Gauguin’s Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?) is The Most Expensive Painting Ever ($300 Million)

 The French Post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin, travelled to Tahiti for the first time in 1891, with the purpose to find a "primitive" culture and an edenic paradise.
However. he soon discovered that due to colonization, Tahiti was not as he had imagined and that near two-thirds of the indigenous had deceased as a consequence of European-brought diseases.

 Despite this unexpected wipe out of Tahiti's "primitive" culture, Gauguin painted several portraits of native women, either naked, dressed in traditional Tahitian clothes, or dressed in Western-style missionary dresses, as is the case of the rear figure in When Will You Marry?

 Painted in 1892, Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry? depicts two Tahitian native women, one dressed in a traditional Tahitian dress, and the other one in the back showing a serious expression on her face and wearing a mission dress.

 The painting was on loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland for nearly fifty years by its previous owner, Switzerland-based collector Rudolf Staechelin.

 According to news, the painting was acquired by the Royal Family of Qatar, the same buyers of Cézanne's "The Card Players" in 2012, for €263.3 million / $300 million.
Being true, it's expected to be on display at the Qatar Museum starting in 2016.

 Until then painting will still be on display at a special Gauguin exhibition opening this month in Basel at the Beyeler Foundation, after wich will travel to the Reina Sofía museum in Madrid and the Phillips Collection in Washington. The buyer will take ownership next January, Mr. Staechelin said.

Swiss artist H. R. Giger dies at the age of 74

The renowned Swiss artist H. R. Giger, passed away yesterday in a hospital located in Zurich due to injuries sustained in a fall. He was 74 years old.

Hans Rudolf Giger was a surrealist painter, sculptor and set designer. He was widely known for his creatures and sets created for Ridley Scott's Alien films. As a result, he was awarded with an Oscar for special effects in 1980.
Giger also contributed with his work for Poltergeist II - The Other Side,  Tokyo - The Last Megalopolis, among several other films, as well for the computer game Dark Seed (1995).
He also did some work for recording artists and colaborated with Ibanez Guitars  for the H. R. Giger Signature Models.

Born in 1940, Giger moved to Zurich in1962 where he studied interior and industrial design at the School of Commercial Art in Zurich (from 1962 to 1965).
He had a relationship with Swiss actress Li Tobler untill 1975, when she commited suicide. In 1979 he married Mia Bonzanigo, but the divorced a year and a half later.



The work of the American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft had great influence on H. R. Giger's art. Such is this that his compendium of images Necronomicon (there's a version with an introduction by Clive Barker) is a clear refererence to Lovecraft's made up book with the same name.
The original signed book is housed in the H R Giger museum at the Château St. Germain in Gruyères Switzerland.
Ernst Fuchs and Salvador Dali, to whom he was introduced by painter Robert Venosa were inspirations sources for Gigger who was also a personal friend of Timothy Lear.

Giger started with small ink drawings, then progessed to oil painting. During his career, he worked predominantly in airbush, but also created works with pastels, markers and ink.
Much of his work depicts surreal and monochromatic dreamscapes, often with biomechanical human bodies interconnected with a mechanical world as well as alien species and nightmarish elements. Several erotic references can also be found in his works.

The H. R. Giger Museum, housed in the Château St. Germain in Gruyère, Switzerland, holds a permanent repository of his work.  The artist lived and worked in Zürich with his wife, Carmen Maria Scheifele Giger, who is the Director of the museum.

"Panorama" exhibition at Clube EDP Lisboa

The first solo exhibition of the Portuguese artist José Carrilho, is taking place at the Espaço Aníbal Afonso in the Lisbon branch of the Clube EDP, located at Av. Defensores de Chaves, 4-C (near Saldanha subway station).

 The "Panorama" exhibition features 15 of his best original landscapes and still-lifes, painted in oil and pastel.
It can be visited until April 24th, during week days (9h00 - 18h00). Admission free.

