Monday, February 22, 2016

Venice: Peggy Guggenheim Collection - Postwar Era. A Recent History - Homages to Jack Tworkov and Claire Falkenstein



Venice:  Peggy Guggenheim Collection - Postwar Era. A Recent History - Homages to Jack Tworkov and Claire Falkenstein. The exhibition Postwar Era. A Recent History - Homages to Jack Tworkov and Claire Falkenstein at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, until April 4, curated by Massimo Luca Barbero offers a fresh, analytical look at postwar American and European art through 1979, the year of Peggy Guggenheim death. More than ninety paintings and sculptures, works, some rarely exhibited, are assembled in clusters and arranged according to theme, style, affinity, and an unconventional chronology, bringing together threads of sensibility that go beyond avant-garde movements and historical tendencies. This context also offers insight into the work of two artists in the Foundation’s collections: Jack Tworkov (1900–1982) and Claire Falkenstein (1908–1997).
Above. Mirko – Study for the gates to the Fosse Ardeatine – 1949 tempera on lined paper.




Curator Luca Massimo Barbero

  copyright Jack Tworkow, by SIAE 2016 - courtesy – Peggy Guggenheim Collection


Jack Tworkov – Abstract Figure
1949 - oil on canvas
Private collection - courtesy of American Contemporary Art Gallery, Munich

Homage to Jack Tworkov.  The exhibition opens with early works of American Abstract Expressionism. A room is dedicated to the painting of Polish-born American Jack Tworkov, a prominent figure in the postwar art scene in New York.   The rich series of works on paper and five oil paintings documenting show Tworkov’s treatment of a female portrait in the stylistic and formal key of Abstract Expressionism.


 
Curator Jason Andrew and Jack Tworkov’s daughter, an artist in her own right, Hermine Ford



Robert Motherwell - Personage (Autoportrait)
9 December 1943 - paper collage, gouache, ink on board

In 1943, Motherwell and Jackson Pollock experimented with collage in response to Peggy’s invitation to contribute to an exhibition of collage at her Art of This century gallery in New York. Although Motherwell acknowledged that the work might have elements of self-portrait, Personage (Autoportrait) is readily perceived as a non-referential coloristic and spatial construction.


Reg Butler – Walking Woman

1951 – bronze



 

Dadamaino - The Facts of Life – Letter No. 12
1980 – Indian ink on paper – detail

The same sign is repeated in varied, spaced, interrupted sequences, as if the work were in constant evolution. The word “letter” comprises the double meaning of alphabet and missive: it is a message with political connotation, in the way that Dadamaino intended “political”: the will to stand for solidarity, freedom and tolerance.



Leslie Thornton – Roundabout
1955 – bronze


“Figures enclosed within structures or emerging from assemblages reflect the human predicament both playful and threatening. I did not set up abstract sculpture in opposition to figurative. A piece of sculpture should be both.  Figurative to the extent that it is a representation of space.  The spaces between and around objects and settings are almost as rich as the objects themselves.”
Leslie Thornton

 
Carla Accardi – Blue Concentric
1960 – casein on canvas – detail

Color, the dominant element in this painting, generates a vortex of transparent layers.  The vivid blue evokes Accardi’s native Sicilian landscape, the memory of which permeated her work.

 

Peggy Guggenheim Collection’s Philip Rylands
Giuseppe Santomaso - Lettera a Palladio n.6
1977 – oil on canvas

 
 Claire Falkenstein – Set Structure with Cylinders
1944 – poplar wood, stain and pigmented lacquer

Claire Falkenstein’s series titled Set Structures consists of unified compositions that can be disassembled into separate parts – “exploding the volume” as she described it, referring to the fact that the state of the object was altered. The Set Structures were based on detailed preparatory drawings, above, which led to her first solo exhibition in New York and to her recognition in a national and international context.

 
Claire Falkenstein – Entrance gates to the Palazzo
1961 – iron and colored glass

  Photograph  - The Falkenstein Foundation - Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, 
New York, NY


            Claire Falkenstein - Model for Garden Gates
1961 - Painted copper wire and glass
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - Gift of Mrs. Peggy Guggenheim


The homage to Claire Falkenstein is celebrated for her entrance gates to the museum, commissioned in 1960  by Peggy Guggenheim for her former home, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, now the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, they have undergone maintenance prior to this exhibition.
 



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Thursday, February 18, 2016

New York: Narcissa - California Cuisine – Farm to Table - Comes to NYC

 

New York: Narcissa - California Cuisine – Farm to Table - Comes to NYC. Right round the corner from Cooper Union and nestled in the entrance of Andre Balazs's The Standard Hotel in the East Village, is his  and Michelin-starred chef John Fraser’s restaurant called Narcissa, and as the name suggests, self love, the food is there certainly to be enjoyed and indulge in.




Narcissa.  There is a choice of two dining rooms, one featuring a large open kitchen and chef counter, the other overlooking a charming private garden, allowing for al fresco dining in warmer months.

 
Narcissa
 Carrot Fries

jalapeno tofu dip


Narcissa marries the clean flavors and impeccably-sourced ingredients of California Cuisine with new techniques of roasting, rotisserie and slow-cooking.

 
Narcissa

Loaded Potato

smoked butter, broccoli, scallions

Though not a Vegetarian or Vegan restaurant, there are plenty of option for non-meat or fish eaters. Featuring seasonal, local and organic produce from Andre Balazs’ Hudson Valley farm, Locusts on Hudson, the healthy, multi-layered American menu offers both simplicity and sophistication. 

