Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam: One of the most important museums reopening in 2013

AMSTERDAM.- The most important museum opening in 2013 is the Grand Opening of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on 13 April after a 10 year closure. The renovation, which has completely transformed and renewed the historic building, is one of the most significant ever undertaken by a museum. The re-opening provides an opportunity for a major representation of the museum’s world-famous collection, much of which has not been accessible to the public for a decade. Over 8,000 works of art will go on show telling the story of Dutch art and history, with masterpieces by artists including Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Johannes Vermeer and Rembrandt van Rijn. On a much smaller scale, the Ditchling Museum, which tells the story of a remarkable village and its community of 20th century artists and craftsmen, will open in Spring 2013. The museum has a unique collection of work by Eric Gill, Edward Johnson and others who came to Ditchling to live and work. London will see the opening of a new not-for-profit art space, The Dairy, launched by leading collectors, Frank Cohen and Nicolai Frahm in Spring 2013. The 12,500 sq ft warehouse was the former milk depot for Express Dairies, and its unique,raw, industrial spaces with high ceilings and skylights will provide exceptional exhibition space for art. The programme will include curated exhibitions drawing on Frank Cohen and Nicolai Frahm’s collections, as well as incorporating loans from galleries, artists and international collectors. In Britain the most important opening in May 2013 will be Tate Britain’s newly refurbished galleries with a major new chronological hang of the Collection, the most important holding of British art in the world. This will be followed in October 2013 by the completion and opening of the new building development at Tate Britain. The project opens up the new entrance and lower floors as well as three floors of the stunning domed atrium at the heart of the gallery creating much-needed learning studios and public spaces in order to meet growing demand. In the summer, the Serpentine will open its new space, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery with an exciting programme showcasing the latest exhibitions and commissions. Situated a stone’s throw from the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, the project brings the listed Magazine building into public use for the first time in its 206-year history, providing and new cultural destination and landmark for London. The designer for the project is Pritzker-prize winning architect, Zaha Hadid. At the end of the year, Rem Koolhaas’s new building for the Garage will open in Gorky Park in Moscow. Garage Gorky Park is located in the Park’s famous 1960s Vremena Goda (Four Seasons) restaurant, which has been newly renovated after remaining derelict for more than two decades. The new museum will present a programme of temporary exhibitions, and the building includes exhibition galleries, a creative centre for children, shop, café, auditorium and offices. Also due to open in 2013 is the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada, dedicated to the acquisition, preservation and display of artefacts and works of art relating to the intellectual, cultural, artistic and religious heritage of Islamic communities. The Museum collection contains over one thousand artefacts and artworks spanning over one thousand years of history, which present an overview of the artistic accomplishments of Muslim civilisations from the Iberian Peninsula to China. Designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, the museum features galleries, an auditorium, a reference library, multimedia centre, and education spaces situated around a central courtyard. Exhibition Openings The Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham marks its 80th anniversary by embarking on a year-long programme of special exhibitions, displays and concerts. The programme opens with an exhibition focusing on the Barber’s