05 juillet 2009
"Etre arbre être nature" @ Biennale internationale d’art contemporain de Melle, Melle
Rainer Gross, Dessin préparatoire à Endlos begrenzt, installation éphémère, assemblage de lattes de peuplier, 4,30m x 4m x 17,70m, église Saint-Savinien à Melle, création 2009.Courtesy La ville de Melle © Rainer Gross
Dans leurs oeuvres, tous expriment une intelligence avec la terre et ses ressources, le temps, l’espace, et affirment une aptitude à traduire un certain bonheur d’exister.
Cet été à Melle, c'est au coeur du territoire rural et forestier du Poitou-Charentes, dans la ville de l’arbre (Prix national de l’arbre 2006) où cohabitent 4 000 Mellois et 1 600 essences de feuillus des cinq continents, que se tiendra la biennale.
Dans le patrimoine végétal et architectural de la ville, des oeuvres monumentales de Tadashi Kawamata, Gilles Clément, Rainer Gross, Jean-Paul Ganem, Paul Panhuysen, Jean-Luc Bichaud sont créées spécifiquement.
Elles appellent les promeneurs et visiteurs à une observation de la nature, à des explorations entre ciel et terre.
A travers l’excellence et la singularité de leurs démarches artistiques, Giuseppe Penone, Alexandre Hollan, Richard Long, Andy Goldsworthy, Christina Kubisch, Marc Deneyer, Philippe Jaquin-Ravaud, Samuel Rousseau, Monique Tello, Thierry Fontaine et tous les artistes présents donnent à voir et à appréhender l’arbre, poumon vert de la terre, si centralement et essentiellement présent dans tous les domaines de notre vie.
Etre arbre être nature réunit vingt-cinq artistes français et internationaux, et pour la première fois treize jeunes écodesigners : Tadashi Kawamata, Gilles Clément, Rainer Gross, Paul Panhuysen, Jean-Paul Ganem, Jean- Luc Bichaud, Thierry Fontaine, Alexandre Hollan, Christina Kubisch, Eva Aurich, Monique Tello, Giuseppe Penone, Andy Goldsworthy, Richard Long, Rodney Graham, Marc Deneyer, Philippe Jacquin-Ravot, Bertrand Gadenne, Jean-Georges Massart, Samuel Rousseau, Philippe Amiel, Sachiko Morita, Barrie Cooke, Gildas Le Reste, Philippe Riehling, Jakob Gautel, Michel Jeannès, Thibault Carion, Clément Bourdier, William Donacimiento, Gaspard Graulich, Emile Hudry, Angelo Jacquet, Boris Käser, Antoine Klinguer, Gabrielle Lion, Valérie Nortier, Amélie Pharabot, Noémie Rognon, Florian Rouzioux
27 juin - 30 août 2009. Melle. Ville de Melle
Andrea Zittel’s ‘Smockshop’ comes to London Fashion Week this September
The Smockshop is a continuation of Andrea Zittel’s long-standing aesthetic investigation into the daily routines and functional experiences of everyday life
LONDON.- Sprüth Magers London will host the final installation of Andrea Zittel’s travelling enterprise ‘Smockshop’ during London Fashion Week this September. Nestling at the end of the famed fashion thoroughfare of Dover Street, the gallery will become a collective workshop of artisans, or ‘smockers’, who will produce a series of garments immediately available for purchase upon their completion. Yet despite taking the form of a clothing atelier or shop, ‘Smockshop London’ is not a straightforward contribution to the business of making and selling clothes that dominates London throughout Fashion Week. Rather, this dissident intervention diverges from the fashion industry’s organizing principles of mass manufacture, profit maximization and illusory individuality, as it explores the collaborative and social possibilities contained within the making and wearing of clothes.