Portuguese architect and painter Nadir Afonso dies at the age of 93

The Portuguese architect and geometric abstractionist painter Nadir Afonso(GOSE) passed away this December 11th 2013 at the age of 93 at the Hospital de Cascais where he was hospitalized. Born on December 4th 1920 in Chaves he made his first "painting" on a wall of his home at the age of four: a red circle, which anticipated his life under the signs of rythim and geometric precision. His dedication to painting during his youth earned him his first national prize with 17 years of age. In 1938, Nadir goes to Oporto to study architecture at the School of Fine Arts. After earning his degree, Nadir Afonso moved to France in 1946 where he studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris and became one of the pioneers in Kinectic art. Having colaborated with Le Corbusier during his stay in Paris and with Oscar Niemeyer in São Paulo between 1951 and 1954, he decides to abandon the architecture and dedicate solely to painting. Nadir returns to Paris where he works alongside Victor Vasarely, André Bloc, Richard Mortensen, Fernand Léger and August Herbin, all part of the Denise René Gallery. He also becomes friends with the composer and architect Xenákis. The first Kinetic painting in Portugal, Espacillimité (1956) is displayed in the publich showing at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in 1958. The painting can now be seen in the Chiado Museum, Lisbon. Nadir Afonso achieved international recognition and many of his works are in museums. His most famous works are the Cities series, depicting placaes around the world. In 2010 he was still actively painting. He was awarded with the Order of St. James of the Sword (Ordem Militar de Sant'Iago da Espada) by the Portuguese Academy of Fine Arts.

Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud sets record price for a painting sold at auction

Painted in 1969 at London's Royal College of Art, after his studio was destroyed in a fire, Francis Bacon's triptych Three Studies of Lucian Freud, as set a new record for a painting sold at auction. The painting was sold at Christie's New York after six minutes of fierce bidding for $142m (£89m, €106m), easily surpassing the previous record of $119.9m (£74m) paid last year for Edvard Munch's The Scream.


 Considered one of Bacon's greatest masterpieces, the triptych marks the friendship between Bacon and Lucian Freud, who got acquainted in 1945 and became close companions, painting each other on a number of occasions.

 This was the first time that the Three Studies of Lucian Freud  had been offered at auction and bidding opened at $80m (£50m, 60m euros). Its presale estimate was $85m (£53m, €64m).

 Exhibited in Francis Bacon's retrospective at the Grand Palais, Paris in 1971-1972, the three panels that form the painting were separated in the mid-1970s.
Later in 1985, one panel was shown at the Tate, before the three sections were reassembled.
The complete work was displayed in New Haven, Connecticut in 1999 and in October this year it got its first ever UK public viewing at Christie's in London.

 The absolute record for a work of art belongs to Cézanne's painting "The Card Players" sold in 2011 for €190 million (£158 million, $250 million) to the royal family of Qatar, beating the previous record of €106.4 million (£88.7  million, $141 million) paid for Jackson Pollock’s “No 5, 1948” sold by David Geffen in 2006. 

"Sunset at Montmajour" attributed to Vincent van Gogh

 It was inventoried among Theo van Gogh's collection of his brother's works in 1890 and then sold by Theo's widow, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger to a Paris art dealer in 1901.
 During the year of 1970, re-emerges as part of the estate of the recently deceased Norwegian industrialist Christian Nicolai Mustad.
However, Mustad was advised by the French ambassador to Sweden that it was not a Van Gogh. As a consequence, "Sunset at Montmajour" was stashed away in the attic, where it stayed until the current owners purchased it from him.

 In 1991, the unsigned painting was taken to the Van Gogh Museum, but at the time the museum experts didn't conclude as authentic.

 About twenty years later, its owners brought back to the museum to seek authentication, and its researchers have been examining it ever since.
Under the supervision of Louis van Tilborgh, the Van Gogh Museum’s senior researcher, it was recently concluded that the work was a genuine van Gogh painting because the pigments correspond with those of van Gogh’s palette from Arles. “This time, we have topographical information plus a number of other factors that have helped us to establish authenticity,” said the museum director,  Mr. Axel Rüger. “Research is so much more advanced now, so we could come to a very different conclusion.”

 Mr. van Tilborgh states that "Sunset at Monmajour" was was painted on the same type of canvas and with the same type of underpainting van Gogh used for at least one other painting of the same area, “The Rocks.” The work was also listed as part of Theo van Gogh’s collection in 1890. It has “180” painted on the back, which corresponds to the number in the collection inventory. “That was the clincher,” he said

 The date of completion of the painting  has been identified as July 4, 1888. This conclusion was based upon a letter that Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother on the next day, where he discribes the scene:

 “Yesterday, at sunset, I was on a stony heath, where very small, twisted oaks grow, in the background a ruin on the hill, and wheat fields in the valley. It was romantic, it couldn’t be more so, à la Monticelli, the sun was pouring its very yellow rays over the bushes and the ground, absolutely a shower of gold. And all the lines were beautiful; the whole scene had charming nobility.”

