Exhibitions

Do you know the work of the Master of the View of Saint Gudula, the Master of the Princely Portraits, or the Master of the Life of Joseph (also called the Master of Affligem)? How about the Master of Orsoy, the Master of the Saint Barbara Legend, or the Master of the Redemption of the Prado (possibly Vrancke van der Stockt)?

Probably not, but maybe you know Colyn de Coter? The Master of the Saint Catherine Legend the Master of the Embroidered Foliage? These three, at least, have been studied.

But now more of these (mostly) unidentified painters, who worked in Brussels between 1450 and 1520, all in the shadow of Rogier van der Weyden, are coming to light. They are the subject of an exhibition I wish I could see that is now on view at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. It’s main title is The Heritage of Rogier van der Weyden. According to the press release,

At that moment Brussels was a thriving town, the Coudenberg Palace being the favourite residence of the dukes of Burgundy. It was surrounded by the palaces of courtiers and noble families like the Nassau or the Ravenstein. They were all important patrons of the arts.

Building on the results of the recent research and the existing studies the exhibition presents an overall picture of painting in Brussels at the late 15th and first years of the 16th centuries, tackling the subject from various viewpoints, historical, iconographic, stylistic, technical, economic and in terms of work organisation and exact copying.

Dr. Griet Steyaert has been researching these painters, trying to answer questions (denoted in that press release) and one result is this exhibition.

Among the works on display, a few of which you can see here, is The Presentation in the Temple by the Master of the Prado Adoration, at left, which is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, a gift of the Samuel Kress Foundation.

The British papers have failed us, surprisingly — I couldn’t find a review of the show, which opened on Oct. 11. But I did find something in Studio International, which said:

The Heritage of Rogier van der Weyden is worth a visit, perhaps even two. The exhibition is set within the large, high-quality collection of the Royal Museum and offers a view of visual culture in Brussels in the 15th and 16th centuries as well as showing the rich historical context in which artists were employed, by elaborating on the patronage of, among others, the Dukes of Burgundy then residing at the Coudenberg Palace. The research is sound, the lighting perfect, the space allows generous viewing opportunities, and who knows, this exhibition may momentarily reunite Belgians from north and south.

That last link also has a slide show, which I am sure you will enjoy.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art

Now on view in the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, is an exhibition called Castiglione: Lost Genius. It merits a little shout-out because it was co-curated by Timothy Standring of the Denver Art Museum. Standring, whom I’ve known for years, also curated the exhibition Becoming van Gogh, in Denver, which I wrote about here (as well as for the Wall Street Journal). That was a feat of persistence, as the Denver museum had no van Goghs.

He’s been working on Castiglione for years (not a complaint, Timothy, just noting your persistence…), and to have it shown at the Queen’s Gallery is neat. So I am thrilled.

Here’s the description of the new show:

One of the great artists of the Baroque, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-64) was perhaps the most innovative and technically brilliant Italian draftsman of his time. He practised as a painter, but won fame for his drawings and prints.

Castiglione worked in oils on paper to produce large, vibrant compositions, and combined drawing and printmaking to invent the technique of monotype.

Despite leading a violent and turbulent life, he produced works of grace and rare beauty, which were highly esteemed for a century after his death. But Castiglione unaccountably fell from fame in the modern era. The Royal Collection holds the finest surviving group of the artist’s works.

The Royal Collection website has all (I think) of the drawings in the show — not in a particularly new or fresh way, it’s true, but they can all be easily copied, as the presumed self-portrait etching at left shows I also like that it discloses the acquirer — this one was obtained by George III.

The catalogue will be out soon is now out!

UPDATE: The exhibition, which remains on view until next Mar. 16, will travel to the Denver Art Museum in 2015 and then to the Kimbell art Museum in Fort Worth.

And here’s a review from The Telegraph and its article on this scandalous murderer.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Queen’s Gallery

 

Dallas likes to think of itself as an arts city, what with the growing Dallas Arts District, which includes the Dallas Art Museum, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra, the Dallas Opera, the Texas Ballet Theaters, and much more.

But as of Oct. 19, as I mention in an article in today’s New York Times’s special section on Fine Arts and Exhibitions, it has busted out of those confines because of the Nasher Sculpture Center’s 10th anniversary exhibition — called Nasher Xchange, partly as a pun on the Roman numeral. Instead of celebrating on its own premises, the Nasher has commissioned 10 sculptures for its show and placed them all over the city, as I say in In Dallas, 10 Sculptures for 10 Years. Further, in all but one case the participating artists worked with local communities, which is also signaled in that title.

