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Renzo Piano

BETWEEN PIXELS AND BRUSHES. HOW WAS 2021 FOR THE WORLD OF ART??

This year, despite the inconvenience due to the long closures of galleries, museums, fairs, limited travel and many uncertainties about the future, we still breathed an air of transition and change, experimented with new ways of enjoying art and the long-awaited sociality.

Strong interest in emerging artists,female artists, in new technologies and social and environmental issues. But above all, the new trend is the various types of digital sales that have brought about change and experimentation in collecting.

And so, it seems to us to witness a historical moment, the birth of a new form of art:

NFT or non-fungible token.

These sales have turned the spotlight on the cryptoart market, leading to a real boom in NFTs, works encrypted and authenticated through blockchain technology. But the real breakthrough for the sales of this new art form was the moment of the transition from the only form of payment cryptocurrency to also a credit card, allowing a wider audience to easily purchase these digital creations.

The fashion of NFTs has made it possible to expand the typology of art buyers also involving younger generations of collectors and/or technology experts.

Among the surprises of 2021, Beeple – artist who earned the top spot on Art Review Power 100 and became the third living artist with the highest top record after Jeff Koons and David Hockney.

The work “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” at Christie’s online auction – the first international auction house to offer an NFT work – reached a record figure of $ 69.3 million.

It is not his only work auctioned: on November 9 at Christie’s “Human One” – a hybrid sculpture composed of LED screens and images that evolve over time – it reached $ 28.9 million.

Beeple, “Human One”

 

In addition to Beeple, several artists have sold works on blockchain for millions of dollars.

CryptoPunks, an NFT project created by Larva Labs, is an art collection of 10,000 images and was one of the first in circulation.

These unique digital characters were sold in May at Christie’s for $ 14.5 million and achieved total annual sales of $ 29 million.

CryptoPunks 58, 603, 768, three of nine works sold as a single NFT for $ 16,962,500 on May 11, 2021 at Christie’s NY

 

The NFTs of the Bored Apes Yacht Club series on the Ethereum platform were also one of the biggest hits of cryptoart. In September, the two Bored Apes collections auctioned at NFT organized by Sotheby’s and comprising 101 pieces each generated $ 24.39 and $ 1.83 million respectively.

 

Bored Apes Yacht Club

This new art modality could also represent an important bridge between present and past as in the case of the Uffizi Museum, which offered the contemporary market the exclusive possession of a masterpiece from their collection.

The digital version of Michelangelo’s Tondo Doni was created thanks to the patent of the Italian company Cinello (sold for € 240,000), which will also sell other works by great masters such as Leonardo, Caravaggio and Titian.

A completely different thing compared to the very high amounts paid for the purchase of coloured monkeys.

 

YOUNG EMERGENT ARTISTS:

Another very strong trend of 2021 was the great appreciation of emerging tallents, names that are not yet very well known but in auctions are reaching prices of historically established artists.

One of them is Flora Yukhnovich (1990) who reached £ 2 million at Sotheby’s London auction last October 14th. But the list of young stars – many female – is long: among them Avery Singer, who’s work was sold for $ 4 million, Christina Quarles (1985), Shara Hughes (1981) with her auction record $ 1,482,000, also Jadé Fadojutimi (1993) $ 877,000, Ewa Juszkiewicz $ 730,800… to name a few of the hot names this year.

Flora Yukhnovich, “I’ll Have What She’s Having”, 2020

Oil on linen, 169 x 220 cm

Christina Quarles, “Common Ground (Worlds Apart, Miles Away) », 2016

Acrylic on canvas, 127 x 101 cm

 

Avery Singer, “Untitled”, 2018

Acrylic on canvas, 216 x 241 cm

 

Shara Hughes, « Inside Outside », 2018.

Oil and acrylic on canvas, 198 x 167.5 cm

 

OTHER INTERESTING RECORDS:

A new record was in the air for Banksy, who with “Love is in the Bin” reached £ 18.5 million at Sotheby’s London auction in October.

The work, which became a performance – originally “Girl with Balloon” – self-destroyed shortly after it was sold for £ 1.1 million at Sotheby’s auction in 2018.

