Tiles

How are you, dear reader?

This might be a rather unusual post, but nonetheless I really wanted to share this with you.

A couple of weeks ago I went to an exhibition. Wow, really? Yes. But it was not your usual art expo. No, it was a tile exhibition. I know, this breaks with the regular scheme of artreviews but it was an actual exhibition and to be honest, it was very interesting.

There were regular tiles, big tiles, huge tiles, tiny tiles, colorful tiles, ornamented tiles. So there were alot of differnet shapes, colors, materials and they were displayed like little pieces of art. So I wanted to give them the honor of not just being simple tiles for once, but to be viewed as little pieces of art.

National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo

Hello dear ones,

I did allready talk about Bulawayo, an artist from there and the National Gallery in Bulawayo. But I never took the time to actually talk about the building the museum is housed in.

It is one of the oldest original buildings still used in Bulawayo. It is called the Douslin House after its architect William Douslin.

After water and electricity became available in Bulawayo on June 1898 and the railway reached the city in 1897 an economical boom occured. Spaces for shops and offices were needed. The Douslin House, formerly known as the Willoughby's Building was finished in 1901 and then opened for business. The Bulawayo Art Gallery purchased the building in September 1980 when the museum officially opened. The history of the building is documented extraordinarily well through original plans, letters from involved people like landlords, architects and funders aswell through local newspapers like the Bulawayo Chronicle.

But now to the building itself. The imposing principal entrance to the building is in Main Street. There is a portico decorated with beautiful moulded cornices, pillars, an impressive pressed metal ceiling. The front doors have elaborate brass fingerplates. The entrance hall is similarly decorated. There, a magnificent staircase gives way to the first floor. The newel and banisters posts are of Burma teak and walnut, with the newel posts being beautifully carved. 

The skirting throughout the building is of generous proportions and the offices also have decorative moulded cornices. The doors are said to be of Burma teak. The handles are brass with brass fingerplates.

Like the National Gallery in Harare the Gallery in Bulawayo is a state institution. All the actions, events and exhibitions must be approved by the state which can sometimes lead to conflict. When I visited the Gallery the current exhibition was closed down, since it didn't agree with the "rules" of the state. I guess it was critical to the current state of the country or portrayed political issues very harshly. I can't tell, I didn't see it. I could only sneak a peak and id did seems pretty violent, mostly because of the red and black colors and the red walls. 

But the National Gallery in Bulawayo is an outstanding institution, no doubt about it. Here its statement released from the management:

"At the National Gallery in Bulawayo, we are tasked with the creative and intellectual discipline to select, to nurture and commend outstanding works of visual art, to select and display pivotal works, to generate and improve upon existing talent, to train and develop artistic skills, to educate, to empower, to mediate, and mostly to celebrate."

Monumental MONUMENTA 2012

Art-Fans, 

So ever since I saw the beauty that is the Grand Palais at Art Paris, I kept my eyes wide open for more opportunities to visit the grand hall of the Palais. 

I had heard of the yearly Monumenta exhibition before. Since 2007 art-legends like Christian Boltanski or Richard Serra had been invited to create something special for the Grand Palais specifically.

This year Daniel Buren was asked and he accepted. He named his exhibition „Excentrique(s) Travail in situ“. I know, not much comes to mind with this titel, but I wanted to see it anyways. 

I was stunned!! Especially coming into the exhibition through this weird unusual entrance, I was not prepared for the amazingness that was infront of me. You come into this massive space of the Grand Palais through this tiny entrance and the whole room just opens up! And in the vast space Buren created a wonderful installation. On white and black iron pillars there were hundreds of multicolored round transparent foils in different sizes. As visitor you wandered under them, they were just about 3 meters high. It gave an even more asthounding impression of the actual overwhelming size of the Palais. And it also captured another very important feature of the huge hall - the light! 

Buren himself said, that even more beautiful than the Grand Palais and its architecture itself was the light in it. And that is what he intended to point out. He didn‘t want to create something that would not have anything to do with its surroundings but rather something that compliments it. So he decided to keep it quite simple and just find a way to make the people see and think about the hall itself through his installation. 

It definetely worked. As I was walking under the orange, yellow, green and blue transparents, feeling different under every color, all I really thought was how amazing the Grand Palais is. The architecture, the light, the athmosphere... it was wonderful! In the middle of the room were several mirrors on the floor on which you could walk on and see the huge dome of the Palais, which Buren changed a little for the Monumenta. 

