Category: ART

A 315 year first: The National Gallery London brings Titian’s work back together

National Gallery London Titian

The National Gallery in London is doing something that hasn’t been done in a very, very, very long time. They’re bringing five works by Titian back together for their latest exhibition, Titian: Love, Desire, Death from 16 March to 14 June next year. MORE: The National Gallery’s celebrating Artemisia Gentileschi What does it mean? Well, five of Titian’s greatest works – he was regarded as the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school – of large-scale mythological paintings, known as the poesie, will be brought together for the first time since 1704 at the National Gallery, which for fans of the period is quite the thing. The pieces were painted between around 1551 to 1562 and are amongst the most original visual interpretations of Classical myth of the early modern era and are touchstone works in the history of European painting for their rich, expressive rendering. The paintings that’re being brought together are: Danaë (1551–3, The Wellington Collection, Apsley House) Venus and Adonis (1554, Prado, Madrid) Diana and Actaeon (1556-9) Diana and Callisto (1556-9) Rape of Europa (1562) from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.   The National Gallery’s own Death of Actaeon (1559-75), originally conceived as part of the series, but only executed much later and never delivered, will also be included in London. See more about the exhibition to come and plan your visit to the Gallery at their website. Feature image credit: Apollo

Chinese Terracotta Warriors on display with Cai Guo-Qiang’s ‘The Transient Landscape’ at Melbourne’s NGV

Terracotta-Warriors-NGV-2

It was back in December that news the Chinese Terracotta Warriors were coming to Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria and now, the time’s come. Presented alongside of one of the most exciting Chinese contemporary artists of our time, Cai Guo-Qiang, the Terracotta Warriors are back at the NGV for the second time in history, for the enjoyment of art lovers who’re after a journey through history and a celebration of contemporary Chinese art. Cai Guo-Qiang’s exhibition, The Transient Landscape, is a presentation of all new art works inspired by his home country’s culture and its enduring philosophical traditions, including a monumental installation of 10,000 suspended porcelain birds. It’s quite epic to see. Exclusive to Melbourne and presenting nearly 170 works, the exhibition will offer a new perspective on Chinese culture, past and present and features 8 life-size Terracotta Warriors and monumental new works by Cai Guo-Qiang including, Murmuration (Landscape) 2019. See the exhibition at the NGV International from 24 May 2019 – 13 October 2019. Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality | Cai Guo-Qiang: The Transient Landscape from NGV on Vimeo.

National Gallery London presents Leonardo’s Legacy: Francesco Melzi and the Leonardeschi

National Gallery Leonardeschi 1

It’s been a hot minute since Leonardo da Vinci died (500 years), so the National Gallery London is doing something to commemorate him. They’re presenting a bunch of work from artists called the Leonardeschi, who’re basically disciples of the famed artist. On loan, the Gallery has secured the work Flora by Francesco Melzi from the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, which it’ll display close to The Virgin of the Rocks and The Burlington House Cartoon, both by Leonardo, that can be seen in Gallery 66 of the National Gallery. “We are excited to have loaned Flora by Francesco Melzi to the National Gallery and to see her as the central focus of this fascinating display which explores the work of Leonardo’s closest friends and disciples. This represents the first time that Flora has been seen outside of Russia since it was restored by Maria Shulepova, revealing details and rich colouring which had been lost for decades under layers of old varnish,” said professor Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage Museum. The painting is being displayed alongside ten other key works by the so-called ‘Leonardeschi’ from the National Gallery Collection in a free, month-long display in Room 12. This is the first time the painting has been seen in the UK and the first time it has been seen outside of Russia since its restoration. Its restoration was just what the work needed. Undertaken in Russia, it uncovered the picture’s true colours of ultramarine blue and hidden details like flowers growing from the walls of the dimly lit… Read More

Mine: Mona’s new exhibition explores extraction

Mona Mine

Until 13 April next year, Mona will explore the concept of mining and its varying forms. Super topical with conversations around the Adani Mine in Queensland circulating and the constant mining of individuals’ data for commercial use, it’s a range of work that is sure to stir-up excitement for the Hobart gallery. From 8 June 2019, Simon Denny’s deep dig into the topic of extraction will star sculpture, a giant board game and augmented reality in a series of works that that draw inextricable links between resource and data mining. It’ll mark the largest exhibition by the New Zealand artist to date. Exploring themes of work and automation, the exhibition takes the Australian mining industry as a case study to interrogate the effects of technology on human labour. In Mine, Denny—whose previous work has examined cryptocurrency, capitalism and surveillance—connects mineral and resource mining with the more opaque world of data collection. Setting these extractive practices against a backdrop of colonisation, ethics and economics, Mine reflects on them in terms of both hope and anxiety about the environment, technology, and development. See more and make your next trip to mona a reality at the Mona website. Mine will open on 8 June 2019 and runs until 12 April 2020. The exhibition is curated by Jarrod Rawlins with Emma Pike from Mona.