The Nasher came up with this idea because, as Jeremy Strick, the Nasher’s director, told me, “Some of the most interesting work being produced today is for the public sphere and therefore by definition doesn’t fit into the context of a museum or even in our garden.” It’s also a link back to Ray and Patsy Nasher’s history with sculpture, as you’ll see in the article. Plus,

He and his curatorial team selected artists whose approaches were varied enough to make “Nasher Xchange” tantamount to a survey of contemporary public sculpture. “With 10 works you can’t cover it all,” he admitted, “but you can begin to suggest the range.”

Rochelle Steiner, former director of the Public Art Fund in New York and former dean of (now professor at) the Roski School of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California, was one of a couple sources who told me she had heard of other places who’d like to have city-wide sculpture exhibitions. Of course, some, like those in Munster and Munich, already exist.

But back to my lead paragraph, above. Last winter, when the Nasher center announced the exhibit, the city’s mayor, Mike Rawlings said “We’re closer than ever in Dallas to becoming that international arts city that we want to be. Believe me, the world is watching.” And he also said that Nasher Xchange would “challenge us to rediscover, reconsider and reclaim our city.”

At the time, the Dallas Business Journal also said that “Rawlings cited benefits of art, ranging from the ability of sculpture to inspire and define public spaces to fueling growth, stimulating tourism and encouraging companies to relocate. Rawlings said he believes great art and great business go hand in hand. He said the public art program will touch all corners of the city.

I never like to put that burden on art, no matter how true it is — but I can’t  help wishing that Rawlings’s comments would find their way into the ears of Kevyn Orr and his bankruptcy team in Detroit.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center; Liz Larner’s X at right

 

 

 

Several weeks back, at an art opening, a friend mentioned to me a great exhibit taking place in England, at Houghton Hall, the country house of Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745). From there, in 1779, his magnificent art collection had been sold to Catherine the Great — but this summer, Houghton Hall had brought about 60 paintings back from the Hermitage in Russia and elsewhere and “ reassembled [them] in its spectacular original setting of Houghton Hall for the first time in over 200 years.”

I looked it all up on the web, and promptly forgot to tell you about it until this morning, when I picked up my Wall Street Journal and found an article on it by my friend Tom Freudenheim. Lucky Tom — that he was able to travel to Norwich, 100 miles northeast of London, to see this gem, which has been extended to Nov. 24 (for those of you who might still be able to plan a trip).

The exhibit, Tom says, is:

…a very personal assemblage, reflecting Walpole’s strong interest in the relatively recent, often Neo-Classical and high Baroque, styles of the 17th century. That distinguishes it from other notable English collections, such as the one assembled a century earlier by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel (1585-1646), who favored antiquities along with Renaissance and Baroque artists….it’s also worth noting that Walpole remained in London while acquiring his remarkable artworks with the assistance of agents and advisers, and as part of the exchange of gifts with other influential people. Among the wonders on view here are paintings by a wide range of masters, such as Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, Rembrandt and Frans Hals, Nicolas Poussin and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, as well as a selection of drawings that show Houghton in its prime, and a few pieces of silver from the original collection, by great craftsmen such as Paul de Lamerie.

The 1799 dispersal tale, and subsequent selloffs, goes like this:

Two hundred and four paintings were sent on a frigate in the spring of 1779 bound for the Hermitage in St. Petersburg’s Winter Palace. But history plays odd tricks— in 1853 Czar Nicholas I sold a large number of paintings, one of which (a Godfrey Kneller portrait of Joseph Carreras ) eventually returned to Houghton Hall. Placed in safety during the Russian Revolution, some of the Hermitage’s Walpole paintings were transferred to other Soviet museums, notably Moscow’s Fine Arts (now Pushkin) Museum, in the late 1920s. Others were sold in 1930-31, when the Soviets were trying to raise cash. Andrew Mellon was among the astute purchasers, and his acquisitions are now in the holdings of Washington’s National Gallery of Art.

It is, as Tom writes, a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see Houghton Hall’s exquisite rooms as they looked in Walpole’s day and studded with so many masterpieces. If thought I am not one of those seeing this, I can only thank the guest curator, Thierry Morel, and whoever else is responsible for this.

There’s a short video showing more of the pictures on this website, Houghton Revisited.

UPDATE: I’ve learned that Cyark, a nonprofit in the digital documentation space that produced both exhibition kiosks at Houghton Hall and an iPad app for Houghton Revisited, is also capturing this exhibition and will preserve it in digital form.  It’ll be on a website — currently a bare-bones placeholder. The Kress Foundation is providing support to the Cyark project. You can see a similar digital preservation, of Marble House in Newport, R.I., whose Gavet Collection, now part of the Ringling Museum of Art, has been digitally restored to its “original” in the Marble House Gothic Room. Here’s the link.

Photo Credit: Two Women, by Paris Bordone, on loan from the Hermitage