Italian actress and sex symbol Monica Bellucci covers Harper’s Bazaar Ukraine March 2013, photographed by Signe Vilstrup, styled by Svitlana Lyzogubenko. She’s wearing dresses of the spring/summer collection 2013 of Dolce & Gabbana and traditional Ukrainian hairband with flowers.
Asger Jorn / The Barber and The Berber
If you travel around Europe this November, you should save the date for the most intriguing exhibitions, that will spice up the end of the year, and attract attention of public and media around the world.
One of the most exciting events in the art world is undoubtedly ‘Revolutionary Roads’. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is showing a major retrospective exhibition, that focuses on two of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, Asger Jorn & Jackson Pollock, and on what was happening in expressionist painting in the years 1943-1963 – the period between the war years and the emergence of Pop Art. This is the first time one can experience a comparison of the two artists’ works.
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art // Humlebæk, Denmark
Jackson Pollock / Yellow, Grey, Black
On display – January 12, 2014
Van Gough Museum // Amsterdam, Netherlands
Père Tanguy / Van Gogh, 1887 @ Musée Rodin
The anniversary exhibition Van Gogh at work shows how in ten years’ time Van Gogh developed into a unique artist with an impressive oeuvre. Over 200 works of art provide insight into Van Gogh’s way of working, including paintings, works on paper, letters and personal effects of the painter, such as his original sketchbooks, paint tubes and only surviving palette, from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
November 19, 2013 – February 16, 2014
Musée Rodin // Paris, France
www.musee-rodin.fr/fr/exposition/
November 15, 2013 – March 23, 2014
Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung // Munich, Germany
The Education of Achilles by Chiron
November 9, 2013 – March 2, 2014
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden / Dresden, Germany
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Elle / La Clownesse assise / Mademoiselle Cha-U-Ka-O 1896 / Foto by Herbert Boswank
On display – March 9, 2014
Tate Modern // London, UK
Paul Klee / Fire at Full Moon, 1933
November 7, 2013 – February 16, 2014
Royal Academy of Arts // London, UK
Museo Nacional del Prado // Madrid, Spain
Museo del Prado marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) with an exhibition devoted to works based on his last opera, Parsifal.
November 6, 2013 – April 27, 2014
Palazzo Ducale // Genova, Italy
Edvard Munch / Madonna, 1896 © The Munch Museum / The Munch-Ellingsen Group by SIAE 2013
The Palazzo Ducale celebrates the life and oeuvre of one of the most prolific, innovative and influential figures in modern art.
November 14, 2013 – April 6, 2014
Palazzo Cipolla // Rome, Italy
These works have not been shown to the public for over seventy years, and now reappear, as if by magic, as creations from another world.
Amedeo Modigliani / Elvire con collettino, 1917 © Pinacothèque de Paris /Fabrice Gousset
On display – March 9, 2014
Palazzo Reale // Milan, Italy
Works of all Warhol’s major periods are on display; from his early Death and Disaster series, his celebrity portraits of Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe, to a 1986 self-portrait.
Please, share with us your impressions. Happy creative November to all of you!
John Singer Sargent / Simplon Pass: Reading, about 1911 © MFA
On display – January 20, 2014
Museum of Fine Arts // Boston, MA
A triumphant show combines the two best collections of John Singer Sargent’s dazzling watercolors.
www.mfa.org/exhibitions/john-singer-sargent-watercolors
Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World
On display – January 12, 2014
Museum of Fine Arts // Boston, MA
www.mfa.org/exhibitions/she-who-tells-story
Lalla Assia Essaydi / Bullet Revisited #3, 2012 / Courtesy of the artist, Miller Yezerski Gallery Boston & Edwynn Houk Gallery NYC
On display –January 5, 2014
MoMa // New York, NY
www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions
L: Ralph Schraivogel / Archigram 1961–74 /Museum für Gestaltung / © Ralph Schraivogel
Ongoing
Norman Rockwell Museum // Stockbridge, MA
Norman Rockwell / Little Girl Observing Lover © Norman Rockwell Museum
David Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition
On display – January 20, 2014
Fine Arts Museum Of San Francisco // San Francisco, CA
David Hockney / A Bigger Matelot Kevin Druez 2 © 2013 David Hockney
On display – February 17, 2014
Fine Arts Museum Of San Francisco // San Francisco, CA
deyoung.famsf.org/deyoung/exhibitions
Sautoir, 1969. Platinum with sapphires and diamonds. Chain: 74 x 1 cm. Pendant/brooch: 4.9 x 4.9 cm. Formerly in the collection of Elizabeth Taylor. Bulgari Heritage Collection, inv. 6675 N2170 © Antonio Barrella Studio Orizzonte
November 9, 2013 – September 7, 2014
Legion Of Honor – Fine Arts Museum Of San Francisco // San Francisco, CA
Henri Matisse / The Girl with Green Eyes, 1908 © Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
November 9, 2013 – February 2, 2014
Legion Of Honor – Fine Arts Museum Of San Francisco // San Francisco, CA
legionofhonor.famsf.org/legion/exhibitions/
L: Anders Zorn / Self-Portrait in Red, 1915 © Mora Photograph by Patric Evinger. R: Anders Zorn / Reveil, Boulevard Clichy,1892
On display – January 5, 2014
Seattle Art Museum // Seattle, WA
Peru’s “Mona Lisa” / A Mochica Gold Octopus © SAM
On display – January 5, 2014
National Gallery of Art // Washington, DC
www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/exhibitions/2013/
on display – March 11, 2017
National Gallery of Art // Washington, DC
www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/exhibitions/
On display – March 2, 2014
Philadelphia Museum of Art // Philadelphia, PA
www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/
Salvador Dali / Premonition Of Civil War, 1936 © Salvador Dali, Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Giorgio de Chirico / The Poet And His Muse © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
On display – January 5, 2014
Philadelphia Museum of Art // Philadelphia, PA
www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/
Ferdinand Léger / The City, 1919 © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
November 12, 2013 – January 27, 2014, Member Preview: November 9–11
Art Institute of Chicago // Chicago, IL
www.artic.edu/exhibition/art-and-appetite-american-painting-culture-and-cuisine
William J. McCloskey / Wrapped Oranges, 1889
After “Behold America!” in San Diego comes “Art and Appetite” in Chicago, which reveals Americans’ attitude to food and alcohol through the nation’s art, and the moral messages that US artists have conveyed in works depicting or alluding to their consumption.
