Monday, January 02, 2017

Milan: Happy 90th Birthday – Maestro Arnaldo Pomodoro


 
Milan: Happy 90th Birthday – Maestro Arnaldo Pomodoro. At Palazzo Reale until February 5, the exhibition Arnaldo Pomodoro curated by Ada Masoero, celebrates 90 years of the great maestro with a major retrospective. Not only in the magnificent Sala dei Cariatidi, the retrospective continues, spanning the entire city and some of its most prestigious venues: the Palazzo Reale, the Triennale in Milan, the Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro the Poldi Pezzoli Museum.



Spheres and Rotors
"The sphere is a wonderful object, the sphere comes from the magician, whether in glass or in bronze or whether it is full of water; the sphere is also the mother's womb, I think ... The sphere is the perfect shape and I break it to discover its interiors hidden mysteries. In the same act I free myself from this perfect shape. I destroy it. Then reassemble it, the work can be read continuously, day by day; and so has, in my opinion, her best continuity: it simply does not respond to a consumer but rather a need to discover what it is in everyone and that everyone is dissatisfied with the industrial mechanization.”


  Arnaldo Pomodoro and curator Ada Masoero


Palazzo Reale - Sala dei Cariatidi

Arnaldo Pomodoro
 
The Sala dei Cariatidi houses about thirty sculptures made from 1955 to date and chosen by the Pomodoro himself, to represent the milestones of his research and his work of more than sixty years. The exhibition begins with a bas-relief of the Fifties in lead, silver and cement, in which emerges already features patterns and signs of the great artist, Pomodoro was to become. And, in the Hall of Tapestries, during the opening period of the exhibition, visitors enter, virtually, in the Labyrinth, thanks to the potential of immersive VR Gear and HTC Vive, in a multi sensory experience that extends in space and time.  


Colpo d’Ala - 1984

"I dedicated this sculpture to Umberto Boccioni - the first major sculptor of the twentieth century. In Colpo d’Ala the arrow is so mobile that it appears disjointed; the traveler bird wants it to be so open, inventive and unpredictable, to hear any new direction. And the study of volumes compensates with an expression of power, this difficult agile movement of the contemporary man."

 

Carlotta Montebello and Teresa Pomodoro 

 

Piazzetta Reale - Pietrarubbia Group -1975-2013


The exhibition is accompanied by a series of events aimed to deepen and discuss the work and the figure of Arnaldo Pomodoro in its relations with the ideas and contemporary art movements and is complemented by an artistic itinerary that connects most parts of the city: Piazza Meda with the Great Disk, Largo Greppi with Tower Spiral, until the entrance in the maze in the basement of the former Riva Calzoni via Solari 35, former venue of the Pomodoro Foundation.
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Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Venice: Gallerie dell’Accademia - Paradise Regained – Michele Giambono

 
Venice: Gallerie dell’Accademia - Paradise Regained – Michele Giambono. At the Gallerie dell’Accademia the exhibition Il Paradiso Riconquistato - Trame d’oro e colore nella pittura di Michele Giambono - Paradise Regained - golden textures and color in the paintings of Michael Giambono, until April 17 is curated by Paola Marini,  Matteo Ceriana and Valeria Poletto. The exhibition arose from the need to explain the largely unexpected and highly significant results that emerged during the restoration of two panel paintings in the Gallerie dell’Accademia: The Coronation of the Virgin and Saints (also known as Paradise) and the Deposition of Christ from the Cross, both by Michele Giambono.  In the former, detail above, the restoration has revealed large, previously unimagined areas of original paintwork, which implies a complex and fascinating historiographical premise:  the activity of a busy, greatly varied workshop peopled by individuals from different cultures, individuals whose role and and identity might eventually be revealed thanks to determined research and scholarship.  The works exhibited aim to illustrate this special aspect and in particular the relationship in the 1440s between Michele Giambono and the workshop of Giovanni d’Alemagna and Antonio Vivarini, the other great protagonists of this period who have been linked through archival documentation with this same altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin.

 
The Two Paradise
Giovanni d’Alemagna, Antonio Vivarini - Coronation of the Virgin and Saints – Paradise – 1444
tempera and oil, pastiglia on wood
Michele Giambono - The Coronation of the Virgin and Saints – Paradise – 1447-1448
tempera on wood
In 1447 Giambono signed a contract with the procurator of the church of Sant’Agnese for an altarpiece for the high altar. The contract specified that he had a year to produce a work designed to replicate the 1444 altarpiece for the church of San Pantalon by Giovanni d’Alemagna, Antonio Vivarini and the woodcarver Cristoforo da Ferrara. While remaining faithful to the 1444 model, Giambino modified the orderly San Pantalon Paradise into a highly charged composition with an excited crowd of holy figures.


photograph courtesy Gallerie dell’Accademia


Michele Giambono - The Coronation of the Virgin and Saints – Paradise – 1447-1448
tempera on wood

