The Oasis of Matisse

The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is currently showing “The Oasis of Matisse,” an exhibit of more than 100 works of oils, sketches, prints and stained glass that trace the path that led to the artist’s conception of “cut-outs.” The exhibit culminates with the Stedelijk’s enormous cut-out The Parakeet and the Mermaid (1952-1953).

Artists have historically viewed line and color as long-standing opposing elements and struggled to harmonize them in their works. Matisse achieved one solution when he created the new technique of cut-outs. Describing the method as “drawing with scissors,” he would use paper coated with gouache and cut out motifs from them as if he were drawing lines with the scissors. By arranging the cut out pieces, he was able to express line and color in unison. As his words “drawing with scissors” convey, by sketching lines with scissors, Matisse was cutting and bringing out the spirit of colors. He was thus able to shape colors and harmonize line and color.

While cut-outs was a new technique, many of the motifs Matisse employed such as flowers and plants were subjects that he had favored from his early years. The motifs appearing often were scenes from his 1930s voyage to Tahiti that stunned the artist with their nearly blindingly powerful beauty of the South Seas paradise. The colorful cut-outs capture the constantly shifting colors of the blue ocean reflecting the strong sunlight, the birds that fly through the blue skies and the unique shapes of plants and water weeds.

The four pieces in the photograph(Fig.1) were works created over two walls of the artist’s atelier. The large horizontal work, second from right, is The Parakeet and the Mermaid. Matisse made these pieces while convalescing at home following major surgery for abdominal cancer. When cutting, Matisse did not place the paper on a table but rather lifted the paper in his left hand and moved the scissors easily like a seagull in flight. He handed the cut-out to an assistant who nailed it in the location designated by the artist with a hammer. Sometimes the assistant would climb on a step ladder to secure the cut-out. The colorful cut-outs decorated the wall, transforming his atelier into an oasis.

The exhibit is separated into two parts on the first and second floors. The first floor meticulously displays the works that led up to the cut-outs, contrasting them with pieces by other artists of the time as well as artists who were influenced by Matisse. The second floor shows the cut-outs and the works that evolved from the cut-outs including the print book “Jazz,” stained glass and costumes.

The Oasis of Matisse Until August 16, 2015

Stedelijkmuseum

Museumplein 10
1071 DJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
http://www.stedelijk.nl/en

Opening times:

Mon-Sun　10:00-18:00　（Thurs till 22:00）

Exhibition: Van Gogh & Co.

Fig.1 Vincent van Gogh, Self-portrait,
April - June 1887, oil on cardboard,
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

The Kröller-Müller museum in Vincent van Gogh's native country of the Netherlands is currently showing the exhibition Van Gogh & Co., featuring around fifty paintings by Van Gogh from their collection. The exhibition also has paintings by Corot, Millet, and other pioneers, contemporaries, and artists who were influenced by Van Gogh, totaling one hundred and eight paintings.

From a young age, Van Gogh (fig. 1) stood in awe of many painters. He worked at the art dealer Goupil & Cie in The Hague, where he dealt with many artworks, could visit various museums, and purchase the works and art books that he took an interest in. When Van Gogh decided to pursue a career as a painter, he received education by Anton Mauve, a painter from the The Hague school; when he went to Paris the exchanges he had with young painters such as Gauguin and Bernard helped him polish his skills.

Van Gogh was captivated with the peasants that Millet painted, and made copies of works such as The Sower when he first began working as a painter. His work The Potato Eaters, which depicts peasants sharing a meal after their work, is representative of his early paintings. He created it combining the studies that he had made of peasants' faces. His still-lifes, too, were rooted in peasant life, showing vegetables like potatoes and onions, or worn-out worker's boots. In the still-life paintings, no figure of a peasant is ever directly featured, but we could say nonetheless that these are portraits of them, only from a different angle.

