American International Fine Art Fair

The 15th American International Fine Art Fair (AIFAF) will take place in February 2011 in Palm Beach, Fla. This annual event brings well-known international fine art and antique galleries together.

This year’s event “features international dealers representing disciplines of fine art from classical antiquity to contemporary, and the world’s finest collection of haute and period jewelry.” The vetting committee comprises top museum curators and experts. The schedule consists of exhibitions and daily activities, such as lectures, cocktail parties and social events.

Richard Green Fine Art, Hammer Galleries and Graff Diamonds are among the fair’s many participants. Highlights of the fair include a Renoir exhibition and works by Pablo Picasso, John Duncan Fergusson and Sir Alfred Munning.

David and Lee Ann Lester are the owners of International Fine Art Expositions (IFAE) and have organized the fair since 1997. The Lesters also established Art Miami and Artpalmbeach. Click here and here for more information about AIFAF 2011.

"The Queen's Year"

AP / Matt Dunham

“The Queen's Year,” an exhibition as part of the annual Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace, showcases examples of Queen Elizabeth II’s ceremonial dress from various events throughout the year. The exhibition began today and is on view until October 1.

In addition to ceremonial dress, the exhibition “recreates the spectacle and variety of the royal calendar” by presenting historic ceremonial objects and gifts that the queen has received. Exhibition highlights include 10 of her Ascot hats (above) and an evening gown that she wore to the Royal Film Performance of “West Side Story” in 1962. Two pieces are on public display for the first time: the queen’s Robe of State and the ‘Vladimir’ tiara.

Click here to read more about the queen’s duties and what her calendar includes and here for more pictures of items in the exhibition.

Vivid Sydney

Laurie Anderson, Lighting the Sails, Sydney Opera House, May 27–June 20, 2010, from Vivid Sydney website

Vivid Sydney, an annual public festival of “light, music and ideas,” is the largest festival of its kind in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere. The festival includes large-scale light installations and projections, music performances and more.

Vivid Sydney transforms the city through its various installations and events. The festival features the illumination of the Sydney Opera House sails (above). Laurie Anderson used adaptations of previous artwork as graphics that to light the sails. Click here to see more pictures of the projections.

Anderson and her husband, Lou Reed, were co-curators of VividLIVE, a production of the Sydney Opera House. This two-week festival took place for the first two weeks of VividSydney and featured a program of music, film, theatre and visual arts. VividLIVE celebrated “fearless innovation and ambition.”

Click here for the VividSydney website and here for an article about Lighting the Sails.

Art Antiques London

Art Antiques London, a new art and antiques fair, took place from June 10 through June 16. The fair took place in Kensington Gardens and incorporated the 29th year of the International Ceramics Fair & Seminar.

The fair brought in International dealers, curators and collectors. Pieces from the 18th century to the present were at the fair and were all “examined and vetted for quality and authenticity,” according to the Arts Antiques London website. Most exhibitors were from the UK, but others were from France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

Art Antiques London took place in a custom-built pavilion in Kensington Gardens, near Royal Albert Hall and close to the site of the Great Exhibition of 1851. In addition to the fair, Art Antiques London included a collectors’ dinner and various lectures. The fair had its own restaurant open for reservations called “1851,” catered by the Admirable Crichton.

Click here for more information.

Automobiles and art

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel presents Sculpture on Wheels, an exhibition including 16 cars designed by famous European and American designers. Sculpture on Wheels represents a “historical view of the development of car design in the 20th century.”

Fifteen of the cars were selected from Israeli collectors, and one is the BMW 320i Art Car (above) painted by Roy Lichtenstein and comes from the BMW collection in Berlin. Lichtenstein comments on his work:

I wanted the lines I painted to be a depiction of the road showing the car where to go – the design also shows the countryside through which the car has traveled. One could call it an enumeration of everything a car experiences, only that this car reflects all of these things before actually having been on a road.

Another one of Lichtenstein’s pieces is part of the museum’s permanent collection. The Tel Aviv Museum Mural (1989) is a diptych and reflects some of the aspects of the Art Car. It also refers to other works in the museum’s collection, such as Marc Chagall and Picasso. An image of the left panel is shown below.

The High Museum of Art also has an automobile exhibition entitled The Allure of the Automobile. The exhibition presents 18 of the world’s rarest cars from the 1930s to the mid-1960s and also shows the evolution of the motorcar. The exhibition is on view through June 27.

In April 2009, the Collectors of the Friends of GMOA presented Art on Wheels, a celebration of automotive design at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, which included a 1962 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud limousine and a 1964 Lincoln Continental convertible, among others. Click here to see professional photos from the event.

Swiss Tree Museum

Photograph: Elaine Louie, New York Times

The Tree Museum and Park, a project of Enzo Enea, Swiss landscape architect and tree collector, will open June 14. The museum is a large outdoor display of 22 varieties of trees and is located on the shore of Lake Zurich in Switzerland.

Enea has been collecting trees for 17 years. The Tree Museum will present 22 varieties of trees, with approximately 120 on view at a given time, from Enea’s collection. Tall sandstone walls (about 16 feet high) will frame each tree. The museum will use the trees to “create spaces in a unique way that integrates aesthetics, sustainability, history and lifetime.”