And as I walked up on the balcony the view was magnificent aswell. From the balcony you got a view on the installation - before you had just walked under it, feeling like an ant in the grass. Now it seemed like you were seeing a beautiful colored pond with lots and lots of waterlilies. Then you walked down the other side and continued by being an ant again. 

It was truly one of the best exhibitions I ever saw. I managed to see it 4 times and I would have gone more, if I had had the time. Amazing. Well done, Daniel Buren!

The Moretti - No, it's not a drink.

Hey there,

One thing I hadn‘t done until now (shame on me) was visit La Défense. It is a businessquarter in the north-east of Paris. It is the elongation of the Champs-Élysées and it end with the modernist huge Grande Arche. La Défense consists of lots of Skyscrapers, Bureaubuildings, Shopping- and Businesscenters. It has, in contrast to the old parts of Paris, a very modern and steril feel to it. But it was worth the trip! 

In the middle of the busy lunchhours something caught my eye. From far away it looked like one of the skyscrapers but as I went closer, I saw that it was a huge cylindrical sculpture. It was made out of a lot of different colored and sized pipes and fit perfectly into the line of skyscrapers. 

It was called „The Moretti“ after its inventor Raymond Moretti. He created it in 1990, especially for La Défense - and besides it being a wonderful piece of art, it also serves as an industrial chimeney. Brilliant! Moretti was a french painter and sculpturer friends with famous artist of his time, like Picasso and Cocteau, with whom he shared close personal and professional relationships.

„The Moretti“ was a wonderful splash of color in the otherwise grey Défense. I enjoyed it quite alot.

Let's get musical

Bonjour Mesdames, Messieurs,

Lately I've passed by the Opera of Paris, the Opera Garnier, several times. And the building always impressed me soo much and I always wondered how it must look like from the inside. Of course I know that Chagall painted the ceiling in the grand opera hall and that it must be one of the most beautiful things ever.

So once, I passed by the impressive building again and it just started to rain so I thought "Ok, so I'll check it out." I went in, paid my entryticket and headed to the main entrance. Magnificent. But that's not what I want to tell you about today...

The Opera also has exhibitionspaces and the current exhibition was on "La Belle époque de Massenet".

Jules Massenet was one of the most famous french composers and best known for his operas. During his lifetime (1842-1912) his works were very popular, since melodic music was very much in style. Massenet ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. He reached to create an unique combination between art and music, since he wasn't only in charge of the music but everything that needed to be created for an opera. Costumes, sets, scenery etc.

The exhibition tried to give an overview of everything that Massenet had created, an entire new way of how opera was made! Scripts, notes, costumes, jewellery, stages and much more were displayed in a wonderful way! I always like it when alot of differnt things are shown to give you a complete view of a perticular thing. And I'm also alwys blown away by a persons ability to write music. It is a thing that I can not understand but I think it's the most amazing thing when someone can actually imagine and then write down entire operas. Incredible.

Here some pictures of my favorite pieces. As a woman I was of course drawn to the jewels, tiaras, crowns and beautifully embroided costumes. They were truly beautiful!

These are all parts of costumes for operas by Massenet and belong to Inventory of the Bibliotheque-Musée of the Opera Garnier. Especially the last picture, showing the helmet of Bacchus, the mythological god of wine and drunkenness, of the opera with the same name left me standing in awe for a couple of moments. The detail of the carvings and the detail in the form was amazing. Massenets love for melody and harmony isn't only manifested in his musical works, but also in the detail of every other aspect in his operas. And I think the exhibition did a great job displaying that. I loved it, and I love Massenets music!

Marc Fornes times three

Heya fans of culture,

I‘ve come across this one artist several times now! 

Marc Fornes is actually an architect which you can almost guess by his insane pieces.

He does installations, mostly in metal or aluminium, that look like crazy computerized actual real shapes or very modern corrals. Well, at least that is my opinion. He is a genius in engineering as you can clearly tell by the way his pieces are constructed. 

I saw the first piece by him as I was walking through the streets of Paris through the window of Inception Gallery.

Then again, I came across a wonderful black and white piece by him at Art Paris 2012 and  I even got photographed infront of it, because my outfit matched. And then, finally I found an installation by him at Centre Pompidou which finally gave me the push I needed to do some research. Because every time I was very intrigued and amazed by the engenius construction!

