Until May 20th 2012 – Winnipeg Art Gallery
For the first time ever an exhibition of the work of Norman Rockwell is coming to Canada—and it’s coming to the WAG! One of the most popular North American artists of the past century, Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was a keen observer of human nature and a gifted storyteller. For nearly seven decades, Rockwell chronicled our changing society in the small details and nuanced scenes of ordinary people in everyday life, providing a personalized interpretation—often an idealized one—of North American identity. His depictions offered a reassuring visual haven during a time of momentous transformation as North America evolved into a complex, modern society. In addition to 42 major paintings by the artist depicting good times and bad, quaint pastimes and charged current events, the exhibition includes archival material, photographs, and complete set of 323 tear sheets from The Saturday Evening Post.

Rockwell’s contributions to our visual legacy, many of them now icons of North American culture, have found a permanent place in our psyche. Representing the exhibition’s only Canadian venue, the Winnipeg Art Gallery is partnering with the Norman Rockwell Museum, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to bring a major exhibition of this defining artist to Canada for the first time.

Norman Rockwell (American, 1894-1978). Going and Coming, 1947. Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, August 30, 1947. Oil on canvas. Two panels, each 16 x 31 1/2 in. (40.6 x 80 cm). Norman Rockwell Art Collection Trust. © The Norman Rockwell Estate / ©1947 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, Indiana

Norman Rockwell found success early, being commissioned to design four Christmas cards before his sixteenth birthday. In 1916 the 22-year-old painted his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post, the magazine he considered to be “the greatest show window in America.” Over the next 47 years, Rockwell’s art appeared on the cover of The Post 323 times. Although often seen as a painter of idealized North American family life, Rockwell also chronicled the darker side. His Four Freedoms paintings, inspired by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s address to Congress in 1943, toured the United States in an exhibition sponsored by The Saturday Evening Post and the U.S. Treasury Department and, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $130 million for the war effort. Murder in Mississippi is a haunting depiction of the murder of civil rights workers in 1965. The Problem We All Live With dealt with the issue of school racial integration, depicting a young African American girl, Ruby Bridges, flanked by white federal marshals, walking to school past a wall defaced by racist graffiti.

Gallery Hours

Joseph Mallord William Turner, 'Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Night', 1835. Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Widener Collection 1942.9.86

From March 14 to June 5, 2012 – The National Gallery
The National Gallery’s spring exhibition, Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude, is the first major presentation of Claude’s influence on Turner. Turner’s daring free painting technique and radical approach created a revolution in painting at the beginning of the 19th century. The inspiration for these dramatic developments was the 17th-century artist Claude’s mastery of light on canvas. This exhibition tells the story behind Turner’s inspiration and the revolutionary works that went on to inspire future generations of artists.

The show reveals how Turner’s life-long desire to absorb all he could from the Old Master lay at the heart of his work. From the Roman Campagna-inspired views of the Thames Valley to paintings of the emerging industrial landscape, ‘Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Night’ (1835, National Gallery of Art, Washington), the exhibition demonstrates Turner’s skill at recreating gleaming light and atmosphere.

Turner’s first experience of the work of Claude had an immediate and lasting impact on the artist. A contemporary remarked that, ‘Turner was awkward, agitated and burst into tears’ on seeing Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba (1648, The National Gallery). The combination of natural detail and ethereal effect in masterpieces such as ‘Landscape with the Arrival of Aeneas before the City of Pallenteum’ (1675, National Trust’s Anglesey Abbey) proved irresistible. He was captivated with Claude’s ability to depict light in landscape and praised his work as ‘pure as Italian air’.

The exhibition focuses on the major Claude-inspired themes that run through Turner’s career and that on occasion shocked and dazzled audiences of his day: the evocation of light and air in landscape, the effect of light upon water and his often radical reworking of contemporary scenes. The exhibition brings together a rich variety of media such as large majestic oils on canvas, mezzotints, etchings, watercolours and works in gouache, and displays of leaves from Turner’s pocket sketchbooks that show intimate drawings in pen, pencil and ink on paper, rarely on public display.