The Smockshop is a continuation of Andrea Zittel’s long-standing aesthetic investigation into the daily routines and functional experiences of everyday life. Founded in Los Angeles in 2007, this artistic and economic ‘pop up’ experiment appeared in galleries, stores, and non-profit venues across North American before making its European debut at Sprüth Magers Berlin in February 2009. A profit making enterprise with social awareness, the Smockshop generates income for non-commercial artists who are not yet self-sustaining. To date, almost 300 garments have been made by the collective. While every smock conforms to the same basic shape and form of Zittel’s double wrap-around design, each smocker is given license to interpret and rework this design according to individual interests and skills. The resulting array of colours, textures, and patterns form an aesthetically diverse yet functionally uniform body of work, illustrating Zittel’s belief that ‘rules make us more creative’.
Suggesting an alternative to the prevailing discourse of the contemporary fashion industry, the Smockshop develops a Modernist tradition of clothing design and manufacture that extends back to the Russian avant-garde’s emphasis on utility and economic simplicity. Although the clothes range from monochrome austerity to a retro playfulness, from formal elegance to sculptural invention, they have all been made with a sense of universal functionality. Suiting most body types and appropriate in casual as well as formal settings, the smock is conceived as a garment for everyone at any time.
While the Smockshop investigates how we choose to clothe or present ourselves in modern life, Zittel has previously addressed other aspects of form and function in the everyday. Food, furniture, and shelter have all been sites of investigation into how we construct, define, and distinguish between our wants and needs. Previous instances of this ongoing interest include ‘A-Z East’ (1994-1999), a small three-storey storefront building in Brooklyn, New York, that was the testing ground and showcase for her artistic inquiries into why people eat, sleep, dress, wash, and live in the ways they do. In 1999, Zittel relocated her enterprise to ‘A-Z West’: a 25-acre site in California’s desert where Zittel’s home, studio, and ‘experiments in living’ research and development facility continue to be based.
Andrea Zittel trained at San Diego State University and Rhode Island School of Design. Recent solo exhibitions include IKON Gallery, Birmingham (2001), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2005), the Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria, New York (2006) and Schaulager, Basel (2008). She is also represented by Sadie Coles HQ in the UK.
The Smockshop is a continuation of Andrea Zittel’s long-standing aesthetic investigation into the daily routines and functional experiences of everyday life
Willy Ronis, Retrospective @ Arles. Rencontres d'Arles
Willy Ronis, Au coin des rues Piat et Vilin, Belleville, 1959. © Willy Ronis / Rapho
Dans le cadre des 40èmes Rencontres d'Arles, 80 photographies de Willy Ronis ont été sélectionnées pour être exposées à l'église Saint-Anne.
Cette rétrospective vise à présenter un aspect de l’œuvre de Willy Ronis qui témoigne d’une conscience profonde de la nature même des images, et ce malgré son inscription traditionnelle dans le discours habituel du courant humaniste.
Au lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la vision anecdotique, la parodie, la tendresse et la finesse visuelle s'intègrent parmi les procédés narratifs chers à la photographie humaniste.
Porté entre autres par Robert Doisneau, René-Jacques, Marcel Bovis et Willy Ronis, ce mouvement se veut porteur d'un autre monde, un monde qui essaye d'oublier les horreurs de la Guerre par la poésie visuel.
Les rues animées de Paris, ses quartiers populaires, ses flâneurs, des enfants en train de jouer, ou plus généralement des scènes de la vie de tous les jours constituent alors le décor de ces photographes.
Cependant, même si Willy Ronis fait partie de ces photographes humanistes, il est lucide et la photographie n'est pas pour lui une fin en soi, un simple moyen de croquer des fragments de vie ça et là, mais un moyen d'exprimer sa propre expérience des réalités sociales qui l'entourent.
Il a conscience que cette tentative de donner une vision édulcorée de l’injustice sociale par la photographie est une imposture.
En témoigne ses photographies prises parmi les plus démunis, celles d'ouvriers, de piquets de grève et de harangues enflammées de syndicalistes, que ce soit aux usines Citroën (1936) et Renault (1950), aux mines de Saint-Étienne (1948), ou dans les rues de Paris (1950).
Par ses photos, Willy Ronis ne tente pas de maquiller la pauvreté ni d'esthétiser les pauvres, mais il s’associe à leurs revendications, à leur lutte, à leurs manifestes.
