Guggenheim Exhibit to Examine ‘The Great Upheaval’ of Early 20th Century Art

Fernand Léger, Nude Model in the Studio (Le modèle nu dans l’atelier), 1912–13.

An upcoming exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City is set to shed light on some of the profound innovations in art from 1910–1918. The exhibit draws upon the museum’s private holdings of art from this period to demonstrate the radical changes taking place in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Germany and Austria.

The Great Upheaval: Modern Art from the Guggenheim Collection, 1910–1918 opens February 4^th and runs through the 1^st of June, 2011 and features the works of Fernand Léger, Kazimir Malevich, Franz Marc and Ameodeo Modigliani, to name a few. Definitely take this opportunity to see some of the most highly regarded pieces of art finally on display in this much-anticipated exhibit.

Kazimir Malevich, Morning in the Village after Snowstorm, 1912

Franz Marc, Yellow Cow (Gelbe Kuh), 1911

Amedeo Modigliani, Head (Tête), 1911–13

Mondrian / De Stijl Draws the Lines at the Centre Pompidou

Centre Pompidou exhibit poster

The Centre Pompidou is featuring a new exposition covering the parallel developments of the De Stijl artistic movement and key examples of the works of Piet Mondrian (painter), Theo Van Doesburg (architect) and Gerrit Rietveld (designer/architect). I had a chance to pop over to the Centre Pompidou to have a look and was quite amazed by the number of Mondrian paintings featured in the exhibit.

Piet Mondrian, Composition en rouge, bleu et blanc II, 1937

The exhibition is the first of its kind in France and the first since 1969 to feature such an extensive collection of Mondrian paintings anywhere in the world. I loved seeing firsthand the connection between each of these 20^th century figures. I would suggest that everyone try to make it over to the Pompidou to have a look. Don’t miss it!

The De Stijl Movement took place at the beginning of the 20^th century and gained recognition for its “new abstract visual language” and later went on to spread its influence in painting, sculpture, city planning, architecture, furniture design and graphic design. Noted for his use of straight lines and abstract blocks of primary colors, Mondrian has in particular become one of the most recognized artists of the 20^th century.

Theo van Dœsburg, Hans Arp et Sophie Taeuber-Arp, L’Aubette, Strasbourg, 1928

Gerrit Rietveld, Chaise rouge-bleu, 1918

 

Discover Basquiat in Paris !

If you are planning to go to Paris in the next few weeks stop by the Modern Art Museum and its Basquiat’s exhibition. It is really interesting to see how this artists manage to transform his energy and his anger into liveful and very expressive pieces of art.

First making graffitti, Basquiat became really quickly a major artist within the underground movement and the originality of his work deserves to be discovered ! Using brigth colors, crude shapes and primitive references, all the paintings conjure up amazement, questions and thinking.

Dior’s Shanghai dreamers campaign is not racist

Here are some pictures from Quentin Shih’s exhibition called Shangai Dreamers. I didn’t know this artist before, but I’ve looked at his last exhibition called « The Stranger in The Glass Box » and I’ve been stunned by his talent. His ‘photographs’ – which look like they are right between the neatest drawing and a nice picture – are absolute beauty. These ones were presented in an exhibition hosted by Dior. I saw some debate about whether it was racist or not, but I feel like this is « much ado about nothing ». Of course I can understand why people think like this but I really don’t think it’s true and it really don’t celebrate Shih’s incredible talent…enjoy!

http://trendland.net/2010/07/29/christian-dior-shanghai-dreamers-quentin-shih/#

Murakami at Versailles

Here are a couple of pictures of the exhibition hosted at the Château de Versailles near Paris. The Japanese artist, Murakami, a sculptor, is showing a bunch of his manga characters within the walls of the French castle. It creates a very inspiring contrast, I mean an obvious anachronism in the middle of an historical place.

URL : http://www.chateauversailles-spectacles.fr/spectacle.php?spe=73

All along the watch tower

A worth-seeing exhibition that allows us to be submerged by the life of one of the best musician that ever lived. It perfectly manage to remind us of Hendrix’ tragic death and let us imagine how the music industry may have been with him if he had not died at the premature age of 27… This exhibit is something that’ll make you think while resting your heavy brain on your pillow when the night comes.

URL : http://www.kansascity.com/2010/08/25/2172903/exhibition-looks-at-jimi-hendrixs.html

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=exhibition-looks-at-jimi-hendrixs-london-years-2010-08-25

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11349374

WAR

Quite a classic exhibition and never really redundant. It’s always nice I think to commemorate events such as these especially when it does not feed nationalistic legends and builds martyrs. Yes London and Britain in general suffered from WWII and the Blitz, but we inflicted comparable atrocities to some German civilians who cannot be held responsible for the war either. That is for sure one of the most remarkable aspect of this exhibition, since commemorations easily lead to nationalist pride and make us forget the other countries’ suffering.

URL : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11198657
http://www.london.gov.uk/event-meeting/2010/sep/london-blitz-70th-anniversary