Venice Biennale Preview - Fondazione dell'Albero d'Oro - Patrick Saytour. Le Pli et Le Temps / La Piega e il Tempo

 "... unfolding through folds, burnings, and unstable surfaces, where Saytour's material research encounters Piero Manzoni’s conceptual ‘reduction’ -‘azzeramento’ - giving shape to a radical dialogue on gesture and time." 

Venice Biennale Preview  

Fondazione dell'Albero d'Oro - Palazzo Vendramin Grimani

Patrick Saytour. Le Pli et Le Temps / La Piega e il Tempo

At Palazzo Vendramin Grimani on the Canal Grande at the Fondazione dell'Albero d'Oro - the exhibition - Patrick Saytour. Le Pli et le temps / La Piega e il Tempo - Fold and Time - until November 22 - curated by Daniela Ferretti. It is the first exhibition in Italy dedicated to French artist - Patrick Saytour - unfolding through folds, burnings, and unstable surfaces, where the artist's material research encounters Piero Manzoni’s conceptual ‘reduction’ -  azzeramento - giving shape to a radical dialogue on gesture and time.

The exhibition brings together works shaped through folds, cuts, burning, tearing, solarisation, stitching, and manipulation of textiles. These processes form a visual language rooted in both material presence and the passage of time. 

Important series include Plié/Déplié, where folded and unfolded fabrics become records of gesture and memory, and Repliés and Brûlages, where shadows, scars, and marks remain visible on the surface.

“Surfaces that refuse to be fixed in a single form.”

Patrick Saytour - 1935–2023 - was one of the leading figures of the French Supports/Surfaces and one of the key protagonists of the French Pictorial Experimentation movement, which emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The group challenged traditional ideas of painting by focusing on material, structure, gesture, and process rather than representation and all united by theoretical debate and an engagement in unconventional exhibition strategies that they practiced together. 

“The works inhabit the space, revealing its folds, layers, and temporalities.”

Rather than acting as a simple backdrop, Palazzo Vendramin Grimani becomes an active presence within the exhibition. Its decorated rooms, stucco details, historic floors, and views over the Canal Grande create a setting that responds directly to Saytour’s work.  The relationship between the palace and the artworks highlights themes of memory, permanence, fragility, and time.

Each room is a threshold, an experience in which the work must be perceived before it is looked at. Numerous series trace the artist’s trajectory, such as Plié/Déplié, which present themselves as archives of time, draperies that recount the memory of gestures and matter. The fold becomes a metaphor for ethics capable of embracing complexity, imperfection and irregularity.

A carefully selected group of works on paper forms the secret heart of the exhibition. It is on paper that the artist concentrates and distils his energy—minimal vibrations, swift cuts, light traces that reveal the inexhaustible vitality of the gesture. Each sheet preserves the outcomes of a research that never reaches a final point. Far from being marginal, these works trace a silent geography that offers visitors the chance to enter the artist’s inner laboratory.

Curator - Daniela Ferretti

The decorated rooms of Palazzo Vendramin Grimani, the views over the Canal Grande, the stuccoes, the floors, the building’s very architecture, become both frame and counterpoint for fabrics that are folded, burned, or left in the sun. 

Palazzo Vendramin Grimani is an emblematic building of the Venetian Renaissance, now managed and brought to life by the Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro. Committed to an exacting programme of restoration, research, and knowledge-sharing, the foundation aims to make this palace a vibrant place for reflection and creation, open to the public and to international exchange.

Secretary General - Fondazione dell'Alberto d'Oro - Beatrice de Reynies

Patrick Saytour.  Le Pli et le temps / La Piega e il Tempo

 

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Venice Biennale Preview - Casa dei Tre Oci - Joseph Kosuth - The-exchange-value-of-language-has-fallen-to-zero

«A work of art is a kind of proposition presented within the context of art as a comment on art.» 