Record for Frida Kahlo self-portrait “Diego y yo” (1949) sold for $ 35.8 million during the Modern Evening Sale at Sotheby’s New York.

A figure that also marks the absolute record for a Latin American artist and ranks second for the most expensive work sold at auction by a female artist.

Georgia O’Keeffe has been on the podium since 2014 with “Jimson weed/White flower no.1”, sold for $ 44.4 million again at Sotheby’s New York.

 

Frida Kahlo, “Diego y yo”, 1949

Oil on canvas, 30 x 22,4 cm

 

The sale of the Macklowe Collection proposed by Sotheby’s, one of the most important American private collections auctioned following the divorce of the two spouses, will certainly remain in history.

White gloves for the 35 works by European and American masters of the 20th century and a New York evening Sale that marked the highest sales record ever in the history of Sotheby’s: $ 676.1 million.

 

Jackson Pollock, “Number 17”, 1951

Enamel on canvas, 148,6 x 148,6 cm

 

Agnes Martin, “Untitled #44”, 1974

Acrylic on canvas, 182,9 x 182,9 cm

 

Mark Rothko, “No.7”, 1951

Oil on canvas, 240,7 x 138,7 cm

 

FOR AUCTION HOUSES YEAR 2021 WAS WONDERFUL:

Sotheby’s in 2021 achieved a record turnover of $ 7.3 billion, the highest in 277 years of business.

There are rumors that Patrick Drahi is considering an initial public offering (IPO) for the auction house, a move that would mark the company’s return to the stock market less than three years after the magnate bought it for about $ 3.7 billion.

Also good year for Christie’s, which reached $ 7.1 billion – the highest amount in the last 5 years.

Phillips during the November auctions in New York Phillips scored the highest total in its history, almost $ 140 million, thanks to young artists.

Surely these results were favored by the extraordinary sale of the Macklowe collection, made up of works that undoubtedly have an indisputable value, but also by the growing popularity of NFTs, whose value I believe should be revised and adjusted, at least for certain works.

 

LEADING MARKETS?

Hong Kong, at the centre of an increasingly solid and active Asian market, has established itself as the second city in the world for contemporary art after New York, playing a role of accelerator for the most important young artists and for the promotion of art contemporary and ultra-contemporary.

Seoul is also booming, the debut of Frieze Seoul in September 2022 and the recent opening of many important international galleries such as König, Pace, Perrotin, Thaddaeus Ropac, Gladstone and Lehmann Maupin will give even more impetus to the South Korean art market.

Another attractive factor for growth is the subsidized tax regime: Seoul does not charge import taxes on art and there is no sales tax on works worth less than $ 55,000.

All elements that will make Seoul more and more a protagonist of the market.

 

MY FAVORITE EXHIBITIONS OF 2021:

« Elles font l’abstraction », Centre Pompidou. Curator Christine Macel

Beautiful retrospective on the contribution of women in abstract art through 106 artists and more than 500 works, from 1860 to the 1980s.

In addition to the historicized names, the exhibition also enhanced the work of little-known artists by revealing contexts, individual and group research, including decorative arts, photography, cinema and dance.

Among the artists on show: Louise Bourgeois, Rosemarie Castoro, Georgiana Houghton, Verena Loewensberg, Helen Frankenthaler, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Saloua Raouda Choucair, Regina Cassolo Bracchi, Dadamaino, Carla Accardi, Giannina Censi and many, many others.

Magnificent exhibition!

Lynda Benglis during a performance, 1970

 

Joan Mitchell, “Mephisto”, 1958

 

Véra Pagava, “La Grande Ville », 1959

 

Paola Pivi, “25.000 Covid jokes (It’s not a joke)”

Paola Pivi collected 25,000 jokes from different countries, creating an incredible mosaic of images and words at the Chapelle de la Vieille Charité in Marseille.

Brilliant idea of tragicomic testimony of the surreal times of lock-down, in the light and pleasant style of Pivi.

 

“Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped”, Christo e Jeanne-Claude

25,000 square meters of silver fabric covered the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, completing the last project of the artist who passed away in 2020, a dream that Christo pursued for 60 years.

This installation certainly strengthened the market of the Bulgarian artist couple even more.

