Palm Beach Art, International Art News

Pierre Bonnard, Le Café, 1915, Oil on canvas, 73 × 106.4 cm, Tate, Photo: © 2012, Tate, London © 2012, ProLitteris, Zurich

29 January – 13 May 2012 – Foundation Beyeler
With the exhibition “Pierre Bonnard”, the Fondation Beyeler celebrates the great French colorist and one of the most fascinating of modern artists. More than 60 paintings from renowned museums and private collections provide insight into all phases of his career.
Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) was a co-founder of an artist‘s group known as the Nabis, who admired the style of Paul Gauguin and Japanese woodblock prints. In Paris, Bonnard depicted the bustling life on the streets and in the cafés, before retiring first to Normandy, very close to Monet‘s water-lily garden, then to the sunny Côte d‘Azur, where he was inspired by the light and colors of the Mediterranean environment. Continually experimenting, he produced variants in ever-new color combinations and from surprising points of view on subjects from everyday life, in which time only apparently seems to stand still. The artist‘s favorite model was the mysterious Marthe, his muse and wife. Bonnard created harmonious still lifes, enigmatic interiors, intimate female nudes, moving self-portraits, and decorative landscapes whose magnificent palette is unique in modern art.

Pierre Bonnard - Place Clichy, 1906–07 Oil on canvas, 102.1 × 116.6 cm Private collection © 2012, ProLitteris, Zurich

One of the principal lenders is the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Further outstanding loans come from the Tate London; the Musée national d’Art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Metropolitan Museum, New York; the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; the Kunstmuseum Basel; the Kunsthaus Zürich; and from distinguished private collections, not least from the Hahnloser successors.

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Salvador Dalí Rêve causé par le vol d’une abeille autour d’une pomme-grenade, une seconde avant l’éveil, 1944 Huile sur bois, 51 x 41 cm Musée Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid © Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation / 2011, ProLitteris, Zurich

From the 2nd of October 2011 – to the 29th of  January 2012 – Fondation Beyeler
This major exhibition on the art of Surrealism will provide insights into one of the most influential artistic and literary movements of the twentieth century. Born in the avant-garde metropolis of Paris, Surrealism was represented by such outstanding artist personalities as Dalí, Duchamp, Ernst, Giacometti, Magritte, Miró, Oppenheim and Picasso. In their often baffling and highly imaginative imagery, the Surrealists addressed the dream, the irrational, and the workings of the unconscious mind. On view in our spectacular exhibition will be over one hundred works from world-renowned museums and private collections.

Museum Hours

Superflex, Burning Car, 2008 © Courtesy of Superflex and Nils Stærk, Copenhagen

From June 8 to October 9, 2011 – Museum Tinguely, Basel
The automobile is the foremost cultural touchstone of the 20th century, reflecting the social and  cultural development of the western world and beyond. Both technical device and instrument of locomotion, it offers the most highly developed and widespread interface for human-machine interaction – while also functioning as a carrier of meaning, an individualized living room, a medium for escapes great and small, and a means of distancing oneself from others and of creating a personal profile. The attraction of speed and the new feeling of time and space ushered in by the advent of the automobile had a formative influence on (urban) perception and the rhythm of modern life in the early years of the 20th century. The view through the windshield still drives our outlook on life today, as well as coloring the cinematic perspective on reality. The exhibition “Car Fetish” demonstrates the wide range of art influenced by the automobile. Around 160 artworks are featured by more than 80 artists, among them Giacomo Balla, Robert Frank, Jean Tinguely, Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, Chris Burden, Damián Ortega, Richard Prince or Superflex. The symbolic and often irrational superstructure we have built up around the automobile and which guides our enthusiasm for this, our favorite toy, refuses to be defeated even by never-ending stop-and-go traffic jams. Correspondingly open and eclectic is the field of art that explores the car as cult object and imagination machine. At the center of the largescale exhibition “Fetish Auto” at Museum Tinguely is a sweeping panorama across one hundred years of automotive history that examines this complex relationship both aesthetically and critically based on a representative selection of works. In recent years the study of fetishism has shifted its focus from the more exotic and marginal to centre of western consumer society and all that the world of goods seems to promise the purchaser. Although Modernism suppressed the (high) cultural phenomenon of fetishism as act of projection onto the object, it did not disappear, and thus today things still exercise for us a formative fascination based on their look and feel, attitudes and imagined qualities, as well as forms of use and handling. Examining this fascination based on the automobile as “complex thing” is one objective of the exhibition and the accompanying catalogue. The distinction between commodity, sexual and religious fetish hence becomes both an interpretative framework for the catalogue and a thematic access route to the exhibition.

