Archive for “anniversary”

The FRAC in orbit for their anniversary

Published on 26 March 2013.

Paris, 26 March 2013, Art Media Agency (AMA).

By way of celebrating their 30th anniversary, the Fonds Régionaux d’Art Contemporain (also called the FRAC, which consist of the French Regional Funds for Contemporary Art) have announced the programming of an exhibition titled “The Pleiades” that will be held from April to December 2013, the time needed to draw a report on the contemporary art collections conserved just about everywhere in France. But will the public be thrilled by the constellation, dwarf or supernova?

Though not too familiar to the public, the Fonds Régionaux d’art contemporain (FRAC) have otherwise been carrying out a real revolution in terms of the perception and distribution of contemporary art in France. As references of the big decentralisation projects of Lang’s time, they were the invention of a new form of art institutionalisation, but were considered to be light and reactive, to the extent that their establishment in 1982 as exhibition venues came as a big surprise.

In order to develop their territories, each of the 23 regions in France then wished to highlight these associations entirely dedicated to contemporary creation, led by the “necessary utopia of making culture available to all”… and by the financing of the State and the territorial collectivities. They aimed at accomplishing two objectives, those of collecting works from living artists and of making the public aware of the development – not always easily accessible – of contemporary art.

Thirty years later, the report is rather impressive: acquisitions of more than 26,000 works created by 4,200 artists – more than half being French – with an annual total of about one million visitors… By way of comparison, the Musée National d’Art Moderne (National Museum of Modern Art) conserves 22,257 contemporary works, which raises the question about the enormousness now achieved by these regional collections.

Exceptional collections with controversial acquisition procedures

The FRAC do not resell their works. Their collections are growing and becoming “super-reserves, comprised of temporary and permanent exhibition rooms for works,” according to a report from Ifrap. The FRAC, initially created as “museums without walls,” became sedentary according to the 2013 French finance bill. On a whole, the FRAC are being transformed into museums while plastic art financing continues to act as a palliative.

It is not only about criticising and attacking the idyllic painting of “utopia.” Acquisition procedures are often considered to be opaque. The technical committee responsible for purchases is in fact comprised of figures from the world of art, except for the artists themselves, who stick to the singularity of not being judged by their peers, contrary to all other artistic professions. That is enough to raise suspicions about agreements, knowing otherwise that neither purchase prices nor motives for rejection are made public.

In terms of art, history is a reminder that the State has not always been the best judge or the greatest visionary. With “contemporary art,” the FRAC tend to focus on conceptual art. The Ifrap report details the acquisitions of one of them in 2011: most purchases concerned works from instructors at art schools, from laureates of international prizes or from artists whose works are already present in the collections of museums, way far from the FRAC’s profession of faith to promote emerging creation and young artists.

A full programme for their 30th anniversary celebrations

However, the FRAC are endowed with several unquestionable originalities. Since their establishment, they carry out actions for publics that do not benefit from cultural offers, for rural communes, for prisons and even for hospitals. Besides, every collection is unique.

This diversity is highlighted in the 30th anniversary celebrations under the title “The Pleiades.” Each of the 23 FRAC have launched their invitations by means of blank cards to artists whose creations they will exhibit in 2013. As for the FRAC of Ile-de-France (the Parisian region), for instance, the Rentilly castle in Seine-et-Marne will be transformed by artist Xavier Veilhan in collaboration with architects Elisabeth Lemercier and Philippe Bona, and scenographer Alexis Bertrand. According to plans, it will be both an exhibition venue – of more than 1,000sqm – and a work of art. In fact, the edifice itself will be decorated with a second layer of mirrors, made out of plates of stainless steel “reflecting the surrounding park as a real building-sized sculpture,” according to the statement.

The works created will be reunited during the collective exhibition at Abattoirs, in Midi-Pyrénées in Toulouse, from 28 September 2013 to 5 January 2014, in order to capture the attention of plastic artists to the revisited collections. The programme will have an itinerant international dimension in 2014, with the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven (Hollande) then with the Singapore Art Museum (Singapour) in 2015. An editorial project on the theme of the customs and experimentations of the FRAC, as regarding their collections, will also be available.

