Félix Vallotton

In the 1890s the Swiss artist Félix Vallotton belonged to the group of artists known as Les Nabis. Made up of young, avant-garde artists like Bonnard, Vuillard and Denis, Les Nabis was a group which drew inspiration from Gaugain and Japanese ukiyoe prints, and sought to create art that was highly decorative. The exhibition "Félix Vallotton. Fire beneath the ice", currently showing at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, is composed of forty prints from the Van Gogh Museum collection and around sixty paintings, on loan from different institutions globally, and draws close to the full story of Vallotton's art.

fig.1　Félix Vallotton, The other’s health (Intimacies IX),
1898, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

At first Vallotton set out to become a painter, and produced many portraits; by the 1890s, however, he had begun to make woodcuts. This period was the prime time of lithography. Woodcutting, growing obsolete as it was only being used to duplicate photographs or drawings, was led to innovation by Vallotton. Rather than apply traditional western printmaking techniques for three-dimensional representation, such as gradients, or crosshatching, Vallotton composed with clusters of big, thick black and planes of stark white. He was skilled at depicting street-corner scenes of city crowds and demonstrations, but also intimate indoor scenes of bathers, or of men and women talking together. Especially "Intimités" (Intimacies) is considered a highlight of his print work (fig.1). This series of woodcuts pictures room interiors, and catches with great precision the subtleties between the men and women within; betrayal, indifference, a change of heart. A sense of turbulence is revealed, exposing these hidden, cold relationships beyond the intimacy shown on the surface. Vallotton's impressive prints were published in newspapers and books, widely disseminated in not only Europe but the United States as well.

fig.2 Félix Vallotton, The Ball, 1899,
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, bequest of Carle Dreyfus, 1953

In the field of oil painting, Vallotton produced portraits, landscapes, still lifes, nudes and various genre pieces. Among these, his method of landscape painting was extremely interesting. Instead of capturing an actual landscape and making that into the image's surface, he would use references, such as his own earlier work or photographs, into impossible, ingenious landscapes. Take for example the masterful painting "The Ball" (fig.2), which is composed of two photographs; one is of a girl, taken from the side, while the other is taken from a window upstairs, looking down. Combined into a single image are two points of view. Furthermore, when painting, he would first draw an outline and then fill it in with flats, largely avoiding the suggestion of mass by light and shadows, to bring about an ornamental image. With the inspiration he drew from ukiyoe and his interest in photography, Vallotton established his own unique way of working, with a smooth surface, a cool atmosphere and a sophisticated sense of color.

The exhibition "Félix Vallotton. Fire beneath the ice" will show until 1 June. After that it will travel to the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum in Tokyo.

Van Gogh Museum

Paulus Potterstraat 7
1071 CX Amsterdam
+31 20 570 5200
The Netherlands
http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl

Opening times:

From 1 March 9:00 - 18:00 (until 22:00 on Fridays)

Seventieth Anniversary of the Death of Piet Mondrian

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the death of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, a pioneer of abstract painting. To commemorate this milestone, the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, which boasts the largest Mondrian collection in the world, is holding two exhibitions simultaneously: “Mondrian and Cubism – Paris 1912-1914” and the permanent exhibit “Mondrian and De Stijl”.

Mondrian was deeply impressed by a 1911 exhibit at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam that introduced the new French art movement of Cubism. At the time, approaching 40 years of age, Mondrian had been searching for a new artistic direction. Struck by the works of Picasso and other Cubists from the exhibit, he was convinced he should relocate to Paris to further his career and moved there in January of 1912.

fig.1 Piet Mondriaan, Evening; The red Tree,1908-1910, oil on canvas, 70 x 99 cm.
Collection Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
© 2007 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust c/o HCR International, Warrenton (VA, USA)

Mondrian only lived in Paris for two years, but during that time his works were transformed by Cubism and shifted to plain and geometric forms. This transition can be seen in his paintings of trees in the permanent exhibition　room: Evening: The Red Tree (1908-1910, fig. 1), The Gray Tree (1912) and The Flowering Apple Tree (1913). The bold red with a vitality reminiscent of Van Gogh changes into a predominantly gray color while the concrete and exquisitely depicted branches are gradually abbreviated and abstracted into horizontal and vertical lines.