Vincent van Gogh, Still Life with a Plate of Onions,
1889, oil on canvas, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

Within these same still-lifes, we can also perceive a frank reflection of Van Gogh's feelings, which makes them into a kind of self-portrait. As soon as he was released from the psychiatric hospital, the year after he cut off his ear, Van Gogh painted Still Life with a Plate of Onions (1889) (fig. 2). In it we see a household medical manual, which suggests he might have been worried about his physical condition after his release from hospital. We see the heavy smoker Van Gogh's pipe and tobacco, and the bottle of alcohol and the coffee, both of which he enjoyed daily. In the foreground is a letter, with a postmark dating from the end of 1888, on it the address of his brother Theo, the sender. Unfortunately, the letter itself has been lost. It is generally considered that Van Gogh's breakdown, leading to him cutting off his ear on the 23rd of December, 1888, was because his relationship with Gauguin broke down. However, some scholars argue that this lost letter, which informed him that his younger brother Theo was getting engaged, must also have been a trigger. Van Gogh must have felt upset that Theo, on whom Vincent was dependent both psychologically and financially, was to marry. He could no longer expect to rely on him as before. But in this painting, made soon after he left the hospital, we can sense the vitality springing from the newly sprouting onions. When he received that letter Van Gogh may have despaired of his life, but this painting communicates his recovery from that, and a positive attempt to take charge of his new life.

The exhibition Van Gogh & Co. will be on through September 27 (the museum is closed on Mondays).

Kröller-Müller Museum

Houtkampweg 6
6731 AW Otterlo
The Netherlands
www.krollermuller.nl/visit

Opening Hours:

Tuesday through Sunday, Holidays*　10:00—17:00（Sculpture Garden open until 16:30）

*Easter, Pentecost, April 27, May 5, December 23

Museum is closed on Mondays, January 1

Velazquez Exhibition

Fig. 2 Diego Velazquez, Portrait du pape Innocent X,
1650, 140 x 200, oil on canvas, Rome, Galleria Doria
Pamphilj, © Amministrazione Doria Pamphilj srl

The 17th century is regarded as the Spanish Golden Age for painting. A leading artist of this era was Diego Velazquez who served in the royal court of Madrid. About a half of the works of the court painter Velazquez, including his masterpiece Las Meninas, are still today housed in the Museo Del Prado. The current retrospective at the Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais is a comprehensive examination of his works, centered on the Prado collection, and including his celebrated portraits, mythological paintings and still lifes.

Velazquez was born in 1599 in Seville, Spain, and began studying painting at the age of 12 under the painter and art historian Francisco Pacheco. Velazquez quickly distinguished himself, and with the urging of Pacheco, headed for the capital of Madrid in 1622 with the aim of becoming a court painter. His early landscapes and religious paintings reveal an indirect influence of Caravaggio, but his style and technique were refined after he became a court artist in 1623. Exposure to the Venetian paintings of the royal collection and interactions with Rubens who visited royal household, as well as two trips to Italy on the advice of Rubens, prompted Velazquez to develop an innovative painting style that captured a precise visual impression through a broad touch of the brush.


His two visits to Italy brought great advancement in his works. During his first stay in 1630, Velazquez worked on his first landscape. Villa Medici, depicting the country house of the Medici family where the artist was staying, was a landscape drawn outdoors. The work is a rare example of painting out of doors before the 19th century. The artist’s expert brush captures the sunlight glimpsed through luxuriant leaves, the shadow of trees reflected on the building’s wall and the light that shifts quickly from the movement of the leaves in the wind. The fruits of his study of landscapes were incorporated in the backgrounds of the portraits Velazquez painted after his return to Spain. During this time, in addition to landscapes, Velazquez explored with intensity various other genres, including mythology paintings. The masterpiece Venus at her Mirror (fig.1) is the only existing nude by Velazquez and was an extremely rare subject for the strictly catholic regime of Spain at the time.