founder, Portrait of a Lady: The Life and Passions of Lady Barber (to 24 February 2013). In May 2013, the exhibition, About Face: European Old Master Portraits from National Collections (16 May – 1 September 2013) will bring to the Barber outstanding portraits from the National Gallery by Rembrandt, Goya and Cézanne, among others, which will be displayed alongside works from the Barber of comparable date and scale, but contrasting style, subject or approach. Also in May, Birth of A Collection: The Barber Institute of Fine Arts and the National Gallery (22 May - 1 September 2013) will see the first 12 paintings acquired for the Barber galleries – including masterpieces by Simone Martini, Cima, Poussin, Turner, Manet and Monet – displayed at the National Gallery in London. In the early new year, a major exhibition focusing on Robert Rauschenberg’s Jammers, silk wall and floor works will go on show at Gagosian (February/March 2013). The Jammers cycle originated in 1975 and draws inspiration from the trip Rauschenberg made in May 1975 to the to the textile centre Ahmedabad in India where the locals made their handmade paper. In March, William Turnbull at Chatsworth (10 March – 30 June 2013) presents a rare exhibition by one of Britain’s leading artist following his recent death. The exhibition will present large-scale works as well as paintings and drawings all shown in the spectacular setting of Chatsworth House. Moore Rodin at the Henry Moore Foundation in Perry Green (28 March – 28 October 2013) is a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition which presents the work of Henry Moore and Auguste Rodin exhibited together in the rural landscapes of Perry Green where Henry Moore lived and worked. The exhibition will highlight the influence of Rodin’s work on Moore and draw new parallels between two of the world’s most celebrated sculptors. In April Hans Ulrich-Obrist will curate an exhibition in São Paulo Glass House, the former home of Brazilian modernist architect Lina Bo Bardi. Around 20 international artists and architects have been invited to create special projects in the house. The exhibition is the latest in a series of interventions in artists’ houses curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist. In April, Rachel Whiteread at Gagosian (April/May 2013) is an exhibition dedicated to the work of one of Britain’s foremost contemporary artists. Masterpieces from the Hermitage at Houghton (May – September 2013) is a unique exhibition in which masterpieces from the State HermitageMuseum in St Petersburg will be brought back to their original home at Houghton, one of Britain’s finest Palladian houses. The collection was originally brought together by Britain’s first prime minister, Robert Walpole (1676-1745), and sold to Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, in 1779. The paintings have not been seen in Britain for over 230 years, and they will be shown in their original settings at Houghton, the Walpole ancestral home in Norfolk. One of the most famous art collections of eighteenth-century Europe, the exhibition will include masterpieces by Van Dyck, Poussin, Albani, Rubens, Rembrandt, Velazquez, Murillo and several others. Works of art from other public and private collections will also be on show, from institutions including the National Gallery in Washington, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and several other Russian galleries. One of the highlights of the Venice Biennale at the end of May will be a major retrospective of the work of Anthony Caro at the Museo Correr presented in association with the British Council. The exhibition will provide a unique chance to see works by Britain’s greatest living sculptor in the historic setting of one of Venice’s most celebrated museums. Qatar Museums Authority will present the first major retrospective of the work of Damien Hirst in the Middle East in Autumn 2013. The exhibition, curated by Francesco Bonami, will be staged in the spectacular setting of Al Riwaq Doha Exhibition Space. A major new publication will be issued to coincide with the exhibition including essays by leading Arab writers.