In addition, the museum is also integrated with a park that serves as a lab, production facility and show space. Check out the website for more information.

GMOA is excited to have its own outdoor exhibition space upon reopening. Our new sculpture garden (construction photo below) will include plants, sculptures and a water feature.

European art from Boston to Tokyo

Monet paintings in Tokyo from MFA Boston. EPA/EVERETT KENNEDY BROWN

Paintings from the collection of European art from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston have traveled to Tokyo for an exhibition at the Mori Art Center. The exhibition presents 80 masterpieces by about 50 such prominent artists as Rembrandt, Velazquez, El Greco, Picasso and van Gogh.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has a collection of about 1,600 European paintings, which normally do not leave the museum.

The exhibition in Tokyo covers 500 years of European art and showcases different themes, including portraits, religious paintings and still lifes. The exhibition has different sections. First is the portrait gallery, with works by Rembrandt, Manet and Picasso.

The next room holds religious paintings by Spanish artists El Greco and Murillo. Impressionism, a well-known movement in Japan, has its own section in the exhibition, which features works by Monet, Degas and Cézanne.

The pieces have been placed strategically to show the relationship between the different artists. For example, Cézanne’s “The Pond” (ca. 1877–79) is next to van Gogh’s “Houses at Auvers” (1890). Cézanne lived in Auvers for two years in the 1870s.

The exhibition is on view through June 20 at the Mori Art Center and will travel to the Museum of the City in Kyoto from July 6 to August 29.

The public restroom as an art gallery

Yes, you read that right. The White Cubicle Toilet Gallery is in a ladies’ restroom at a pub in London’s East End. At four and a half square feet, this gallery has no budget or curatorial restraints.

Pablo Leon de la Barra, artist and curator, had the idea, and the gallery opened in 2005 at the George and Dragon Public House in Shoreditch. The White Cubicle provides “a platform” for artists to showcase site-specific work, and “the art remains in place until it falls off the walls or is stolen by the inebriated clientele.”

Not only is the location different, but the experience is as well. Guests view the art in private rather than competing with the crowds, as is usual at a museum or gallery. Occasionally, art comes out of the restroom and makes an appearance in the pub.

De la Barra is well connected and has gotten many artists to show their work in the White Cubicle. In addition to artists, independent publishers, fanzines and fashion and jewelry designers have exhibited in the space. Past exhibitions have included art by Wolfgang Tillmans, General Idea and SUPERM.

Press releases and photographs from each exhibition can be found on the White Cubicle’s Web site.

The Pinacothèque Stirs Up Parisian Culture

Marc Restellini, from the Independent

Though still quite young, Marc Restellini’s Parisian exhibition hall, the Pinacothèque, has upset many of the French cultural establishments. Founded in 2007, the Pinacothèque is a privately run, unsubsidized exhibition space whose art shows have attracted more visitors in the last 12 months than the other Parisian exhibition halls.

Many well-known cultural institutions—the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, and the Centre Pompidou to name a few—are less than happy with the Pinacothèque and its director. Restellini has put on a number of high-profile exhibitions with subjects including Roy Lichtenstein, Man Ray and the Chinese warriors of Xi’an (a show the Louvre is supposed to have been bidding for).

Entrance to the Pinacothèque costs about the same as other exhibition halls and yet Restellini has been able to earn a profit on every show except his first. This creates an uncomfortable comparison for the state institutions that need large public subsidies and private sponsors.

Restellini himself is another source of complaint. He is an art historian but has never taken the official French examination for museum curators. His exhibition methods are also under scrutiny. The paintings are individually illuminated and are hung (when possible) at the angle that the painter would have seen while he was creating it.

Restellini has also made significant effort to improve upon the information panels that accompany works of art in the gallery. He says,“What people want is intelligent information on the history of the artist and the work, something not too complex, but not oversimplified.”

Ultimately Restellini’s goal is not to, as he puts it, “spend hundreds of millions of euros on a building with marble and columns,” but to “show paintings and help people to understand them.”

Currently on view at the Pinacothèque until July 18 is the largest ever exhibition of Edvard Munch paintings from private collections.

For more information, check out this article in the Independent.

Brazilian designers are thinking differently about natural resources

The forests of Brazil’s central coast are home to large root networks of pequi trees, which can grow up to 30 feet tall and bear flowers and fruit. The wood of the pequi tree is oily, textured and difficult to cut, so it was never used for industrial purposes and many of its logs and roots were left behind after loggers and farmers cleared the forests.

Designer Hugo França has discovered that he can use pequi tree roots and logs in his designs. França has produced about 60 benches (photo below) and tables from the material for Inhotim Institute, a 3,000-acre outdoor museum a few hours from Rio de Janeiro. Each bench can sell for $95,000. Collector Bernando Paz said that the pieces are “carefully crafted” and that “nothing like this will ever exist again.”