Fig. 1 Diego Velázquez, Vénus au miroir,
c. 1647-1651, oil on canvas, 122,5 x 177 cm,
London, the National Gallery, © The National Gallery

In 1650, during his second stay in Italy, Velazquez painted Portrait of Innocent X (fig. 2) of the absolute ruler of the Christian faith of the time. This graphic painting that delves into the inner realms of his subject is the best portrait by the artist celebrated in this genre.

The retrospective concludes with a self-portrait from the artist who painted so many others as a court painter. It is an impressive piece of work from which pensive eyes stare ahead quietly.

Velazquez Exhibition through July 13 (close Tuesdays and holidays).

Grand Palais

3 Avenue du Général Eisenhower
75008 Paris, France
www.grandpalais.fr/en

Opening times:

Sun, Mon　10:00—20:00
Wed-Sat 10:00—22:00
Closed on Tuesday, 1 May

Chagall Restrospective

A retrospective of Chagall, who portrayed the varied objects of his love through poetic colors, is taking place at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. On exhibit are more than 200 pieces, ranging from a 1908 painting that Chagall made at the age of 21 to works of his final years, as well as stage costumes designed by the artist.

Fig.1 Marc Chagall, The Promenade, 1917-1918,
oil on canvas, State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg
© Chagall ® SABAM Belgium 2015

Marc Chagall was born to Jewish parents in 1887 in the Russian village of Vitebsk (current day, in Belarus). After becoming interested in painting, he enrolled in the Imperial Society for the Protection of the Arts in St. Petersburg. There he came into contact with the new schools of art led by the French. Chagall’s focus shifted to the art center of Paris, and he decided to leave Russia.

The lively and urban city of Paris and his fellow artists living at the communal atelier La Ruche (the beehive), including Fernand Léger, Alexander Archipenko and Amadeo Modigliani, provided many themes and new motifs for Chagall, stimulating his creative ambitions. But Chagall could not forget his hometown of Vitebsk and continued to paint its landscapes (Fig. 1), his family and the people who lived there, as well as various motifs rooted in Jewish culture.

The current retrospective focuses on the relationship between Chagall and his Jewish family background and Jewish culture and traditions. Chagall was originally named Móyshe Shagál after Moses, the Jewish prophet from the Old Testament. He changed his name in Paris to Marc Chagall, as he is currently known.


Driven out of countries by world events such as the Russian Revolution and World War I, Chagall and his wife Bella moved between France, Russia and the United States. In 1941, Chagall fled from Nazi-occupied France to the United States.

Fig.2 Marc Chagall, Definitive Study for the Ceiling
of the Opéra Garnier,  Paris, 1963, gouache on paper,
glued on canvas. private collection
© Chagall ® SABAM Belgium 2015

Around the time that Chagall and his wife Bella arrived in the United States, invading Nazi German troops were obliterating Chagall’s hometown of Vitebsk. And three years later, his beloved Bella died suddenly. After the loss of his hometown to war and the death of his beloved wife, art became a place of escape from despair for Chagall. He delved into creating the stage sets and costumes for Léonide Massine’s ballet “Aleko” and ballet “The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky (music) and Gorge Balanchine (choreography). Chagall returned to Paris after World War II, and in 1960, Andre Malraux commissioned him to paint the ceiling of the Paris Opera. Chagall fulfilled with great success, this opportunity of a free and large-scale project (Fig.2).

The exhibit offers a chance to immerse oneself in the colorful world of Chagall who created with great vitality throughout his long life of 97 years.

