Conservation

Washington’s National Gallery of Art with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, 1909–1929

The Ballets Russes—the most innovative dance company of the early 20th century—propelled the performing arts to new heights through groundbreaking collaborations between artists, composers, choreographers, dancers, and fashion designers. Founded by Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev (1872–1929) in Paris in 1909, the company combined Russian and Western traditions with a healthy dose of modernism, thrilling and shocking audiences with its powerful fusion of choreography, music, and design.

Left: Diaghilev and John Brown, New York, 1916, photograph by Bain News Service. Collection of Ms. Anna and Mr. Leonid Winestein; below, right: Jean Cocteau, Vaslav Nijinsky from The Spirit of the Rose, poster for the opening season of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1913, color lithograph, V&A, London, Gift of Mademoiselle Lucienne Astruc and Richard Buckle in memory of the collaboration between Diaghilev and Gabriel Astruc.

The current Capitol show, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, 1909–1929: When Art danced with Music, showcases these collaborations with more than 130 original costumes, set designs, paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings, photographs, and posters, focused around specific historical performances, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes also incorporates film clips, meticulously recreated by later dance companies in a series of theatrical multimedia installations. Adapted from the exhibition conceived by and first shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in 2010, the presentation in Washington surveys some 80 works from the V&A’s deep collection of dance artifacts, with 50-or-more additional objects, offered from private and public collections. artes fine arts magazineMore

Boston’s Gallery NAGA Highlights ‘Furniture with Soul II’

www.artesmagazine.com — Gallery NAGA, Boston, MA

Following up on the first exhibition (June-July 2012), and based on David Savage’s book, Furniture With Soul, Gallery NAGA is currently presenting a new group of studio artists’ work that focuses upon a younger ensemble of practitioners. Ranging from classically-referenced to organically inspired, this exhibit is made up of strong beautiful elements throughout. Here elegance and materials speak to function and form in a conversation of different voices and varying perspectives.

This studio furniture grouping is comprised mostly of large pieces, demonstrating the stylish and elegant craftmanship of each practitioner. Curated by author/craftsman David Savage, this exhibit is a showcase for emerging stars in the studio furniture international firmament. There is a grace and purpose to these functional sculptural elements. Like the previous show of established masters, the work here again transcends art and design, beauty and purpose. artes fine arts magazineMore

Metropolitan Museum of Art Fuses French Impressionism, Fashion, Modernity

“We find ourselves faced with the only reality—despite ourselves we encourage our painters to reproduce us on their canvases just as we are, with our costumes and customs.” ~Émile Zola (1868)

Does life imitate art, or art imitate life? Addressing that very quandary, a stunningly-curated show at the Met demonstrates how to pull out all the stops, with the depth of a collection being parlayed in the interest of a good story. The exhibit, Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity takes a revealing look at the role of fashion in the works of several impressionist painters. More than 80 major figure paintings by the most notable of the period are assembled from the Met collection, along with some key loans. Paintings are presented in concert with examples of period dress, accessories, fashion plates, photographs and prints, highlighting the vital relationship between artist and subject, the vastly divergent worlds of painter and patron, and the mise-en-scene of bourgeois Paris—between 1860-1880—just then emerging as the style and cultural capital of the world.

Above, left: Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926) Camille (1866), Oil on canvas, 90 15/16 x 59 1/2 in. Kunsthalle Bremen, Der Kunstverein in Bremen. artes fine arts magazineMore

Arts and Crafts Styling of Early 20th C. Architects, Greene & Greene

Experiencing the creative work of architectural brothers, Greene & Greene, is like sipping a rare, richly-made wine—offering sensory delights from the firm of two authentic American Arts and Crafts masters. As the brothers Greene—Charles and Henry—worked primarily in California, they created the ‘gold standard’ for the Arts and Crafts design style. Their work, both as entire projects and in the detail found there, serves as an exquisite example of design, presented in clear, concise and elegant terms. artes fine arts magazineMore

New York Historical Society with Comprehensive Exhibit of James Audubon Watercolors

John James Audubon (1785-1851) was not the first person to attempt to paint and describe all the birds of America, but for half-a-century he was the young country’s dominant wildlife artist. His seminal Birds of America (1827-39), a collection of 435 life-size prints, quickly eclipsed others’ work and remains a standard against which ornithological renditions that followed are measured. A man of his times, he reflected the surging interest in moving science out of the realm of theological debate, as it endeavored to create taxonomic models for newly-discovered creatures in a rapidly-expanding natural world. With one foot in the arts and the other in the natural sciences, Audubon defies ready characterization. With his eye very much affixed to his future place in history, his gifts as poet, writer and documentarian, he strived to actively engage his audiences in the drama and inherent beauty to be found in the birds he so actively observed, researched and documented with his brilliant, dynamic images. artes fine arts magazineMore

Utrect’s Rietveld-Schroeder Huis: Early Modern Architecture Masterpiece

On a recent trip to Europe, my plane had an extended layover in Amsterdam. So, on a pre-planned quest, I journeyed by train from the airport to the ancient university city of Utrecht, The Netherlands, to see the austere, sculptural house—the Rietveld-Schroeder Huis, designed and built in 1924, by Gerrit Rietveld (left: photo by Mark Favermann).