Nicolaes Maes is the Dutch Master of the Golden Age coming to the National Gallery London

Nicolaes Maes National Gallery

From 22 February 2020, the work of Dutch Master Nicolaes Maes will grace the ground floor galleries of the National Gallery, right in the heart of London. It’ll make for what’s to be the first exhibition exclusively devoted to the man who died in 1693, taking on loans from private collections around the world. Made up of 35 pieces of work in paint and lead, the exhibition will take you on a journey through the life and learnings of a creative, considered one of the star pupils of renowned Dutch Golden Age Baroque artists, Rembrandt. What’s Maes known for? Maes was fond of works that depicted genre scenes, portraits, religious compositions and still lifes, many of which make up the bulk of next year’s exhibition. He was a pioneer of the theme of the eavesdropper; his carefully styled narratives often break the fourth wall, making the viewer a participant in the scene, as characters (often a maid) eavesdrop or point to illicit goings-on. To end the exhibition, it’ll focus on the period from 1673 when Maes settled in Amsterdam and abandoned domestic genre scenes to devote himself almost exclusively to portraits. A group of these lesser-known works will show how he brought a Van Dyckian elegance and swagger to the portraits.  The exhibition will run until 31 May 2020. See more from the National Gallery at the website.

Bill Henson’s first solo exhibition in seven years in Sydney at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery

Bill Henson

On Friday 17 May, Sydney’s Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery will present a solo exhibition of new works by Bill Henson marking the first exhibition of Henson’s first in Sydney in seven years. Henson had his first solo exhibition, at the age of 19, at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1975. The gallery now has over 100 Henson works and his work is held in every major public collection in Australia and many overseas collections including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum and so many more. Reviewing the Bill Henson exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017, the critic John McDonald wrote: “…Entering the transformed gallery from a room of French 19th century art, the impact is stunning…. Ineffability is the keynote of Henson’s work. Even the most detailed description would not prepare viewers for the experience of standing in front of these images in a darkened room…. The landscapes are deceptively straightforward at first glance….Yet the complexity of taking the picture from exactly the right position with the right quality of light is immense. It’s one of the miracles of art that the most difficult and complicated processes result in works of pristine simplicity…” Exhibition opens Friday 17 May 6-8pm and continues until Saturday 8 June 2019.

Eat The Problem: MONA’s Kirsha Kaechele opens the new exhibiton

Mona Eat The Problem Kirsh Kaechele dining table

Everything you’d be loathed to see in your kitchen, presented in a striking contemporary compendium of graphic imagery, inspiring recipes, underpinned by social-political commentary: this is Eat The Problem. A book and exhibition by Kirsha Kaechele from MONA in Hobart – read more about the gallery here – Eat The Problem is a sensory experience of overloaded proportions, forcing its viewers to see, feel, smell and taste like never before. Or at least, insanely rarely. Fuelled by the reality that faces the Australian ecological system, that is invasive species, creatures and experiences, the Eat The problem exhibition startles visitors through dazzling light, permitting them to taste colour, feel sound vibrations and participate in movement and music. In a nutshell, Eat the Problem lets visitors engage in various acts of transformation as part of Kaechele’s surrealist exploration of turning flaw into feature using invasive species—including humans—in food and art. Heralded by a gigantic glockenspiel (like a xylophone), that assumes the role of a dining table that’s been illuminated in the full colour spectrum, MONA’s executive chef Vince Trim has designed a menu that uses invasive species such as deer, sea urchin and thistle and transforms them into sumptuous monochromatic dishes for visitors to eat. And if you’re not hungry or would like the full experience, the exhibition allows you to book a session to undergo a range of transformative healing sessions in the gallery, including sound baths, reflexology, massage and hot and cold treatments. “Eat the Problem brings to life the practice of transforming shit into… Read More

