Category Archives: Modern art

Room of Signs and Gesture of Art Informel, Museum of the Twentieth Century

On the third floor is a hall devoted to Alberto Burri and Art Informel by major Italian masters: Emilio Vedova, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Gastone Novelli, Tancredi, Carla Accardi, and Osvaldo Licini. The exhibition devoted to the Fifties and Sixties displays artwork by Piero Manzoni and the artists from the Azimuth group, from Enrico Castellani to Agostino Bonalumi. Biography Alberto Burri (12 March 1915 – 13 February 1995) was an Italian visual artist, painter, sculptor and physician based in Città di Castello. He is associated with the matterism of the European informal art movement and described his style as a polymaterialist. He had connections with Lucio Fontana’s spatialism and, with Antoni Tàpies, an influence on the revival of the art of post-war assembly in America (Robert Rauschenberg) as in Europe. Early years He was born in Città di Castello (Perugia) on March 12, 1915, the eldest son of Pietro, a wine merchant,…

Room of Arturo Martini, Museum of the Twentieth Century

The Twenties and Thirties, moving between the Novecento movement and Abstract Art, develop through a sequence of solo art show ‘islands’ devoted to Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio Morandi, Arturo Martini, and Fausto Melotti. To Marino Marini is devoted a proper hall, aimed to describe the artist’s rich and nuanced production. Biography Arturo Martini (1889–1947) was a leading Italian sculptor between World War I and II. He moved between a very vigorous (almost ancient Roman) classicism and modernism. He was associated with public sculpture in fascist Italy, but later renounced his medium altogether. The early years He was born into a disadvantaged family, third of the four children of Antonio, a professional cook, and Maria Della Valle, a maid originally from Brisighella. Expelled from school in 1901, due to repeated failures, he became an apprentice at a goldsmith’s shop in Treviso and immediately afterwards attended the ceramic school (he collaborated in…

Room of Umberto Boccioni, Museum of the Twentieth Century

On the first floor there are works from the Jucker collection and the futurists. Of particular interest, among the works of the futurist artist Boccioni (1882-1916), one of the various specimens of the famous sculpture Unique forms of continuity in space, exhibited in the room dedicated to the artist. The Collection begins with a tribute paid to international avant-garde movements, with paintings from the early 1900’s by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Paul Klee, Kandinsky, and Amedeo Modigliani. The exhibition continues with Futurism, represented by a nucleus of artwork unique the world over, displaying Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Fortunato Depero, Gino Severini, Carlo Carrà, and Ardengo Soffici. Biography Umberto Boccioni (19 October 1882 – 17 August 1916) was an influential Italian painter and sculptor. He helped shape the revolutionary aesthetic of the Futurism movement as one of its principal figures. Despite his short life, his approach to the dynamism of form…

Fashion is inspired by art, Across art and Fashion, Salvatore Ferragamo Museum

Art and fashion have faced each other, often looking at each other, even in the past. If the artists have been fascinated by clothing, as an essential tool to give realism to their representations, the tailor craftsmen have often drawn their inspirations from the world of art and assumed attitudes that equated them to the artists. For art scholars, the clothing documented in a painting helps dating a work of art. On the other hand, for fashion historians, the painted dress gives an account of the movement, gesture and leaning of a dress. The exhibition itinerary focuses on the work of Salvatore Ferragamo, who was fascinated and inspired by the avant-garde art movements of the 20th century, on several ateliers of the Fifties and Sixties that were venues for studies and encounters, and on the advent of the culture of celebrities. It then examines the experimentation of the Nineties and…

1957-1975, Andalusian Contemporary Art Center

Two dates, two numbers: a palindromic pair. Can the art of this period also be read from left to right and right to left? Changing the order of factors would undoubtedly alter the product, even though this exhibition, beyond marking the interval between those two years, aspires to highlight its historical and artistic importance but in varying lights, forward and in reverse. The year 1957 witnessed the culmination of several relevant events in both politics and art. In the political arena, various circumstances within the dictatorial regime led to the end of autocracy and the beginning of developmentalism. In the art world, the influential collectives Equipo 57 and El Paso were born. This exhibition, comprising works from the collection of the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contempóraneo, is therefore the beginning of a story divided into chapters or galleries. It is designed to be read initially from the left, starting with…