Fornes himself describes his works and process in these specific terms:

”Explicit and Encoded”, “Precise Indetermination”, “Progressive Geometry” all seeking “Unconventional Futures”.

It seems like his constructions are huge 3D optical illusions, since they are mostly just in two or three colors and very fluent and organic in shape. Which is of course in contrast with the very sturdy and strong materials and the studded construction. 

You can't really tell with these pictures, but the pieces are huge!!

A History in an hour.

Oh wonderful readers,

I can't say it enough - Paris is great! I mean, just the other day I was walking around in the Marais as suddenly the biggest rainstorm broke loose! It pourred down rain and in my search of shelter I just jumped into the nearest dooropening. And yes, it was a museum.

The Musée Carnavalet is located in a beautiful old mansion that served as manor for one of the oldest families in France and then as a hotel. It is beautiful and has an even more stunning yard in its court. So there I was, standing in a Museum. Of course I was going to look at it!

It is, as I discovered, a rather famous parisian history Museum that displays the history of France, and especially Paris through different artifacts. It takes you on a tour through time as you walk through the different rooms who are all decorated in the way of the time displayed and discussed in that particular room. Very charming. After you've seen several pieces of furniture of different time eras (and that really closely - more close than you could ever get in those big Museums!) you get led into the changing exhibitions space which harbours some lesser known historical painters and artists and changing expositions.

One piece in particular caught my eye since the person displayed is very a-typical for the way it's painted.

It's a piece by Robert Humblot of "Juliette Greco" the famous french singer and actress, in 1956, right next to some brilliant impressionist works. I loved the pose of the woman, holding a very strange animal, a cheetah, and wearing an even more bizarre outfit. The greys and blacks of the painting had a wonderful effect with the burgundy red of the wall. It seems like a normal portrait painting in the tradition of historical portraiture - apart from the obvious modern influences like clothes, hairstyles and weird pets. But the pose of the woman, the plain background and the important "accesoire" (here the pet), to describe the character of the woman, all remind us of a classical portrait.

And, as it was almost closing time, I rushed, sadly, through the rest of the wonderful Museum only to find this at the end:

A stunning hall, completely painted and furnished to create an overall look and impression of a majestic ballroom in the Art Noveau Style. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

It should rain more often if this is the result. 

Dark Art Paris 2012 in a Light Grand Palais

Hey Fun-Friends,

This year the Grand Palais was host to one of the most famous artshows in France and maybe the world. Art Paris was/is back in town!!

A place where the leading galleries and institutions display the current trends and the upandcoming new artists! What a marvel. Plus, the Grand Palais is just unbelievable in beauty of construction! Me and my enthusiastic friend managed to find a time where we both could make it so we ended up going two hours before it closed. That decision ended up to be very smart since almost everyone had gone home allready and the eveningsun flooded the entire glass-covered Palais.

The beauty of the setting wasn‘t displayed in the works though. The art was mostly very gloomy, dark and scary with a strong hint of voyeurism. At some point you even get turned into one yourself:

You felt observed and followed and the works were dark and frightening. There was a lot of deconstruction of images aswell and ugly materials like trash and old iron made into new pieces of art. If you really want to call them that.

There were some colorful and pop-arty works, which makes sense because neon-colors aren‘t only in style in fashion right now, but also in art, but there was always a certain edge to them. For example this galery who displays an artist who took violant themes, like guns and munition and turned them pretty.

But overall it was still a beautiful artfair with beautiful pieces and a strong fotorealism and sculpture trend.

Monets Masterpiece!

Bonjour mes amis de l'art,

The Musée de l‘Orangerie is one of my favorite places so far! It is so incredibly beautiful, that you actually do not want to leave - ever! Of course I‘m talking about the two oval rooms where the astonishing paintings by Claude Monet are displayed. The paintings of the famous waterlilies were actually painted especially for those rooms. It is wonderful. I won‘t bore you with details because this is really something everyone needs to see for themselves. So here are some pictures to give you a little preview.

In addition to the waterlilies you can view the collection by the famous artpatron Paul Guillaume which includes Matisse, Renoir, Picasso, Cézanne and Modigliani. It is an overviewable selection of high quality works that really leaves you wanting more if anything else. Wonderful. 