Qu’elles soient prises dans la rue, dans une usine, en pleine nature ou dans l’intimité, ses photographies constituent un recueil d’instants échelonnés sur l’ensemble de sa carrière de photographe, fondement de sa propre version du réel.
07 juil. - 30 juil. 2009. Rencontres d'Arles. 10, rond point des Arènes 13200 Arles - T. 33 4 90 96 76 06 - F. 33 4 90 49 94 39 - info@rencontres-arles.com - http://www.rencontres-arles.com
Edouard Manet (París, 1832-1883) “Boy with Cherries”, guest work @ The Bilbao Museum of Fine Arts
The director of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, Javier Viar, and museum curator, Ana observe the guest work “Boy with Cherries” by Edouard Manet. Photo: EFE/Alfredo Aldai.
BILBAO.- The Bilbao Museum of Fine Arts presented its 27th guest work, the piece is titled “Boy with Cherries” by Edouard Manet (París, 1832-1883). This is a simply composed portrait, but of great quality and shows the artist’s expression. Manet was a fundamental figure in the transition between Realism and Impressionism. Manet knew how to introduce new themes and techniques which confronted him with academic art.
The Boy with Cherries hides the tragic destiny the model had. Alexandre, a humble youngster, who helped Manet clean brushes and occasionally posed for him, ended up committing suicide at age 15, in the painter’s studio on Lavoisier Street. Profoundly affected by the death of his assistant, Manet finished the painting in a studio on Victoire Street, where he had moved after what had happened.
The Guest Work is an original Bilbao Fine Arts Museum initiative designed to display remarkable works from other museums or collections to enhance their understanding of artists whose works are in the Museum collection or simply to introduce our public to artists not represented at the museum.
Edouard Manet was born on January 23, 1832, in Paris. While studying with Thomas Couture from 1850 to 1856, he drew at the Académie Suisse and copied the old masters at the Musée du Louvre. After he left Couture’s studio, Manet traveled extensively in Europe, visiting Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Italy. In 1859 he was rejected by the official Paris Salon, although Eugène Delacroix intervened on his behalf. In 1861 Manet’s paintings were accepted by the Salon and received favorable press, and he began exhibiting at the Galerie Martinet in Paris. During the early 1860s his friendships with Charles Baudelaire and Edgar Degas began. The three paintings Manet sent to the Salon of 1863, including Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, were relegated to the Salon des Refusés, where they attracted the attention of the critic Théophile Thoré.
In 1865 Manet’s Olympia and Christ Mocked were greeted with great hostility when shown at the Salon. That year the painter traveled to Spain, where he met Théodore Duret. He became a friend of Emile Zola in 1866, when the writer defended him in a controversial article for the periodical L’Evènement. In 1867 Zola published a longer article on Manet, who that year exhibited his work in an independent pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair. The artist spent the first of several summers in Boulogne at this time. In 1868 two of his works were accepted by the Salon but were not shown to advantage.
The dealer Paul Durand-Ruel began buying his work in 1872. That same year The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama was shown at the Salon, and Manet traveled to the Netherlands for the second time. The poet Stéphane Mallarmé, who met the artist in 1873, wrote articles about him in 1874 and 1876 and remained a close lifelong friend. Manet declined to show with the Impressionists in their first exhibition in 1874. That summer he worked at Gennevilliers and Argenteuil with Claude Monet and the following year he visited Venice. In 1876 he exhibited Olympia and two paintings rejected that year by the Salon at his own studio. From 1879 to 1882 Manet participated annually at the Salon. In 1880 he was given a solo exhibition at Georges Charpentier’s new gallery, La Vie Moderne, Paris. In 1881 Manet, then ailing, was decorated with the Légion d’Honneur. He died on April 30, 1883, in Paris. A memorial exhibition of his work took place at the École des Beaux-Arts the following year.
Edouard Manet (París, 1832-1883) “Boy with Cherries”, 1856
La citation du jour : Alonso de Villegas
The citizens of Toledo never tire of seen El Greco's painting. Alonso de Villegas
Edito : ES autumn/winter collection
Paire de vases Balustres à côtes melon, en faïence et vasque en céramique à couverte bleue
Paire de vases Balustres à côtes melon, en faïence à couverte bleue.