Modern Art Collection Part 4, Art and Civil War, National Art Museum of Catalonia

General Franco’s coup against the legitimate government of the Spanish Republic on 18 July 1936 marked the start of a civil war that ended in 1939 with the victory of the Fascists and the defeat, persecution and exile of the Republican forces. From the first moment, realising the need to let the world know about the dramatic situation of the Spanish people and to coordinate the diffusion of the image of the struggle against Fascism at home and abroad, the Republican institutions set up propaganda systems that achieved their best results in the activity of the Commissariat of Propaganda of the Generalitat de Catalunya, directed by Jaume Miravitlles, and subsequently of the Ministry for Propaganda of the Republican Government. The traditional arts –painting, sculpture, engraving– and the new media –illustrated publications, posters, photography, photomontage, film, etc.– converged in a sort of total mobilisation which, in conditions of utmost drama and…

Modern Art Collection Part 3, Noucentisme, National Art Museum of Catalonia

By the first years of the 20th century, various cultural and artistic sectors all over Europe were reacting against the end-of-the-century styles –Art Nouveau, Modernisme, etc.–, which they accused of being decorativist and irrational and of lacking form and structure. This reaction came about in two ways: first, as a return to classicism, and secondly, through the different avant-gardes that turned a critical eye on the function of art and the role of the artist in an urban, industrialised society in which the prestige of the utopia of bourgeois progress was nevertheless being brought into question by the wars and revolutions taking place, no longer in remote colonies but in Europe itself. Following the horrors of the First World War, under the slogan ‘return to order’, a new reaction took place, this time against the avant-gardes and very often actually from inside them. Against the radical experimentation with techniques and…

Modern Art Collection Part 2, Modernism, National Art Museum of Catalonia

As the stage for bourgeois power and the class struggle, the city in turmoil at the turn of the century was also the setting par excellence of modern art. All the effects of industrialisation, of technification, of the market in luxury goods and of the new mass markets in consumerism, fashion and entertainment, of the exaltation of the image and of iconoclastic violence, of construction and destruction, of freedom and repression… are to be found there. The modern artist, in his twofold capacity as a dandy and a bohemian, thinks he can frequent all its strata, from the drawing-rooms of the bourgeoisie, his clients, to the tavern, the brothel, the music hall or the street, where he identifies his bohemian freedom with that of the marginalised and the down and out. In the city, the traditional arts find their place among the arts and crafts and the new media –photography,…

Modern Art Collection Part 1, The Rise of the Modern Artist, National Art Museum of Catalonia

In the mid-19th century, at the same time as bourgeois society was taking shape, the figure of the modern artist appeared on the scene. Unlike the artist under the ancien régime, who was tied to the official symbolic cycles of the Church or the aristocracy, the new artist had as his stage the anonymous market or the cosmopolitan city. Faced with a situation in which art had become merchandise, the artist invented a new religion, art for art’s sake, in which he was the high priest. In a society in turmoil, governed by bourgeois decorum and shaken by the class struggle, the artist presented himself as the specialist in freedom and adopted the form of the dandy, the bohemian, the revolutionary or the avant-gardist. The key to the modern artist, then, seems to lie in his confrontation with the conventions of bourgeois society and with the bourgeoisie themselves as a…

Modernist Interior Collection, National Art Museum of Catalonia

Modernisme is, within the Catalan artistic context, the movement that in France is known as Art Nouveau, in Germany as Jugendstil and in Austria as Sezession. Despite the popularity of the painting, architecture and sculpture, in Catalonia Modernisme is especially notable for the decorative arts, in overcoming the distinction between art and craftwork. Even though the Catalan creators naturally assimilate the influence of everything done in Europe, thanks to international trips, fairs and exhibitions, and publications about decoration and architecture, Modernisme has its roots here with its own personality and its own accents. The huge constructive activity of Barcelona after the International Exposition of 1888 led to a golden period for architects, which became multidisciplinary and was surrounded by artists and craftsmen: glassmakers, carpenters, mosaicists, etc. Architecture was no longer just a building project or the designing of furniture, but also dishes and cutlery. Under the Modernist stamp, the designs,…

