In Athens, Museum Is an Olympian Feat

Arts / Art & Design
In Athens, Museum Is an Olympian Feat (NYT Permalink)
By ANTHEE CARASSAVA Published: June 20, 2009
The New Acropolis Museum, one of the highest-profile cultural projects undertaken in Europe in a decade, opens this weekend.

Exhibitions axed as recession bites US worst hit as sponsorship withdrawn and endowment wealth shrinks

Exhibitions axed as recession bites
US worst hit as sponsorship withdrawn and endowment wealth shrinks

(Source The Art Newspaper)
NEW YORK/LONDON. An Art News­paper survey suggests that a growing number of exhibitions are being cancelled because of the recession. We have identified over 20 important shows that have been axed (or, in a few cases, postponed) later this year or in 2010.

Our list almost certainly represents the tip of the iceberg. Many venues have not yet published their 2010 programme, and some unannounced shows that had been provisionally scheduled are being quietly dropped. Decisions may have been influenced by a number of factors, but according to our research financial concerns were key.

The situation seems considerably worse in North America than in Europe. This is probably because North American museums are much more dependent on private sponsorship and endowments—particularly hit by the recession—while Euro­pean institutions receive more government funding.

Among the worst-hit institutions is the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma), with at least three major shows being lost. In August it was to have presented “Heavy Light: Recent Photography and Video from Japan”, coming from New York’s International Center of Photography, where it was shown last year. This has now been cancelled.

In November, an exhibition on Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles was due to come to Lacma after first showing at Tate Modern in October 2008 and the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (where it closed in April). The entire North American tour has been cancelled, including presentations at Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts (originally scheduled for June) and Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario (in March 2010).

Meanwhile, a retrospective on the Armenian-born Ameri­can artist Arshile Gorky who died in 1948 had been scheduled for Lacma in June 2010, but has been dropped. Organ­ised by the Philadelphia
Mus­eum of Art (opening October 2009), Tate Modern is now the only other venue for the exhibition (spring 2010).
In some cases, late moves have been made to rescue shows. Tate Britain had long planned a major exhibition on Zoffany for autumn 2010. Earlier this year it was dropped, partly because of its financial viability in the present economic circumstances. Read Article...

Schoeni Gallery in Hong Kong plans online archive for website

Schoeni Gallery in Hong Kong plans online archive for website
(Source Artradar Asia)
Head of Schoeni gallery Nicole Schoeni told Art Radar that as part of the revamp of the website, there are plans to digitise their artist literature to form an on-line archive, “though it may take a while given that there is 16 years’ worth of material” she warned with a laugh.

Zhang Lin Hai

Nicole’s father Manfred Schoeni along with Johnson Chang of Hanart were pivotal in the nineties in bringing Chinese contemporary art to the international stage. For example Schoeni held the historically important 8+8+1 exhibition in 1997 which showcased the works of 15 contemporary Chinese artists many of whom are now internationally famous including Yue Min Jun, Zeng Fan Zhi, Zhang Xiao Gang, Guo Jin and Yang Shao Bin.

Harnessing the web to share historically important art materials with a global audience is, perhaps surprisingly, still an unusual initiative. While museums are making big strides, few galleries as yet are making materials pubicly available even when this would help promote current exhibitions. No doubt this will change and we look forward to the day when research , images and interviews, previously locked down in print publications such as catalogues, are released to a wider web audience as a matter of course.

In the meantime, Schoeni is also making its first forays into the world of video documentary with a just-released video of Chinese artist Zhang Lin Hai’s recent show ‘Stunned Speechless at Today Museum in Beijing.