But the most visible side of the celebrations will no doubt be that of the inauguration of the new building housing the FRAC of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Franche-Comté, Nord-Pas de Calais and Aquitaine. Initially left without their own exhibition rooms, the FRAC gradually started designing these venues in the 2000s in order to develop their programming, welcome a wider public and manage their collections. After the recent inauguration (2010) of the new buildings of the FRAC of Auvergne, Poitou-Charentes and Corsica, about half of the FRAC will be endowed with equipment specially made for them, whether they concern architectural rehabilitations or new constructions.

Several FRAC are waiting on their new buildings. The contests launched for the designing of the new FRAC attracted renowned international architecture teams. But as for the FRAC of Provence-Alpes-Côté d’Azur for example, that was scheduled to be set in the heart of Marseilles, the construction project launched in 2011 was postponed, to the extent that the building was not ready in time for the launching of the 2013 edition of the European Capital of Culture. Its cost is estimated at €22m. These projects are as costly as they are ambitious, marking their definitive transformation into museums.

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Franco Adami exhibition at the Anagama Gallery

Published on 25 March 2013.

Versailles, 25 March 2013, Art Media Agency (AMA).

On the occasion of Italian sculptor Franco Adami’s 80th birthday, the Anagama gallery organised two events scheduled for 2013, titled “De l’Intimiste au Monumental.”

From 21 April to 20 May, the gallery will exhibit his intimate works in Versailles and later from 15 May to 15 September, around 15 monumental sculptures will be on display in the Domaine des Roches Parc in Briare in the framework of the  2nd edition of “Grands Formats,” a yearly event that fills the garden with sculptures.

Franco Adami, who was friends with such sculptors as Collamarini and Zadkine, is famous for his bronzes and creations made with the use of high quality, rare materials: Carrara marble, Belgian black marble, onyx or porphyry. “He creates hybrides, half-man, half-animal creatures, while giving them contemporary quality using pure, almost mechanical lines, with sophistication that increases the materials’ majesty.”

Born in 1933 in Pisa, Franco Adami studied at the Leaonardo da Vinci Institute in Pisa, at the Scuola d’Arte de Cascina and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. He lives and works in Paris and Pietrasanta in Toscany.

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Design and contemporary art at Millon

Published on 20 March 2013.

Brussels, 20 March 2013, Art Media Agency (AMA).

On 5 May 2013, auction house Millon, based in Brussels will propose a sale devoted to design and contemporay art. According to the organisers, it is to be “eclectic, multidisciplinary, accessible to all budgets and all kinds of aesthetes.”

Objects put on sale gather big names of design, such as Eames, Bertois, Knoll, Jacobsen, Henningsen, Scarpa, Ponti, Perriand, Scottass, Fabricius and Kastholm, Paulin, Vodder, but also exceptional furniture pieces; a set of tables by Ado Chale, a drawer by Remy Tejo, a desk by Ico Parisi, an armchair by André Dubreuil and a chaise-longue by Francois Arnal.

The contemporary art sale will assemble renowned Belgian artists, such as Walter Leblanc, Wim Delvoye, Roger Dudant and Serge Van de Put as well as international, modern art figures, such as Miguel Berrocal, Salvador Dali, Francis Picabia, Georges-Henri Mathieu and Adami.

The collection will be completed by 30 Aboriginal canvases estimated between €300 and €16,000. This sale will be held on the occasion of Millon’s first anniversary that equally will inaugurate its new space located in Grand Sablon.

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The Bordeaux Contemporary Plastic Arts Centre is celebrating its 40th anniversary

Published on 7 March 2013.