At the time there was alo a temporary exhibtion about Debussy and how different artists influeneced his musical career and work. A really well organized and fluent exhibition - much like Debussys music itself. Quite intruiging actually. There were pieces of art, paintings and such, artefacts of that times like musical instruments, letters and notes plus photographs. And everything was of course accompaigned with Debussys beautiful classical music. If I hadn‘t walked right to that exhibition I probably wouldn‘t have chosen it, but now that I‘ve seen it I‘m glad I did. If that makes sense. Go see it is what I mean.

Sea of Tranquility

Dear artsy ones,

Ah yes, the famous Musée d‘Orsay. I had the pleasure to visit it several times last month, due to alo-hot of people who came to visit me in the best city in the world!

So - Musée d‘Orsay. It is the place, that harbours most of my favorite art. It is huge and always attracts alot of people. Everytime I went, there was a line of at least 30 minutes. Which doesn‘t really matter, because it IS that good. Not like the stupid Louvre. 

The current exhibition in addition to the amazing permanent collection was about „Degas et le nu“ which wasn‘t as good as I had hoped. There were way too much sketches and very little large scale works displayed in a too little space with horrible lighting. A little disappointing. 

But after the, let‘s say average, exhibition you have the entire rest of the wonderful Musée D‘Orsay at your feet. Because you could never look at everything at once, I chose the orientalist section on the ground floor. Breathtaking! Orientalism was triggered by the discovery and access to a new world through Napoleons egyptian campaign. It was also in that time, where the painters removed themselves from unrealistic visions of the orient and began to discover a new palette of colors, landscapes and people that resulted in a very romantic portrayal of the land where the sun rises. 

The Museé d‘Orsay mostly shows paintings of landscapes and animals in the orientalistic manor, like those of Guillaumet and de Tournemine. 

Charles Emile de Tournemine Painting - Cafe in Adalia

Sadly, one of my favorite romantic orientalist pieces isn‘t displayed at Orsay. It is Delacroix‘ masterpiece "Women of Algiers". A lucious display of the inside of a Harem. Beautiful women dressed and drapped in even more beautiful textiles, smoking the waterpipes. It‘s a painting that oozes calm and tranquility without forgetting the hot and eroticly charged surroundings. Amazing!

And then there is the beautiful building that is the Musée d‘Orsay. The old railwaystation that grew out of need is a perfect place to house one of the greatest collections of modern and impressionist art. The clocks and fassades are masterpieces of their own and are almost as iconic as the works inside. 

Giorgio De Chirico

Good Day amazing ones,

One of my personal favorites and earliest encounters in my studies was Giorgio de Chirico - one of the greatest surrealistic painters!

Much to my delight I discovered that the Musée de l'art moderne de la ville de Paris has a wonderful collection of de Chirico.

One of the things I love most about this paintings are the intense colors - especially the marine blue and green tones. I think his portrayal of archtitecture is brilliant and the different elements in the painting mostly make sense - not like the other surrealists' paintings. Tzz...
What's also always striking me is the feeling of extreme loneliness and solitude that comes from his works.

So here a selection of some amazing works by de Chirico, I'm not gonna bore you with more talking and just let the works talk for themselves.

More Tradition now...

Lovely art-lovers,

I will tell you today, what my favorite museum in Paris is (so far). And of all the ones that you should see or know!

Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris.

It's just... grand! Amazing, lovely, beautiful, well built - everything you'd want in a museum! It mostly displays modern and contemporary art in a permanent collection but it also has changing exhibitions. When I visited the museum for the first time it was a sad, grey, rainy, cold day. Perfect for a museum - plus I felt a little down and a visit to the museum always cheers me up! Aaaanyways, so I went and the first thing you notice is the great location. You have a really pretty view on the Eiffel Tower and it's right at the Seine, so a lovely walk. The second thing is, when you can actually take in the entire and monumental building! The building, which is calles Palais de Tokyo, has two wings and the musée is in the right one. It was built for the International Exposition for Art and Technology in 1937 and the official opening of the musée was 1961. The building was created in a neoclassical style which is instantly clear when you see its fassade with the big columns and the cubic appearance in the ancient greek tradition.