 

Domenico Gnoli – Fondazione Prada, Milano, visible until 2/27/2022

A great retrospective – the latest project conceived by Germano Celant – celebrating the Roman artist who died prematurely.

The intense and enigmatic works of Gnoli show the beauty and poetry of everyday objects and seem to want to reveal the secret of things to us, well, as they say: “the devil is in the details.

A truly spectacular exhibition.

 

“Shine” Jeff Koons – Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

Palazzo Strozzi offers us a beautiful journey into the world of Jeff Koons with a retrospective that brings a selection of the most famous works of the American artist to Florence. Curated by Arturo Galansino and Joachim Pissarro.

As always Galansino manages to entertain and surprise us with high-level exhibitions, with an educational imprint, easy to understand for all age groups. Well done!

 

Breath Ghosts Blind – Maurizio Cattelan, curated by Roberta Tenconi and Vicente Todolì, until February 20, 2022.

“There was no one in Italy able to compete with Anselm Kiefer. No one, among his contemporaries, has such a monumental vision.” These are the words of Carlo Vanoni to describe “Breath Ghosts Blind”, a monographic by Maurizio Cattelan at Hangar Bicocca.

A site-specific project that addresses issues such as the fragility of life, memory and the sense of loss.

The only sin is to see pigeons as a metaphor for the third time, renamed from “Tourists” 1997 to “Others” 2021, then “Ghosts” 2021….

But anyway, Cattelan rocks.

 

ANNE IMHOF, “Nature Mortes” Palais de Tokyo, Paris

Anne Imhof has created an all-encompassing and polyphonic work by blending space and bodies, music and painting.

Inside the structure of the Palais de Tokyo, the artist has inserted a labyrinth of glass walls that have fragmented the space and generated new perspectives between paintings, installations, drawings, video, audio and sculptures, inviting 30 artists of great importance in dialog to each other.

A very powerful exhibition!

 

Stop Painting – Fondazione Prada, Venice.

Everyone should have seen this exhibition conceived by artist Peter Fischli, a profound reflection on some fundamental moments in the history of art over the past 150 years.

Starting from the invention of photography, the project highlights 5 radical breaks – between technological and social factors – which led to the rejection or reinvention of painting.

 

NEW TRENDS/ AWARDED IN 2021:

In addition to the re-evaluation of female artists and African American artists – which has already been taking place for some years – another trend that is taking shape concerns the artistic collectives, increasingly present in the contemporary art scene even in prestigious roles.

This is the case of the Indonesians Ruangrupa, who next year will curate the 15th edition of Documenta in Kassel, placed in 3rd place in the ranking of Art Review Power 100.

They are not the only ones present in the ranking: the indigenous Australians Karrabing Film Collective appear in 12th place and Forensic Architecture in 19th place.

 

CHANEL NEXT PRIZE- It is a new international award founded by the French maison to promote and support emerging talents, to experiment with new forms of artistic creation and encourage fluidity between different forms of art.

The winners – representing 11 countries and disciplines spanning design, cinema and visual arts – are: Jung Jae-il, Keiken, Lual Mayen, Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Rungano Nyoni, Precious Okoyomon, Marie Schleef, Botis Seva, Wang Bing, Eduardo Williams.

Each will receive a prize of € 100,000 and the support of experts selected by the brand.

Chanel will also collaborate on the programming of exhibitions with various institutions such as the Center Pompidou, the Underground Museum in Los Angeles and the recently opened GES-2 in Moscow.

PHOTO: Precious Okoyomon, New York-based artist and poet, who won the 2021 Frieze Artist Award. He is known for his immersive installations examining the natural world and its ties to racial events.

 

TURNER PRIZEIt is the first edition of the  Turner Prize to not include single artists but only collectives.

The winners – Array Collective – are a group of Belfast artists and the first Northern Ireland artists to win the prestigious award.

The work, an Irish pub reconstructed in the gallery spaces, reflects on the theme of inclusiveness without barriers or distinctions.

 

PRIX MARCEL DUCHAMP- Lili Reynaud-Dewar won the 21º Prix Marcel Duchamp 2021 with a project dedicated to Pier Paolo Pasolini focused on the relationship between the body and politics.