 The painter moved to Arles in February 1888, where he spent time exploring the landscapes in Provence and doing plein air painting. Van Gogh was particularly fascinated by the flat landscape around the hill of Montmajour, with its rocky outcroppings and hay-colored fields.

In a letter dated July 1888, he said that he had been to Montmajour at least 50 times “to see the view over the plain.”

 Art historian Mr. Leeman, said that “in hindsight, many pointers in his letters and entries in catalogs of the 1900s have been linked to other paintings or misidentified,” adding, “Here, we see a painting that fits those descriptions exactly.”

 Depicting dusk in the hilly, forested landscape of Montmajour, in Provence, with wheat fields and the ruins of a Benedictine abbey in the distance, the 73.3 cm × 93.3 cm (28.9 in × 36.7 in) oil painting was completed during the most important period of van Gogh's life, when he created his significant masterpieces, such as 'Sunflowers,' 'The Bedroom' and 'The Yellow House.'

 "Sunset at Montmajour" will be on display at the van Gogh Museum during one year, starting on September 24, as part of the current exhibition, "Van Gogh at Work," which focuses on other new discoveries about the painter’s artistic development.
According to Mr. Rüger, the current owners have not indicated what they intend to do with it after that.

 This is the first full-size painting by Van Gogh to be discovered since 1928.

The face of "The Origin of the World" may have been found

In exhibition at the Musée D'Orsay, Gustave Courbet's oil painting "L'Origine du Monde" (The Origin of the World) has become famous from the start. Not only because of its subject, but also because of being a witness of the artist's skills in terms of realism  and for the curiosity that has triggered about who the model might have been.

Now, based on the opinion of experts, the French magazine Paris Match, claims the world exclusive of having tracked down the top part of the painting.
Known to the magazine as "John," the owner of the painting informed that he bought it in 2010 for €1400, from a Parisian antiques dealer.

Until now, the Musée D'Orsay has assumed a contrary position to suggestions that there were any missing parts to Courbet's painting. A position that differs from the opinion of Jean-Jacques Fernier, who believes that the recently discovered painting of a woman's head, was cut off the L'Origine du Monde.



Should experts arrive to a consensus that the painting does belong to the Courbet's work hanging at the museum, we will have to wait and see if le D'Orsay shows interest in displaying it and how it will do it.
The owner of the painting has already stated that he would  be most pleased to lend it.

Photo by Philippe Petit, Paris Match

"The Ages of the Sea" at Calouste Gulbenkian

 Organized by the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum with the support of the Musée d’Orsay, the exhibition "Ages of the Sea" (As Idades do Mar) can be visited until January 27th, 2013.

 This major exhibition presents one hundred and nine works created between the sixteenth and the twentieth century, lent by fifty institutions from ten different countries, including public and private collections.

 Based on an historical survey of the visual representation of the Sea, the exhibition seeks to identify the major themes which led to its extensive and recurrent depiction in Western Painting. "Ages of the Sea" developes the concept that provides the title to the project in six sections: ‘The Age of Myths’, ‘The Age of Power’, ‘Sea and Labour’, 'Storms and shipwrecks’, ‘The Ephemeral’, and ‘The Quest for Infinity’.

 Arnold Bocklin, Eugène Boudin, Constable, Courbet, Giorgio de Chirico, Friedrich, Hopper, Fattori, Francesco Guardi, Paul Klee, Claude Lorrain, Manet, Monet, Signac, Sorolla, Turner and Van Goyen, as well as the Portuguese Amadeu de Souza-Cardoso, Henrique Pousão, João Vaz, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva and Menez, are some of the eighty-nine authors represented in the exhibition.

 "Ages of the Sea" can be visited between until January 27th, 2013 (10:00 am - 20:00 pm) at the main buliding of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Av. Berna, 45-A (GPS: 38.738286,-9.154821).
Admission is €5,00.

Renoir's Painting found at a Flea Market in Virginia is Going for Auction

 It's one of those stories that we wish it would happen to us. During a weekend day at the Harpers Ferry Flea Market in Virginia, a Shenandoah Valley woman acquired a box of miscellaneous items - a plastic cow and a Paul Bunyan doll had caught her eye. After taking those two items, the remaining content was put inside a white plastic bag and stored in a shed. Later was moved into her car’s trunk and eventually into her kitchen.