http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=59767#.UO7ooXdtVVU[/url]

Christie's to offer one of the most important collections of Albrecht Dürer's prints ever offered at auction

Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia I (B. 74; M., Holl. 75; S.M.S. 71). Engraving, 1514. S. 13 3/8 x 10 5/8 in. Estimate $400,000 - 600,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2013.

Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia I (B. 74; M., Holl. 75; S.M.S. 71). Engraving, 1514. S. 13 3/8 x 10 5/8 in. Estimate $400,000 - 600,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2013.

More Information: http://www.artdaily.com/[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.org

NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s presents the sale of Albrecht Dürer Masterpieces from a Private Collection as part of Old Masters Week. The sale, which will take place 29 January, features 62 exceptional impressions by Albrecht Dürer, and constitutes one of the most important collections of his prints ever offered at auction. Encompassing a wide range of subject matter, both religious and secular, and mediums - engravings, woodcuts and etchings - the collection was amassed with the objective of adding only the very best examples. The sale is expected to realize in excess of $4.6 million. Melencolia I (estimate: $400,000-600,000), engraved in 1514, is one the most enigmatic images in the history of western art. The subject is probably an allegory of melancholy, but the details of its iconography have intrigued and inspired countless art historians and scholars. It contains symbols seen elsewhere in Dürer’s oeuvre, such as the sphere as a symbol of chance or fate from Nemesis (lot 26), the scales from Sol Iustitiae (lot 1), and the skull and the hour-glass, which appear as memento mori on the other two of the so-called ‘Master Prints’: Knight, Death and the Devil and Saint Jerome in his Study (lots 44 and 45). In the 16th century, the melancholic temperament was associated with genius and the pursuit of knowledge. If Saint Jerome and Melencolia I are indeed companion pieces, and Saint Jerome represents the knowledge of texts, then Melencolia I stands for a different, new kind of knowledge - that of empirical, applied science. The ruler, the scale and the pair of compasses are all measuring devices, instruments for the examination of nature. For Dürer, the observation and comprehension of the natural world was the basis of art. Considering that the artists of the Renaissance, with Leonardo and Dürer as prime examples, saw themselves as artists as well as scientists, then Melencolia I might be described as a secret self-portrait. Knight, Death and the Devil (estimate: $500,000-700,000), 1513, depicts a knight in armor on his magnificent charger making his way through a rocky gorge. Two figures stand by the wayside, as if emerging from the rocks; King Death with snakes winding through his crown, astride an old mare, holding an hourglass; and a monstrous devil standing on his hoofs, holding a pike. Countless attempts have been made to identify the central figure, which Dürer simply referred to as der Reuther (‘the rider’). Suggestions have included emperor, pope, heretic, Germanic hero and local patrician. None of the potential candidates, either historical or mythological, have been substantiated. The knight as robber baron - a genuine threat in the days of Dürer - is lacking visual evidence. Whatever his true identity, Dürer’s rider is clearly cast in the heroic mold, a model of courage and moral strength, the Christian Knight, who does not fear Death or the Devil. Dated 1514, Saint Jerome in his Study (estimate: $300,000-500,000) was engraved one year after Knight, Death and the Devil (lot 44), and like the earlier print it is full of reminders of death: the human skull on the window ledge, the crucifix on the desk, the candle and the hour glass, while the fly whisk can be read as a reference to the devil. Together with Melencolia I (lot 42) these three engravings have long been known as the ‘Master Prints’. The term is appropriate as with these prints Dürer undoubtedly reached the height of his capacities as an engraver. Aside from their technical excellence, the prints are also connected by their near-identical format and their concentration on a single figure in a highly complex, richly symbolic environment. If, as has been suggested, they represent the three different modes of virtuous living, Saint Jerome depicts the lonely, quiet life of the man of letters. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (estimate: $120,000-180,000), is arguably the most dramatic and dynamic of all of Dürer’s compositions. Standing before this work, the viewer witnesses the four horsemen as they burst out of heaven, one after the other, and thunder over the earth. The mouth of hell opens up below, devouring a ‘lord of the earth’ - perhaps a bishop or king. Everything conveys a sense of violence and rupture. Erwin Panofsky observed that the three horses in the air are shown at different intervals of their galloping movement, thereby creating the impression of time and continuity, not unlike Eadweard Muybridge’s photographic recordings of bodies in motion almost five hundred years later. The Rhinoceros (estimate: $100,000-150,000) was cut in 1515, the year that the first rhinoceros was seen in Europe since Antiquity. Having never seen a rhinoceros, Dürer learned of it from a sketch and description sent by Valentin Ferdinand, a Moravian printer who had settled in Lisbon, to a friend in Nuremberg. Dürer’s depiction, which might pass for a terrible war machine, had tremendous impact. The woodblock was printed in no fewer than eight editions, seven of which were posthumous. Around 1620 it was printed in Amsterdam together with a tone block, producing a chiaroscuro woodcut like the portrait of Ulrich Varnbüler (lot 61). The Rhinoceros served as the model for illustrations of the species as late as the end of the eighteenth century. Although presumably printed in fairly large numbers very few survive to this day, and impressions from the first edition are exceptionally rare.

http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=60004#.UO7_SndtVVU[/url]

NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s presents the sale of Albrecht Dürer Masterpieces from a Private Collection as part of Old Masters Week. The sale, which will take place 29 January, features 62 exceptional impressions by Albrecht Dürer, and constitutes one of the most important collections of his prints ever offered at auction. Encompassing a wide range of subject matter, both religious and secular, and mediums - engravings, woodcuts and etchings - the collection was amassed with the objective of adding only the very best examples. The sale is expected to realize in excess of $4.6 million. Melencolia I (estimate: $400,000-600,000), engraved in 1514, is one the most enigmatic images in the history of western art. The subject is probably an allegory of melancholy, but the details of its iconography have intrigued and inspired countless art historians and scholars. It contains symbols seen elsewhere in Dürer’s oeuvre, such as the sphere as a symbol of chance or fate from Nemesis (lot 26), the scales from Sol Iustitiae (lot 1), and the skull and the hour-glass, which appear as memento mori on the other two of the so-called ‘Master Prints’: Knight, Death and the Devil and Saint Jerome in his Study (lots 44 and 45). In the 16th century, the melancholic temperament was associated with genius and the pursuit of knowledge. If Saint Jerome and Melencolia I are indeed companion pieces, and Saint Jerome represents the knowledge of texts, then Melencolia I stands for a different, new kind of knowledge - that of empirical, applied science. The ruler, the scale and the pair of compasses are all measuring devices, instruments for the examination of nature. For Dürer, the observation and comprehension of the natural world was the basis of art. Considering that the artists of the Renaissance, with Leonardo and Dürer as prime examples, saw themselves as artists as well as scientists, then Melencolia I might be described as a secret self-portrait. Knight, Death and the Devil (estimate: $500,000-700,000), 1513, depicts a knight in armor on his magnificent charger making his way through a rocky gorge. Two figures stand by the wayside, as if emerging from the rocks; King Death with snakes winding through his crown, astride an old mare, holding an hourglass; and a monstrous devil standing on his hoofs, holding a pike. Countless attempts have been made to identify the central figure, which Dürer simply referred to as der Reuther (‘the rider’). Suggestions have included emperor, pope, heretic, Germanic hero and local patrician. None of the potential candidates, either historical or mythological, have been substantiated. The knight as robber baron - a genuine threat in the days of Dürer - is lacking visual evidence. Whatever his true identity, Dürer’s rider is clearly cast in the heroic mold, a model of courage and moral strength, the Christian Knight, who does not fear Death or the Devil. Dated 1514, Saint Jerome in his Study (estimate: $300,000-500,000) was engraved one year after Knight, Death and the Devil (lot 44), and like the earlier print it is full of reminders of death: the human skull on the window ledge, the crucifix on the desk, the candle and the hour glass, while the fly whisk can be read as a reference to the devil. Together with Melencolia I (lot 42) these three engravings have long been known as the ‘Master Prints’. The term is appropriate as with these prints Dürer undoubtedly reached the height of his capacities as an engraver. Aside from their technical excellence, the prints are also connected by their near-identical format and their concentration on a single figure in a highly complex, richly symbolic environment. If, as has been suggested, they represent the three different modes of virtuous living, Saint Jerome depicts the lonely, quiet life of the man of letters. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (estimate: $120,000-180,000), is arguably the most dramatic and dynamic of all of Dürer’s compositions. Standing before this work, the viewer witnesses the four horsemen as they burst out of heaven, one after the other, and thunder over the earth. The mouth of hell opens up below, devouring a ‘lord of the earth’ - perhaps a bishop or king. Everything conveys a sense of violence and rupture. Erwin Panofsky observed that the three horses in the air are shown at different intervals of their galloping movement, thereby creating the impression of time and continuity, not unlike Eadweard Muybridge’s photographic recordings of bodies in motion almost five hundred years later. The Rhinoceros (estimate: $100,000-150,000) was cut in 1515, the year that the first rhinoceros was seen in Europe since Antiquity. Having never seen a rhinoceros, Dürer learned of it from a sketch and description sent by Valentin Ferdinand, a Moravian printer who had settled in Lisbon, to a friend in Nuremberg. Dürer’s depiction, which might pass for a terrible war machine, had tremendous impact. The woodblock was printed in no fewer than eight editions, seven of which were posthumous. Around 1620 it was printed in Amsterdam together with a tone block, producing a chiaroscuro woodcut like the portrait of Ulrich Varnbüler (lot 61). The Rhinoceros served as the model for illustrations of the species as late as the end of the eighteenth century. Although presumably printed in fairly large numbers very few survive to this day, and impressions from the first edition are exceptionally rare.

More Information: http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=60004#.UO7_SndtVVU[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.org