Arts Summary

June 7, 2020

Reencounter at Museo Nacional del Prado, June 6 – November 29, 2020

“The Museo del Prado is reopening with a spectacular new installation of its permanent collection. The Central Gallery, an extensive architectural space flooded with natural light, now becomes the principal axis for this new hanging which includes the majority of the collection’s most iconic works, offering a unique and unprecedented experience.

This new installation, comprising 249 works, follows a principally chronological order from the 15th century to the dawn of the 20th century. Given its exceptional nature, however, the emphasis on national schools has been reduced in favour of establishing dialogues between artists and paintings separated by time and place: associations that suggest influences, admiration and rivalries and which emphasise the profoundly self-referential nature of the Museo del Prado’s collections.

‘Reencounter’ evokes the type of display that existed when the Museo del Prado first opened to the public.” ― Museo Nacional del Prado

Exhibition views of “Reencounter”.

Room 24. Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado

Room 12. Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado

Room 32. Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado

Room 28. Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado

Room 8B. Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado

Title image: “Reencounter”. Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado.

Images courtesy Museo Nacional del Prado.

June 6, 2020

Fondazione Prada, Milan, reopened June 5, 2020

Fondazione Prada reopened its doors in Milan on June 5, 2020. After the interruption of activities due to the health emergency, the exhibition program of the Milan venue is modified. The exhibition spaces will be accessible to the public from Friday to Sunday, from 10 am to 7 pm. Audience will be able to visit the three temporary exhibitions “K”, “The Porcelain Room”, and “Storytelling”.

“K”, a project that explores the literary universe of Franz Kafka through the works of Martin Kippenberger, Orson Welles, and Tangerine Dream, is extended until October 25, 2020.

Martin Kippenberger. The Happy End of Franz Kafka’s “Amerika,” 1994. Mixed media (chairs, tables, and other objects), electric cables, green base painted with white lines, two bleachers. c. 30 x 20 m. Private collection. For this installation also Memphis and Private collection, Milan © Estate of Martin Kippenberger, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne

Orson Welles. The Trial, 1962. 118 min. English with Italian subtitles. Distributed by Filmauro. Screened in loop from 10:15 am to 6:15 pm

Tangerine Dream. Franz Kafka, the Castle, 2013. 69 min. Produced by Edgar Froese. Distributed by Eastgate Music & Arts, Berlin. Played in loop

“The Porcelain Room”, an artistic investigation on the historical context, purpose and impact of Chinese export porcelain, is extended until January 10, 2021.

Exhibition views of “The Porcelain Room – Chinese Export Porcelain”. Curated by Jorge Welsh and Luísa Vinhais. Fondazione Prada, Milan. Photos: Delfino Sisto Legnani.

“Storytelling”, a solo show devoted to artist Liu Ye, is extended until January 10, 2021.

Fondazione Prada, Milano - Storytelling 1

Liu Ye. The Little Match-seller, 2004. Acrylic on canvas, 220 x 180 cm. M+, Hong Kong

Fondazione Prada, Milano - Storytelling 2

Liu Ye. Left: Mondrian in the Morning, 2000. Acrylic on canvas, 180 x 180 cm. Private Collection, Beijing. Right: Prelude, 2018. Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 cm. Private Collection, Beijing

Fondazione Prada, Milano - Storytelling 3

Liu Ye. Catherine Deneuve, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 45 cm. Private Collection, Beijing

Fondazione Prada’s website and social channels will continue to operate as a laboratory of ideas and a flexible and creative platform where new digital projects such as “Love Stories”, conceived by Francesco Vezzoli for Fondazione Prada’s Instagram account and running until July 19, 2020, will be developed.

The venetian outpost of Ca’ Corner della Regina and Osservatorio in Milan will reopen to the public in 2021.

Title image: Fondazione Prada, Milan. Photo by Bas Princen.

Images courtesy Fondazione Prada.

June 5, 2020

Tetsumi Kudo: Cultivation at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, through August 16, 2020

“Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo (1935-1990) was a radical and visionary outsider. Almost forgotten until recently, Kudo is being rediscovered internationally due to his foreboding depictions of an ailing world and the emergence of a ‘new ecology’.

This exhibition’s laboratory of remarkable cultivation environments allows us to study Kudo’s radiantly coloured and grotesque propositions for the cultivation of life in a world, where humans, technology and polluted nature have merged.

By combining found materials and modelled elements into peculiar sculptures, Kudo conspicuously anticipated many of the aesthetic trends we see in contemporary art as well as the present-day penchant for the surreal and grotesque. His works also appear strikingly relevant in the cultural and political agendas of today when it comes to e.g. environment and procreation.