 However, part of the content of the box, was also a painting of a landscape. But the woman wasn't really interested in the painting, but in the frame. She had already tored the brown paper off the back and thrown it in the trash when she asked her mother for help to take the painting from the frame.
Fortunately her mother told her to get the painting looked first before throwing it away. She hardly knew that she was in presence of a genuine Renoir, worth many times more than the price that she had payed for box's content: $50.

 A plaque on the frame with the author's name, led the owner to seek advice with a reliable expert, so she scheduled an appointment with The Potomack Company in Alexandria (VA).

 The painting's radiant plein air quality – the rapid brush strokes, the vibrant purple and pink colors, the Seine as subject matter and the luminous light, reminded fine arts specialist, Anne Norton Craner, of Renoir’s 1879 Landscape of Wargemont.
After further investigation, Craner was able to identify the painting as "Paysage Bords de Seine" (oil on canvas: 5 1/2 x 9 in), one of Renoir’s many river scenes painted along the Seine River near the towns of Bougival and Chatou.

 Anne Craner concluded the painting had been last purchased in 1926 from the Gallerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris, one of the preeminent dealers of Renoir’s work, by international lawyer Herbert L. May, husband of Baltimore arts patron and collector Saidie Adler May. Mrs. May was an important benefactor of the Baltimore Museum of Art, donating over 300 works of art as well as funds to establish the museum’s Renaissance and Modern Art wings.

 In the words of Elizabeth Haynie Wainstein, owner of The Potomack Company, the painting’s journey is a rare story of a lost treasure found, now expected to fetch $75,000-100,000 at auction.
 The painting will be auctioned as Lot 1 on September 29th, included in the Sale 40 - September 29th/30th Auction at Main Gallery.

Gravesend Art Group Annual Exhibition 2012

The Gravesend Art Group will be holding its annual exhibition at the St Andrew's Art's Centre, Royal Pier Road, Gravesend

 Work exhibited will be in a variety of mediums ie watercolour, oil, acrylic, and textile, covering a wide range of subject matter. This year much was given over to Charles Dickens and some of the work exhibited will be Dickens related.
The majority of work will be for sale.

 Also for sale will be post cards and greetings cards (of work done by our members), together with books, of poetry etc (again work done by our members)

 The Gravesend Art Group Annual Exhibition can be visited  from Saturday 25 August to Sunday 2 September 2012.
On weekends and Bank Holiday from 10am to 6pm,  and on week days from 12 noon to 6pm.
Admission is free.

 A preview evening for invited guests will take place on Friday, 24 August. The mayor elect of Gravesham, Councillor Lyn Miller will be opening the exhibition.

"Corto Maltese: Viagem à Aventura" - The artwork of Hugo Pratt

The followers of the worldwide famous comic character Corto Maltese, who is also a reference of the 20th century literature, have the opportunity to see the work of his creator, the renowned Venitian illustrator Hugo Pratt.

 Presented by the Fundação Eugénio de Almeida and commissioned by Stefano Cecchetto and Cristina Taverna, the exhibition "Corto Maltese: Viagem à Aventura" brings to the public, 51 works of art - watercolours, gouache and Indian ink - portraying one of the many adventures of the errant Maltese captain: starting in Venice and passing through Africa, from Samarkand to Polynesia and from the Caribbbean to the Isla Escondida.

 Created in 1967, Corto Maltese is an eponymous character, a romantic anti-hero faithful to his ideals, a restless traveler always looking for remote places to explore, crossing moments of history as his witness.
 Through the adventures of his most famous creation, this exhibition helps the public to become familiarized with the immense work of Hugo Pratt.

"Corto Maltese: Viagem à Aventura" can be visited at the Fórum Eugénio de Almeida (Évora, Portugal), daily between 9h30 and 19h00, until December 2, 2012.    Guided tours, educational services, workshops and family activities at a symbolic price, are available through previous appointment. A Portuguese/English catalogue can also be aquired for €20.

Jubilee Exhibition: 150 Years Gustav Klimt

                                      The Kiss (1907-1908) Oil on canvas

On July 14th, 150 years will have passed since the birth of one of the most famous and admired artists of our time: Gustav Klimt.