Bordeaux, 7 March 2013, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The Bordeaux Contemporary Plastic Arts Centre, also known in France as the CAPC (Centre d’Arts Plastiques Contemporains), is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2013. On the occasion of this celebration, a full programme of exhibitions is planned for the year. The museum’s website highlights the ambition of this programme as “a mixed anniversary-exhibition, neo-monographic, reinvention and table orientation, the CAPC will portray the contemporary regime of images, recalling its creator/incubator role in the field of culture, as well as its status as a dream machine connected to the cultures of its time.”

The programme debuted on 28 February with the exhibitions of Allan Kaprow, La Sentinelle, Raphael Hefti and Philip Newcombe, and it will go on until 16 May with Markus Markus Schinwald, Sylvia Sleigh, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz and David Lieske, followed by a last cycle starting from 14 November with Sigma, Andra Ursuta and Michaël E. Smith.

The CAPC was created in 1973 by Jean-Louis Froment. Established in Entrepôt Lainé, a former colonial goods warehouse, it became the contemporary art museum of the City of Bordeaux in 1984, one of the first sites in France exclusively dedicated to contemporary art, after the likes of the Centre Pompidou. It was labelled as Musée de France in 2003.

Its collection includes 1,299 works created by 189 artists. Its development was first based on acquisitions, then on the works deposited by the Centre Georges Pompidou and by the FNAC (Fonds National d’Art Contemporain), followed by those of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (Deposits and Consignments Fund), and the works deposited by artists and collectors.

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Angoulême cartoons festival celebrates its anniversary!

Published on 31 January 2013.

Angoulême, 30 January 2013, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The Festival International de la Bande Dessinée in Angoulême celebrates its 40th edition! It is an exceptional meeting for cartoons’ amateurs and fans, that for many years was devoted to spreading the 9th art, always putting in the spotlight not the cartoons characters, but the cartoonists themselves.

To celebrate this anniversary, no self-compliment: an exhibition titled “Mickey&Donald, tout un art…” (the art of Mickey&Donald) will be held from 31 January to 3 February 2013. The event emerged from a desire to “revisit cartoons’ foundations, said Benoît Mouchard, the Festival’s Art Director, and amongst them one finds an essential pillar of Mickey and Donald”. To respect the Festival’s spirit, the exhibition will reveal artists that branded each decade of cartoons’ history, from 1930s to nowadays, under the Disney label: from Floyd Gottfredson to Kari Korhonen and Silvia Ziche, without forgetting Carl Barks, Romano Scarpa or Don Rosa.

Each of them adopted Disney codes overstepping them to give this unique world their own touch and make univers of Disney evolve. Affiliations and respect of one towards another is so great that some play with these sentiments, quoting their collegues, integrating their predecessors’ motives in their own creations, notably Don Rosa vis-à-vis Carl Barks. Editors developed cartoons in Europe, settling down primarily in Italy and Scandinavia, allowing themselves great liberty: “Scrooge Mc Duck was invented by Carl Barks and Walt Disney found out about it only three years later! reveals Benoît Mouchard. This shows the great confidence Disney placed in his cartoonists and scriptwriters. Carl Barks developed the univers of Donaldville and the characters of Beagle Boys, Magica De Spell, Scrooge Mc Duck, Gladstone Gander – Donald’s cousin who always has luck and Gyro Gearloose. There was no censorship nor directive”.

This exhibition is as well an opportunity to show how strong was these creations’ influence on other cartoonists. “A comic author, such as Lewis Trondheim, who twenty years ago was considered an underground artist, certainly read Mickey Parade when he was a child! continues  Benoît Mouchard. One can feel it in his series Donjon. On the other hand, Zep does not hide his admiration for Claude Marin – French Mickey drawer. I think this heritage is now self-sufficient and it was necessary that the Festival “marks” the great cartoonists who worked for Disney label and who now embody the history of comics”.

This influence goes beyond the  9th art for contemporary art took over Disney characters in the 1960′s, notably with Pop Art and Narrative Figuration, with a noteworthy case of British artist Eduardo Paolozzi in 1948. Mickey in particular became an icon of America, capitalism, overconsumption, as well as political criticism in Bloody Comics, Chili by Bernard Rancillac, where Chilean Generals overthrown Salvador Allende in 1973 wearing mice and ducks masks, disclosing Nixon’s support for the Chilean military forces. This versions and diversions of Disney’s characters will be clarified during the conference led by journalist and critic Alexia Guggemos on Thursday 31 January at 12pm.