Kudo’s work is affected by a childhood in Japan in the aftermath of the atomic bomb. His approach to humanity’s self-destruction and ecological decadence however is both unsentimental and even quite humorous in its dealing with how new life can develop in spite of everything.” ― Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

Tetsumi Kudo. Cultivation by Radioactivity in the Electronic Circuit, 1968. Mixed media. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art ©Tetsumi Kudo Adagp, Paris 2020 / VISDA

Tetsumi Kudo. Cultivation by Radioactivity in the Electronic Circuit, 1968. Mixed media. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art ©Tetsumi Kudo Adagp, Paris 2020 / VISDA

Tetsumi Kudo. Pollution – Cultivation – New Ecology (Portrait of Ionecso), 1971. Assemblage: Mixed media. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art © Tetsumi Kudo Adagp, Paris 2020 / VISDA

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Tetsumi Kudo. Cultivation by Radioactivity, 1967. UV tube, papier maché, paint, wire, 175 x 63 x 50 cm. Collection Fabre. Photo: documenta archiv / Fabian Frinzel © Tetsumi Kudo / Adagp, Paris 2020 / VISDA

KT1968-007 (Cultivation by Radioactivity in the Electronic Circuit (Pink Flower))v2_JE

Tetsumi Kudo. Cultivation by Radioactivity in the Electronic Circuit (Pink Flower), 1968. Plastic, plexi glass, polyester, 65 x 25 x 25 cm. Courtesy of Andrea Rosen Gallery. Photo: Jessica Eckert © Tetsumi Kudo / Adagp, Paris 2020 / VISDA

KT1970-009 (Cultivation by Nature - People Who Are Looking at it)v1 Jeremy Lawson

Tetsumi Kudo. Cultivation by Nature & People Who Are Looking at It, 1970-71. Plastic bucket, plastic, mirrored glass, papier maché, cotton, artificial soil, resin, adhesive, paint, artificial hair, 36 x 23 x 23 cm. Private Collection © Tetsumi Kudo / Adagp, Paris 2020 / VISDA

Tetsumi Kudo. Bonheur, 1974. Happiness, 1974. Cage, paint, artificial soil, plastic flowers, cotton, plastic, resin, string, cigarettes, thermometer, Aspro tablets, circuit board, 29 x 48 x 22 cm. Courtesy of Andrea Rosen Gallery. Photo: Lance Brewer © Tetsumi Kudo / Adagp, Paris 2020 / VISDA

Tetsumi Kudo. Paradise, 1980. Cage, paint, plastic flower, plastic, metal coins, resin, 78 x 36 x 20,3 cm. Private Collection, Courtesy Andrea Rosen Gallery. Photo: Lance Brewer © Tetsumi Kudo / Adagp, Paris 2020 / VISDA

Tetsumi Kudo. Flowers, 1967-68. From: Garden of the Metamorphosis in the Space Capsule, 1968. 10 artificial flowers, paper, iron. Private Collection, Courtesy Hauser & Wirth and Andrea Rosen Gallery © Tetsumi Kudo / Adagp, Paris 2020 / VISDA

Tetsumi Kudo. Human Bonsai – Freedom of Deformity – Deformity of Freedom, 1979. Artificial soil, resin, plastic, wood, paint, cotton, wire, metal chain, glass beads, 39 x 74 x 22 cm. Private Collection, Courtesy Hauser & Wirth and Andrea Rosen Gallery © Tetsumi Kudo / Adagp, Paris 2020 / VISDA

Tetsumi Kudo: Cultivation is organized and curated by Tine Colstrup.

Images courtesy Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark.

June 1, 2020

Richard Artschwager at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, through Autumn, 2020

“The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents the exhibition Richard Artschwager, a unique occasion to survey the creative career of Richard Artschwager (Washington, D.C., 1923 – Albany, New York, 2013), an artist who worked halfway between painting and sculpture and who developed a unique language using the new domestic materials of his time. This ambitious project, conceived by world-renowned curator Germano Celant and co-organized by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and MART – Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, comprises almost 70 pieces alongside a selection of rarely-seen archival documentation.