 Hosting the largest collection of paintings by the artist worldwide, the Belvedere will present the Jubilee Exhibition: 150 Years Gustav Klimt.
The exhibition will  focus on the significance of each work and the message that conveys to the viewer, and not so much on art historical contexts and stylistic relationships.

 Through an  interdisciplinary approach and descerning selection of objects, complemented with its graphic and multimedia format, the exhibition will take visitors to an entirely new level of understanding on how Gustav Klimt has become a phenomenon not only in art theory, but also in contemporary history over these last 150 years.

 The Jubilee Exhibition: 150 Years Gustav Klimt, will take place between Jul 13, 2012 and Jan 6, 2013 (Daily 10 am to 6 pm - Wednesday 10 am to 9 pm) at the Upper Belvedere’s piano nobile.

"The Bride" (A Noiva) by Joana Vasconcelos at CENTQUATRE (104)

The cultural space CENTQUATRE (104), in Paris, presents from July 5 through September 18, one of the most important works by the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos: "The Bride" (A Noiva; La Mariée).

Considered by the critics and by the artist herself, one of her most iconic works, "The Bride" is a 600 x Ø 300 cm chandelier completed between 2001 and 2005, made from stainless steel, cotton thread, steel wire, and over 14,000 OB tampons. Its reflective look results from the plastic that involves the tampons.

After the refuse by Catherine Pégard, Director of the Palace of Versailles to include the chandelier in the exhibition featuring the artist, with several sculptures in the palace and its gardens, the public will now have the chance to visualize Joana Vasconcelos' acclaimed and sometimes controversial sculpture at CENTQUATRE (104).

The preview will take place this Wednesday, 4th of July at 19h00.

Retrato de Modesto Castillo by Pablo Picasso sells for £2.2 million

 Picasso's oil on linen entitled "Retrato de Modesto Castillo," sold at Christie's London for £2,169,250 ($3,399,215 / €2,691,453) during the Impressionist/Modern Day Sale on June 21, widely surpassing the highest auction house expectations (£100,000 - £150,000).

 The work was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1895 at the age of 13, during the last months of his time living with his family at the 2nd floor of 14 de Payo Gómez, located in Corunna (Coruña, Galicia, North-West Spain),  where his father, José Ruiz Blasco, had acquired a position teaching art.
Picasso's daughter Maya Widmaier-Picasso has confirmed the authenticity of the painting.

 At this stage of his life, Picasso already presented a remarkable draughtsmanship and indubitable talent, clearly shown on this portrait of Modesto Castilla y Casal wearing a Mourish disguise.
Modesto was the natural son - out of matrimony - of Dr. Ramón Pérez Costales.
Born in Oviedo and former Fostering and Fine Arts Minister, Dr. Ramón would become Picasso's first patron.

 Renowned biographer of Pablo Picasso, John Richardson, considers this age a relevant period in the artist's life, when his skills improved soon after his sister's death.
Palau i Fabre, an expert in Picasso when he lived in Corunna (1891-1895), estimates the existance of 15 to 20 works that he considers the first adult ones, completed during this period.

 The work in question follows an interesting path until nowadays: Having deceased with no legitimate inheritors, Dr. Ramón Costalez left his legacy to the maid-servant.
According to art critic Pablo Todela, the painting was bought by the Corunna born painter José María de Labra in late 1940's early 1950's, later selling it to a German museum.
The portrait of Modesto Castilla shows up later as part of the collection of M. Bruh, who acquired the painting through an anonymous bid at Sotheby's, London, 1 July 1964, lot 176, and thence by descent to the owner who decided to sell it at auction through Christie's London.

Consulted source: Article by Ana Rodríguez (La Opinión newspaper, Coruña)

Drawings by Charles-Joseph Natoire at the Nîmes Fine Arts Museum

Son of the sculptor Florent Natoire, Charles-Joseph Natoire (Nîmes, 3 March 1700 -  Castel Gandolfo, 23 August 1777) is considered one of the most important representatives of the French painting of the 18th century and an excellent draughtsman.
 To mark the publication of Natoire's monographe by Susanna Caviglia-Brunel, the Nîmes Fine Arts Museum (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes) presents from 08/06/2012 to 16/09/2012, an exceptional selection of 91 drawings from public and private collections, including the Louvre and the Atger Museum (Montpellier).

