Among the must-see exhibitions this coming spring and already visible now, the fabulous show in Custodia Foundation is unmissable and the title says it all : 500 years of Master’s drawings from Pouchkine Museum. How exciting !
It is said that if you exhibit a drawing 3 months you have to storage it 3 years in order to protect the work against the damages of light. That’s why you can’t see permanently drawing’s collection from outstanding museum on display but only temporary shows. And usually you have to travel to see these marvels. Sometimes few drawings from the museum are lent for a temporary exhibition abroad but rarely a huge ensemble.
Then you realize how lucky we are in Paris to admire a wonderful bunch of 195 works coming from renowned Pouchkine museum in Moscow and representative of the history of drawing : from the German and Italian Renaissance to the European and Russian avant-garde of the twentieth century !
Parmigianino-Virgin and child in clouds – 1526 / Picasso-Head of an old man in a tiara- 1905
Klee-Comet over Paris – 1918
If you prefer postwar paintings Vasarely outstanding retrospective in Pompidou Center is for you ! It’s the first one ever organized in France showing all the facets of the father of Optical Art (called also Op’ art) through 300 works and documents including paintings, sculptures, multiples, architectural integrations, advertising, studies, objects…
With the hungarian artist Abstract geometry can be fun and feels alive through selected forms and seductive colors. Art for all in everyday life was also is concern. Complete, clever and playful, it’s the ideal family show and a great opportunity to rediscover an artist inscribed in our visual heritage of the 70’s and 80’s.
Tribute to Malevitch(1954-58)
Kiruna (1952-62)
Vonal Zöld (1968)
The Courtauld collection from London at Louis Vuitton Foundation :
Thanks to the refurbishment of Sommerset House planned for the coming two years, acclaimed impressionnist masterpieces such as Un Bar aux Folies Bergères by Manet and the somptuous Loge (the Theatre Box) by Renoir were able to leave London until mid-june. How lucky we are in Paris to admire them ! Even if I’m used to getting together everytime I travel to London- like visiting french friends established on the other side of the chanel- it’s always good to see artworks in a new context.
Hope the british people are grateful to Mr Samuel Courtauld, who had french roots, to have made impressionist and post-impressionist artists accepted and recognized in Great Britain, through his stunning personal collection first -actually lovely built with his wife Elizabeth in a record time : from 1923 to 1929- and then through the fund he created on purpose for the National Galleries in order to fill artistic gaps regarding “modern” french school.
It was not an easy task reminds us the catalogue of the exhibition as many british people, still very conservative regarding art, considered french impressionist and post impressionist artists not worthy to be exhibited in public collection ! By the way, the most horrible critics were addressed towards… Cézanne who was judged -even in the 20’s as a bad painter ! Well, his sense of space distorsion with daring points of view disrupted many british minds meanwhile Courtauld himself was immediately overwhelmed by the Master of Aix when he visited the famous exhibition at Burlington Fine Arts in 1922 showing a selection of artworks from french school of the last 100 years.
The british industrial – who made fortune thanks to viscose- started then just the year after, in 1923, to collect paintings. Not at all to satisfy any socialite activity but rather to accomplish an artistic mission : give at least the right place Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Gaugin, Van Gogh, Seurat deserved in UK. His wish was supported by a great sense of sharing his vision with a large audience as Art brought his so much in his life he desired to offer to a large public the possibility to elevate themselves their spirits thanks to Art, in times of industrialisations and materialism. He even went further with the creation of the Courtauld Institute of Art in 1931, which was not only a place where visitors could admire an outstanding private collection gathering masterpieces of modernity, but also a university section to teach Art History, which not yet a real academic discipline. The aim was to spread then this knowledge through the country and to form future curators and directors of museum.
All I can say is mission accomplished Mr Courtauld as the Institute is today famous and renowned in Art world !
If you’re not familiar with this collection and its fabulous history, I will be delighted to give you a private tour. Please contact me through my mail if you wish more informations (amuraro@sfr.fr).
Manet- Un Bar aux Folies Bergères
Monet- Antibes
Seurat- Horses in water
Picasso-Calder exhibition in Picasso museum :
Two sacred monsters of modern art who shared the same passion for creativity and innovations without losing their child soul, it was time to gather them ! Great dialogues between works displayed and surprises too when we come to abstraction with Picasso, like in this picture below where the spanish master’s finds his place in the middle 😉 …
A must see until august 25th.