Joseph Kosuth - 1969 

 Venice Biennale Preview  

Casa dei Tre Oci - Berggruen Arts & Culture and Berggruen Institute Europe 

Joseph Kosuth - The-exchange-value-of-language-has-fallen-to-zero

At the Casa dei Tre Oci - Berggruen Arts & Culture and Berggruen Institute Europe - a new exhibition by the pioneer of Conceptual art, American artist - Joseph Kosuth - entitled - The-exchange-value-of-language-has-fallen-to-zero - until - November 22 - curated by Mario Codognato and Angela Rispoli. Joseph Kosuth - 1945 - has consistently situated language as the content and subject of his practice. Known for his celebrated neon works, an important new large-scale site-specific commission - A Chain of Resemblance - 2026 - is  installed in the gallery’s main entrance - above - the work, which is based on a text by Michel Foucault, examines how meaning is formed by both the text and the context in which it appears, revealing that language is never neutral but inherently shaped by its setting and reception. 

A Chain of Resemblance - 2025  

Warm white neon mounted directly on the wall

Joseph Kosuth_Tre Oci_LR_©Matteo Catania-Hubove Studio

Joseph Kosuth has had a long relationship with Venice, living there from 2021 to 2025 and participating in eight Venice Biennales, including representing Hungary in 1993. His works include The Material of Ornament at Fondazione Querini Stampalia - since 1997 - and To Invent Relations - for Carlo Scarpa -  at Ca' Foscari University -  Venice - 2016.

Joseph Kosuth

From the One and Three series, this work marks a key moment in Conceptual art. By pairing an object with its image and definition, Joseph Kosuth reflects the influence of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Marcel Duchamp, exploring meaning as use and questioning art’s function. The mirror adds a dynamic element, incorporating the viewer into the work.

One and Three Mirrors (Eng.) - 1965

Two mounted photographs and mirror

One and Eight – A Description - is a tautological work in which Joseph Kosuth explores language and meaning. The text describes its own form, creating a self-referential system where meaning arises through language. Influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Kosuth uses neon to link art with everyday visual culture.

One and Eight - A Description - 1965

White neon mounted directly on the wall

‘"Art as Idea’ was obvious; ideas or concepts as the work itself...The addition of the second part, ‘Art as Idea as Idea’, intended to suggest that the real creative process, and the radical shift, was in changing the idea of art itself." 

Part of The First Investigation series - 1966 - Joseph Kosuth uses photographic enlargements of dictionary definitions to create a reproducible format that removes the artwork’s “aura,” shifting focus to questions about art and language.

Titled (Art as Idea as Idea) (Question) (Eng. Webster N.D.) - 1967 

Mounted photograph

The Fifth Investigation - 1969 - part of Joseph Kosuth’s Investigation series, marks a key shift in his conceptual practice. Using typewritten cards and neutral displays, the work presents logic puzzles that encourage abstract thinking. Drawing on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s language games, Kosuth shows that meaning depends on context rather than being inherent.

The Fifth Investigation - 1969

28 typewritten labels - framed

This work extends the Proto-Investigations series by pairing a clock with its image and definitions, shifting focus from object to concept. Unlike One and Three Chairs, the clock adds a temporal dimension, prompting reflection on how art, language, and images shape reality.

Clock (One and Five) (Ety.-Hist.) -1965

4 mounted photographs and clock

 

Joseph Kosuth_Tre Oci_LR_©Matteo Catania-Hubove Studio

Curators  - Mario Codognato and Angela Rispoli

Text/Context - 1979 - left - was created for Van Abbemuseum and later shown internationally. Texts by Joseph Kosuth appeared first on street billboards, then as gallery wallpaper, highlighting how meaning shifts across cultural contexts. 

The Seventh Investigation (A.A.I.A.I.) Proposition One - 1970 - right - was installed in Turin, New York’s Chinatown, and now on Palazzo Malipiero. Using text from Kurt Goldstein and Martin Scheerer on the - abstract attitude -  Kosuth invites viewers to make thinking itself the work. The final line—to detach our ego from the outer world—paradoxically asks engagement while prompting separation from the busy surroundings.