Zhang Lin Hai’s work often features a repeated signature motif of a bald male child against hauntingly bleak backdrops. This motif was born out of his own experiences of being adopted as a child and witnessing the devastation of the Cultural Revolution.

http://artradarasia.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/schoeni-gallery-hong-kong-plans-on-line-archive-for-website/

Schoeni Gallery, http://www.schoeni.com.hk/ Zhang Lin Hai, http://www.schoeni.com.hk/ZhangLinHai.htm
Zhang Lin Hai at Today Art Museum Show 2008 Beijing

At Paris' Pompidou Center, the year of the women

VIVE LA FEMME: Suzanne Valadon’s "La Chambre bleue" from 1923 is part of the exhibition.

At Paris' Pompidou Center, the year of the women
A long exhibition, 'elles@centrepompidou,' will feature hundreds of works by female artists only. Think of it as an alternate history.

Reporting from Paris -- Imagine a museum that boasts the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe. Now imagine that an intrepid female curator puts all the men's work in storage and fills the permanent collection galleries with a new version of 20th and early 21st century art history, the one that women created.

Would she emerge as a champion, finally proving that women artists are as good as -- or better than -- the guys? Or would she simply expose weaknesses of the museum's collection and the art itself?

"It's a risk," says Camille Morineau, who has organized “elles@centrepompidou,” opening Wednesday at the Pompidou Center. "Excluding men and showing only women is a revolutionary gesture of affirmative action. But the museum is avant-garde. It's part of the Centre Pompidou culture to do things differently. And we like a lot of drama. This is going to be dramatic in a big way."

A serious statement

By any definition, the installation of about 500 works by more than 200 women is an ambitious project -- a standout among museums' efforts to pay more attention to women. If not the first such exhibition in the world, as advertised, it's certainly the first on such a grand scale. And it will run for an entire year, with periodic additions and rotations of artworks.

As Stephanie Barron, senior curator of modern art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, puts it: "When you have an institution of the scale and prestige of the Pompidou devoting its entire hang of its collection thematically to women artists, it's making a very serious statement."

Beginning with early 20th century paintings by French artist Suzanne Valadon and ending with works by up-to-the-minute figures such as Japan's Mariko Mori, Switzerland's Pipilotti Rist and England's Rachel Whiteread, "elles" will offer an international array of paintings, sculptures, installations, drawings, photographs, prints, videos, furniture and architectural models. Read Article...
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-ca-elles24-2009may24,0,1787985.story

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Pour la première fois dans le monde, un musée présente ses collections au féminin. Cette nouvelle présentation des collections du Centre Pompidou est entièrement consacrée aux artistes-femmes du XXème siècle à nos jours.
Après Big Bang en 2005 et le Mouvement des Images en 2006-2007, elles@centrepompidou est la troisième présentation thématique des collections du Centre Pompidou. C'est l'occasion pour l'institution, qui a su constituer la première collection européenne d'art moderne et contemporain, d'affirmer son engagement auprès des artistes-femmes, toutes nationalités et disciplines confondues, de remettre les créatrices au centre de l'histoire de l'art moderne et contemporain du XXe et du XXIe siècles.
Des figures emblématiques telles Sonia Delaunay, Frida Kahlo, Dorothea Tanning, Joan Mitchell, Maria-Elena Vieira da Silva voisinent avec les grandes créatrices contemporaines, parmi lesquelles Sophie Calle, Annette Messager, Louise Bourgeois ont fait l'objet d'expositions monographiques récentes au Centre Pompidou.

Pluridisciplinaire, la programmation permet d'approfondir les domaines culturels que les femmes ont investis depuis un siècle, aussi bien dans la littérature que dans l'histoire de la pensée, de la danse ou encore du cinéma.
http://www.ina.fr/fresques/elles-centrepompidou/Html/PrincipaleAccueil.php
http://www.centrepompidou.fr/

Naakten Freddy Heineken bij Christie's onder de hamer

Een naakt van Jan Sluijters (1881-1957) dat in 2003 werd tentoongesteld in Rotterdam. Foto ANP

Naakten Freddy Heineken onder de hamer

(Bron: Het Parool)
AMSTERDAM - Veilinghuis Christie's brengt twee naakten uit de kunstcollectie van wijlen Freddy Heineken onder de hamer. Op 10 juni kunnen mensen bieden op een liggende roomblanke vrouw van Jan Sluijters en een exotische schone van Hendrik-Jan Wolter, liet het veilinghuis vrijdag weten.