Modern Art Collection, National Art Museum of Catalonia

The National Art Museum of Catalonia’s Modern Art Collection was created from the Universal Exhibition of 1888, at which time the Barcelona City Council installed the then small collection of modern art, at that contemporary time, in the Palace of Fine Arts. The collection was significantly expanded with the acquisitions made by the City Council itself at the fine arts exhibitions. The current modern art collection brings together a best of Catalan art from the beginning of the century XIX until the 40 of century XX. The journey begins with the artists who followed the postulates of neoclassicism, romanticism and realism. The neoclassics include the painter Josep Bernat Flaugier and the sculptor Damià Campeny. As for the romance, include painters Nazarenes, like Claudius Lorenzale, who worked especially portrait and Louis Rigalt that opens the Catalan tradition of landscape. In the age of realism, with Ramon Martí Alsina, who introduced the…

Sert Room, National Art Museum of Catalonia

Josep Maria Sert (1874-1945) was one of the most sought after muralist painters of his time. His mural painting assimilated the tradition of the great Venetian masters. It is worth remembering, among many others, his murals for the Rockefeller Center or the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York; the decoration of the League of Nations in Geneva, without forgetting the cathedral of Vic and numerous mansions in Paris, Buenos Aires, Venice and London. Indeed, in this last city in 1921, Sert was in charge of the decoration of the ballroom of Sir’s residencePhilip Sassoon, a leading figure in the political, cultural and financial world of British society. Sert covered that rectangular room (85 m2 and 6.5 m high) with oil-painted wooden panels, in black and silver, in a style that revives Baroque illusionism with connotations of l ‘art deco. The scene, titled Caravans of the Orient, features giant camels, palm…

Art Nouveau Facade, Hospital of the Holy Cross and Saint Paul

The central body of the main facade is structured as if it were an altarpiece, in three vertical streets separated by four pilasters, of stone to the first floor and of brick the rest, and in three levels. At the lower level are three arched arched access doors with an arched arch decorated with blue and white tiles with the initials “P” and “G” alluding to their patron; the cross, from the original hospital; the four Catalan bars; and a ship, of the Parisian shield. These iconographic elements are repeated in different places of the enclosure and especially in this building. The arches are supported by triple stone columns on which four large stone sculptures are attached, a kind of Wagnerian angels in the shape of Hermes that merge into the same architecture, by Gargallo, which represent the three theological virtues Christian: Faith, Hope, Charity and Works (Operibus) that must…

Courtyard of Modernist Pavilions, Hospital of the Holy Cross and Saint Paul

The selected plot fulfilled important health aspects which are no longer taken into account, such as the “location at the foot of the mountain in a remote area of ​​the city with sea views”, although others would still be valid today. in day time, as having a large proportion of landscaped interior space where patients and visitors could wander and be outdoors, feeling more in a sanatorium than in a closed hospital. This is possible thanks to Domènech’s conception of a hospital complex with its own urban layout oriented on a north-south axis, enjoying maximum solar radiation.towards the main facades. The architect’s innovative vision gives the ensemble its own personality, which shies away from the concept of “hospital-palace” and approaches “garden city”, a small city embedded in the city, a functional, aesthetic whole. , human and modern. Among all the buildings, the main one stands out, from the administration, which…

Antoni Clavé Rooms, Palace of the Generalitat of Catalonia

The Antoni Clavé Rooms adjoin the Conference Room and occupy the rest of the space under the Courtyard of the Orange Trees. The rooms Antoni Clavé, on the ground floor, correspond to the Pati dels Tarongers, on the main floor, named after the prominent Catalan artist Antoni Clavé i Sanmartí (1913–2005), who was commissioned to paint a series of large pieces for the space. which was emptied of land to build these spaces in the days of Enric Prat de la Riba (1912) under the direction of Josep Puig i Cadafalch. They are dedicated to Antoni Clavé, an important Catalan artist (1913-2005) who specifically made the large-scale paintings on display, accompanied by a selection of especially significant works, which are displayed together with a selection of his earlier and especially significant pieces. They were installed in the Palace in 1993. They form the porch of the Auditorium or conference room,…

