of London, 29 January — 30 March 2014
Abraham Hondius, Frost Fair, 1684
(Museum of London)
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The star objects in the Museum of London display are two paintings by the Dutch artist, working in London, Abraham Hondius (c.1625–91) who was a notable artist in the expanding art market fostered by Charles II. The first painting depicts the frozen Thames in 1677 looking eastwards towards London Bridge (though this was not recorded as a ‘Frost Fair’), and the second, portrays the area of present day Temple on the north side of the river, in the grip of the 1684 Frost Fair.
Pat Hardy, Curator for Paintings, Prints and Drawings at the Museum of London, said: “Hondius brought with him from the Netherlands new painting and print techniques as well as an acute observation of contemporary life. The pleasures of the 1684 Fair are vividly captured.”
The paintings by Hondius appear alongside other works by unknown artists, which depict the 1684 Fair, and a later drawing of the 1716 Frost Fair, which grew even larger than its predecessor.
Frost fair on the Thames in 1715–16, woodcut. This view is taken from
near Temple Stairs, with Old London Bridge in the background.
Exhibition | Handel and Charles Clay’s Musical Clocks
From the Handel House:
Handel and Charles Clay’s Musical Clocks
Handel House Museum, London, 20 November 2013 — 23 February 2014
In the 1730s Handel provided music for a series of clocks created by watch and clockmaker Charles Clay. These beautiful machines, which incorporated automata, paintings, sculptures, furniture and gold and silver work by some of the finest artisans in London, also included chimes and pump organs that played extended musical excerpts from popular operas and sonatas.
This exhibition provides the opportunity to view a Clay clock from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in an intimate Georgian setting which recalls the context in which such new inventions were originally viewed in the clockmaker’s own home. It will be joined by a gilt bronze relief from another Clay clock on loan from the V&A, and a manuscript of Handel’s clock tunes from the British Library. In addition, a recording of the music from a Clay clock in a private collection demonstrates the earliest ‘recordings’ of Handel’s music made during his lifetime.
For more information about the Kensington Palace clock, view a video here. For details of the Windsor clock, click here.
The exhibition is kindly supported by the A.C.H.Crisford Charitable Foundation.
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Additional information and images are available from the Handel House; also see a posting at the Antiquarian Horological Society’s blog The Story of Time.
Exhibition | Arlene Shechet: Meissen Recast
From the exhibition press release (20 November 2013). . .
Arlene Shechet: Meissen Recast
RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island, 17 January — 6 July 2014
Organized by Judith Tannenbaum
Arlene Shechet, Asian Vase, 2013.
In the first U.S. exhibition of her one-of-a-kind Meissen sculptures, Arlene Shechet presents works she produced during a recent artist residency at the world-renowned German porcelain manufacturer. Arlene Shechet: Meissen Recast is a two-part exhibition on view at the RISD Museum from January 17 to July 6, 2014. It is the utilitarian factory casts behind fine porcelain production, rather than the ornate ceramic confections, that inform Shechet’s ‘Meissen’ series. Her range of sculpture brings to the fore the seams, plate impressions, indentations, inventory numbers, and other evidence of the industrial process that an 18th-century Meissen craftsman would have sought to erase. Almost every sculpture on view in the Museum’s Upper Farago Gallery is derived from one or more of 47 historic Meissen mold patterns, reconceived in unanticipated combinations of forms and scale. Shechet’s complete reinstallation of the Museum’s historic Meissen collection of figurines and tableware in the Porcelain Gallery completes the two-part show, connecting the past and present, fine arts, and decorative arts.
“The Museum is excited to present this compelling new work by RISD alumna Arlene Shechet,” says John W. Smith, director of the RISD Museum. “Meissen Recast extends the Museum’s long and groundbreaking tradition of encouraging artists to use the collection, dating from Andy Warhol’s Raid the Icebox (1970) to Spencer Finch’s Painting Air exhibition (2012). By moving some of RISD’s Meissen figures, including the famous Monkey Band, from their normal location in the Porcelain Gallery to the contemporary Upper Farago Gallery and, conversely, inserting her own porcelain sculptures into the cases of the more traditional, wood-paneled room, she heightens our awareness and appreciation for the refined historical pieces and her own more organic, intuitive approach.” (more…)
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