Het schilderij Poserende Greet van Sluijters moet 180.000 tot 200.000 euro opleveren. De verwachte opbrengst van het doek Liggend Naakt van Wolter wordt geschat op 15.000 tot 20.000 euro. De twee werken maken deel uit van Christie's veiling van impressionistische en moderne kunst, waarbij ook topstukken van George Hendrik Breitner, Hendrik Willem Mesdag en Johannes Klinkenberg onder de hamer gaan.

De sensuele naakten van Jan Sluijters (1881-1957) brengen tegenwoordig hoge bedragen op. Zijn schilderijen van blote vrouwen golden aan het begin van de vorige eeuw nog als gewaagd. In 1911 werden twee Sluijters-naakten vanwege onzedelijkheid verwijderd uit het Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. (ANP)
http://www.parool.nl/parool/nl/22/KUNST/article/detail/246649/2009/06/05/Naakten-Freddy-Heineken-onder-de-hamer.dhtml

“ Did art in Holland actually ceased to exist after Van Gogh” ?

“ Did art in Holland actually ceased to exist after Van Gogh” ?



Our broadcasting interview with Jose Luis Couoh Puc, a talented maya-impressionist
from Mexico highlighted the “whereabouts” about the present Dutch art culture.
The interview was held in Amsterdam, 14 May 2009.

Two people took the pleasure in interviewing Jose Luis, a painter from Merida,
Yucatan, who came to the Netherlands for an exhibition in Amsterdam Royal Gallery.

Jose Luis was invited to the Netherlands thanks to the positive criticism received
by a Dutch assistant-conservator who deeply admired his authentic impasta technique and of course the fact that his paintings received admiration of some art collectors (referring to the Mint Green exhibition, in New Delhi in this case) will most certainly, positively contribute to his success as being a one-of-a-kind maya impressionist with an impasta technique that cannot be copied by anybody anywhere.

We discussed with Jose Luis the present status of art in our society.
Remarkably he expressed that his visit to the Netherlands was more or less a small
cultural shock for him and so was the art he encountered upon his visit to some of our Amsterdam galleries.

When comparing the contemporary art that is being made in our society of today, he expressed to be, more or less, to be disappointed by what he called “seeds of our society that are reflected in the superficial fashion of the artist”.

“It is more like artists who are trying to catch the last trend or fashion instead of
An artist committed to creating art in his own unique style.

To cut a long story short: “the artist is no longer an artist in our society”. Just like with our present music in which stars are created by the media, many of the art that is produced has no quality label at all anymore he sadly and remarkably noticed.

May be it is because the artist is more engaged in tricks to sell a new painting instead of following his inner soul which should guideline and pave the way to creating a piece of art in his own unique style.

On the other hand Jose Luis was surprised to find such a glorious pastof the Dutch painters. Having studied art of course JoseLuis Couoh is well acquainted with the Dutch Masters of the Golden Age, but still seeing them for the first time and how they used to work says everything
about the glorious past of Dutch art.

It is most likely that this great difference in quality is nothing more than an exponential fact of the time we live in. In ancient times high society had rigid rules as to what to expect when they ordered for a painting and only few could pay….It is therefore sad to witness that a painter
such as Van Gogh, who was actually born 50 years earlier than he should have been, didn’t catch the admiration of the art audience at all that particular point of time. “Nobody was into Van Gogh at that point of time, as nobody could understand or see how unique his way of creating of art was by then: may be because of a lack of vision living in a time where people could only show off with technical perfect paintings from an established painter”.