Text/Context - 1979

20 framed original photographs

The Seventh Investigation (A.A.I.A.I.) Proposition One - 1970

Banner on Public Space - Collection Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano - FAI -

For the International Local Collective - produced and designed by Joseph Kosuth for the 37th Venice Biennale with Sarah Charlesworth and Anthony McCall, the work critiques art world dynamics. The poster positions viewers as Producer - Intermediary - Consumer, with a labyrinth guiding a self-reflexive journey through language, identity, and perspective. 

International Local

(Sarah Charlesworth; Joseph Kosuth; Anthony McCall)

A Che Punto Sei? / Where are You Standing - 1976

Posters Offset printing

Take a Copy

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Venice Biennale Preview - Ca' Pesaro - Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna - Jenny Saville at Ca' Pesaro

“This exhibition marks Jenny Saville’s return to Venice, a city she loves, has visited many times, and is rich in the work of the old Venetian masters that she has studied for many years. It is a huge honour to show Jenny Saville’s masterpieces at Ca’ Pesaro."
Elisabetta Barisoni

Biennale Preview

Ca' Pesaro - Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna

Jenny Saville at Ca' Pesaro

In the year of the Biennale Arte -  at Ca’ Pesaro -  Jenny Saville at Ca' Pesaro - until November. 22 - curated by Elisabetta Barisoni -  is the first major exhibition of Saville’s work in Venice and documents the development of her work by tracing her career from her beginnings in the 1990’s to the present day.

"Venice represents a place where art is an intrinsic part of everyday life and where the Biennale artists of today sit in dialogue with these great Venetian artworks. It’s a great honor to have the opportunity to exhibit in Venice."

Born in 1970 in Cambridge, Jenny Saville studied at the Glasgow School of Art and spent time in the United States, shaping her early work.  Her paintings began to explore the human body, addressing social taboos and contemporary debates. In America, she was influenced by artists like Willem de Kooning and Cy Twombly. Her work also engages with art history, from Egon Schiele to Pablo Picasso and Titian. Venetian painting strongly influences her use of color and texture. Rather than nostalgic, these references deepen her exploration of the body and painting today.

Jenny Saville

Saville - generationally part of the group of painters and sculptors who made their mark between the late 1980s and early 1990s—often referred to as the Young British Artists - YBA - they revitalized contemporary figurative painting by reengaging with the sensualities and the raw potential of oil, while also raising questions about society’s perception of the body.  Over time, her work has evolved. The great monumental nudes of the 1990s, are joined in Venice by portraits that achieve great effects of light and color, such as Hyphen - above - a double-portrait of Saville and her sister.

Hyphen - 1999

Rosetta II - 2005-06

Gaze - 2021-24

Curator and Director of Ca' Pesaro -  Elisabetta Barisoni - MUVE General Manager - Mattia Agnetti - MUVE President - Mariacristina Gribaudi

Song of Songs - 2022-23

Recent works by Jenny Saville explore themes of war and collective grief.  Her Pietàs, inspired by contemporary images, present suffering as a universal human experience. Rooted in classical tradition, they carry intense emotional power.  These paintings avoid consolation, confronting the raw reality of the body. Saville continues to push painting to its expressive limits.

Pieta - 2020-21

 

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London - Royal Academy - Rose Wylie - The Picture Comes First

The rebel painter of the British art world.

Royal Academy 

Rose Wylie - The Picture Comes First

At the RA - Royal Academy on London's Piccadilly, the exhibition - Rose Wylie - The Picture Comes First - until April 19.   Rose Wylie OBE RA - 1934, Kent - is one of the most celebrated artists working in Britain today. This exhibition brings together Rose Wylie’s most iconic works alongside new and unseen paintings, marking her largest show to date. Now 92 years old, she remains incredibly cool and modern, with a style that feels fresh and relevant. Her art blends cinema, history and personal memory—including the Blitz—often featuring women like Elizabeth I, Marilyn Monroe and Serena Williams. Starting her career in her fifties, she has become a true cultural icon, creating bold, playful works that capture life’s small, funny and touching moments.