Chagall Retrospective runs through June 28. (Museum closed Mondays and May 1st)

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium

Rue de la Régence 3 / Regentschapsstraat 3
1000 Brussels
Belgium
www.fine-arts-museum.be/en

Opening times:

Tue—Fri 10:00—17:00
Sat,Sun 11:00—18:00

The Frick Collection – Art Treasures from New York

Fig.1 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
(1780-1867), Portrait of Countess D'Haussonville;
d’Haussonville, 1845, Oil on canvas, 131,8 x 92,1 cm,
The Frick Collection, New York;
photo Michael Bodycomb

The Frick Collection exhibition, the first major show at the new Royal Dutch Shell Wing of the Mauritshuis that opened after two years of renovation, is on display from February 5 to May 8. The Frick Collection dates back to 1935, when the mansion of the industrialist Henry Clay Frick (1848-1919) was expanded and opened as an art museum to the public following his death, to display the works he had collected for more than forty years. The collection spans the extensive period of the 13th to 19th century and covers broad genres, including paintings, sketches, sculptures and furnishings.

Among the works on loan is an icon of the Frick Collection, Countess D’Haussonville (Fig. 1) by the French neoclassical master Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingres. The portrait was painted in 1841 when Ingres had returned from his second stay in Italy and taken up a position at the French Academy. A woman in a pale blue dress stands amid luxurious furnishings. A red hair ornament creates a charming and youthful ambience. The superb depiction of her porcelain-smooth complexion and the lustrous satin of her dress make this a painting not to be missed.

Fig.2 John Constable (1776-1837), The White Horse,
1819, Oil on canvas, 131,4 x 188,3 cm, The Frick Collection,
New York; photo Michael Bodycomb

It is an extravagant pleasure to be able to view and contrast works from the Frick and Mauritshuis collections. For example, there is John Constable’s masterpiece The White Horse (Fig. 2) from the Frick, and Jacob van Ruisdael’s View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds from the Mauritshuis. Constable is a representative landscape painter of 19th century Britain while Ruisdael was a leader of the same genre in 17th century Holland. Both artists loved their homelands and expressed those feelings in their work as seen in these two paintings. One can sense the love with which they observed their lands by the way they capture the tranquil and sensitive light and peaceful mood of the countryside. Enjoying the works from both of these enthralling collections is highly recommended for visitors.

This is the first time that works of the Frick Collection are loaned overseas, making the exhibit a rare opportunity to see the paintings of artists not often housed in Dutch museums such as pieces by Cimbae, Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling and Joshua Reynolds. They may be viewed alongside the works of Rembrandt and Vermeer from the Mauritshuis.

The Frick Collection until May 8.

Mauritshuis Museum

Plein 29
2511CS, Den Haag
The Netherlands
http://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/

Opening times:

Mon　　　　　 13:00—18:00
Tue, Wed, Fri-Sun　10:00—18:00
Thur　　　　 　10:00—20:00

Commemorating 125 Years after the Death of Van Gogh

The year 2015 marks 125 years since the death of Vincent van Gogh. Under the theme “125 Years of Inspiration,” Van Gogh’s homeland of the Netherlands is honoring the anniversary year with exhibitions in various cities that look back on the artist’s life and works and his influence on subsequent painters.

At the Keukenhof Park, famed for its tulips, Van Gogh’s self portrait will be reproduced with flowers, and his birthplace of Zundert will honor the anniversary at its flower parade. The cycling path that links Zundert, Nuenen – where he painted The Potato Eaters, and Etten where he lived, has been refurbished so visitors can leisurely enjoy the sites of Van Gogh’s paintings. On November 12, the cycling path created by the Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde was completed. Designed based on the image of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, the stones embedded into the path emit light at night, creating a magical landscape.

Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, Arles,
January 1889, oil on canvas, 95 cm x 73 cm,
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
(Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Amid this nationwide fervor over the 125th year anniversary, when reviewing the life and works of Van Gogh one cannot overlook the Van Gogh Museum, which holds the world’s largest Van Gogh collection, and the Kröller-Müller Museum.

In anticipation of the anniversary, the
Van Gogh museum began a major new presentation of its exhibits from November 28, 2014. Van Gogh’s letters and an abundance of other primary sources along with valuable artifacts that were restored are displayed with the paintings, offering viewers a deeper understanding of the artist’s life and work. On September 25th, the exhibit “Munch: Van Gogh” will open. Both painters shared lives of hardships that had enormous influences on their works, and they are also linked by the fact that when Munch visited Paris, he was studying the works of Van Gogh. The exhibit offers a perception into the similarities and differences of the works born from the delicate sensibilities of the two artists.

