Expressive Picasso Artworks That Don’t Need Color
Would Pablo Picasso’s Weeping Woman look more somber if every surface of her body wasn’tgarlanded with festive colors? Would his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter look less sensual if her curves were monochromatic instead of pale fleshy pink? Opening tomorrow at the Guggenheim,Picasso Black and White focuses on the legendary artist’s work in black, white, and gray — with the occasional hint of yellow or blue. Organized chronologically along the Guggenheim’s spiraling ramps, the show runs through January 23rd and features 118 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from 1904 to 1971, including six pieces on public view for the first time. From his devastating reflections on the atrocities of war to his opulent meditations on the female form and its various details, preview some highlights from the exhibition in our slideshow.
(Source: Flavorwire.com)
The National Portrait Gallery is to stage the first museum exhibition devoted to portraits by the photographer Man Ray.
One of the most innovative photographers of the 20th century, Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky) is best known for his avant garde images.
But he also produced portraits of artists, musicians and performers throughout his career, photographing the likes of Catherine Deneuve, Pablo Picasso and Juliette Greco.
Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, said: “Man Ray was a fascinating and complex figure, and one of the great artists of the 20th century.
“These are really important portraits we want people to have a chance to see. While some of the image will be extremely well known, others will not.”
:: Man Ray Portraits runs from 7 February – 27 May 2013.
Onward to Point C - in this case Southwark, the traditional home of bear baiting, whorehouses, Elizabethan theatre and now the Tate Modern. Built as an oil fired power station by the same geezer who designed the famous red telephone box, it was one of the last monumental redbrick buildings before the modernists switched their worship to the concrete altar of brutalism. The power station closed in the 1980s and it was left empty in the hope that it would fall down on its own. When it became clear that the bastard thing was built to last, they decided to use it to house the Tate’s modern art collection.
—Ben Aaronovitch’s Whispers Under Ground (Chapter 8: Southwark, page 113)
Early Modernism: 1900-1920 From The Moderna Museet Collection
(Exhibition 2011, Moderna Museet Malmö)
In this exhibition, we highlight works from Moderna Museet’s rich collection of early 20th century art, including artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Siri Derkert, Sonia Delaunay, Edvard Munch, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and many others.
(Source: modernamuseet.se)
moderna museet
Everyone keeps talking about wanting to go to MoMA in New York. Of course, now that I’ve learned about its collections and the history of modern art, I wish to go there one day, too. But if you think about it, MoMA is not the only modern art museum that we can visit to see works of modern art. The Tate Modern in London and MUMOK in Vienna, among others, are some of the museums I personally want to visit. I came close to visiting the latter, actually, but due to time constraint I wasn’t able to pay the place a visit.
Another place that I didn’t get to go to, although I was already in the city at that time, was Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden.
(In case you’re wondering what I was doing in Stockholm, of all places, it’s because I have family living there. Also, I’m 1/3 Swedish, just like I’m part-time Italian.)
Photo: Johan Fowelin
The building is perhaps nothing to look at. It’s certainly not a luxurious place from the outside and it doesn’t give off a “modern” vibe; instead it looks like a plain school building. But somehow it looks cool. (I would like to say “pretentiously cool” but yeah. There you go.)
They also have an outpost in Malmö, Sweden’s third largest city, and the buildings look just as “pretentiously cool”:
Photo: Åsa Lundén/Terje Östling
The Moderna Museet and Hallwylska Museet were recommended to me by my cousin. But at that time I had other priorities and didn’t visit these places. So of course I missed out on the Matisse, Braque and Kandinsky that they have in their collection. If I had been a little bit more interested in modern art, I would’ve definitely paid them a visit even though the entrance fee to museums in Sweden are rather pricey.
This year they have these exhibitions. They will have a Picasso-Duchamp exhibition in August (how amazing is that - Cubism AND Dada. I’m pretty sure it will be mind-blowing.) And a science-fiction exhibition in October? I WANT.
Meanwhile, the one in Malmö will have - are you ready for this? - The Supersurrealism exhibition. (In past recent months, they also had Moderna Museet Cinema and Ladies And Gentlemen exhibitions. It is official - when I go back to Sweden, I will visit Malmö.)
Infamously, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm had six Picasso and two Braques paintings stolen from its premises in 1993, in which the thieves copied a method from a 1955 film called Rififi. And only three of the Picassos have been recovered since then!
Since the infamous 1993 burglary of $66 million worth of Picassos and Braques, using methods copied from a French heist film, the Moderna Museet, tel: (46-8) 5195 5200, has been reworked to a Rafael Moneo design. (TIME.com)
So you can imagine that the place is not only well-designed, like all Swedish things are, but also adventurous.
Photo: Michel Setboun/Getty
As you can see, Sweden is not only good for Stieg Larsson novels, Pippi Longstocking, Noomi Rapace and H&M. It is also quite good for art as well. If you’re into art and into modern cities that are not dirty and crowded and filled with skyscrapers and a high crime rate, Stockholm will be better for you than New York. And Moderna Museet will be the museum to visit, instead of MoMA.
150 and 5: anniversaries
In November of this year, it will be the 5-year anniversary of my visit to The Belvedere in Vienna, Austria. I remember getting on the tram on a snowy Viennese morning to go there. (And later in the afternoon, I went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Really, I could stay in Vienna for a month and do nothing else but museum-hop and go to music concerts.)
And this year is the 150th year anniversary of Gustav Klimt’s birth. The artist is well-loved in the city he worked and died in even today. Klimt fans will enjoy The Belvedere more than any other museums in the world; it hosts the largest collection of Klimt’s works in the world and an exhibition celebrating the anniversary will be held this year in the Upper Belvedere.