 

MAXXI BULGARI PRIZE- awarded to Tomaso De Luca with the work “A Week’s Notice”, a video installation that stood out for its ethical, social and political involvement.

This year, for the first time, all three works by the finalists (Giulia Cenci, Renato Leotta) have been acquired and become part of the contemporary art collection of the Maxxi Museum in Rome.

 

Despite the uncertain year, there have been several openings of new art centres and museums:

New life for the Paris Bourse, which since May hosts a new contemporary art museum and the Francois Pinault collection – more than 10,000 works by around 350 artists from all over the world.

Many exhibitions and on-site projects are scheduled in the building restored by Tadao Ando, which has already become an essential destination for art lovers.

M+

Open in November, the M + Museum in Hong Kong is the largest centre for contemporary art in the Asian area, a cultural institution that reflects the international identity of the territory on which it stands.

The M + collection is interdisciplinary and, in its spaces, includes 33 galleries, 3 cinemas, a media library, a hanging garden and a LED facade for the projection of moving images that are also visible from the seafront.

There was no lack of controversy over possible censorship by the Chinese authorities, which in 2020 introduced very strict laws on national security, significantly limiting some fundamental freedoms.

GES-2 MOSCOW

Renzo Piano’s project has revived an old power plant, transforming it into the new headquarters of the V-A-C Foundation, an institution of contemporary art founded by the Russian oligarch Leonid Mikhelson.

Open in December, this multidisciplinary space takes up the idea of the House of Culture and houses cinemas, concert halls, areas for workshops and exhibition halls, all in the name of experimentation.

ACADEMY MUSEUM OF MOTION PICTURES

Different continent, same architect: Renzo Piano has also signed up in Los Angeles for the largest museum in the world dedicated to cinema, a journey to discover the films and Hollywood stars who have made history.

 

DEPOT BOIJMANS VAN BEUNINGEN

In Rotterdam, the first art depot in the world opens its doors to the public, for those curious to know what is hidden “behind the scenes”, in museum warehouses and restoration laboratories.

Curiosity: the building has 5 different climatic zones and the works are not exhibited by age or style but for conservation needs.

 

MUNCH MUSEUM

The Munch Museum has opened in Oslo, which in addition to the Master’s masterpieces will also host various projects and exhibitions dedicated to contemporary artists.

Tracey Emin’s solo exhibition inaugurated the museum with a collection of works created by the English artist over the last decade, in dialogue with some works by Edvard Munch.che oltre ai capolavori del Maestro ospiterà anche diversi progetti e mostre dedicate ad artisti contemporanei.

 

ARTE IN NUVOLA

In Italy, in addition to the historic fairs that have returned to the public – Miart, Miart Photo Fair, Artissima – after several postponements, a new modern and contemporary art fair has been inaugurated in Rome, “Arte in Nuvola”, a new impetus for the restart of the art in our country.

 

Who is no more…

Etel Adnan, the great Lebanese essayist, poet and only in recent years also acclaimed artist passed away last November ‘21′.

Leading voice of Arab-American culture, Adnan has created works that cross different cultures and disciplines, moving with fluidity between writing and art.

Her geometric-abstract paintings of landscapes (sunsets, mountains, valley) made with a small knife will remain unmistakable, always in small dimensions.

 

Lawrence Weiner, one of the greatest exponents of conceptual art, left us in December / recently.

The artist began to create large installations starting from the 60s and has always focused on the use of words and their meaning, on the interpretation and perception of the work by the observer.

 

Richard Rogers, pioneer of the high-tech movement, architect of the Millennium Dome in London and of the Centre Pompidou together with Renzo Piano, passed away on 18 December.

 

In 2021 one of the best-known names in Italian photography has left us.

Giovanni Gastel, in addition to his commitment to the world of fashion, has carried out his own artistic research which culminated in 1997 with the personal exhibition at the Milan Triennale curated by Germano Celant.

In 2020 the Maxxi in Rome dedicated an exhibition to his famous portraits, 200 photographs of personalities from the world of culture, art, fashion but also politics, such as the famous portrait of Barack Obama.

A great master and inspiring person.

Great example of the world of art merging with fashion.

 

LOOKING FORWARD:

2022 is the year of the 59th Venice Biennial, and Italy will be represented by Gian Maria Tosatti.