As I entered the building I kindof had an idea of how the inside would look and to be honest, I was a little worried. The building stands so tall, like an erratic block, demanding so much respect and almost making you fear it. But the inside were lovely! The rooms were high, but not to big, there were niches for the various artist and it had a really nice flow to it, there was a given route or circuit if you will - which negates the cubist appearance of the museum! The lighting was amazing, there were no reflections on the paintings and the pieces were extraordinarily well hung! But that's not all! The quality of the artwork was really really high and it gave you an amazing overview of the eras and of the artist that were displayed. You never got tired or felt lost in the museum which is quite an accomplishment - well done!

And one thing I also really enjoyed was the amount of people in the museum. There weren't alot of people... Which is nice, you get to actually take in the pieces of art and think about them and take your time without worrying if you're bothering someone. Very, very pleasant. But I guess also kind of sad, because the best museum (at least in my opinion) goes unnoticed by the broad public.

A Parisian Dream

So, Paris. You can imagine, that I'm really loving it here. The entire city has a magical feel to it! And I really wanted to get to know the city head over heel. So I managed to get an invitation to a fashion show in my first week here which was awesome!
Afterall Paris isn't only the city of art, it's also the city of fashion! Some might say that fashion and art are so close together that you can't tell the difference - well, I think fashion is just one aspect of art! Fashion is art!!

Anyways, I went to the fashion show which was called "Podium Jeunes Stylistes" and I was very excited to see the clothes that the young designers had made for the evening. The theme of the fashionshow was "schizophrenia" and the clothes had to be designed with the theme of the event as guideline.

But as I entered the place where the fashionshow was held, my eye was immediateley caught by something else! The show was held in The Westin Hotel in Paris in the Salon Impérial. A beautiful, beautiful salon featuring impressive second empire-style fresco, lush red velvet curtains, elegant chandeliers and wonderful wooden floors. But the ceiling frescos really took my breath away! They were amazing! The whole rooms was just like out of an old-timed french dream - and this in my first week! Crazy...

After I got used to the fantastic location I could start to observe all the fabulous and well-dressed people and the whole set-up of the fashionshow. It was unbelievable. The modern technology and the traditional room were a perfect complimet to eachother. 

And then the show started. The music was playing loudly, the models were as beautiful as expected and the clothes even more beautiful and creative! It was wonderful. 

Oh, the winner of the show was crowned immediately after the show and Lou De Testa won with her amazing collection of wonderful and inspired outfits. Metal feathers - if that's not schizo... :)

(For more infos about the Podium Jeunes Stylistes Competition: http://www.podiumstylistes.fr/index.php?lang=fr)

S'up Art-Fans. Relocation. Salut les enthusiasts de l'art

Sooo, I'm very very sorry, that I haven't been posting more of my semi-amateur artstuff but yes, I moved. All in the name of art!! Indeed I did. I moved to PARIS! So I'll be posting somewhat interesting and definetly local cultural news from the capital of Art (and France) from now on.

So, what does every art-fan do, when they first get to Paris? Yes - it's an unspoken law, you have to go to the Louvre. THE Louvre. The mother of all museums, the queen of artexhibtions and archeology, the biggest museum in the entire world. So I went, it was snowy out (that's how long ago) and it was the same. The same as always.

So here my confession: I don't really like Le Louvre. I think it's way too big, way too full, too loud, the pieces are displayed poorly and even the selection doesn't make my heart beat faster. Obviously I do sometimes still visit this grande maison de l'art but I have to say, I do not really enjoy it. As stated before, there are always way too many people there - and all they want to do is see the famous Mona Lisa. They rush to this painting, which I don't like either by the way, take a quick snapshot from like a million miles away, you can't even see anything because the glass is so thick and the lighting is horrible. And whilst these snapshotchasers do this, they miss the actual highlight of the room. Behind them, vis-a-vis of Mona Lisa, that sneakily smiling minx (sorry Da Vinci) hangs a sensational painting: The Wedding of Cana by the great master Veronese. Breathtaking! And most people just miss it, it's a shame...

What I do enjoy about the Louvre though, is the clever architecture. The famous Pyramids by equally famous architect Ieoh Ming Pei are a marvel. It definetly was a risk to combine such an important and historic building with the modern, very contrasting glass Pyramids. And I also enjoy the great collection of Flemish paintings, for I did my thesis on Rubens. Wonderful works by Rubens!

Sorry for starting my parisian art-reviews with a rant, but there are far more fascinating things to be discovered than same old - same old Louvre. Which is obviously still great. Just not one of my personal greats. D'accord... Â bientôt!