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The Institut du Monde Arabe celebrates its 25th anniversary

Published on 31 October 2012.

Paris, 31 October 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The IMA (Institut du Monde Arabe) in Paris, is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary that will last until 3 February 2013. The celebration will include an exhibition titled “25 years of Arabic Creativity ”, of about 40 Arab artists whose pieces will be displayed in the IMA spaces and at the Mobile art – spaceship-like building signed by Zaha Hadid – as well. The curator of the exhibition is the Egyptian Ihab El Laban. Some of the young contemporary artists that will be exhibiting are: Youssef Nabil, Arwa Abouon and Diana  Al-Hadid.

The purpose of the exhibition, beyond celebrating the 25th anniversary, is to elaborate a complete panorama through which the latest trends and researches of Arabic creation can be perceived. Painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation are all the mediums that will be present in this exhibition of a plurality of styles.

A catalogue as well as roundtables and conferences will make part of the event program.

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Decade of existence for Darling Fonderie in Montreal

Published on 13 June 2012.

Montreal, 12 June 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

In 2002, the Darling Fonderie, an industrial building, started a new life as a centre dedicated to contemporary art. Since 2006, the building has been home to thirteen artists’ studios. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the centre’s opening, an evening show is scheduled for 14 June in presence of the artists , who are displaying works specially produced for the occasion.

From 14 June to 2 September, the works will be on display. Guillaume La Brie will be displaying his series Les œuvres qui n’étaient pas là, sculptural creations linked to the positioning, materiality and correspondence of forms. The artist is seeking a disarticulation of perceptive relationships. The work’s aesthetic relies on adaptation and modification linked to architectural constraints and to the perversion of usual elements’ initial functions. These transformations all have a symbolic worth.

Jon Knowles, is offering Mixed Misuse in collaboration with Vincent Bonin. In his workshop, he recreated a measured distress characterising the Fonderie itself, while adding an aesthetic of reuse.

An installation entitled hors les murs will also be displayed. The structure produced by Philippe allard and Justin Duchesneau will stretch around the building. Mixing art and architecture, Pilippe Allard is influenced by the Arte Povera Movement and brings together objects produced in series to recreate an environment. He humorously and scornfully denounces the absurdity of what he refers to as the parasitic human attitude regarding the world.

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From “Nazi” art to Modern Art

Published on 12 June 2012.

Munich, 8 June 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The Haus der Kunst in Munich is celebrating two anniversaries in 2012. As a consequence, it is displaying two new exhibitions.

The Munich museum has been changing constantly since Okwui Enwezor became its director in autumn 2011. He had the entire building renovated, giving it a new visual identity. As stated in the German magazine art das Kunstmagazin on 7 June 2012, the Haus der Kunst is celebrating two anniversaries this year. 75 years ago, the museum was built by the Nazis and 20 years ago, it became a private-public institution.

The “Geschichten im Konflikt” exhibition explains the building’s various functions since its beginnings, used by the Nazis to display what they saw as art, rejecting what they saw as “degenerate art”. As explained by Sabine Brantl, director of the archives, in art das Kunstmagazin, “the museum was a propaganda tool and a mark of prestige”. From 10 June 2012 to 13 June 2013, the exhibition is bringing together paintings, sculptures, items, and drawings from its own archives and from other collections and museums.

The second exhibition “Bild – Gegen –Bild” (“work – against –work”) is displaying contemporary artists who look (with a critical mind) into the media: the reports, the selection of topics and public broadcasting through social networks. It is on display from 10 June to 16 September 2012.

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Issenheim Altarpiece celebrates its 500th anniversary

Published on 11 April 2012.

Colmar, 11 April 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The Unterlinden Museum of Colmar is celebrating the 500th anniversary of the creation of the Issenheim Altarpiece. Various events will be organised for the important occasion.