Designed as an open labyrinth highlighting the main nuclei of Artschwager’s oeuvre, the exhibition features a comprehensive selection of paintings and sculptures dating from the early 1960s to the first decade of the 21st century: from his first wood and Formica structures and paintings on Celotex to his nylon-bristle sculptures and ‘corner pieces,’ including works in horsehair and so-called blps, which the artist began making in 1968 and displaying individually or on a citywide scale. Artschwager, who had a crucial experience as a cabinetmaker at the beginning of his career, always worked toward the fusion of figuration and abstraction, artistic innovation and design, and ironically sought to combine the functional and the useless.” ― Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Richard Artschwager. Table and Chair, 1963-64. Melamine and wood. 755 x 1320 x 952 mm. Object: 1143 x 438 x 533 mm. Tate: Purchased 1983. Photo: Tate © Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Museum Ludwig, ML, Richard Artschwager, Apartment House, ML/SK 5161, KÃ¶ln

Richard Artschwager. Apartment House, 1964. Liquitex, Celotex, Formica. 177 x 126.5 x 16 cm. Museum Ludwig, Köln. Donation Collection Ludwig, 1976 © Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Richard Artschwager. Fabrikhalle, 1969. Acrylic paint on drywall and chipboard, HPL. 73.30 x 92.60 x 7 cm. Museum Ulm – Stiftung Sammlung Kurt Fried. Photo: Armin Buhl © Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Richard Artschwager. Tower III (Confessional), 1980. Formica and oak. 152.5 x 119 x 81.1 cm. Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, permanent loan to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel. Photo: Bisig & Bayer, Basel Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Richard Artschwager. Two Point Perspective, 1994. Acrylic on Celotex, Formica on wood, acrylic on wood. 136 x 139 x 5 cm. Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Heinz and Marianne Ebers-Stiftung © Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Richard Artschwager. Door }, 1983-84. Acrylic and lacquer on wood and glass, metal, two parts. 207.6 x 165.1 x 24.8 cm. Collection Kerstin Hiller and Helmut Schmelzer, on loan to Neues Museum Nürnberg. Photo: Annette Kradisch © Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Richard Artschwager. Search for Tomorrow, 2004. Acrylic and fiber panel on artist’s frame. 120.6 x 189.2 cm. Private collection © Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Richard Artschwager. Exclamation Point, 2010. Plastic bristles on a mahogany core painted with latex. 165.1 × 55.9 × 55.9 cm. Private collection. Courtesy Gallery Xavier Hufkens, Brussels. Photo: Allan Bovenberg © Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Richard Artschwager. Standing woman (Dirne), 1999. Acrylic, rubberized hair on Masonite. 213.4 x 114.3 x 6.4 cm. Private collection, Vienna © Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Richard Artschwager. City of Man, 1981. Acrylic and charcoal on Celotex and plastic laminate with plexiglass. 197.5 × 458 × 13.3 cm. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Promised gift of Emily Fisher Landau P.2010.17.a-c © Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Richard Artschwager. Portrait Zero, 1961. Wood, screws, and rope. 114.9 x 68.7 x 14 cm. Sammlung Michalke, Germany © Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Richard Artschwager. Weave (Green), 1991. Acrylic and Celotex on panel. 171.2 x 131 x 9 cm. Courtesy Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, Napoli. Photo: Luciano Romano © Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Richard Artschwager. Table Prepared in the Presence of Enemies II, 1992. Wood, metal, screws and Formica. The SYZ Collection, Switzerland © Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Richard Artschwager. Splatter Table, 1992. Laminate, wood, aluminum. Variable dimensions. Collection S.M.A.K., Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst Ghent © Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Richard Artschwager. This Way – That Way, 2012. Acrylic on handmade paper on soundboard. 130 x 116.8 cm. Augustus and Clara Artschwager Collection, Courtesy of Gagosian © Estate of Richard Artschwager, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2020

Richard Artschwager was curated by Germano Celant and Manuel Cirauqui, curator of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

Images courtesy Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

May 29, 2020

Memos. On Fashion in This Millennium at Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, through September 28, 2020

“The project, in the form of an exhibition and a catalogue, aims to spark off a series of reflections on contemporary fashion, its qualities and its attributes, taking as its starting point Italo Calvino’s Six Memos for the Next Millennium, the series of Charles Eliot Norton Poetry Lectures that the writer was supposed to give at Harvard University in the autumn of 1985. Calvino died suddenly in September of the same year, but his wife Esther decided to publish what he had written for them. Thus the incisive and inclusive word Memos has been chosen as the title of the exhibition.

Reading Calvino today raises a fundamental question: can fashion, given its nature as a cultural industry, as a system of communication, as a rich, hybrid and problematic territory, be considered a scientific and poetic practice, and therefore a naturally literary one? So the exhibition uses Calvino’s words as devices to reflect on what has changed and what has stayed the same in fashion. Memos also evokes the legendary typewritten notes Diana Vreeland used to make when she was editor of the American edition of Vogue. Notes, intended for the editorial staff, that sum up the speed with which Vreeland’s imagination operated. Notes that functioned as mood boards made up of words.

The selection of objects: the clothes, magazines and ephemera that are part of the stories told by fashion, and that help to organize the exhibition into a sequence of three-dimensional ‘memos’, include among other things clothes designed by the most important fashion designers.” ― Museo Poldi Pezzoli

Installation views of Memos. On Fashion in This Millennium.