In one room are displayed the 16 works of Composition I through XVI (fig.2) which Mondrian exhibited in The Hague in 1914. Composition is a French labeling of Mondrian’s paintings of straight lines and colors. The numbers I through XVI are not chronological but rather arbitrary classifications by the painter. The numbers I through VI are given to completely abstract renderings, with the subsequent numbers given to depictions of their original sources of abstraction such as trees and buildings. It is hard to visualize the link between the earlier and later paintings however, without the aid of the small displays of the drawings of the trees and buildings placed next to their abstract renderings.

fig.2 Piet Mondriaan, Composition no. IV,
1914. Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

1In 1917, Mondrian returned to the Netherlands due to the illness of his father and remained there for the duration of World War I. Spared involvement in the war due to its neutrality, the Dutch art world grew beyond the French influence and flourished in its own. Together with Theo van Doesburg, Mondrian launched the magazine De Stijl. Mondrian was aiming for a universal, essential art through his works of horizontal and vertical lines and the three primary colors of red, yellow and blue as well as black and white. Other painters, sculptors, architects and designers joined this artistic movement, creating not just paintings but furniture and buildings. Mondrian’s principles had wide influence, extending even to urban planning.

During World War II, Mondrian sought asylum in the United States and spent the rest of his life in New York City. In the permanent exhibit room is the painting Victory Boogie-Woogie (unfinished) which Mondrian was still working on at the time of his death at age 72. Several pieces of square tape pasted on the lines of oil can be seen from close up, revealing how Mondrian worked with trial and error up to his final days.

Those who enjoy the Gemeentemuseum exhibit may want to visit other sites related to the life of Mondrian such as his birthplace, Mondriaanhuis in Ameersfoort, and Villa Mondriaan in Winterwijk near the German border where the artist spent his youth. Visitors can tour inside the buildings.

Mondriaan and Cubism – Paris 1912-1914 runs through May 11, 2014 (closed Monday)

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

Stadhouderslaan 41
2517 HV Den Haag
The Netherlands
http://www.gemeentemuseum.nl/en

Opening times:

Tuesday to Sunday:　11:00-17:00
Closed on Mondays

Paul Klee – Making Visible

Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.   —— Paul Klee

A major exhibit of the German painter Paul Klee is underway at London’s Tate Modern. Some 130 drawings, watercolors and oil paintings gathered from around the world are displayed chronologically.

Fig.1 Paul Klee (1879–1940), Comedy, 1921,
watercolour and oil on paper,
support: 305 x 454 mm on paper, unique, Tate. Purchased 1946

The exhibit begins with works from the 1920s when Klee made major advances in his technique. Comedy (1921 Fig.1) employs the oil-transfer method that Klee invented. The artist first makes a drawing by pencil or pen, then places that on a paper covered with black paint and traces the lines of the drawing with a needle, thus transferring the original drawing over. The resulting lines on the oil with their occasional smudges exude a unique atmosphere. Smears from the brush of a hand during the transfer leave fading marks of fleeting nature. Klee did not add color to his initial works using the oil transfer technique but later began layering watercolor on them, and eventually identified himself with such works by saying, “color and I are one.” Fire at Full Moon (1933 Fig 2) is an impressive piece that captures the yellow of the brilliant full moon of an evening with the red of flames burning up from the ground. The power of color is illustrated from a simple structure. Klee used many other techniques such as bold gradations of colors and dots for his numerous other works.

Fig.2 Paul Klee (1879–1940), Fire at Full Moon, 1933,
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany

Klee has been described as a lonely dreamer due to his emotionally rich work, but at the same time he was also a brilliant theorist. He authored a book on color theory, and when teaching at the Bauhaus on shape and color, he kept detailed notes. From 1921 he amassed an enormous catalogue that lists some 9,600 of his works. The pieces are classified meticulously by theme, along with a number, title and meticulous notes on the creative process. During his lifetime, Klee had studios in Munich, Weimar, Dessau, Dusseldorf and Bern. In each place he put up his works on the wall leaving no spaces between them and photographed the display. The current exhibit hopes to present Klee’s works in a manner true to the artist’s intentions while discerning the creative processes from his catalogue and photos.

