Artipedia - Arts News

Landesmuseum Joanneum

Heroes and Saints
Paintings from the Italian Baroque period

Opening: Thursday, March 15, 7pm
Duration: March 16 – August 26, 2007

Alte Galerie am
Landesmuseum Joanneum
Schloss Eggenberg
Eggenberger Allee 90, 8020 Graz

T +43-316/8017-9770
altegalerie@museum-joanneum.at
http://www.museum-joanneum.at

The forthcoming spring exhibition aims to familiarise the people of Graz with an almost unknown aspect of the Alte Galerie. The Graz collection of old masters includes a substantial number from northern Italy, particularly Venetian paintings from the early and high Baroque periods.

Most of the works to be on show were hidden in storage for decades. Now, having been restored, they are to be presented to the public for the first time. The majority are studio works with an often underestimated significance to the dissemination of standards and collecting of the Baroque period.

Our appreciation of Venetian art is dominated principally by two great epochs, both marking high points in the history of art: the Renaissance of the 16th century from Bellini to Tintoretto, and the 18th century period of Tiepolo, Guardi and Canaletto. Yet we are far less aware of 17th century Venetian painting than might be expected, given the unusually productive masters notable for that period. Just like their contemporaries in Rome, Naples and Genoa, they mastered with virtuosity the language of truly dramatic staging of heroic themes, both spiritual and worldly, the gran maniera. Austria and central Europe have them to thank for their access to international Baroque. That is how this exhibition ties in with the permanent exhibition.

Around 1600, after the death of Tintoretto, it was Jacopo Negretti, known as Palma il Giovane, who dominated particularly religious art in the city on the lagoon. The Graz gallery owns several characteristic works from his highly productive studio, with the defining influence of Tintoretto highly evident. Works on loan from the Vienna Museum of Art History and Viennese art dealers round off our image of an epoch in which holy devotion and the heroic both feature; precisely as required by the stern spirit of the Counter Reformation.

Curator: Dr. Ulrich Becker

For more information go to: http://www.museum-joanneum.at

ARCO

ARCO’08. Madrid 13th-18th February. Guest country, Brazil

General public from Friday 15th

ARCO, the International Contemporary Art Fair in Madrid, is already preparing next year’s edition, scheduled from 14th through 18th February 2008. The most noteworthy new feature will be the move to exhibition halls 12 and 14 currently under construction, to be coupled with a restructuring of the fair’s various programmes. The upcoming 2008 edition is building on the success of this year’s fair which saw a rise in sales in the region of 15%, an increase of 20% in collectors and buyers, besides registering a staggering 190,000 visitors. The results reinforced the buoyant Spanish art market and further strengthened ARCO’s commercial profile as it looks ahead to 2008.

In this regard, the calendar for ARCO’08 gets underway at the end of this coming April, with the launch of the fair and the opening of the period for applications which runs until 22nd June, after which, the Selection Committee will select the galleries to take part during the second week of July. The selection process concludes in September with the confirmation of the various projects in the different curated sections at the fair.

We are also working on our invitational programme for collectors and buyers, furthering our strategy to underscore the professional focus of the art fair, providing incentives to involve big corporations, and heightening ARCO’s profile as one of the world’s top fairs, promoting a balance of big international artists, seminal galleries from around the world, and a world-class offer of works on view.

Taking a look at the content of the fair, ARCO is already well advanced in its guest country programme which will be focussed on Brazil, one of the most exciting and dynamic markets for contemporary art in the world. The guest programme is being curated by Moacir dos Anjos and Paulo Sérgio Duarte, and will surely contribute to the further projection of happening art from Brazil.

For more information go to: http://www.arco.ifema.es

Nederlands Fotomuseum

THE NEDERLANDS FOTOMUSEUM IN LAS PALMAS OPENING ON THURSDAY 19 APRIL 2007

Nederlands Fotomuseum
Wilhelminakade 332
3072 AR Rotterdam
The Netherlands
00 (0)10 2030405
http://www.nederlandsfotomuseum.nl

On 19 April 2007 the Nederlands Fotomuseum is opening its doors in the completely refurbished Las Palmas building on the Wilhelmina Pier in Rotterdam. The move from the Witte de Withstraat to Las Palmas means that the museum has twice as much exhibition space at its disposal, state-of-the-art public facilities and the newest depot for photography in the Netherlands. The inaugural exhibitions in the new Nederlands Fotomuseum are Dutch Eyes and Panorama Las Palmas.

The Nederlands Fotomuseum really comes into its own in the Las Palmas building. Benthem Crouwel Architects have thoroughly renovated and remodelled the building while preserving its original industrial character. Firstly this means that more storage space is available for archiving and preserving photographic material: 4 million negatives, transparencies, prints and an ever-expanding collection of digital images. Besides having twice as much floor area, the number of exhibition spaces has been doubled from two to four. The new layout also provides greater scope for educational activities, as well as for the library and the expertise centre.

With more than 1,000 square metres of exhibition space in Las Palmas, the Nederlands Fotomuseum is able to present a richly varied exhibition programme comprising historical and contemporary photography from the Netherlands and abroad. Besides presenting international highlights and the acknowledged masters, the museum also devotes attention to the role of photography in society, visual culture and the media. The programme includes photography in its applied forms (fashion, science, etc.), interrelationships with film, video, the Internet and interactive media, photography in newspapers and magazines, and even amateur photography.

Dutch Eyes
Dutch Eyes is the inaugural exhibition at the new Nederlands Fotomuseum, providing a comprehensive survey of the history of photography in the Netherlands. There is certainly no shortage of work by renowned photographers such as Aart Klein, Rineke Dijkstra, Eva Besnyö and Ed van der Elsken, but thanks to the well-reasoned thematic approach there is work by many less familiar photographers on display as well. The themes explored by the exhibition were selected on the basis of their significance for the history of photography and the cultural history of the Netherlands. The exhibition coincides with the publication of an authoritative new book on the history of photography in the Netherlands under the same title as the exhibition: Dutch Eyes.

Panorama Las Palmas
The second inaugural exhibition, Panorama Las Palmas, sets out from the Wilhelmina Pier to explore 150 years of photography and the development of Rotterdam and its port in a one-kilometre radius around Las Palmas. Captured in photographs by Hameter, Mögle, Jannes Linders, Carel van Hees and others, this history extends from the first large-scale expansion of the port to the devastating destruction during the Second World War, from post-war reconstruction to today’s high-rise projects on the Kop van Zuid. Scheduled to continue for about a year and a half, this exhibition presents the first semi-permanent overview of the history of Dutch photography.

An historic location
With its move from the Witte de Withstraat to the Wilhelmina Pier, the Nederlands Fotomuseum is settling at a location that occupies an important place in Rotterdam’s history. Hundreds of thousands of emigrants set sail for the USA and Canada from the Wilhelmina Pier, which served as the headquarters of the Holland-America Line from 1901. Las Palmas was completed in 1953 to accommodate workshops and warehousing for the Holland-America Line. The building’s spaciousness, robust concrete structure and striking interior make it eminently suitable for this new cultural function.

Nederlands Fotomuseum
Wilhelminakade 332
3072 AR Rotterdam
The Netherlands
00 (0)10 2030405

Note to Editors
For further information, digital visual material or interviews:
‘Claire Beke – Communicatie in Cultuur’
T +31 (0)10 425 03 44
P.O. Box 1377
3000 BJ Rotterdam
The Netherlands
E press@nederlandsfotomuseum.nl

You can also find more information on the museum website: http://www.nederlandsfotomuseum.nl

For more information go to: http://www.nederlandsfotomuseum.nl