Between 1512 and 1516 artists Nicolas de Haguenau (for the sculpted portion) and Grünewald (for the painted panels) worked on the altarpiece for the Antonite order’s monastic complex at Issenheim. The polyptych was authorised by one of the highest orders, Guy Guers, who served as the institution’s preceptor from 1490 to 1516.

The altarpiece was conserved in the Issenheim monastery until the French Revolution. In 1792, it was transfered to the National Library of the District of Colmar to prevent its destruction and it was then moved again in 1852 to the Unterlinden museum’s collection. Under restoration until 2013, the altarpiece can currently be seen in the chapel of the museum.

To celebrate the 500th  anniversary of the creation of Issenheim Altarpiece, the museum will hold a concert by La Maîtrise de Garçons de Colmar entitled Le Voyage du Retable on 14 April, as well as an exhibition of the work Décor by Adel Abdessemed in the museum’s chapel from 27 April to 16 September 2012.

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Duboys Gallery celebrates its first anniversary

Published on 7 December 2011.

Paris, 7 December 2011, Art Media Agency (AMA).

Duboys gallery, installed near musée Picasso in Paris, celebrated its one year anniversary. The Parisian space, created from a project of 21 founders, opened in Autumn 2010. Since then, 13 new sponsors from the contemporary scene and recognised authors from the art market joined the group of partners.

Originally created to offer an exhibition place for French artist Thierry Diers, Duboys gallery often welcomes other figures from the contemporary scene, in France or abroad. In one year, it has organised ten exhibitions surrounding the works of Philippe Baudelocque, Fabien Charuau, Adriano Lestido, Andrey Zouari, Neil Chowdhury and Pradeep Dalal.

From 9 December to 11 February, the gallery will present the exhibition, “Thierry Diers: Dess(e)in”, that reveals never before exhibited creations by the French artist, painter and architect. His works on paper, cases, plans and engraved glass explore the idea that the lines traced by the hand of the artist, create the project shaped in his mind. Thanks to the accumulation of lines, he creates his forms, plans, space and creates three-dimensional images on different mediums as they exist in his imagination.

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30th anniversary of Patrick Gaultier Gallery

Published on 6 December 2011.

Paris, 7 December 2011, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The team of the Patrick Gaultier gallery in Quimper will invade Jourdain, in Paris, to celebrate the gallery’s 30th anniversary from 9 to 19 December. Visitors can discover a world constantly in motion, depicted by the various artists of the gallery.

The anniversary exhibition aims to reach all the sensory perceptions of viewers, through light plays, polymorphic volumes and new trends using the media, which has been extremely popular in recent years. Among the fifteen represented artists, Chantal Royant’s sculptures, André-Pierre Arnal’s free paintings and Degottex’s lyrical abstraction will fascinate the art amateurs seeking for innovations.

The Breton gallery, founded in 1891 by Patrick Gaultier in Quimper, has represented artists from the current art scene, especially from France, such as Alexis Gorodine, André Pierre Arnal, Chantal Royant, Christian Silvain, Jacques Verdier and Jean-Paul Moscovino.

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Australian Soho Galleries celebrates sixteenth anniversary

Published on 2 December 2011.

Sydney, 2 December 2011, Art Media Agency (AMA).

To celebrate its sixteenth anniversary, Soho Galleries in Sydney will host a special exhibition starting on 11 December.

The gallery, founded by the current director Nigel Messenger in 1995, aims to promote the rich Australian contemporary scene, established or emerging in the national as well as international art market. The gallery regularly participates in major Australian shows, such as Art Sydney and Art Melbourne. Messenger, famous in the art industry, focuses on exhibiting sculptures, paintings, graphic works and dramatic or provocative innovative pictures made by representative artists.

These artists have been invited to participate in the anniversary exhibition, “All the Best Group Exhibition”, including Andrew Bartosz, Conchita Carambano, Tracy Dods, Walangari Karntawarra, Andrew Mangelsdorf, Neville Pilven, Miertje Skidmore, Alison Coulthurst and James Willebrant. The exhibition will take place from 11 December to 31 January 2012.

