arttravelbug

Browsing in the library today I stumbled across an interesting book: Art Towns California: Communities Celebrating Creativity: Festivals, Galleries, Museums, Dining & Lodging, by John Villani . Beyond interest in the book itself, it struck me that it might be part of a series. And, indeed it is. Although it is a very short series. No matter, it's still a good one. The 100 Best Art Towns in America: A Guide to Galleries, Museums, Festivals, Lodging & Dining, by John Villani This is Villani's best known book. The DEL-100 Best Small Art Towns in America: Discover Creative Communities, Fresh Air, and Affordable Living, by John Villani Another version of this book, with the words The DEL in front of it, but I haven't quite yet discerned the difference. The main ones seem to be a focus on living in creative communities (versus just visiting art collections) and the inclusion of some Canadian cities (yeah!). I have no idea what 'The DEL' re...

I have been a fan of the Opera Garnier since I stumbled upon it early into my month in Paris in 2009. I was already blown away by the building when I looked up and first set eyes on Chagall's remarkable ceiling. I gushed at the time , and have since acquired a tremendous print of the ceiling (yet to be framed) and a book or two. Yet, despite learning that construction began in the 1860's, I never really thought about how that Chagall got there. Then, this morning, reading an old copy of a Sunday NY Times left over from a vacation (I buy a copy and read it front to back over a week, and unfinished sections set aside... one of which just surfaced), I had a major ah ha moment: "Among the theater's most famous fixtures are the chandelier and the painted ceiling that surrounds it ~ originally by Jules Eugène Lenepveu, then replaced in 1964 with a new sprawling work by Marc Chagall depicting scenes from operas by Mozart, Wagner and more." Behind the Curtain at...

A compelling headline in ArtNews today: Stolen Gustav Klimt Painting May Have Been Discovered in an Italian Gallery’s Wall . So, if you've dreamed of visiting Piacenza, Italy, but have held back because the prized Klimt was missing, your dreams may soon come true. A little history of the lady: 1916-17: Gustv Klimt paints his famous Portrait of a Lady. The oil on canvas painting measures 60 by 55 centimetres (24 in × 22 in). It depicts a portrait of a female figure, composed in an unusually lively expressionistic style. 1925: It was acquired by the Galleria Ricci-Oddi in Piacenza, Italy. 1996: X-ray analysis revealed that the portrait was an overpainted version of Klimt's lost work Portrait of a Young Lady (in hat and with scarf), which disappeared in 1917. The original portrait showed a woman with whom Klimt is believed to have had a love affair, but after she died suddenly, he painted over the work. February 22, 1997: The painting was reported stolen, shortly...

Pablo Picasso and his cat, taken by painter Carlos Nadal at Vallauris 1954. The previously unknown photo was donated by his son Alejandro Nadal to the Museu Picasso Barcelona in 2010. What do Emily Barto, Pablo Picasso, Louis Wain and Andy Warhol all have in common? They all loved their cats. If you love art, artists and cats too, you'll likely enjoy these features about well known artists and their cats. Mary Savig, the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art's curator of manuscripts, recently dug through the institution's collection and published Artful Cats, a collection of artists with their cats. Highlights and endearing examples were featured by Artsy in These Smithsonian Archival Photos Show Famous Artists with Their Cats . I was particularly taken with the photographs of Hedda Sterne (outside and gazing skyward with Poussin), Frank Stella in his studio (reclining with Marisol), Beatrice Wood at her pottery wheel observed by one of her Manx cats (so that ...

The Birth of Venus, painted by Sandro Botticelli in the 1480s, is one of he world's truly beautiful artworks. I still remember it taking my breath away in when I stood before it. If you've seen it, you know what I mean. If you haven't, then go. Just GO. Though here is a tale from last week that might give you pause. "A man suffered a heart attack after he became overwhelmed by the beauty of Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. The unnamed Italian, 70, was gazing at the 15th century masterpiece in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence on Saturday morning when he had an intense artistic experience. He was the latest to fall victim to an apparent condition known as Stendhal's Syndrome - defined as dizziness, fainting, hallucinations and even heart palpitations when seeing something of 'great beauty'..." [ read more in the Daily Mail ]. Stendhal Syndrome Stendhal syndrome was named after Marie-Henri Beyle (1783–1842), better known by his penname Stendhal...