ELDERTH THEZA/INHOTIM INSTITUTE, BRUMADINHO, BRAZIL

The pequi tree pieces are not only beautiful, but also sustainable. The most endangered resource of the country is its tropical forests. Since the 1980s, environmental laws and protections have caused designers to think differently when it comes to finding materials.  The use of pequi trees and other found wood is an example of sustainability because an otherwise unused material now has a purpose in design. 

Carlos Motta, a São Paulo architect and designer, used driftwood found on beaches to make tables and chairs in the 1970s. Arthur Casas relies on weathered planks for his furniture. José Zanine Caldas was one of the first to use found materials for design in the 1970s when he made stools and tables from pieces that timber companies had left behind.

França, Motta, Casas and Caldas have set a good example from which designers in other countries can learn: art and design can play a role in conservation. By using materials that would otherwise be abandoned, these designers are creating beautiful pieces without wasting vital natural resources.

An "Amazon for the arts"

CultureLabel is a new online shop offering items from more than 70 museum shops, galleries, artists and culture institutions around the world. United Kingdom politicians see the site as a “tool for museums’ survival” and are backing the business. Its creators have called it an “Amazon for the arts” because of the wide array of art-related products.

The site was co-founded by Peter Tullin and Simon Cronshaw, has seven staff members and works with outsourced software and Web designers. CultureLabel has a variety of items, from simple and inexpensive to large and pricey. Such pieces as an Andy Warhol magic cube and an Anish Kapoor limited-edition print are available.

This Andy Warhol magic cube is available on CulturLabel from the Tate.

Popular brands on CultureLabel include the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts and the Museum of London. The company is attempting to do more than just sell museum items. CultureLabel is helping the Courtauld Gallery (London) sell e-tickets for exhibitions, developing an iPhone application for the Museum of London and digitally publishing a catalogue for Oxford’s Ashmolean.

Executive chairman David Gilbert said that CultureLabel is currently trying to get three (unnamed) U.S. institutions involved. Click here to learn more about the site and keep it in mind for the next gift-giving occasion! 

Saving Haitian art

The earthquake in Haiti not only affected people, but also art, an important part of Haitian life. “It is difficult to talk about saving art when we must save lives,” said Haitian painter Maritou Chenet. The Centre d’Art, Port-au-Prince’s main art museum, was destroyed by the earthquake along with various other galleries and museums.

Above: Maritou Chenet at the Centre d'Art. [Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times]

Haitian art is known for its symbolism, vivid colors and depictions of African culture. Paintings, sculptures and flags (or banners) are quintessential art forms in Haiti. Much of the art in these museums has been damaged or destroyed, but some pieces were spared and are now being saved out of the rubble. Fortunately, many major works were out of the country and, thus, safe.

Above: Paintings in the ruins of the Centre d'Art. [Brian Vander Brug / LA Times]

Many museums in the United States are working for the cause and hosting shows, exhibitions and benefits. The Waterloo Center for the Arts has a Haitian collection and is establishing a relief fund. The Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans is organizing “Saints, Spirits and Sequins: Art from Haiti,” a show from which proceeds will benefit Haiti relief. The Figge Art Museum and the Milwaukee Art Museum are also supporting efforts.

Haitian artists who survived the earthquake are beginning to incorporate the disaster into their art, as seen in the painting below.

Above: Painting by Frantz Zephirin. [Brian Vander Brug / LA Times] 

Workers continue to strike at French museums

AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere

The Louvre Museum and the palace at Versailles were closed yesterday due to a workers’ strike that began in November at the Pompidou Center for modern art; other workers joined this week.

 

Yesterday, workers blocked the tourists outside the pyramid of the Louvre courtyard. Versailles usually has thousands of visitors each day but didn’t have enough workers to open. The Pompidou Center and the Musee d’Orsay were closed as well. Workers at Francois Mitterrand National Library in Paris voted to join in today.

 

Union leaders met with Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand earlier this week and did not win concessions. The culture minister said that “France could not make an exception for museum workers in a government-wide cost-cutting measure affecting all public servants, and that museums had many ways to reorganize to deal with shrinking staff members.” Labor leaders then decided to continue the strike today. 

Check out our earlier blog post by clicking here.

Art Basel Miami Beach

A photo from the Swiss exhibition. Courtesy MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel/Zurich) Ltd.

Art Basel Miami Beach, the annual international art show, began its eighth incarnation today at the Miami Beach Convention Center and will run through this Sunday, December 6. The selection committee chose hundreds of galleries from North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa to show works by thousands of 20th- and 21st-century artists. The show has different sectors, including recent artworks, curated exhibitions, performance and art in public spaces.

The show’s layout has been revamped this year to allow for larger spaces and a better experience for visitors. Art Positions, including projects by younger artists and galleries, has been moved from its former location to the center of the Miami Beach Convention Center. In addition to rearranging the floorplan and moving sections around, Art Basel has created a new oceanfront area. Situated in Collins Park, it is “a platform for virtually all of Art Basel Miami Beach’s cultural programming.” The oceanfront area, designed by Los Angeles artist Pae White, is free of charge, and visitors to it can attend discussion panels, special events and programs. The Oceanfront Café also offers food and drink throughout the event.