A Dutch architect and furniture designer of extraordinary talent, Rietveld (1888-1964) was still an architectural student in 1916, when he started his own furniture factory in his hometown of Utrecht. His father had a joinery business at which he had previously worked. Rietveld then apprenticed in a jeweler’s studio. During his student years, he became familiar with the work and theories of other Dutch artists and designers. Ever experimenting with form, materials and construction methods, he produced a variety of furniture designs, and especially iconic chairs, in a straightforward strategically simplified, yet abstracted way. artes fine arts magazineMore

Sacred Symbol of Armenian Church, National Identity Caught Up in Regional Politics

The Cross is arguably the most familiar symbol of Christianity, but nowhere is this iconography as crucial or culture-entrenched, as it is in Armenia. Wherever you go, thousands of khachkars, or Armenian cross-stones, pervade the mountainous conscience of the world’s oldest Christian nation, providing a rare glimpse into the art of spiritual expression and its modern desecration as a cause of strife with neighboring countries.

The medieval monk Thomas à Kempis, on the subject of the Cross, once remarked, “In the Cross is salvation; in the Cross is life; in the Cross is protection against our enemies; in the Cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness; in the Cross is strength of mind; in the Cross is joy of spirit; in the Cross is excellence of virtue; in the Cross is perfection of holiness….” artes fine arts magazineMore

New Haven’s Yale University Art Gallery Re-Opens after Extensive Renovation

A recent tour of the newly expanded and renovated Yale University Art Gallery, in New Haven Connecticut, has visitors treading on a little-noticed engraved marker inlayed in the stone floor of the Ancient Arts gallery. Cool winter light slants into the space from nearby Chapel Street, illuminating the inscription: ‘Col. JOHN TRUMBULL, Patriot and Artist, Friend and Aid (sic) of WASHINGTON, lies beside his wife beneath this GALLERY OF ART. Lebanon 1756 – New York 1843.’ Look on the back side of any hard-to-find two-dollar bill and you can find a representation of Trumbull’s famous 1817 masterpiece, The Declaration of Independence. Large-scale versions of several pieces from his Revolutionary War series found their way into Bullfinch-designed niches in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. a decade later, but the smaller studies were eventually donated by a dispirited Trumbull to Yale University, after discovering, late in his life, that the American public had little appetite for history paintings, especially for events and personalities so recently transpired.

Above: Reliquary Figure (Mbulu-Ngulu), Kota People, Africa (est. 19th c.). Gift of Charles Benenson `33. artes fine arts magazineMore

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cloisters’ Tapestry Collection Rich with Symbolism

Man’s essential need for warmth and subsequent, very basic desire to express one’s individual presence in the world through creating art, were both well-served by ancient loom weaving and tapestry production. The form evolved originally from early methods of basket weaving, using as materials, linen, flax, wool and silk thread and yarn, instead of grasses and woods. The resulting fabrics’ function as roughly-hewn clothing, portable bedding, rugs and layers for makeshift home insulation (in everything from tents to castles), was soon equaled, and then overtaken, by its role as a medium for what some cultures, in certain eras, regarded as among the highest of art forms. artes fine arts magazine

Left: Tapestry, The Unicorn in Captivity, “Against a millefleur background, the unicorn lies in an enclosure, fastened by a chain to a pomegranate tree.” (early 16th century, Mllefleur Series Two) Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters. The pomegranate is the Christian symbol of hope for eternal life, renewed by its many seeds and blood-red fruit.

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Hurricane Sandy devastated New York’s Chelsea Gallery district. Hit particularly hard were the most prestigious street level venues. The surging Hudson River flooded the area as well as wiped out basement storage areas. Entire exhibitions were lost as well as multiple millions of dollars worth of works in basement storage areas. This was particularly devastating as it occurred during the busy fall season leading up to Holiday tourism and the annual Art Basel events in Miami.

The art market seems to have been impacted by a perfect storm of natural disaster as well as an inevitable bursting of the bubble in the inflated value of contemporary art. artes fine arts magazineMore