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Venice: The Giudecca Canal, Looking towards Fusina at Sunset 1840 - Pencil, watercolour and crayon on paper support: 221 x 323 mm - Tate 2012 - Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856.

The importance of the sea to Britain’s identity is another crucial theme of Turner’s work and Claude’s harbour scenes exerted a powerful hold on his imagination, as shown in works including ‘Le Havre: Sunset in the Port’, (about 1832, Tate) and East Cowes, the Seat of J. Nash, Esq. (about 1827–30, Victoria and Albert Museum). The exhibition includes a selection of Turner’s most spectacular watercolours from the 1840s which depict the unique character of Venetian light.

On his death – and linking himself to Claude for posterity – Turner left the National Gallery Dido building Carthage (1815) and Sun rising through Vapour: Fishermen cleaning and selling Fish (before 1807) on condition that they were hung between two pictures by Claude, which he named as ‘The Seaport’ (Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, 1648) and ‘The Mill’ (Landscape with the Marriage of Isaac and Rebecca, 1648). The exhibition sheds light on this relationship through photographs, letters and works that tell the story behind the Turner Bequest and its importance in the history of the National Gallery.

‘Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude’ unites works from Tate, The Holkham Estate and art galleries and museums around the United Kingdom including Glasgow Museums, Walker Art Gallery Liverpool and Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust, as well as works from the United States. The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with Tate Britain. It has been conceived, and works have been selected, by Ian Warrell, Curator of 18th- and 19th-Century British Art at Tate Britain and known internationally as a leading expert on the subject. The National Gallery curator is Susan Foister.

Gallery Hours

Gopal Samantray Skinn Less IV Acrylic on Canvas 48" x 48"

16th February 2012 to 8th March 2012 – Indigo Blue Art Gallery
Indigo Blue Art is pleased to present Paradigms & Perspectives, a group show featuring five fresh emerging talents from India.

Showcasing a diverse collection of works, the exhibition explores a myriad of expressions and issues ranging from societal changes and expectations to urbanisation, religion, culture and violence.

Artists include Jimmy Chishi, Nabanita Guha, Kundan Mondal, Gopal Samantray and Parag Sonarghare.

Born in Nagaland, Jimmy Chishi (b. 1977) is greatly influenced by the culture of North-East India. He incorporates traditional folklore, storytelling and theology of North-East India with a contemporary twist.

Nabanita Duttaguha Encapsulate frozen frame Acrylic & thread on canvas 36" x 30"

Nabanita Guha (b.1982) employs dark humour to critique the insular and hypocritical values of the middle class society. Her paintings evoke the sensibilities of a pre-modern era and its corresponding value systems through references to old Indian prints and calendar art.

Kundan Mondal (b.1980) tends to arrange his work in a frenzied style, often forming a tapestry of images that takes references from art history, folk art, mythology, and folk tales. Using the metaphor of the cosmic mythical churning of lord Vishnu, Kundan tries to capture the contradictions and complexities that result in the metaphysical ‘churning’ through his paintings.

In his paintings, Gopal Samatray (b.1976) philosophises on the destructive relationship between humans and nature. His animal subjects are portrayed as being detached and alienated from their natural habitats. The perils of global warming and deforestation are revealed, as wild animals make sudden and incongruous appearances in urban spaces, as if they were the reminders of an impending catastrophe.

Parag Sonarghare Imagine it Done Acrylic on Canvas 75" x 30" (each)

Parag Sonarghare (b.1987) feels that we can never exist in a social vacuity. He is aware of the different identities and characters that people often adopt in daily life. He questions the role of identity in an age of technological advancement, where relations between people have become impersonal and distant.