Asger Jorn: A Challenge to the Light, Tomie Ohtake Institute

The exhibition, “A Challenge to the Light”, was taken from the preface to a book by René Renne and Claude Serbanne on Jorn’s drawings, had “a sulfuric luster”. The works were not just studies of introspection: “They were worth to the world all”. Bringing together works that explore experimentalism, spontaneity and the unconscious, the show brings us examples of the diverse production of this artist. Composed of 48 drawings / collages and watercolors, in addition to 53 engravings, adding 101 works on paper, from the Jorn Museum, in Denmark, and three paintings from private collections. The member of the CoBrA Group (1948-1951) stood out for its production that extends from drawing, painting and graphic arts to ceramics, sculpture, tapestry etc. The exhibition features drawings made from 1937 to 1973, from the time when the Danish artist studied with Fernand Léger, when he appropriated all the art he found in Paris,…

Engravings and sculptures experiments, Tomie Ohtake Institute

In more than 60 years of production, Tomie Ohtake conceived a remarkable set of works and ventured through different languages, without leaving the main axes that guided his research: color, gesture and materiality. Tomie Ohtake: engravings and sculptures experiments, focuses on printmaking and sculpture, areas that, alongside painting, are equally vast in production of the artist. Tomie Ohtake is known for her work, of an apparent minimalism that dissolves at second sight, revealing itself to be both complex and delicate. Her work, of an apparent minimalism that is undone at second sight, revealing herself, the complex and delicate at the same timeHer creative production moves forward, against time. The fluidity with which she transposed the traces and movements of the painting, so particularly her own, to these new materials – more rigid and with other limits, stands out. Gesture is present in these practices, whether in the curves and twists…

Collections of Brazil: History, Culture and Citizenship, Bank of Brazil Museum in Brasili

Bank of Brazil Museum in Brasilia the history of the country through a collection acquired throughout its history. Located in the Tancredo Neves building, in Brasília, one of the most imposing works by architect Oscar Niemeyer, where the CCBB is located. The project was launched with the exhibition “Collections of Brazil: history, culture and citizenship”, which aims to reflect on the economic, social and cultural history of Brazil. Founded in 1808, Banco do Brasil is one of the most important institutions in the country and, over the years, acquired a diverse collection. Much of it is linked to the exercise of banking activities, such as documents of historical value, bank notes, coins, equipment, objects and furniture, in addition to pieces of decorative arts, paintings, prints and sculptures by important names in the visual arts. The space of more than 6 thousand m² presents historical moments and the consequences of the…

Long term Exhibitions, Afro Brasil Museum

The Permanent exhibition encompasses several facets of the African and Afro-Brazilian cultural universes, addressing themes such as religion, work, art, the African diaspora and slavery, and recording the historical trajectory and African influences in the construction ofBrazilian society. With over 6,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, documents and ethnological pieces, by Brazilian and foreign authors, produced between the 15th century and today, the collection encompasses several facets of African and African cultural universes. Brazilians. Currently, it is divided into 06 groups: Africa: Diversity and Permanence, Work and Slavery, Afro-Brazilian Religions, The Sacred and the Profane, History and Memory and Plastic Arts: the Afro Brazilian Hand. The exhibition of the Afro Brasil Museum collection intends to tell another Brazilian story. It intends to deconstruct an imaginary of the black population, built fundamentally from the perspective of inferiority throughout our history and transform it into an imaginary established in prestige, equality…

São Paulo 461 – Stories and Memories of a Metropolis, Afro Brasil Museum

On the 461th anniversary of São Paulo, the Afro Brasil Museum, an institution of the State Secretariat of Culture of SP, undertakes a search for the capital of São Paulo, a discovery of what has been done, of what has been produced, of what has been recorded, of the passage these years. The exhibition “SÃO PAULO 461 – STORIES AND MEMORIES OF A METROPOLE” guides this archeology through photographs, iconographies, sculptures, books, paintings, costumes, dresses, poems, maps , facilities and testimonials. The show also tells the history of samba in the city, with concerts by musicians Cesinha Pivetta, Osvaldinho da Cuíca and Toinho Melodia. The exhibition conducts an archeology, using photographs, iconographies, sculptures, books, paintings, costumes, dresses, poems, maps, installations and testimonies. São Paulo went from a simple village to one of the capitals of the world. The exhibition brings together the past, present and the future. A past that…