 Sanguines, charcoals and washes, have enabled Charles-Joseph Natoire to try the several uses of drawing during his creative process. From the ancient art, going through the study of old masters, drawing from life, as an exercise per se, or as a preparatory study for a more elaborated work of art, Natoire reveals in his drawings the taste for refinement  and a balanced blend of mediums, always in the search for beauty.

  Soon after entering the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1734, Natoire completed a considerable number of royal commissions (in Fontainebleau, Versailles, etc), establishing his reputation as a fine artist. From 1756, he reduced his painting production in favour of the drawings.
He was director of the French Academy in Rome from 1751 to 1775.

 Charles-Joseph Natoire is mostly recognized for the series of the History of Psyche for Germain Boffrand's oval salon de la Princesse in the Hôtel de Soubise, Paris, and for the tapestry cartoons for the series of the History of Don Quixote, woven at the Beauvais tapestry manufacture, most of which are at the Château de Compiègne.

The exhibition can be visited during the following schedule:
Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00

On second Thursday of the month from 10:00 to 21:00

 For more information, please contact:

 Phone: +0033 (0)4 66 67 38 21
 Fax: +0033 (0)4 66 21 29 97

The work of Joana Vasconcelos at Versailles 2012

The long awaited exhibition at Versailles of the renowned Portuguese (born in Paris) artist Joana Vasconcelos opened today, June 19 and will be on view until September 30, 2012.

In the Grand Apartments and in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles, visitors will be able to appreciate 17 of the most famous and iconic works of the artist. Coração Independente Vermelho (2005); Coração Independente Preto (2006); Valquíria Enxoval (2009); Mary Poppins (2010); Marylin (2011), are some of the works being exhibited.

 Eight of them were especially created for the exhibition: Lilicoptère (2012), a real Bell 47 helicopter featuring Arraiolos rugs inside, covered in gold-leaf, hand dyed pink ostrich feathers and Swarovski crystals;Perruque (2012), a work produced in collaboration with Fundação Ricardo Espírito Santo that pays tribute to the 19 children born in the Chambre de la Reine, as an egg shapped sculpture with hair tufts that also represens the wigs and the Fabergé eggs; Le Dauphin (2012) and La Dauphine (2012), two ceramic lobsters from Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro faiences painted with ceramic glaze and covered with azores crocheted lace; Blue Champagne (2012), made with Pommery champagne bottles; Vitral (2012), a 13sqm tapestry executed by the Manufactura de Tapeçarias de Portalegre; Royal Valkyrie (2012), a work that reinterprets the exuberance of Versailles; Golden Valkyrie (2012), considered by the artist as the central work of the exhibition, linking history and contemporary art.

The exhibition can be visited during the following schedule:
Grand Apartments: open everyday except Mondays, 9:00 am - 6:30 pm (last admission: 6:00 pm)
Gardens: open everyday, 8:00 am to 8:30 pm

Tickets:
Grand Apartments: Passport or Palace ticket.
The audioguide, which contains commentaries on several works in the exhibition, is included in the price of the ticket.

Gardens: Free admission, except Musical Fountains Show and Musical Gardens days (Saturdays and Sundays, Public Holidays and some Tuesdays). On these days you can visit the gardens with a Passport or Gardens ticket.

After Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Xavier Veilhan, Joana Vasconcelos is the first woman and the youngest artist to exhibit at the Estate of Versailles. The Joana Vasconcelos Versailles exhibition is curated by Jean-François Chougnet

Catherine Pégard left "The Bride" at the altar

 Catherine Pégard, Director of the Palace of Versailles, declined the work The Bride (A Noiva) by the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos to be exhibited during the "Joana Vasconcelos Versailles in the State Apartments and the gardens" from 19 June to 30 September 2012.

 The Bride is a  600 x Ø 300 cm chandelier made from stainless steel, cotton thread, steel wire, and over 14,000 OB tampons, completed between 2001 and 2005. Its reflective aspect results from the plastic that involves the tampons.
 It's one of the most iconic works by the artist and a tribute to the liberation of the woman's still repressed sexuality by society.
 At the moment, The Bride (A Noiva) belongs to the António Cachola Collection, Elvas, Portugal.

 According to sources, this work was among the artist's first choices for the exhibition and she was surprised by the announcement. Afterall, if there's something that looks good at Versailles is a chandelier.