From April 25th, the Kröller-Müller Museum presents the exhibit “Van Gogh & Co. Criss-crossing the collection.” About fifty pieces will be displayed, allowing visitors to explore the creativity of Van Gogh by comparing his works from the early to late years with those of his contemporaries.

More than forty Van Gogh events are planned in the Netherlands, with other programs to take place in France and Belgium. For further information, see the “Van Gogh Europe” webpage and go to the “Van Gogh 125” section (http://vangogheurope.eu/program2015/).

Rembrandt: The Late Works

Every year numerous exhibitions take place all over the world, but once in a while there comes an exhibit of a lifetime. “Rembrandt: The Late Works,” currently at the National Gallery, is without a doubt such an event.

An exhibit highlighting an artist’s last years brings to mind the image of someone distressed by an awareness of the end of one’s life. In Rembrandt’s case, he had financial troubles and was ousted from his church due to his common-law wife to whom he was not officially married. In 1656 he declared bankruptcy and had to let go of his atelier, lavish home and collection of artwork and antiques. It’s not hard to imagine that under such circumstances, one’s artistic motivation would decline. But the exhibited works give no such impression. Instead, what emerges is a painter eagerly exploring new approaches to his art that appeal to the soul.


The exhibit’s starting point are the self-portraits that were Rembrandt’s life work. From his 80 self-portraits, the exhibit shows seven that were painted in his final years. The figure proudly holding a paintbrush and palette in Self Portrait with Two Circles (c. 1665-1669, fig.1), which Rembrandt painted 10 years after he went bankrupt, imparts the self-respect of an artist. In Self Portrait at the Age of 63, painted in the year that he died, Rembrandt depicted himself clasping his hands and looking straight outward from the canvass. But an X-ray of the painting revealed that originally he had been shown holding a paintbrush. In the painting engulfed in a warm light, Rembrandt had shed his artistic pride and expressed a deeper inner self.

This exhibition moves on to the next venue: Rijksmuseum (photo) in
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 12 Feb - 17 May, 2015.

In addition to these famous works, this exhibition is showing some magnificent but so far not very well known paintings. The Conspiracy of the Batavians Under Claudius Civilis (about 1661-2) is Rembrandt’s largest piece, measuring five square meters. The painting thoroughly demonstrates Rembrandt’s mastery as “the painter of light and shadow.” A candle is hidden behind the characters while the golden light from the flame reflects against the white tablecloth and lights up the faces of the rebels from below. It is also remarkable that the entire painting was mostly done with shades of brown.

This painting is one of many that portrayed the Batavians who rebelled against the Roman Empire, an uprising that the Dutch identify with their own Eighty Years’ War for independence from Spain that ended in 1648. But Rembrandt’s piece was taken down after just a few months of display at the Amsterdam town hall. The reasons are not known although there are rumors that it was because Rembrandt had painted the bad eye of the main character Gaius Julius Civilis that was traditionally not depicted. The work was returned to the artist and he was not paid. Rembrandt later had to cut the piece down to one fourth of its huge original size in order to sell it, which explains its current dimensions (196 x 309 cm).

The exhibition is showing 40 oil paintings, 20 sketches and 30 prints, including self-portraits, historical paintings and portraits, as well as paintings of his common-law wife Hendrickje and biblical tales conveyed through renderings of daily life. In the spring of 2015, Rembrandt: The Late Works will travel to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the birthplace of the artist.

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square,
London WC2N 5DN
The United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 7747 2885
www.nationalgallery.org.uk

Opening times:

Mon-Thur, Sat, Sun 10:00-18:00
Fri 10:0-21:00
Closed 1 Jan and 24—26 Dec