The Ritual of the Serpent in the Artistic Imaginary, Afro Brasil Museum

The double exhibition “José de Guimarães – The Ritual of the Serpent: 10 Gouaches Inspired by the Work of Aby Warburg” and “The Serpent in the Artistic Imaginary”, which displays around 100 works that capture the symbolism of the snake in the arts. The snake is the subject of these exhibitions because it has always “captured” man’s attention, has a rich iconography and has the characteristics of temperate patterns: life and death, good and evil, for example. One of the most important artists in Portugal today, known for his rigorous use of colors, José de Guimarães presents his most recent work, made especially for the celebrations of the ten years of the Afro Brazil Museum. The ten gouaches mirror his pictorial interpretation of the work of art historian Aby Warburg (1866-1929). The German scholar was in North America, at the end of the 19th century, to research the “Ritual of…

Coming and going | Segall and Brazil, Lasar Segall Museum

This Exhibition presents an overview of Lasar Segall’s production, with a special focus on the “Brazilian Stage” and its developments, without leaving aside important periods and trends, such as his initial production, strongly influenced by impressionism and the expressionist period, even works by late 1950s. The exhibition also features objects from his studio and residence, as well as texts by the artist, contextualizing each period covered. The texts, elaborated throughout his career, reveal his worldview and how he conceived the role of the artist and the arts in society. They were edited in full in the publication Museu Lasar Segall / Brazilian Institute of Cultural Heritage. Lasar Segall: texts, testimonials and exhibitions(2. ed. Aum. São Paulo: Museu Lasar Segall, 1993). His comings and goings are part of his personal and artistic journey. Themes such as emigration, forests and portraits, the Mangue carioca are worked on and reviewed, reinforcing identities, singularities…

Photographic Modernities , 1940-1964, Instituto Moreira Salles

After seasons in Berlin, Lisbon, Paris and Madrid, Photographic Modernities, 1940-1964 – with works by photographers José Medeiros, Thomaz Farkas, Marcel Gautherot and Hans Gunter Flieg – one of the five best exhibitions in the world arrives in Rio. Photographic Modernities , 1940-1964 is the new long-term exhibition on display at the Marc Ferrez Gallery at the Moreira Salles Institute in Rio de Janeiro. Until March 5, 2017, it will be possible to explore more than 160 images from four great Brazilian photographers in a crucial period for the formation of modern photography in the country. Curated by Ludger Derenthal, coordinator of the Kunstbibliothek photography collection in Berlin, and Samuel Titan Jr., cultural executive coordinator at IMS, the exhibition presents the photojournalism of José Medeiros (1921-1990) to the modernism of Marcel Gautherot (1910-1996 ), from the abstraction by Thomaz Farkas (1924-2011) to the industrial photography of Hans Gunter Flieg (1923)…

Body to Body: the dispute of images, from photography to live broadcast, IMS Paulista houses in São Paulo

Body to Body: the dispute of images, from photography to live broadcastt, shows a cut of contemporary Brazilian production in photography, cinema and video through seven works developed by artists and collectives – Bárbara Wagner, Jonathas de Andrade, Mídia Ninja, Sofia Borges, Letícia Ramos and Garapa – in partnership with curators Thyago Nogueira, coordinator of contemporary photography at IMS and editor of ZUM magazine, and Valentina Tong (assistant). The artists were invited to think about the portrait, individual or collective, and about how the images can help us to see the social conflicts that have emerged in Brazil in recent years. The motto is the use of the body as an element of social representation and political action – either by the physical and symbolic presence in public spaces, or as the vehicle that conducts the camera, or as a place of expression of individuality, which brings individuals together and…