Gallery Hours

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) and workshop, Venus and Adonis. C. 1614, Oil on panel. 83 x 90.5 cm © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Extended to June 15th, 2012 – Hermitage Amsterdam
The current exhibition featuring the great Flemish painters Rubens, Van Dyck & Jordaens is to be extended for three months, until 15 June 2012.
A stunning selection from the Flemish art collection of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. With 75 paintings and about 20 drawings, this definitive survey will include numerous masterpieces by the three giants of the Antwerp School  – Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens – accompanied by the work of well-known contemporaries.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) will be a special focus of the exhibition, represented by 17 paintings and many drawings. Rubens was the most accomplished and influential Flemish painter of the seventeenth century. At the same time, he was known as a charming aristocrat, diplomat, and collector, and his workshop was a smoothly operating business. He was a legend in his day, a homo universalis. Both Rubens’s religious and his secular works illustrate his unequalled talent. One of his masterpieces is the famous Descent from the Cross (c. 1618), which depicts Christ’s suffering with compelling drama. This painting has never before been sent out on loan.

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), Portrait of Sir Thomas Wharton, 1639, Oil on canvas. 217 x 128.5 cm © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

The exhibition will also examine Rubens’s influence and followers in detail, devoting particular attention to the elegant and refined portraits of his greatest pupil, Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641). Around 1638, Van Dyck painted King Charles I of England and his wife, the French princess Henrietta Maria. By that time, he had been serving as the king’s court painter for several years and had been knighted Sir Anthony.

The third great master of the Flemish school, Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678), did not study with Rubens but was influenced by him. His impressive paintings invite viewers to share in his exuberant Flemish joie de vivre. Even his history paintings have a Flemish ambiance.

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), Portrait of Sir Thomas Wharton, 1639, Oil on canvas. 217 x 128.5 cm © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Chirping birds, freshly killed game and floral bouquets grace the still lifes of Frans Snijders, while David Teniers the Younger was renowned for his genre pieces of everyday life. The exhibition will also feature a touching family portrait of Cornelis de Vos and many other major paintings by Flemish masters, displayed in their full glory.

It is the first time that this superb collection will be shown in the Netherlands. Many of these paintings were acquired by Catherine the Great in the eighteenth century. They belonged to world-class collectors such as Pierre Crozat and Heinrich von Brühl, whose collections Catherine purchased in their entirety. Most of them were commissioned by churches and secular patrons in Antwerp and other European cities, and were produced against the backdrop of the Eighty Years’ War and the Counter-Reformation. This Catholic movement, a reaction to the Reformation, encouraged both churches and private individuals to commission sacred art on a large scale. The epic Baroque style of Rubens and his contemporaries made an excellent propaganda tool for the Catholic church, the aristocracy and the wealthy bourgeoisie.

With the aid of an audio tour, a film, and computer displays, the exhibition offers a close look at Flemish art and the history of the Flemish art collection at the St. Petersburg Hermitage. The vitality of seventeenth-century Antwerp comes to life on a special wall of the exhibition that shows painters’ studios, churches, and monuments in word and image. The accompanying catalogue will include essays by Russian and Flemish authors.

Museum Hours

Bradd Westmoreland Garden temple, 2007 oil on linen 162.5 x 188cm

From February 7 to March 3, 2012 – Niagara Galleries
Bradd Westmoreland is compelled to do what he does – to apply paint, or if truth be known, to be the conduit for the paint applying itself to the canvas. Without any hint of a new-age shaman, Westmoreland aims to achieve a certain level of heightened awareness when painting. Not a trance, but a hyper-aware state where there is just him, the brush, the paint and the canvas. How or what appears is spontaneous, natural and, he would say, inevitable.

I just let the painting happen. I am actively not thinking about what I want to paint. It is as if the painting simply appears without physical hesitation, without mental questioning.

Westmoreland just trusts the paint ‘to do its thing’. It takes courage for an artist to almost relinquish control – the canvas is like a pool of water at the bottom of a very big cliff he has just jumped off with the paint as his metaphoric bungy cord. Many entries in Bradd Westmoreland’s painting diaries talk about being brave and effort.

‘Don’t be afraid of the dark’ ‘Never be shy’ ‘Just let it happen’ ‘Don’t try too hard’

Essentially, it is from the order and routine of a structured studio practice – painting, life drawing classes, work diaries – that Westmoreland has the freedom to lose himself in the process of making images. For him it is not about what to paint, but almost what not to paint.

Gallery Hours

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.

Foundation hours and read more