It is the first time that a single artist will compete with the space of the pavilion and it is the first time that the Biennale will be led by a female curator, Cecilia Alemani.

 

A part that there will be many interesting art appointments. Follow me to stay up to date!

 

So summing up:

There is a lot of effervescence in the air, new forms of art, Big buyers, many new openings, auctions stronger than ever, focusing on new trends.

Women, BIPOC, emergents and NFT are greatly appreciated. It is not yet clear how and if they will position themselves in the art world in the future, but this year’s digital “superstars” have already signed contracts with companies such as UTA and other entertainment agencies.

Who knows what awaits us in 2022, certainly the world of art is becoming more and more fun.

Have a good year!

 

* BIPOC: acronym taken from the English language which means “Black, Indigenous, & People of Color Movement”

 

“The Shades Of The Art Rainbow Are Endless: Choose Your Favorite!”

 

Upcoming

All the autumn exhibitions not to be missed!

 

Balthus

Fondation Beyeler, Basel

September 2 – January 1, 2019

 

The exhibition, in collaboration with the artist’s family and curated by Raphael Bouvier and Michiko Kono, presents fifty of the most significant works of the artist’s career and is the first major retrospective dedicated to Balthus in German-speaking Switzerland.

The artist’s bond with these places has always been strong, both for his marriage to the Swiss aristocrat Antonietta de Watteville and for the childhood spent between Bern and Geneva.

Balthus, pseudonym of Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, was born in Paris to an art critic father and painter mother, thanks to his parents he had the opportunity to travel and get closer to the world of art from an early age.

It will be the first trip to Italy in 1926 to bring him closer to the Tuscan Renaissance masters, in particular to Piero della Francesca, whom he considered to be his mentor.

Taking the compositional system from the great painters of the past, then expertly mixing it with the other Italian artistic currents, such as Magic Realism and Metaphysics: it is from this particular combination that the enigmatic static nature characteristic of his works is born, which can combine daily life and mystery, dream and reality.

Balthus has been able to revolutionize the figurative tradition in open opposition to the avant-garde currents of the time, in a historical period that featured painters such as Picasso and Matisse.

Little understood by his contemporaries, after the thirties his iconography was oriented towards the representation of nudes characterized by an almost sculptural immobility; among these his main subjects are young children in the toilet that also earned him pornography charges.

The delicacy of the nudes, caught in moments of daily intimacy and anything but mischievous, clearly expresses Balthus’s intent to tell the psychological aspect of the subjects and to cite the classical masters.

The bond with Italy is expected to strengthen from 1961, when the artist is appointed director of the Academy of France in Rome, an assignment that will last 17 years during which Balthus will create several works set in the eternal city.

The great retrospective that will end in Basel on January 1, 2019, will move to Madrid at the National Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

Balthus, Thérèse, 1938

Oil on cardboard mounted on wood

100.3 x 81.3 cm

 

Renzo Piano

The Art of Making Buildings

Royal Academy of Arts, London

September 15 – January 20, 2019

 

United by a sense of lightness thanks to the use of large windows, a mixture of invention and tradition, function and context, Renzo Piano’s buildings are now part of the public imagination.

His projects have changed the skyline of metropolises all over the world through futuristic and immediately recognizable lines, the result of a work of constant research and experimentation with materials and architectural typologies.

The exhibition, designed and curated in close collaboration with the same Plan, traces the architect’s career from the Genoese heritage of the construction builder father to the studies carried out in Florence and Milan, passing through international experiences and worldwide acclaim alongside his friend and collaborator Richard Rogers.

Focused on 16 key projects, the exhibition explores the architect’s modus operandi, highlighting the wise use of shapes, materials and engineering to materialise elegant and pioneering ideas.

The Centre George Pompidou in Paris, a project of 1971 that brought him worldwide fame, the London Shard, and the New York Times headquarters in the Big Apple stand out among the most famous projects designed by Piano.

On display there will be not only photographs and projects but also many hand drawings in which you can follow the flow of ideas and inspirations that led to the creation of futuristic buildings that have become icons and symbols of absolute modernity.

In addition to the projects that made him crown “archistar”, the lesser known ones dating back to the 1970s, the beginning of the career of the well-known Genoese architect, will also be visible.