 
Paola Marini, director of the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Matteo Ceriana and Valeria Poletto curators of the exhibition and Maria Chiara Maida
technical director of the restoration 

 

Michele Giambono - The Deposition of Christ from the Cross
1430-1435 Ca.
tempera and gold on wood
Documented between 1420 and 1462, Michele Giambono was the last and extraordinary interpreter of the late Gothic style in Venice.  His was a technically intense and stern style, and figuratively he was influenced by the work of Gentile da Fabiano, even though he had never been his direct apprentice or student.  Much appreciated for his aristocratically tasteful compositions, he was also one of the Venetian Republic’s official painters. A stunning work that perfectly illustrates his production, the Deposition of Christ from the Cross, above is being exhibited for the first time.

 
Michele Giambono – San Crisogono – 1450 ca.
mixed media on wood

 
Michele Giambono – Virgin and Child – 1440-1445 ca.
tempera and gold on wood
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Thursday, December 15, 2016

New York: The MET - Masterworks: Unpacking Fashion, Exhibition

 
New York: The MET - Masterworks: Unpacking Fashion, Exhibition. The Costume Institute’s Fall 2016 exhibition, Masterworks: Unpacking Fashion, on view, until February 5, features significant acquisitions of the past 10 years. The show, curated by Assistant Curator Jessica Regan with support from Curator in Charge Andrew Bolton, explores how the department has honed its collecting strategy to amass masterworks of the highest aesthetic and technical quality, including iconic works by designers who have changed the course of fashion history and advanced fashion as an art form. Each object— primarily women’s wear, as well as some men’s wear and a selection of accessories—is accompanied by an in-depth explanation of its significance within the canon of fashion history. Some newly acquired objects are paired with pieces already in the collection to illustrate the enduring influence of certain master couturiers and iconic historical silhouettes.
Comme Des Garcons –  Rei Kawakubo - Ensemble – 2015
Maison Margiela – John Galliano – Ensemble – 2015
French – Coat -1787-92
 
 
“While fashion is often derided for its ephemerality, its quick responsiveness to change ensures that it is an immediate expression of the spirit of its time—a vivid reflection of social, cultural, and political circumstances, and of shifting ideals of beauty. The masterworks we’ve chosen to highlight are among many we have collected in the past decade that draw on forms, motifs, and themes of the past, reinterpreting fashion history in ways that resonate in the present.”
Jessica Regan


British – Robe a La Anglaise – 1747 ca.
Eighteenth-century garments are generally evaluated more for the quality of their materials than for details of cut and construction.
   
Edward Maloney

 
Paul Poiret – Opera Coat - 1911
Standout fashions of the Nineteenth century, meanwhile, display exemplary dressmaking or tailoring techniques and distinctive silhouettes.
 
Gilbert Adrian – Dress – 1947
Elsa Schiaparelli – Jean Cocteau – Evening Jacket - 1937
Masterworks of the Twentieth and Twenty-first centuries are primarily signature works by designers who have expanded the possibilities for fashion, whether conceptually or through innovative construction and techniques.
 

Viktor and Rolf – Ball Gown – 2010
“Our mission is to present fashion as a living art that interprets history, becomes part of the historical process, and inspires subsequent art,” “Over the seven decades since The Costume Institute became part of The Met in 1946, our collecting strategy has shifted from creating a collection of Western high fashion that is encyclopedic in breadth to one focused on acquiring a body of masterworks.” 
Andrew Bolton
 
Nicoletta Santoro
 
Lanvin-Castillo – Evening Dress – 1956
Charles James – ‘Tulip’ Evening Dress – 1949
 
House of Balenciaga – Cristobal Balenciaga - Dress – 1967
 
Philip Tracey – Paphiopedilum Philippinense Orchid Hat – 2000

Suzy Menkes


Zandra Rhodes – Punk Wedding Dress – 1977
Versace – Dress – 2016
 

Hussein Chalayan – Dress – 1999
   
The Idiosyncratic Fashionistas’s Valerie and David Noh
 
Noritaka Tatehana – “Silver-Rose” Shoes – 2014
Chopines – Italian - 1600

Masterworks: Unpacking Fashion - The Harold Koda Gift
The Carl and Iris Barrel Apfel Gallery features some of the ensembles donated by designers in honor of Harold Koda upon his retirement as Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute in January 2016. Through innovative and compelling exhibitions, he elevated our collective understanding of fashion as an art form. Koda's presentations were shaped by his belief in the power of dialogue between past and present the idea that the artistry of the past can be enlivened by that of the present day and that the significance of contemporary work is clarified when it is anchored in a broader historical narrative. This influential approach was complemented by Koda's passionate dedication to building the collection.
 

House of Dior – Raf Simmons – Ensemble - 2014-15
House of Dior – Christian Dior – “Mystere” Coat – 1947-48
 



 
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