Park Dogs and Air Raids - 2017

“I think the war probably had something to do with it, because it was a kind of exciting moment, from the point of view of bombs coming down, and air raids and stuff. From a child’s point of view, that was quite special, quite unusual… I wasn’t really frightened, because it was going on all the time – that was what it was.”

Early Memory Series No. 2: Doodle Bug - 1998

Black Doodlebug - 2022

"I like stuff that goes across time, through trans-temporality, or whatever you want to call it. And I very much like cultures which were excluded from my art education when I was a student. They literally didn’t exist in that education. It was all determined exclusion." 

In this horse painting with labelled parts, Rose Wylie playfully mocks her traditional art-school training at Folkestone and Dover School of Art in the 1950s. Moving beyond strict anatomy and technique, she developed a freer style inspired by a wider range of influences.

Irreverant Anatomy Drawing - 2017

"...relating to 'now', as to 'appearance' and 'look' of women as far as clothes go, I like skirts, they allow for something to paint - fun for where you paint the 

legs sticking out - they can break restricting idea of 

'correct' anatomy and can call for invention..."

RW Party Clothes  (Rose Wylie) - 2016

Reclining Figure - 2010

 "I started with a drawing of the hand, and them I did an ink painting of the drawing.    And then an oil painting of all three stages in six feet across each canvas and it became a kind of a statement that drawing for me is important."

HAND, Drawing as Central - 2022

Wylie explained why she painted the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, whose highly publicised 1963 divorce case was made into a television series in 2021: “It’s not because she’s the Duchess, I don’t paint kings and queens because of their status, but because I like their outfits. In this case, the three-strand pearl necklace caught my attention. Through this object the Duchess was identified in the sex act she was engaged in with another man. It caused her to lose the divorce case… And in the end, it’s about money. Marrying for money, which is often disastrous… The text underscores the fact that the paparazzi are photographing them, that people are saying, “Oh, that’s a handsome couple”. Not that they are, they are “generally thought to be”.”

A Handsome Couple - 2022

" I like Ingres portraits more than his other stuff: as are Goya's marvellous 'black-frocked' and 'white-frocked' Duchess of Alba, and the pin-eyed Queen."

Countess of Altimara in Pale Pink and White-Frock and Daughter - 2016

"I love chance. Chance is like the break in the dotted line. 

Anything that is out of control, I like."

‘Politics and other issues are often there, if you see it like that - some of my paintings have been called ‘mediated political: But that is not what they are about. I see a good photo in the paper (or television news) and use it for its visual/formal qualities, not the politics. The politics is why it’s in the newspaper.’ 

Pink Skater (Will I Win, Will I Win) - 2015

Wylie appreciates the optical drama and contrast in the work of specific directors, such as Quentin Tarantino, as revealed by her paintings ‘Kill Bill (Film Notes)’ (2007) (which depicts a single frame from slightly different perspectives), ‘Inglourious Basterds (Film Notes)’ (2010) and ‘Brunhilde (Film Notes)’ (2024) after ‘Django Unchained’ (2012). 

Inglorious Basterds (Film Notes) - 2010

‘I do use [a] diary... as something to work with. I think for painting you’ve got to have something to work with and it’s got to be real and it’s better if it’s not manufactured, and my life is real for not manufactured, and my life is real for me, so I delve into it... So I’m making diary paintings, which are also history paintings because the diary and the history merge.’ 

Inspiration also comes from Wylie’s immediate surroundings: her home filled with objects and items that accumulate meaning for her; her “work-with-nature” garden, closely guarded by her cat, Pete; and the small community of neighbours and dwellings around her.  Daily life, whether the satisfaction of an enjoyable meal or a stimulating evening dinner with friends, provides Wylie with endless source material for both drawings and paintings. As for us all, everyday life is peppered with public events, shared through the screen or radio, mixing personal occurrences and memories with moments from popular culture or history.

NB

All quotes are by the artist

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