Monture formant piédouche en bronze ciselé et doré à décor de coquilles et fleurettes sur fond rocaille. (restaurations) Haut. : 45 cm. Estimation : 2 500 - 3 500 €
Vasque en céramique
A couverte bleu turquoise de forme ronde, à décor en relief de dragons. Belle monture en bronze ciselé et doré à décor de têtes de fauves, frises ajourées et anses latérales. Dans le goût de l'Extrême Orient. Haut. : 26,5 - Diam. : 36 cm. Estimation : 2 000 - 2 500 €
Massol. Meuble et objets d'art. Mardi 07 juillet à 13h30. Drouot Richelieu - Salle 16.. EMail : massol.sa@orange.fr - Tél. : 01 42 65 08 01 www.massol-sa.com
A large pair of Italian carved Egyptian porphyry vases and covers, late 18th/first half 19th century
A large pair of Italian carved Egyptian porphyry vases and covers, late 18th/first half 19th century
minor restorations. each approx: 100cm. high; 3ft.3¼in.
Comparative Literature: P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of furniture, Vol III, Gilt bronze, London, 1996.
P. Malgouyres, Porphyre, La Pierre Poupre des Ptolémées aux Bonaparte, Paris, 2003
Note: magnificent monumental vases in Egyptian porphyry are vaguely reminiscent of a pair of late 18th century Roman vases with serpent handles in the Louvre Museum, Paris, illustrated by Malgouyres, op. cit., p. 170, no. 64, which were originally recorded in the inventory of the comtesse du Barry at Louveciennes in 1794. The design for these type of vases in turn almost certainly was inspired by 17th century Italian designs such as those for example of Stefano della Bella's, Raccolta di Vasi Diversi, circa 1664, which featured serpent handled vases.
A feature common to porphyry vases as well as to the present pair, is the quality of the carving and the technical feat of carving from the same block due to the hardness of the stone, the saucer shaped foot, the way the handles are cut and finally the material, a dark red Egyptian porphyry. There is in the Wallace Collection, a Transitional porphyry vase with entwined serpent handles (286), illustrated by Hughes op. cit., p. 1385, which has been attributed to the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs in Paris. The taste for stone vases developed in France during the reign of Louis XVI, due to the production of the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs established in Paris by the Duc d'Aumont (1709-1782), which cut and polished hardstones and precious marbles. In his lecture to the Furniture History Society at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on 25th April 2009, Bernard Rondat, produced evidence which confirmed that French designers in Paris produced models for stone vases which were then cut in Rome.
Red porphyry (lapis porphyrites) :
As mentioned above, the present vases are carved from Red Egyptian porphyry the so called porfiro rosso antico, a porphyry which is only found in the mons porphyrites region betweeen the Middle Nile and the Red Sea. This type of Egyptian porphyry was first quarried by the Romans. After the fall of the Roman Empire the quarries ceased to be worked. Half cut monolithic columns and other fragments are still to be found in the deserted quarries today. Almost the sole source for the red porphyry of this type used in Western Europe were columns taken from classical temples and other ruined Roman remains, see Watson, op. cit., p. 73.
A pair of Louis XV vases with satyr masks of monumental size was sold from the collection of M. Hubert Givenchy, Christie's, Monaco, 4th December 1993, lot 18..