Memos. On Fashion in This Millennium was conceived and curated by Maria Luisa Frisa. Exhibition project was by Judith Clark. Visual design was by Stefano Tonchi.

Images courtesy Museo Poldi Pezzoli.

May 28, 2020

Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, through Autumn, 2020

“The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents Olafur Eliasson: In real life, a survey of the career of Olafur Eliasson (1967), one of today’s most prominent artists. Through around 30 works created between 1990 and 2020 – including sculptures, photographs, paintings, and installations – the exhibition challenges the way we navigate and perceive our environment, leading us to reflect on the urgent issues of today.

Eliasson’s art derives from an interest in perception, movement, embodied experience, and feelings of self. Central to his artistic practice are his concern with nature, inspired by time spent in Iceland; his research into geometry; and his ongoing investigations into how we perceive, feel about, and shape the world around us. His practice extends beyond making artworks and exhibitions to include public interventions and architectural projects.” — Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Olafur Eliasson. Beauty, 1993. Spotlight, water, nozzles, wood, hose, pump. Dimensions variable. Installation view: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2020. Photo: Erika Ede. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles © 1993 Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson. Moss wall, 1994. Reindeer moss, wood, wire. Dimensions variable. Installation view: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2020. Photo: Erika Ede. Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles © 1994 Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson. Room for one colour, 1997. Monofrequency lamps. Dimensions variable. Installation view: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2020. Photo: Erika Ede. Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles © 1997 Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson. Model room, 2003. Wood table with steel legs, mixed media models, maquettes, prototypes. Dimension variable. Installation view: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2020. Photo: Erika Ede. Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Purchase 2015 funded by The Anna-Stina Malmborg and Gunnar Höglund Foundation © 2003 Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson. Your atmospheric colour atlas, 2009. Fluorescent lights, color filter foil (red, green, blue), aluminum, steel, ballasts, haze machine. Dimensions variable. Installation view: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2020 ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark © 2009 Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson. Your uncertain shadow (colour), 2010. HMI lamps (green, orange, blue, magenta), glass, aluminium, transformers. Dimension variable. Installation view: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2020. Photo: Erika Ede. Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Vienna © 2010 Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson. In real life, 2019. Aluminum, color-effect filter glass (green, yellow, orange, red, pink, cyan), bulb, LED light. Diameter 208 cm. Installation view: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2020 Photo: Erika Ede. Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles © 2019 Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson. Big Bang Fountain, 2014. Water, strobe light, pump, nozzle, stainless steel, wood, foam, plastic, control unit, dye. 165 x 160 x 160 cm. Installation view: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2020. Photo: Erika Ede. Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles © 2014 Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson. The glacier melt series, 1999/2019, 2019. 30 C-prints, each 31 x 91 x 2.4 cm. Installation view: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2020. Photo: Erika Ede. Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles © 2019 Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson. The presence of absence pavilion, 2019. Bronze, 200 x 100 x 100 cm. Installation view: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2020. Photo: Erika Ede. Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles © 2019 Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson. Waterfall, 2019. Scaffolding, water, wood, plastic sheet, aluminium, pump, hose. Height 11 metres; diameter 12 metres. Installation view: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2020. Photo: Erika Ede. Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles © 2019 Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life was organized by the Tate Modern in collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. It was curated by Mark Godfrey, Senior Curator, International Art, Tate Modern, and Lucía Agirre, Curator, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

Images courtesy Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

May 19, 2020

Willi Smith: Street Couture at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, through October 25, 2020*

“Founder of the iconic brand WilliWear, Smith aimed to democratize fashion through affordable styles that could be worn across seasons. Quality of materials, durability and craftsmanship were paramount to the brand. His clothes moved from the office to the dance floor, blending exaggerated shoulders with harem pants, layering color and pattern, and blurring gender boundaries. WilliWear’s collaborations with Christo and Jeanne Claude, Nam June Paik, Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, Dan Friedman, SITE and many more aimed to bring avant-garde art and design to the everyday consumer.

The exhibition features key works by this pioneer of streetwear fashion and explores Smith’s efforts to champion inclusive fashion and lifestyle through innovative partnerships with artists, designers and performers.” — Cooper Hewitt

“Cooper Hewitt’s team realized early on in our research that while the depth of Willi Smith’s story may be missing from the history books, it is vividly alive in the minds of his family, friends, collaborators and admirers,” said Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, curator of contemporary design and Hintz Secretarial Scholar at Cooper Hewitt. “Smith’s community revealed to us that he was more than a designer—he was an activist, an entrepreneur, a cultural catalyst and a confidant. This digital archive extends an open invitation to the public to rectify history by taking an active role in shaping an understanding of Smith’s influence.”