At the centre of the exhibition is the imaginary “Island“, a sculptural installation specially designed for the monograph of the Royal Academy that brings together almost 100 projects that recount Renzo Piano’s 30 years of career.

The Shard, also called London Bridge Tower

London, 2013-2016.

 

Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci

Abu Dhabi Louvre

September 18

 

Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi will be finally exhibited at the Louvre in Abu Dhabi, after being purchased for the record of $ 450 million by the United Arab Emirates Department of Culture and Tourism in November 2017 during the Christie’s auction in New York.

Just one week after the museum’s inauguration, the purchase has been an excellent marketing operation and has further clarified the economic power of the Emirates

However, this is a temporary exhibition, because the work will return to the Louvre in Paris on the occasion of the exhibition that will take place from 24 October 2019 until 24 February 2020 to celebrate the anniversary of the death – 500 years in May 2019 – of the Tuscan master.

The oil on board representing Christ blessing has long been considered to come from Leonardo’s workshop, and over time the attributions by international experts, who have long debated on the authorship of the work, have been very controversial.

Painted between 1490 and around 1515, it was finally recognized as Leonardo’s work only in 2011 on the occasion of the exhibition at the National Gallery in London.

The Salvator Mundi promises to be the centrepiece of the Abu Dhabi collection and represents an excellent piece to counterbalance the Mona Lisa, exhibited in the Parisian museum of the same name.

The collaboration between the two Louvres foresees that the Abu Dhabi museum can use the name – which has become almost a brand – for about 30 years.

The terms of the agreements provide that France undertakes to guarantee a constant loan of works through the Agence France-Muséums, an institution that brings together the 13 major French museums involved in the partnership with Abu Dhabi. These thirteen museums will also ensure the rotation of four exhibitions per year for 15 years at the Arab facility.

France also has the obligation of bringing curators, experts and highly qualified figures who will train the staff to the Louvre in Abu Dhabi: in this way the museum will have time to build its own permanent collection and to manage itself within a few years.

Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi, around 1490-1515.

Oil on wallnut

66 x 46 cm

 

The World on Paper

New Cultural Headquarters of the Deutsche Bank, Berlin.

Opening September 27th.

 

On September 27, the new cultural headquarters of the Deutsche Bank will open in Berlin under the direction of Svenja von Reichenbach, formerly responsible for exhibitions at the Berlin office and director of the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle since 2013.

The Centre is spread over a total area of 3,000 square metres occupying the building renamed “Palais Populaire” and the spaces adjacent to it.

In the artistic field, the German bank is known for a collection focused on photography and works on paper among the most important in the world, but the cultural centre of Berlin will host events of all kinds including exhibitions, concerts and sports.

The exhibition that inaugurates the spaces, “The World on Paper” curated by Friedhelm Hütte, sees protagonists precisely with the works of the Deutsche Bank collection, but information about it is once again very scarce, probably to intrigue the public by focusing on the surprise effect.

Exterior view of the Palais Populaire, Berlin

 

Real Bodies: discover the human body

Spazio Ventura XV, Milan

October 6 – January 31, 2019

 

The exhibition on human anatomy returns to Milan two years after the first exhibition held at the Fabbrica del Vapore, where it had reached a record attendance with 280 thousand visitors, certainly thanks to the intriguing and attracting particularity of the “objects” on display.

The 500 artifacts preserved by plastination are organs of men and women who voluntarily decided to donate their post mortem body in the name of science.

This year, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, a section of the exhibition will be dedicated to the Tuscan master, undisputed pioneer of forensic medicine and a great scholar of human body.

The thirty installations of human artefacts will reproduce Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical sketches contained in the Windsor code in a direct comparison between his studies and reality.

Another novelty compared to the previous edition is the presence of animal organs, including the heart of a humpback whale, the largest heart muscle on Earth that measures 1-meter-wide and is capable of pumping 220 litres of blood.

The exhibition, through the study of the human body, aims to make known the progress of biomechanics and reconstructive surgery, to sensitize people on the fight against addictions and to facilitate disease prevention. The high scientific and educational value makes the exhibition an unmissable appointment for school children and curious people in general.