Arnold Odermatt, Wolfenschiessen, 1964 © Urs Odermatt, Windisch

The Exhibition
Automobility, or “self-propulsion” was a power the messengers to the gods already had at their disposal. And it so happens that in the year 2011 the car is celebrating its 125th birthday (in 1886 Carl Benz designed the famous Benz patented motorcar, the world’s first automobile). The exhibition at Museum Tinguely, conceived architecturally as a wheel with axis and radial segments, commences with the radical new concepts of art and society put forth by the Futurists, who linked human and machine Symbiotically in a new aesthetic of constant acceleration. In the “Futurist Manifesto” of 1909, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti propagated automotive speed and the racecar as new ideal of beauty to replace the old model of the Nike of Samothrace. The Futurists worshipped the machine realm, dedicated poems to the racecar and struck up a “Hymn to Death.” In the visual arts Giacomo Balla and Luigi Russolo were the main figures to depict impressions of automotive movement as synaesthesia of light, sound and speed in the urban environment. These two artists form the historical prelude to the exhibition, with their own room in which visitors can experience the intoxication of the senses triggered by a panorama of works.
Two larger galleries in the “Fetish Auto” show are devoted to high points of the automotive worldview in the art of the 1960s and 70s. In many works of American Pop Art and its forerunners, the “American way of life,” genuinely bound up as it is with the car and the mobile lifestyle, along with its propagation in the mass media, is the chosen theme of artists such as Andy Warhol (“Disaster Series,” “Cars”), Ed Ruscha, John Chamberlain, Robert Rauschenberg, Mel Ramos, Roy Lichtenstein and Don Eddy. In Europe on the other hand, it was the Nouveau Réalisme movement exemplified by the works of Arman, César, Gérard Deschamps, Mimmo Rotella and Jean Tinguely that transformed the commodities of machine and automobile into art, whether by splashing them across posters or by layering, compressing or degenerating their material forms. In European varieties of Pop Art as well, as practiced for example by Konrad Klapheck, Paul Stämpfli and Franz Gertsch, and also in the work of artists exhibiting media-reflective tendencies such as Gerhard Richter and Wolf Vostell, the car often serves as a pictorial protagonist or a mirror of social developments. Wolf Vostell (“Das Theater ist auf der Strasse”) and Allan Kaprow, two of the main figures in Happening and Performance Art have been chosen for the exhibition. Allan Kaprow’ s 1961 “Yard,” made of towering stacks of tires, has been restaged for the show.
The stroll through the art history of automotive inspiration from the Futurists to today is accompanied in the exhibition by a second, theme-based, thread. The visitor can choose to approach the exhibition by way of art that fell under the sway of commodity fetishism (lacquer and chrome, the car acquisition as purchase of fictions and redirection activity, assembly line production and accumulation) with works by Ant Farm, Arman, Edward Burtynsky, Jan Dibbets, Hans Hansen, Peter Keetman, Len Lye, Hendrik Spohler, Peter Stämpfli and Pascal Weidmann; or through the art of religious fetishism (auto da fé, “Déesse,” nail fetish and car cemetery) with works by Kudjoe Affutu, Chris Burden, Jordi Colomer, Walker Evans, Jitish Kallat, Annika Larsson, Superflex and Dale Yudelman; or as sexual fetishism (phallic extension, motor potency, female curves, the car as bachelor machine) with works by Liz Cohen, Sylvie Fleury, Wenyu Ji, Allan Kaprow, Richard Prince, Pipilotti Rist, Bruno Rousseaud and Franck Scurti. Further apotheoses of the automotive state of mind can be found in rooms focusing on themes such as the accident, with works by Brassaï, James Dean, Robert Frank, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Mickry 3, Arnold Odermatt, Roman Signer and Wolf Vostell; on speed, with works by Horst Baumann, Géo Ham, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Richard Prince, Man Ray and Anton Stankowski; and on traffic, with works by Andreas Feininger, Robert Frank, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Julian Opie, June Bum Park, Peter Roehr, Samuel Rousseau, Bruno Ruckstuhl, Michael Sailstorfer, Stefan Sous and Peter Stämpfli. Finally, a further gallery is devoted to the subjects of “Retreat and Flight” or “Living Room and Outer Space,” featuring works by Michel de Broin, Edward Kienholz, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Zilla Leutenegger, Thomas Mailänder, Ahmet Ögüt, Betsabeé Romero and Andrea Zittel. In the middle, set up as axis of the entire show, is Damian Ortega’s large-scale work “Cosmic Thing,” a VW Beetle exploded through the space. At the entrance of the exhibition the visitors will be able to enjoy a selection of Andrew Bush’s Cardriver portraits “on the move”. An automotive love story compiled by Virgil Widrich out of famous film scenes will run continuously in the museum auditorium during the show.

Mel Ramos, Kar Kween, 1964 © 2011 Pro Litteris, Zurich photo: Lee Stalsworth

Museum Tinguely has several works in its collection that were directly inspired by cars or that use car parts as material. Jean Tinguely was a great devotee of the “most beautiful artwork” in the world. He for example converted two racecar chassis into a winged altar, warned of the transience of western consumer culture by means of a drivable sculpture crafted from a Renault Safari, and arranged Eva Aeppli’s “Five Widows” with a Lotus racecar he had purchased (once driven by world champion Jim Clark) into a memorial assemblage for the often-fatal driving circus that is the Formula 1. For Tinguely as a Nouveau Réaliste, a great passion for speed and for the machine (he was notorious early on for his many car accidents) flowed into his work, and he hardly ever missed a Formula 1 race. Jo Siffert was a friend, as was the Swede Joakim Bonnier and racer Niki Lauda. Tinguely fanatically collected cars, preferably Ferraris, liked to drive Mercedes and decoratively painted a sidecar tandem that he sponsored in races. Restless Jean was – like the Futurists – besotted by the myth of speed. His relationship with the automobile was shaped both by euphoria and pessimism.