 Catherine Pégard worked as a political journalist  and as the editor-in-chief of the topical news magazine, Le Point. She was advisor to former French President Nicolas Sarkozy since 2007.
 It was Sarkozy who in 2011 appointed Pégard as Director of the Palace of Versailles (Château de Versailles), despite her lack of cultural credentials and experience in the arts or cultural heritage.

 This nomination was involved in controversy, namely because the previous Director, Jean-Jacques Alliagon, had expressed his wish to continue his mandate, despite being over 65, the legal – and normally obligatory – age for retirement, in spite of numerous exceptions to the rule.
 Currently serving as Minister of Labour, Xavier Darcos was at the time expected to be the successor to the previous director, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, but has since run into problems with a government policy that states French civil servants must retire after 65.

The Musée Maillol presents: Artemisia - Power, Glory and Passions of a Female Painter

On the 8th of July 1593 was born in Rome the eldest daughter of the italian baroque painter Orazio Lomi Gentileschi, Artemisia Lomi Gentileschi.

Artemisia began receiving instruction in the art of painting at a very early age, quite probably by her father. In a letter dated July 3, 1962, adressed by her father to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, he atests his daughter's artistic skills.
The young woman's first ever signature, “ARTEMITIA. / GENTILESCHI. F / 1610”, appears in the lower left hand corner of a "Susanna and the Elders," currently in the Schönborn collection in Pommersfelden, Germany.

At the age of 18, Artemisia is raped by Agostino Tassi, a colleague of Orazio’s. After the rape, Tassi promises to marry the young woman and convinces her to continue a relationship with him for another nine months.

However around March-April 1612, impelled by public morality, though also by personal interest, her father decides do denounce Tassi and make public his rape of Artemisia.
The rape trial of Agostino Tassi opens on March 2 and continues for another seven months, until October 29.

Meanwhile, Orazio Gentileschi sends a letter to the Grand Duchess Christine of Lorraine in Florence about the trial, pleading with her to intervene and to prevent Agostino Tassi from walking free. In that letter, he also proposes to send the Grand Duchess one of his daughter’s paintings to demonstrate her abilities. At this stage, according to her father, Artemisia has already been painting for three years.

The verdict is announced on November 27, 1612: Agostino Tassi is sentenced to a five years exile from Rome‘sub pena triremium,’ as a galley slave. Subsequently, the punishment is judged to have been unfair and Tassi never serves his sentence.

On November 29, 1612 Artemisia marries Pierantonion Stiattesi, a minor artist born in Florence, son of a cobler and brother of Giovan Battista. He was also friend of Orazio.
Their first son, Giovanni Battista, is baptized on September 21, 1613, in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Forence.

While in Florence, Artemisia starts gaining reputation. Among her commissions, there's an Allegory of Inclination commissioned by Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger.
She becomes a member of Florence’s Accademia del Disegno on July 19, 1616, as testified by two documents that also make reference to Orazio. It’s probably over the following years that, thanks to Buonarroti and Matteo Frescobaldi, Artemisia becomes a friend of Galileo Galilei, a member of Accademia del Disegno since 1613 and with whom she would later remain in correspondence.
Along the following years and between several commissions, Artemisia's life and of her family suffers inumerous mishaps.

Artemisia Lomi Gentileschi was quite probably deceased between 1652 and 1654; a document dated from January 31, 1654, provides proof of the collaboration between Artemisia and Palumbo.
According to 17th to 19th century sources, Artemisia was buried in the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini in Naples. The precise location of the grave remains uncertain, as the headstone bearing the simple inscription “HEIC ARTIMISIA” had already disappeared when restoration work was carried out in 1785.

From March 14th throughout July 15th, 2012, the Musée Maillol - Fondation Dina Vierny,Paris, presents the major exhibition "Artemisia - Power, glory and passions of a female painter" (Artemisia - Povoir, gloire et passions d'une femme peintre."
The exhibition includes a significant number of paintings from several important museums and galleries in Italy and abroad, as well from private art collections.

Un Univers Intime - Paintings in the Frits Lugt Collection

The full scope of the Frits Lugt Collection - Fondation Custodia will be on dsplay for the first time at the Institut Néerlandais in Paris.

Expanded in the last two years, including an acquisition of nearly 60 oil sketches on paper from the bequest of Carlos van Hasselt (1929-2009), former director of the Fondation Custodia, the exhibition brings to the public a wealthy selection of 115 paintings, including masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age, together with Flemish, Italian, French and Danish paintings, from a collection created gradually, with great passion and discernment, over nearly a century.