Ceci n’est pas une rue. Brussels honours artist René Magritte with a new street name. Brussels has a found a new way to honour Belgian artist, René Magritte...  "If you could name a street in your hometown, what would you choose? Belgian citizens had the opportunity to mull just that question as part of an initiative to name 28 streets, squares, and walkways in the Belgian capital’s Tour & Taxis district*. The city crowdsourced the names as part of an ongoing regeneration project in the Tour & Taxis district—a formerly industrial area now set to become one of the city’s cultural and residential meccas. After receiving nearly 1,400 suggestions from the public, the final list was chosen by a jury of city officials, historians, and the site’s property developer, Extena...""[ read more on Quartz ]. *The district is named after the famous Thurn and Taxis, a German noble family that was a key player in European postal services until the fall of the Holy Roman...

"The so-called 'Van Gogh Museum Editions' are premium quality, three dimensional replica's of Van Gogh's masterpieces." More than 120 years after his death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the stomach, the mystique of Vincent Van Gogh remains as powerful as ever. The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently placed all 16 of its Van Gogh paintings on display together for the first time and a pop-up exhibit displaying replicas of his paintings from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has embarked upon a tour of America – at shopping malls. The first stop is the King of Prussia Mall outside of Philadelphia through October 14th..." [ read more on Forbes ]. What would happen if it suddenly became possible to make perfect copies of paintings of the past? To begin with, the purpose of art museums would change dramatically. It is by going to museums, after all, that most of us discover how different it is to stand in front of a great painting instead of seein...

Georgia O'Keeffe: Visions of Hawaii New York Botanical Garden To October 28, 2018 "O’Keeffe was astonished by the beauty of Hawaii." Hawaii in NYC: Georgia O'Keeffe: Visions of Hawai'i at New York Botanical Garden "Finding out Georgia O’Keeffe had a Hawaiian period is kind of like finding out Brian Wilson had a desert period. But here it is: “Georgia O’Keeffe: Visions of Hawaiʻi,” 17 eye-popping paradisal paintings, produced in a nine-week visit in 1939, and now on display at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, through October 28. It is the first time the largely unknown group has been shown together since its original exhibition in 1940 at Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery, An American Place, in New York. In addition, there are two oil sketches never before exhibited. And not a bleached skull in sight..." [ read more in the New York Times ]. "Her advertising work — the original impetus for the trip — is only a minimal part of the ...

"A work of art is not to ease but to awaken and hassle the mind." Daniel Cordier There is an art auction coming up later this month at Sotheby's (on September 27) that is like no other. Assembled over 70 years by Daniel Cordier, the French Resistance figure and renowned Parisian gallerist, the collection features nearly 400 historic works. It is Cordier's backstory, however, that is fascinating. "The early life of Daniel Cordier reads like something out of a John le Carré thriller: soldier, spy, resistance hero, art dealer. After parachuting into Nazi-occupied France in 1942 aged 22 on the orders of the exiled General Charles de Gaulle in London, Cordier worked with the leader of the French Resistance, Jean Moulin..." [ read more on The Guardian ]. "For a year he was Moulin's right-hand man, writing his correspondence and liaising with other leaders. In May 1943 he was on guard outside the building in Paris, when the first meeting of the u...