 
Narcissa

Cheesecake

Caramelized white chocolate – wine poached quince – tangerine sorbet

 
Narcissa



Orange-Ginger Seltzer
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Monday, February 08, 2016

Venezia – Opening: New Palladian Rooms in the Gallerie dell’Accademia

 
“The plaster casts of Canova now live here, where even the lion’s paw is finally free.”
Tobia Scarpa


Venezia – Opening:  New Palladian Rooms in the Gallerie dell’Accademia. The Gallerie dell’Accademia are enriched with seven new rooms set in the wing of the convent of the Canonici Lateranensi designed by Andrea Palladio. This is a further important step towards the realization of the ambitious project of the Great Galleries promoted by the Ministry of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, and was made possible through the support of the Venice International Foundation - Friends of Venice Italy Inc., chaired by Franca Coin, and Venice in Peril Fund, chaired by Jonathan Keates, as part of the UNESCO Joint Program - International Private Committees for the safeguarding of Venice.
Above. Antonio Canova – Lions – 1783-1792 –plaster casts –monument Clemente XIII Rezzonico. The Palladian Wing designed by Andrea Palladio.



photograph and copyright by Manfredi Bellati


Minister for Heritage, Culture and Tourism
Dario Franceschini


Venice International Foundation - Friends of Venice Italy Inc.

Franca Coin and Dario Franchescini



 
Venice in Peril, Fund - Lady Clarke
Le Gallerie dell’Accademia – Giulio Manieri Elia





New Palladian Rooms in the Gallerie dell’Accademia. Giulio Manieri Elia and Roberta Battaglia, who together with neo director Paola Marini scientifically organized the route of the new seven rooms designed to host the heroes of Venetian art in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and especially with great attention to the works of Antonio Canova. Canova's works are mostly exposed in the light gallery overlooking the Palladian courtyard where the famous plaster casts of the great artist are in dialogue with each other and with the architecture of the great architect Andrea Palladio. 

Above. Le Gallerie dell’Accademia’s Roberta Battaglia - Bas Relief Antonio Canova. 

  
 


 Le Gallerie dell’Accademia - director
Paola Marini
Comite Francais pour la Sauvegarde de Venise – president
Jerome Zieseniss


 
 Venice in Peril Fund
 Dario Franceschini and Jonathan Keates
Lady Clarke and Marina Morrison Atwater

John Millerchip
 
 
UNESCO – head of culture
Veronique Dauge

 
Accademia di Belle Arti – Venezia – president
Luigino and Roberta Rossi

 
New Palladian Rooms in the Gallerie dell’Accademia. The layout of the restoration was led by Tobia Scarpa and guarantees a formal continuity in the context of the important restoration project of the Grandi Gallerie dell’Accademia co-directed with Renata Codello. This intervention is aimed at enhancing the extraordinary heritage collected in over two centuries of Venetian history within the magnificent spaces of the Palladian convent, at last be enjoyed by the public on a permanent basis.
Above. Architect Tobia and Valeria Scarpa.

  photograph and copyright by Manfredi Bellati

New Palladian Rooms in the Gallerie dell’Accademia. An entire room is dedicated to Francesco Hayez a great pupil of the Venetian Academy, next to his early works, amongst which the Rinaldo and Armida, will be exposed the Distruzione del Tempio di Gerusalemme considered to be his spiritual testament.

Above. The Francesco Hayez Room - Rinaldo and Armida – 1813-14.
 



Giovanni Alliata di Montereale and prefect of Venice, Domenico Cuttaia

Franca Coin and Alessandra Mancino

Tonci and Barbara Foscari

director Museo Diocesano in Venice, Don Gianmatteo Caputo and Davide Zoggia




Bartolomeo Ferrari da Antonio Canova – Pieta – 1830
plaster cast
Antonio Canova - Pieta – 1817-1821
terracotta
 


Venetian Heritage president and vice president
Valentina Nasi Marini Clarelli and Toto Bergamo Rossi

 
 

Laura Scarpa, Pamela Berry Morasutti Vitale, Alessandro Tusset, Novella Papafava dei Carraresi and Gigi Bon


Luigi Borro – La Liberazione dell’Ossesso - 1850

Plaster – detail

 

Fabio Moretti and Alessandra Zoppi - Isabella Casa Palumbo Fossati
Piergiorgio Coin and Inma Cavallucci de Dalmases
Hugues Le Gallais and Justine Bradley – Irina Ivancich Marchesi
Ketty Alvera and Liesl Odenweller


  Luca Massimo Barbero and Fabio Moretti

Photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati



Antonio Canova – Busto di Napoleone – 1803-06

plaster
 

Cesare De Michelis

Giandomenico Romanelli – Valeria Regazzoni and Lorenzo Cinotti 

 Erilde Terenzoni




 
President Venice International Foundation - Franca Coin
Mayor of Venice – Luigi Brugnaro and
Minister for Culture, Heritage and Tourism - Dario Franceschini

 
Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia director – Gabriella Belli
La Biennale di veneziapresident - Paolo Baratta


Canova - restorers
Gea Storace and Stefano Provinciali
Antonio Canova – Paride - 1807-1812
Plaster


The Peggy Guggenheim Collection - director
Philip Rylands and Micky White

 


We Are Here Venice – co-founder

Jane da Mosto

 
Save Venice – Be Specific – badge

An uprising founded by Vivienne Westwood. Petitions, actions and rallies to save our future. Everything is connected.



http://climaterevolution.co.uk/
 


 


Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana – director
Maurizio Messina

 


Museo Correr - director
Andrea Bellieni
 


Emanuela Bassetti

Renato Pellicioli and Teresa Baldi Guarinoni

Christopher and Anna Wayman


Gallerie dell’Accademia – Andrea Palladio

Palladian Wing
 

 

 

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