Germaine Richier Grand cheval à six têtes, 1954 - 1956 Polished bronze 39 3/8 x 38 x 17 3/8 inches 100 x 97 x 44 cm Signed, numbered, and foundry stamp ‘G. Richier 00/5 L. Thinot fondeur Paris’ © 2011, ProLitteris, Zurich - Galerie Jacques de la Béraudière - Genève

From June 15 to June 19, 2011 – MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel) Ltd
The world’s premier international art show for Modern and contemporary works, Art Basel features nearly 300 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. More than 2,500 artists, ranging from the great masters of Modern art to the latest generation of emerging stars, are represented in the show’s multiple sections. The exhibition includes the highest-quality paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, video and editioned works.

62,500 people attended Art 41 Basel, the last edition of this favorite rendezvous for the global artworld, including art collectors, art dealers, artists, curators and other art enthusiasts.

Meret Oppenheim - Pflanzen - 1954 - Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna

With its world-class museums, outdoor sculptures, theaters, concert halls, idyllic medieval old town and new buildings by leading architects, Basel ranks as a culture capital, and that cultural richness helps put the Art Basel week on the agenda for art lovers from all over the globe. During Art Basel, a fascinating atmosphere fills this traditional city, as the international art show is reinforced with exhibitions and events all over the region.

Located on the banks of the Rhine, at the border between Switzerland, France and Germany, Basel is easily navigated by foot and trams.

Fair Hours

Constantin Brancusi, Muse endormie , 1910, Bronze, polished, 16 x 27.3 x 18.5 cm, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris © 2011, ProLitteris, Zürich"

From May 22nd to August 8th 2011 – Foundation Beyeler
Richard Serra encountered the art of Constantin Brancusi for the first time in 1964-65 – by way of drawings. In Paris on a grant, he visited Brancusi’s reconstructed studio every day and gradually acquainted himself with the underlying principles of his sculpture. Serra was intrigued by the way Brancusi constructed sculptural volumes and his ability to capture three-dimensions by means of highly reduced lineatures. We begin our considerations with this biographical moment and key artistic experience in the hope of facilitating an initial understanding of the works on view. Our basic intention, however, is broader in nature. It seemed to us to be a veritable visual necessity to confront Brancusi’s art, which marked the inception of modern sculpture, with a significant contemporary approach. Astonishing traits in common but also intriguing differences come to light in an immediate experience of the exhibition.

Richard Serra, Fernando Pessoa, 2007–08, Weatherproof steel, 300 x 900.4 x 20.3 cm, Collection of the artist, courtesy Gagosian Gallery © 2011, ProLitteris, Zürich

Accordingly Brancusi’s and Serra’s works meet in an open-ended dialogue, while both can also be understood as comprising a concentrated retrospective of the two oeuvres. An exemplary selection of about 40 Brancusi sculptures is juxtaposed with a superb ensemble of 10 sculptures and a range of works on paper by Serra. These reflect the development of his idea of sculpture over the past forty years, in a form never before seen in Switzerland. This holds for Brancusi, too, to whom a retrospective had yet to be devoted in our country.
Divided into thematic groupings of works, the exhibition avoids strict chronology. It is more like an open-ended game that plays out in the museum spaces, with moments when the sculptures meet directly, but also sequences of rooms devoted to one or the other artist, but whose visual experience is mutually conditioned.
Serra recently referred to Brancusi’s art as a “handbook of artistic possibilities” – and it is just this, as a sum of possiblities, that the dialogue in the present exhibition is intended to be understood.

Museum Hours

06 March to 07 July 2011 – Kunstmuseum Basel
Konrad Witz is one of the most radical innovators in the art of painting of the first half of the fifteenth century. He arrives in Basel in 1434, probably attracted by the international atmosphere created by the ecumenical council of the Christian Church that is held in the city in those years. By 1447 he must have died. During this brief period of little more than a decade he creates a series of grand altarpieces, of which only individual panels survive. These paintings evince a powerful new interest in the outside world as perceived in immediate experience. The significance given to light and shadow, to reflections, to the spatial depth of architectures and landscapes attests to Witz’s familiarity with contemporary Flemish painting.

The exhibition aims to unite the extant monuments of Konrad Witz’s art created by his own hands such as the famous ‘Mirror of Salvation-Altarpiece’ for St. Leonard’s in Basel. More than eighty exhibits, including many loans also from the fields of the graphic arts, wall and glass painting, moreover illustrate the influence Witz exerted on his contemporaries. To this end the traditional art-historical approach has been complemented by a thorough technological analysis of the paintings that produce fascinating insights into workshop practices of the time.

Museum Hours