Jose Luis Couoh Puc stressed the point that any artist in this world should not follow any trend at all and be just like Van Gogh, “because a genius only comes out when he already disposes of the talent, when he already has the basis and the capacity or skills to succeed in his own unique way”. May be it was because of this that people recognized that Jose Luis’ his exhibition in the Netherlands is no coincidence at all but only the result of the simple fact of his dedication
to being a true artist. Ïf the artist does not have this basis, he stated, then there is no point at all, that is why it is said to realize that for some people art died together with Van Gogh..

Jose Luis hopes that one day people will go back to their roots again and look at only one thing as before: the authencity of the artist, only this will save art in the long run….

Jose Luis will be in the Netherlands until the 16 th of May, day on which he will fly back to his beloved country: Mexico.

Thanks to the courtesy of the Comunidad de Yucatan Jose Luis Couoh was in the Netherlands and paid a visit to Musee de Orsay: “the museum to be for any impressionist who takes his work
seriously and wants to succeed”.



With courtesy to: Jose Luis Couoh Puc, joining in the next Exhibition at world artists July/August in Oosterkerk, Amsterdam. The exhibition Variations on Earth.
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“ el arte se murio con Van Gogh”



Entrevista con el impresionista Jose Luis Couh Puc de Mexico. Amsterdam 14 de Mayo 2009.
El 14 de Mayo tuvimos el placer de hacer una entrevista con Jose Luis Couoh Puc, pintor de Merida, Mexico quien esta actualmente exponiendo sus cuadros en la Galeria Royal de Amsterdam y que dentro de unos anos seguramente llegara a ser famoso gracias a tecnica “impasta” que queda reflejado en sus obras impresionistas/ expressionistas.

Jose Luis comento sobre su visita a Holanda y mas sobre el arte de la sociedad de hoy.
Cabe destacar que su primera obra durante la exposicion se vendio por mas de 9.000 pesos. Fue la obra de “Eva Luna” que llevo desde Mexico y se vendio inmediamente despues de su llegada a Holanda.

Jose Luis comento a su viaje a Holanda como si fuera: “ un pequeno shock cultural, “conociendo estos territorios de Europa tan avanzados y tan tecnificados”.
Al comparar el arte de Holanda con el de su pais materno, dijo que se hizo cargo de que ocurre algo en el arte de hoy como en la musica de hoy: “ los artistas tratan de seguir siempre la ultima tendencia en la sociedad sin preguntarse que base/calidad tiene su obra, por eso falta mucho la factura de la obra y el arte de hoy ya no es el arte de ayer, quizas por falta de tiempo del artista, quizas porque el artista ya no quiere ocuparse mas en hacer arte sino es mas bien un vendedor y por eso hace arte decorativo.

Fue notable durante la entrevista que al comparar la arte de Holanda de hoy y del siglo de oro (el tiempo de los grandes pintores como Rembrandt y Vermeer) ya no queda mucho de eso.

Antiguamente la alta sociedad tuvo gran demanda por obras finas y tecnicamente perfectas. Sin embargo, es notable que un artista como Van Gogh que querria expresar en sus obras una calidad sin precedentes, aunque no hubo nadie realmente interesado a comprar una obra de el: por una falta de vision de la sociedad del tiempo en que le toco vivir.


El artista consagrado no deberia seguir ninguna tendencia…segun Jose Luis Couoh Puc. ”Deberia tener su base y saber que hacer, como Van Gogh”; Seguramente es por eso que su exposicion en Holanda fue tan bien recibido con el publico y los expertos, quien se dieron cuenta que esta artista se compromete a hacer arte que viene de su mismo, que no trata de seguir ninguna tendencia, y por eso resulta tan dificil de creer “que el arte se murio con Van Gogh”.

“Espero que la gente vuelve un dia a conocer la autencidad otra vez que el artista persigue al hacer sus obras, y que vuelva a su base otra vez” dijo al final de la entrevista.

Jose Luis Couoh Puc esta en Holanda hasta el 16 de mayo 2009, dia en que vuelva a sus queridas tierras mexicanas. Agradecemos tambien la Comunidad de Yucatan por su visita a Holanda.