Leonardo da Vinci, Windsor codex, detail of a drawing

1478-1518

 

Carte Blanche to Tomás Saraceno

On Air

Palais de Tokyo, Paris

October 17 – January 6, 2019

 

Tomás Saraceno will be the protagonist of the fourth edition of the “Cartes Blanches” series, monumental exhibitions cyclically entrusted to different artists that started in 2013 with Philippe Parreno, then continued in 2016 with Tino Sehgal and with Camille Henrot in 2017.

On Air” promises to be the largest project ever created by the artist, whose research develops and concretizes in the mixture of architecture, art science and philosophy.

The exhibition brings together a selection of his main works and new productions that will transform the 13,000 square metres of the Palais de Tokyo into a truly unique experience.

By combining the smaller and larger stairs, the exhibition will seek to reveal the connection between a spider web, a particle of dust, an architecture and the redistribution of the atmosphere through the Aerocene, an interdisciplinary artistic project that proposes a collective rethinking of the way men inhabit the world.

Aerocene imagines the creation of a new infrastructure that redefines the international right to mobility, reviewing the freedom of movement between countries and reminding us that air is a precious asset that belongs to all living beings.

The exhibition space of the Palais de Tokyo thus becomes a huge stage that shows the richness and complexity of everything that makes up the universe, transporting us to a place where the microscopic and the cosmic coexist, transcending human perception to explore the world from different points of view.

Flanked by a team of international professionals that sees the participation of architects, researchers and astrophysicists from all over the world, Tomás Saraceno invites us to rethink our way of experiencing the planet.

Tomás Saraceno, detail of a work, 2017

 

Picasso Metamorphosis

Palazzo Reale, Milan

October 18 – February 17, 2019

 

The European exhibition promoted by the Musée Picasso in Paris also stops in Milan and presents 200 works that include both works by Picasso and pieces of ancient art from important international museum institutions.

The focus of the exhibition is the relationship between the painter and the myth of antiquity, a source of inspiration highlighted by the many references that Picasso has included in his works during his artistic career: therefore, the mythological themes emerge thanks to a direct comparison between pieces of ancient art and master’s works.

The exhibition is part of a series of events dedicated by the Royal Palace to the Spanish painter, which began in 1953 with the exhibition of Guernica in the Sala delle Cariatidi and ended with the large monographic exhibition of 2012.

Pablo Picasso, Women at the spring, 1921

Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie

Oil on canvas

50 x 52 cm

 

Mario Merz

Igloos

Hangar Bicocca, Milan

October 24 – February 24

 

The exhibition curated by Vicente Todolí and created in collaboration with the Merz Foundation, offers the unique opportunity to be able to admire for the first time 30 igloos from private collections and museums, created by the artist between 1968 and 2003.

The exhibition opens with 1987’s “La Goccia d’Acqua”, which with its 12 meters in diameter is the largest igloo created by Merz for an internal exhibition space, on the occasion of the solo exhibition at the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Bordeaux .

In the space of the Navate, with an area of 5,500mq, the exhibition itinerary then proceeds in chronological order starting with the igloos created in the sixties.

Thanks to this substantial body of works, the exhibition takes us through the most innovative aspects and components of Merz, very tied to the particular use of both natural and industrial materials and attentive to the dialogue between natural space and architecture.

A key figure in Arte Povera, Mario Merz was among the first in Italy to use the artistic installation as an artistic means of expression, inserting neon and everyday objects on the canvas. In addition to these, he has often also used some elements belonging to the scientific field, such as the Fibonacci sequence.

It is from 1968 that he introduces a theme that will remain one of the most representative of his research: the igloo.

This particular type of home becomes a metaphor for the relationships between physical space and conceptual space, between individual and community, a place of refuge and ephemeral isolation from external reality.

Igloos are often created through metal structures covered with various elements, from clay to glass, from stone to jute.

Since the 1980s there has been an evolution in the structure of the igloos, which become more complex, characterized by intersecting lines and the addition of neon writing.

The symbolic value of these delicate installations sometimes assumes even political meanings, thus opening up to contemporary debates.

Mario Merz, The Drop of Water, 1987

Diameter: 12 meters

 

The shades of the rainbow of art are infinite: choose your favourite!