Recognized by its the Dutch Golden Age paintings that included works from Nicolaes Berchem (1620-1683), Jan van Ravesteyn (c. 1572-1657), Jan Lievens (1607-1674), Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), Ambrosius Bosschaert the Younger (1609-1645), Nicolaes Maes (1634–1693 (buried)) and Jacob Vrel(active around 1654-1670), the Frits Lugt Collection spans a range of famous works by renowned artists such as the British Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828); Martinus Christian W. Rørbye (1803-1848), Johan Thomas Lundbye (1818-1848) and Vilhelm Kyhn (1819-1903) from Danmark; Jacques Linard (around 1600-1645) and Nicolas de Largillière (1656-1746)from France; and the Italian painters Francesco Guardi (1712-1792), Cristoforo Munari (1667-1720), Francesco Guardi (1712-1792) and the famous female artist Sophonisba Anguissola (around 1535-1625).

Visitors will also have the opportunity to view works from the Silver Age, as historians call the Dutch 18th century, that include landscapes and city views by artists such as Jan ten Compe (1713-1761) and Hendrik Pothoven (1725/28-1807), as well as works of the 19th century from Josephus Augustus Knip (1777-1847, (1844-1910) and Jozef Israëls (1824-1911), the last two protagonists of the Hague School caracterized by Dutch landscapes and interiors.
A reference must be made to George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923), first affiliated to the Hague School, later settled in Amsterdam.
A painter and photographer, friend of Van Gogh, Breitner is one of the major Dutch artists at the close of the 19th century and certainly the most gifted.

The Flemish artists are well repesented through the Brueghel dynasty with works from Jan Brueghel the Elder, often known as the “Velvet” Brueghel (1568-1625) and Jan van Kessel the Elder (1626-1679), grandson of the “Velvet“ Brueghe, in a total of 25 paintings including from David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) and Pieter Lastman (1583 - 4 April 1633 (buried))

Also included and on display for the first time, are the recently acquired works from Eugène Isabey (1804-1886) and Achille Etna Michallon (1796-1822), the teacher of Corot.

In the last year and a half a great deal of attention has been devoted to the condition of the paintings in the collection and many of the works in exhibition as well as frames were cleaned and restored when necessary, which besides reassuring that the majority of the paintings are very well preserved, it also revealed a lot of information about technique.

Press visit: Wednesday 29 February from 12 pm to 2 pm
Public opening: Wednesday 29 February from 6 pm to 8.30 pm

"Un Univers intime" The Paintings of the Frits Lugt Collection, can be visited at the Institut Néerlandais, Paris, between 1st March and 27th May 2012 (Tuesdays to Sundays, from 1 pm to 7 pm).

Admission: Adults 6 €, Discount 4 €.

Antoni Tàpies passed away at the age of 88

Born in Barcelona, 13 December 1923, Antoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tàpies, was son of lawyer Josep Tàpies i Mestre, and María Puig i Guerra, Antoni Tàpies studied law during 3 years, but from 1943 onwards he starts devoting himself to painting.

In 1948, Tàpies helps co-found the first Post-War Movement in Spain known as Dau al Set, headed by its founder the poet Joan Brossa and connected to the Surrealist and Dadaist Movements.

Tàpies held his first solo exhibition in 1950, at Galeries Laietanes (Barcelona) and participated in the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh. That same year, the French government awarded Tàpies a scholarship that enabled him to spend a year in Paris.
His work would be ardently promoted in Europe and beyond by the influential French critic and curator Michel Tapié.

Influenced by Paul Klee and Joan Miró, he stated essentialy a self-taught surrealist painter. However he would become an informal artist, working in a style known as pintura matèrica, in which non artistic materials are incorporated into the paintings, also known as matière painting, or Art Informel. His work is associated with both Tachisme and Abstract Expressionism.

On 9 April 2010, Tàpies was raised into the Spanish nobility by King Juan Carlos I with the hereditary title of Marquess of Tàpies.

The Fundació Tàpies, in Barcelona, is a museum dedicated to the life and work of the artist. He is represented by The Pace Gallery in New York.

Antoni Tàpies i Puig passed away today 6 January 2012. He was 88 years old.

These are sad news for the arts in particularly for the Iberian Peninsula, after yesterday's death of the Portuguese artist Fernando Lanhas, also aged 88.