Portrait of Dr. Gachet is one of the most revered paintings by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. It depicts Dr. Paul Gachet who took care of Van Gogh during the final months of his life, and was painted in June 1890 at Auvers-sur-Oise. There are, or were, two versions of the Portrait of Dr. Gachet, as well as a single etching. The whereabouts of the original Portrait of Dr. Gachet are unknown, and is one of today's biggest art mysteries. Portrait of Dr. Gachet - the original Whereabouts unknown First sold in 1897 by Van Gogh's sister-in-law for 300 francs, the original Portrait of Dr. Gachet was subsequently bought by Paul Cassirer (1904), Kessler (1904), and Druet (1910). In 1911, the painting was acquired by the Städel (Städtische Galerie) in Frankfurt, Germany and hung there until 1933, when the painting was put in a hidden room. It was confiscated by the Nazis in 1937 as part of its campaign to rid Germany of so-called degenerate art. Instead of destroying...

Creative Commons images Photogestion on Flickr "Piero Fornasetti was an artist ahead of his time. With an imagination that blurs the lines between illusion and reality, his surrealistic and – dare I say – psychedelic works are always unexpected and catch you by surprise. The exhibition juxtaposes Fornasetti’s surrealist pieces alongside the gallery’s permanent collection of classical sculptures and Renaissance works in an ironic and inventive way. Throughout the frescoed rooms and grand halls, the parallel objects seem to “speak” with each other, creating a dialogue between the works that play with the imagination and invite the viewer to venture into a land without rules or preconceptions..." [ read more ]. To visit Citazioni Pratiche (translation: "Practical Quotes" or “Practical Citations”) Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Altemps, Piazza S. Apollinare 46, Rome Tuesday – Sunday, 9:00am – 7:45pm (last entry at 7pm) Closed Mondays Exhibit tickets C...

Picasso's Kitchen Museu Picasso, Barcelona To September 30, 2018 "An exhibition on the subject of Picasso’s kitchen? Why not? There is nothing at all incongruous in the idea, because cooking is a subtle revelation of Picasso’s art: painting, engraving, sculpture, ceramics, poetry and theatre. What is more, we should not neglect the role of the restaurant as a meeting place for the avant-gardes, from the Quatre Gats tavern in Barcelona to the cabaret Au Lapin Agile on Montmartre, where the bohemians of the time and Picasso’s little entourage would share a table." From the exhibit catalog "The exhibition will include the exceptional collaboration of chef Ferran Adrià who will introduce a dialogue between the artist’s creative process and contemporary culinary art. The Mauri gallery– which is the gallery of the museum devoted to contemporary art- will house an intervention from the internationally acclaimed chef, who will showcase ‘Sapiens”, his methodology fo...

Monet and Architecture National Gallery, London To July 28, 2018 La Gare Saint Lazare, Monet “Monet is only an eye” claimed Paul Cézanne, “but my God, what an eye!” "Only an eye? This exhibition reveals the inner soul of Monet. It shows that his love of nature is not mere escapism. It is a craving for human survival in an age of growing industrial inhumanity..." [ read more ]. Museum at Le Havre, Monet "A brilliant colourist, a master of light, the joyous she painter of water lilies; we are all familiar with the painterly style of Claude Monet. But the National Gallery’s latest exhibition introduces us to a different, but equally innovative side of this modern master. The result is simply mesmerising. Dedicated to a select number of Claude Monet paintings of architecture, the exhibition explores the father of Impressionism's lifelong but previously unexplored preoccupation with structure. From the early Normandy paintings of the 1860s to his evocati...

Creative Commons image mikeancient on Flickr  Just 3 hours east of Helsinki, tucked next to the Russian border, lies the town of Parikkala. Creative Commons image 1030333033@N08 on Flickr  While relatively isolated, the tiny town receives more than its share of visitors, drawn to incredible sculptures created by Veijo Rönkkönen. Officially known as the Parikkala Sculpture Park, the Veijo Rönkkönen Sculpture Garden is one of Finland's most important examples of contemporary folk art. "Rönkkönen is more than an installation or a sculpture park; it’s a community, and although some of the artwork is disturbing, the forest is unquestionably quite magical, an amalgamation of many different worlds coming together all in one place." ( The Culture Trip ) Creative Commons image 1030333033@N08 on Flickr  What causes the sometimes 'creepy' reaction is the facial expressions of the concrete statues. Some even have human teeth. The uniqueness of each statu...