Paul Klee – Making Visible runs through March 9, 2014. (Open everyday.)

Tate Modern

Bankside
London SE1 9TG
United Kingdom
http://www.tate.org.uk

Opening times:

Sunday to Thursday: 10:00-18:00、Friday and Saturday: 10:00-22:00

Extra edition: art exhibition “Children on Canvas“

The art exhibition "Children on Canvas — The Bond Between Great Artists and Their Offspring" will open in April next year at the Mori Arts Center Gallery in Roppongi, Tokyo.

This is an updated version of the exhibition “Les Enfants Modèles” — an expression in French with the dual meaning of “children who posed as models” and “model children” — which took place at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris in 2009.
Mr. Emmanuel Bréon, the former director of the Musée de l’Orangerie and the curator of the original exhibition in France, and Mr. Nobuyuki Senzoku, Professor Emeritus at Seijo University, supervised the content.

The theme of this exhibition is to portray the experiences of the children who posed as models, convey the feelings of the parents or the artists who were close to the children, and interpret the messages or episodes depicted in each artwork for the audience.

Approximately ninety pieces of artwork will be exhibited, including those by great artists such as Renoir, Monet, Matisse, and Picasso.

The venue and schedule are as follows:

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Tokyo: Saturday, April 19th – Sunday, June 29th, 2014
Mori Arts Center Gallery (Roppongi Hills Mori Tower 52F)

Osaka: Saturday, July 19th – Monday, October 13th (National Holiday), 2014
Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts (Tennoji Park)

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*For details of the exhibition or ticket sales, please refer to the official website: http://www.ntv.co.jp/kodomo/english/index.html

Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde

Kazimir Malevich,The Woodcutter (recto)/ Peasant Women
in Church (verso),
1912. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Russian painter Kazimir Malevich founded the new art movement Suprematism in 1915. Suprematism aims to create abstract depictions that are in themselves pure forms of art rather than visual reproductions of worldly items. The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, owner of the largest collection of Malevich’s works outside of Russia, offers a retrospective of the painter’s influential career through some 350 paintings and by studying Malevich’s relations with other artists of his time.

Along with his Russian colleagues, Malevich was shaped heavily by the French art movements of Impressionism and Cubism. But these avant-garde artists gradually sensed the end of the era of Western European paintings. They believed the new movement would come from the east and turned to Russian art, studying folk and religious tales, prints with folk themes and Russian icons. The artists used deep red, green and yellow in their works, and Malevich, too, contrasted striking colors in his portrayals of farm laborers.

Kazimir Malevich, Suprematism: Self-Portrait in
Two Dimensions, 1915.
Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

In 1915, Malevich suddenly presented new works in an exhibit titled “0.10.” They were paintings of simple geometric shapes like circles, rectangles and crosses painted in key colors of black, red, blue and yellow on white backgrounds. Malevich defied conventions of reproducing reality such as in his renderings of depth, and he asserted Suprematism as a victory of colors and shape against reality. Our current program reproduces this 1915 “0.1” exhibit. Near the ceiling where a Russian home would normally place an icon, is displayed Black Square, as a new icon of art.

Malevich’s sudden shift to pure, abstract painting remains a mystery but some believe it was caused by his involvement two years prior to “0.1” with the avant-garde opera Victory Over the Sun. Written by futurist poet Aleksei Kruchonykh with music by Mikhail Matyushin, Malevich created the stage designs and costumes. Similar to his paintings, the costumes incorporated key colors and simple forms such as cubes and cylinders. The stage that symbolized night and day was comprised of black and white simple structures as if to foreshadow the later dawn of Suprematism. A video of this opera production, Malevich’s costume designs and his stage design sketches are a key display of our exhibit.


Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde
19 Oct. 2013 – 2 Feb. 2014

Stedelijkmuseum Amsterdam

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

Opening times:

Monday to Sunday　10:00-18:00 (Thursday till 22:00)

TodaysArt 2013

Fig.2 One of the venues, former Ministry of Interior

The annual fall media arts festival “TodaysArt” took place once again in The Hague, the Netherlands this year over the weekend of Sept. 27 and 28.