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Jordan Art Gallery celebrates a decade

Published on 29 November 2011.

Jordan Village (Canada), 29 November 2011, Art Media Agency (AMA).

Jordan Art Gallery in Canada, situated in Jordan Village, Niagara Valley, is celebrating its eleventh anniversary. During this “over a decade” period, as mentioned by one of the founders, the gallery has presented approximately 300 Canadian artists and creators, especially from the Niagara area.

The Jordan Gallery was created by four artists in 2001, as a meeting platform between professionals and creators and offers a showcase for local creations. Today, it is directed by seven owners and displays paintings, sculptures, art works, glassware, as well as jewels.

The gallery has organised a special exhibition, “A Decade”, on the occasion of its anniversary as mentioned by the title, displaying works of the gallery’s long-term or more recent artists. Tobey C. Anderson, Susan Wilde, Doug Carter, Lisa Scog, Melanie McDonald, Heather Moore and David Wright will be invited. The anniversary exhibition will honour its founders’ work and will take place until 31 January 2012.

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Macklowe Gallery celebrates 40th anniversary

Published on 22 November 2011.

New York, 21 November 2011, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The Macklowe Gallery in New York will present an Art Nouveau sculpture exhibition to celebrate its 40th anniversary. The gallery (open since 1971), is specialised in Nouveau art works and furniture, glass cams by major 20th century French artists such as Argy-Rousseau, Daum and Gallé, as well as American masterpieces; especially Tiffany lamps and glasses. The gallery will also display bronze sculptures, ceramics or lithographies.

The gallery, with prestigious clients such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum and the Australian National Gallery, is one of the leading galleries in decorative arts.

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Macklowe gallery will present “Dynamic Beauty: Sculpture of Art Nouveau Paris”, in its exhibition space of over 460 sq metres. The displayed works will highlight femininity and sensuality, as well as the liberated Parisian woman in the 1900s.

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Bridgette Mayer Gallery launches a new space

Published on 21 November 2011.

Philadelphia, 21 November 2011, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The Bridgette Mayer Gallery presented a new redeveloped and larger space in Philadelphia on 15 November. The gallery, which displays approximately twenty artists and twelve exhibitions per year, used to present contemporary American art but now represents foreign artists too.

After a year of works, the gallery installed a new exhibition space measuring up to 280 sq metres in the historical building (built in 1799). This new hall provides a large space for monumental works, as well as extra offices and reserve spaces.

The opening exhibition entitled, “Karmic Abstraction”, will take place until 31 December and is currently displaying sixteen American and foreign artists, representing ‘karma’ and its connection with art, especially in abstract creations. The gallery owner, Bridgette Mayer, stated about the concept: “I wanted to explore the notion that everything that’s crossed through an artist’s mind is evident in their work”.

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Musée de La Piscine de Roubaix celebrates 10th anniversary

Published on 25 October 2011.

Roubaix, 25 October 2011, Art Media Agency (AMA)

On 21 October 2011, the Musée de La Piscine de Roubaix celebrated its 10th anniversary. The anniversary was celebrated with an exceptional and varied programme.

An exhibition allowed spectators to rediscover major artists and works that have been presented at the museum since its opening in 2001. It was a review of ten years worth of purchases, donations, along with exhibitions that made the Musée de La Piscine indisputable in France, as well as abroad.

Other demonstrations are currently taking place at the museum, which coincide with the anniversary, displaying artists such as Philippe Anthonioz and Chrystel Zingiro.

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Nouveau Musée National de Monaco celebrates its 1st birthday

Published on 16 September 2011.

Monaco, 16 September 2011, Art Media Agency (AMA)

The Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, which regroups the Villa Sauber and the Villa Paloma, will celebrate tomorrow its first birthday since its reconfiguration.