What to see at the NGV: Summer exhibitions of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat

From 1 December, the National Gallery of Victoria will have two of the most influential artists of the 20th century on show. Until 13 April 2020 and exclusive to Melbourne, the NGV will present more than 300 works in an exhibition that will offer new insights into Haring and Basquiat’s unique visual languages and the many intersections between their lives, practices and ideas.         This of course off the back of the NGV’s winter Friday Night Series, which in 2019 stars a tonne of leading and emerging singers and performers, really rounding out what the Gallery has to offer. Oh, and plenty of dumplings, courtesy of Hutong Dumpling Bar. “We felt there’s been enough time to pause and reflect on just how powerful their (Haring and Basquiat’s) aesthetic has become worldwide, particularly in Melbourne, which is famed for its street art scene,” said Tony Elwood, director of the NGV. The Gallery is known for their leading and renowned exhibits, which this year and to round-out summer, will highlight the artists’ idiosyncratic imagery, radical ideas and complex socio-political commentary that changed the art world of the 1980s.      See more about the exhibitions on now and in summer at the NGV at the Gallery’s website.

Dumplings and art: Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria joins with Hutong Dumpling Bar for winter Friday Nights series

NGAIIRE Photo by Emele Ugavule

The NGV’s Friday Night Series is back again and this time; they’re doing dumplings. Appropriate for a city like Melbourne to shine a light on its awesome cuisine and art, coming together in one culmination of sensational experience for locals and visitors alike. And only ’til 12 October. As part of the new collaboration, Melbourne’s Hutong Dumpling Bar takes over NGV’s Gallery Kitchen for the 2019 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces NGV Friday Nights series, transforming it into a Shanghai-inspired dumpling bar. It’ll all involve a Friday night feature headline act, showcasing the best of Australia’s vibrant and diverse musical talent.  This season’s headliners include performers such as self-made Melbourne performer Maribelle, soulful Sydney vocalist Thandi Phoenix, Brisbane’s Young Franco, Sydney’s NGAIIRE and songwriter and producer GRAACE. Here’s what’s on… NGV Friday Nights full line-up: Friday 31 May – Husky Friday 7 June – Amaya Laucirica Friday 14 June – NGAIIRE Friday 21 June – Approachable Members Of Your Local Community Friday 28 June – Sloan Peterson Friday 5 July – I Know Leopard Friday 12 July – Sui Zhen Friday 19 July – Adrian Eagle Friday 26 July – Rainbow Chan Friday 2 August – Kira Puru Friday 9 August – Hobsons Bay Coast Guard Friday 16 August – CLYPSO Friday 30 August – Slum Sociable Friday 6 September – The Audreys Friday 13 September – Maribelle Friday 20 September – LÂLKA Friday 27 September – GRAACE Friday 4 October – Thandi Phoenix Friday 11 October – Yumi Zouma Saturday 12 October – Young Franco Head to the NGV on any Friday of choice… Read More

Kids’ passion for art: National Gallery London puts on Take One Picture

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump

What happens when you put kids in front of artwork? Well… generally nothing, but as it happens, not if they visit the National Gallery right in the middle of London. They’re putting on Take One Picture, a unique program to get kids into artwork in a particularly contemporary way: with their phones! Kids from around the ages of 1-6 are invited to focus on one of the paintings in the gallery and respond creatively to its themes and subject matter, historical context, or composition. Purposed to promote the visual arts across the curriculum and inspiring a lifelong love of art, this year the National Gallery chose An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768) by Joseph Wright ‘of Derby’ as the kids’ inspiration and it’s easy to see why. The work An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump depicts a travelling scientist demonstrating the formation of a vacuum by withdrawing air from a flask containing a white cockatoo. Air pumps were developed in the 17th century and were relatively familiar by Wright’s day. It was chosen for the wide range of subjects that are explored: the depiction of a scientific invention and its entertainment value, the human drama happening in a night-time domestic setting, and the references to the Age of Enlightenment. The bird will die if the demonstrator continues to deprive it of oxygen, and Wright (1734–1797) leaves us in doubt as to whether or not the cockatoo will be reprieved. The painting reveals a wide range of individual reactions,… Read More