Organised by the Art Institute of Chicago, the show brings together still-lifes and genre paintings, as well as decorative art and ephemera, from the days of the Founding Fathers, when men washed breakfast down with a tankard of cider, to Andy Warhol’s soup cans and Roy Lichtenstein’s Pop art Thanksgiving turkey.
On display – January 5, 2014
Art Institute of Chicago // Chicago, IL
On display – December 2, 2013
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago // Chicago, IL
www.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/
Ongoing
Los Angeles County Museum of Art // Los Angeles, CA
On display – April 6, 2014
Los Angeles County Museum of Art // Los Angeles, CA
www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/james-turrell-retrospective
On display – February 2, 2014
Los Angeles County Museum of Art // Los Angeles, CA
Stick’em Up… / Slanguage Bandito / Mario Ybarra Jr. & Juan Capistran © Juan Capistran and Mario Ybarra, Jr.
On display – January 26, 2014
MOCA Pacific Design Center // Los Angeles, CA
Hundreds thousands of spectators every year, enormous stages, courageous and innovative, just out of this world – all this is Bregenz Opera Festival taking place every summer on the picturesque austrian lake Constance.
/A giant floating stage set up for Keith Warner’s production of Umberto Giordano’s opera André Chénier , which was open to the public in July of 2011 / Photograph by Miro Kuzmanovic for Reuters
Bregenzer Festspiele Opera was founded 67 years ago, in 1946, just one year after the end of the Second World War. In a town that did not even possess a regular theatre, the idea of mounting a festival seemed eccentric, but ingenious approach and unusuality of place made the festival hugely successful.
Every year, the floating stage, or Seebühne , is transformed by a designer, with every year topping the last in terms of grandiose set pieces and staging.
One of the most impressive masterpieces of Bregenz Festival is the stage set for the opera André Chénier by the Italian composer Umberto Giordano in 2011.
The opera depicts a story of a poet André Chénier, who was executed during the French revolution. Stage designer David Fielding was inspired by the image of Jean-Paul Marat, a revolutionary made famous in a painting by Jacques-Louis David.
/Photograph by Karl Forster © Bregenzer Festspiele
The stage measurements were undoubtedly impressive:
performance area / 1600 m2
knife height / 13.5 m
cloth size / 1100 m2 and it was mounted by 14 male workers
Marat’s head weight / 60 tons
the whole stage set weight / 350 tons
The stage was built directly into the lake Constance. It was then mounted upon a concrete core anchored into the base of the lake, while wooden poles supported accessory structures of the stage.
/Photograph by Karl Forster © Bregenzer Festspiele
The stage design for André Chénier is dominated by an oversized face and torso of Jean-Paul Marat from whose left eye streams a series of stairways. An open book to right of the figure is frequently highlighted throughout the performance with spectacular lighting effects, ranging from sculptural installations to elaborate gobos that cast shadow scenes along its pages. At water level, a floating platform, carried by what appears to be the hand of the statue, moves in response to plot action. Other mobile set pieces rise in and out of the water over the course of the performance.
/Tosca by Giacomo Puccini 2007/08 Photograph by Karl Forster© Bregenzer Festspiele
Not only audiences at Bregenz were enthusiastic about the spectacular staging of Puccini’s opera Tosca. In July 2007 a team from EON Productions, the production company responsible for the James Bond movies, with Daniel Craig visited one of the last rehearsals for Tosca.
/Aida by Giuseppe Verdi 2009/10 Photograph by Karl Forster © Bregenzer Festspiele
/The Magic Flute/Die Zauberflöte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 2013/14 Photograph by Rainer Trost © Bregenzer Festspiele
© Bregenzer Festspiele
/Panorama view of festival area 2010
More about The Opera on The Lake, the history of Bregenzer Festspiele Opera and how to buy a ticket for the upcoming 2014 season, you can find on Bregenzer Festspiele official website www.bregenzerfestspiele.com
Imagination, Curiosity, Innovation are the three great whales that move our fast paced world.
The desire to make a difference, to discover uniqueness in every simple object, to notice unnoticeable, to let fantasy become a part of the real world – this is just a little part of what Art is about.
Do not try to explain. Let’s just enjoy leaving the best of creative world to flow through our hearts, minds and souls contributing and inspiring for the new astonishing phenomenons.
Welcome to DESIGN OBENTO – the most interesting of Art, Design, Architecture and beyond.
/Solipsist by Andrew Thomas Huang
Everything you can imagine is real
/Pablo Picasso
Design Obento 