The museum was born out of the desire to valorise an unknown cultural heritage and promote the contemporary art scene. Through the programme “Training for a Museum”, the Villa Sauber and Villa Paloma are clearly oriented around two themes, inseparable from the principality’s cultural, historical and artistic heritage: Art and Spectacle at the Villa Sauber and Art and Territory at the Villa Paloma. For this, the museum subsequently called upon historians, restaurateurs, designers, electricians and artists to participate in the project. Its aim is to renew the notion of cultural heritage and transmit its message to the public.

The Nouveau Musée National de Monaco’s first year has certainly proved successful, with much praise from the international press, as well as the Villa Paloma’s inaugural exhibition in Monaco subsequently travelling to New York. The institution has already held four exhibitions, published several catalogues and participated in the Venice Biennale with support from the National Pavilion of Zimbabwe.

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Pink Soviet tank returns to Prague

Published on 21 June 2011.

Prague, 21 June 2011, Art Media Agency (AMA).

A pink tank will make a temporary return to Prague to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops.

Tank number 23 was originally exhibited on a square in Prague in 1945 to commemorate the liberation of Czechoslovakia by the Red Army from Nazi occupation. However, the tank became the symbol of the Soviet invasion in 1968 that crushed the reforms of Alexandre Dubceck, a period of liberalisation known as the Prague Spring.

A Czech visual artist, David Cerny, and some friends painted the tank pink in April 1991. Soviet troops left in June of the same year. The tank was moved from Prague to a military museum and finally place on a pontoon on the Vltava River, where it became a monument for events celebrating the Soviet withdrawal.

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MAXXI celebrates its first anniversary

Published on 1 June 2011.

Rome, 1 June 2011, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo – the National Museum of twenty-first century art – is celebrating its one-year anniversary.

The project for the museum was announced in 1998, but took ten years to finalize.  The museum was eventually completed in 2010 and opened with much ceremony on 30 May 2010.  On Saturday, the institution celebrated its birthday and the plaza opposite the building was decorated with the MAXXI colours. Visitors received pins made in collaboration with the artist Il Gioco del Lotto.

The museum has further reason to celebrate, as results have so far been positive.  The institution hosted twenty exhibitions and more than two hundred events, receiving a total of 479,628 visitors, or 1,547 viewers a day.  Entry tickets generated more than $2.6 million.

However, statistics are not the only marker of success, according to the director of the MAXXI foundation, Pio Baldi.  Baldi says that success must be measured by the museum’s capacity to interact with the urban context, both national and international, and by the realization of the goals set out in the articles of association.  The director adds that MAXXI has become a popular social and cultural centre in the heart of the city and has strengthened the international contemporary art network by making creative innovations accessible to everyone.  Finally, Baldi affirms that the museum has extended its network basis to include the largest museums in the world.

Dedicated to contemporary art, MAXXI is run by a foundation created by the Italian Ministry of Culture.  The building was designed by Zaha Hadid and received the Stirling Prize from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2010.

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National Gallery of Victoria’s 150th anniversary and donation of 173 indigenous works

Published on 27 May 2011.

Melbourne, 27 May 2011, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) is celebrating its 150th anniversary with an exceptional exhibition of 173 indigenous works.

The institution received a major donation from the Felton Bequest, founded in 1904 by the main benefactor of the NGV, Alfred Felton.  According to Gerard Vaughan, director of the museum, this “is the most significant gift of Indigenous art to the NGV since the Gallery opened its doors for the first time on this date 150 years ago in country of the Kulin nation. It is appropriate on this date both to honour the memory of Alfred Felton and also celebrate the Indigenous art of our country, the world’s oldest continuous visual tradition.”

The donation consists of two parts – the first part includes 63 nineteenth and early twentieth century shields, exhibited as part of the museum’s permanent collection.  The second features 107 paintings from the Far Western Desert, which will be shown in a separate exhibition entitled “Living Water”.

In 2008, the National Gallery launched a campaign to raise 150 M$ for its 150th anniversary. This remarkable donation is part of the museum’s ongoing modernisation and enrichment campaign.

 

 

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