Sotheby's. Important Furniture, Silver, Ceramics and Clocks. 07 Jul 09 03:00 PM. London www.sothebys.com
04 juillet 2009
Neufs sujets en corail, Chine chez Massol
Beau sujet en corail. Chine
Navire sur des flots, finement sculpté de personnages. Haut. : 18 - Long. : 23 cm. Estimation : 6 000 - 7 000 €
Sujet en corail rouge. Chine A deux digitations représentant une jeune femme accompagnée de deux enfants. Haut. : 16,5 cm. Estimation : 3 000 - 4 000 € Sujet en corail. Chine Déesse du printemps accompagnée d'un phénix et d'un cacatoès perchés sur des branches. Haut. : 22,5 cm. Estimation : 3 200 - 3 800 € Petit vase couvert en corail rouge. Chine Finement sculpté à décor de trois enfants jouant avec un chien au pied d'un pêcher. Haut. : 12,5 cm. Estimation : 2 500 - 2 800 € Sujet en corail. Chine Trois enfants dans une branche de pin au pied duquel se trouve un lion. Haut. : 17 - Long. : 22,5 cm. Estimation : 2 000 - 2 500 € Sujet en corail. Chine Danseuse assise sur une branche de cerisier en fleurs. Haut. : 13,5 cm. Estimation : 1 800 - 2 200 € Sujet en corail. Chine Enfant jouant avec un cerf-volant. (petite restauration) Haut. : 9 cm. Estimation : 1 000 - 1 500 € Sujet en corail. Chine Trois singes grignotant des pêches. Haut. : 12,8 cm. Estimation : 1 000 - 1 200 € Sujet en corail. Chine Zoulhao accompagné d'un disciple. Haut. : 12,5 cm. Estimation : 600 - 800 € Massol. Meuble et objets d'art. Mardi 07 juillet à 13h30. Drouot Richelieu - Salle 16.. EMail : massol.sa@orange.fr - Tél. : 01 42 65 08 01 www.massol-sa.com
A pair of Sèvres gilt-bronze-mounted biscuit vases (Vases Cordelier à ornaments)decorated by Pierre-Louis-Philippe Armand
A pair of Sèvres gilt-bronze-mounted biscuit vases (Vases Cordelier à ornaments)decorated by Pierre-Louis-Philippe Armand
circa 1788
the underside with a crowned interlaced LL monogram enclosing date code LL in blue for 1788. each 52cm. high, 34cm. wide, 34cm. deep; 1ft. 8½in., 1ft. 1½in., 1ft. 1½in. Estimate 100,000—150,000 GBP
PROVENANCE: Château de Rotalier, Beaufort, where these vases were already recorded in 1886 as part of a family donation and were present till 1995.
Sold in these rooms on 8th June 2005, lot 54 for £130,000.
NOTE: The rarity of these magnificent vases is confirmed by the fact that no other similar type of decoration is recorded in the literature.
The plaster model of the Vase Cordelier à ornaments is preserved in the Sèvres museum, and the model is thus listed in the oldest surviving inventory, begun in 1817-see fig. 1, which has exactly the same reliefs as those on the offered vases. This form of vase first appears under the name Vase Cordelier in 1804, though its earlier appellation is not known.
The archives of the Manufacture de Sèvres reveal that only one pair of vases of this model was executed in 1788. However, a pair of lilac-ground Vases Cordelier of the same form dated to 1790, decorated with grisaille landscapes but without the moulded foliate and gadrooned borders, and with similar gilt-metal mounts, is in the Sèvres museum (MNC 26,406 1-2), and published by Marie-Noël Pinot de Villechenon, Sèvres Porcelain from the Sèvres Museum 1740 to the Present Day, London 1997, p.47, no.46 (illustrated)-see fig. 2.
The painters that were active at the Manufacture de Sèvres are known to have a particular way of signing their pieces, ranging from clearly marking their initials, to applying in the subtlest of ways their mark. So did the decorator, Pierre-Louis-Philippe Armand, interlace the two LL Sèvres marks with dots at the intersections in such a way that we can establish these marks with his craftsmanship and execution. The interlaced LL mark on the present pair of vases corresponds with his hand. Upon consulting the "Régistre de Paiements des Peintres" , Armand Jeune has been paid a sum on 26 November 1788 for the execution of "deux vases biscuit bas relief et dorure (see fig.3 ). This more than likely corresponds with the present pair of vases. Furthermore, the "Régistre d'Enfournement pour l'Année 1788" reveals that "Deux Vases en Bas Relief et Or, Armand" went through the kiln process. Armand was one of the most highly paid painters at Sèvres, hence reflecting his highest standard of craftsmanship.
We are indebted to Cyrille Froissart for his archival research and to Tamara Préaud, Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, for providing the illustration of the model of the Vase Cordelier.
Sotheby's. Important Furniture, Silver, Ceramics and Clocks. 07 Jul 09 03:00 PM. London www.sothebys.com