Following the opening ceremony at one of the venues, the Atrium of the City Hall, Morton Subotnick, a pioneer of the electronic music world, performed Silver Apples of the Moon together with video artist Lillevan. Subotnick played this groundbreaking piece on an analog synthesizer comprised of both analog and digital components.

Fig.1 Ryoji Ikeda – test pattern

The Japanese artists are also worthy of mention.

On opening day, Atsuhiro Ito, known for using fluorescent tubes as an instrument, presented a collaboration with Diamond Version. On the second day, Ryoji Ikeda, who converts data into audiovisual, made his first appearance in TodaysArt with a presentation of his Test Pattern. Black and white lines flickering at high speed reflected onto the City Hall building (designed by Richard Meier) amid a gently flowing background noise(Fig.1).

The other main venue was the 19-storey former Ministry of Interior, located adjacent to the City Hall(Fig.2). A stage and bar were installed in the lower floors, resulting in the unusual sight of people dancing ‘til dawn to music in an area where entry was once highly restricted. The higher floors were converted into art exhibit spaces so that visitors walked through the large building as if on an expedition.

The third venue was Cocky Eek’s Sphaerae, a pavilion that linked the two other venues. Numerous music and light performances took place beneath the dome ceiling that resembled a planetarium(Fig.3).

     Fig.3 Venue:'Sphæræ' by Cocky Eek
     Work: Yamila Ríos + Joris Strijbos – COVEX

In the performances over two days, objects, music and light that permeate our daily lives were broken up, expanded and augmented, and transformed into works of art.

Since its first exhibition in 2005, TodaysArt has struggled against the economic environment to maintain its unique style. Future presentations beyond this ninth endeavor will not be easy amid continuing budget cuts in the arts. But the jarring concept of staging a bar and dance floor in the official spaces of the City Hall and former Ministry of Interior are worth noting. The organizers are looking overseas, including Japan, as possible venues for future exhibits.

NTV Europe is a supporter of TodaysArt.

* More photos are on our Facebook page. (Click here)

TodaysArt

www.todaysart.nl/2013/

Oskar Kokoschka Exhibit

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, photo Hans Wilschut

“Oskar Kokoschka – Portraits of People and Animals,” currently showing at the Museum Bojimans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, displays 148 paintings and sketches by Oskar Kokoschka. As one of Austria’s representative contemporary artists, alongside Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, Kokoschka is often categorized as an expressionist painter. But he maintained his independence from the artist movements such as the Vienna Secession, Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) or Die Brücke (The Bridge).

Kokoschka created many portraits during his career, including sketches and lithographs, and many of his most representational works are also portraits. Rather than depict his subjects in formal settings, Kokoschka preferred to capture them in natural situations such as friends in a conversation or at dinner or children mesmerized in play. His observations resulted in illustrating characteristic poses and unique expressions. In a 1966 television interview, Kokoschka said he was interested in the “aura of a person in space.” The subjects of his work seem to radiate light from within to their surrounding environment.


From 1926 and into the following year, Kokoschka took a strong interest in animals. Living in London at the time, the artist obtained permission to work outside of visitors’ hours at the zoo at Regent Park. His paintings include those of a tigon (a cross between a tiger and lion), crocodile and deer. Among these works is Mandrill. Kokoschka offered a banana to the mandrill every time he went to the zoo. But the mandrill not only didn’t show signs of affection but continued to display a menacing growl. The artist sensed the true determination of a beast to never be tamed and decided to paint the mandrill, not in its cage but in the rich natural setting of a jungle.

Kokoschka worked with a permanent quest to capture the spirit of his subjects. And his resulting portrayals in dramatic colors of the essence of his subjects continue to make a deep impression on their viewers.


Oskar Kokoschka – Portraits of People and Animals until January 19, 2014. (closed Monday Dec 25 and Jan 1)

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Museumpark 18-20
3015 CX Rotterdam
the Netherlands
www.boijmans.nl/en

Opening times:

Tuesday to Sunday 11:00-17:00
Closed on Mondays, Jan 1, Apr 27, Dec 25