New Picasso Ceramics museum to open in Vallarius

Picasso's ceramics is from a PBS special

I have adored Picasso's ceramics from when I first spotted one. So much so that I was surprised to see I had not mentioned them in my many Picasso blog posts in the past. 

So I was excited to see this on artnet.com: 

Picasso’s Storied Ceramics Studio to Reopen as Museum: The Madoura Pottery workshop in Vallarius, France is undergoing an $8.2 million renovation.

Pablo Picasso’s famed ceramics studio is getting a second life, complete with a museum and lush new gardens. After nearly 30 years behind closed doors, the Madoura Pottery workshop in Vallauris, France is set to reopen to the public in 2027 following a €7 million ($8.2 million) transformation.

The atelier was opened 1938 by Suzanne Ramié, a significant French ceramicist, and her husband Georges. Over the years, it has been the birthplace of great acts of creativity by 20th-century greats like Picasso, Matisse, and Marc Chagall, before closing in 1997. Nearly three decades later, the mayor of the local city of Vallarius, Kevin Luciano, has spearheaded a major renovation project that will see the ruin welcome visitors once more.. [continue reading on artnet.com]

You can see photos of the site during construction in the article above or from kevin.lucianio21 on Instagram.

The new Picasso Ceramics museum is set to open in Vallarius in the spring of 2027.

If I was still travelling, this one would be worth building a trip on. Maybe someone will do that, if they stumble across this post.

You can read more about the studio's history, and the alarm at its possible demise, before the recent restoration project began: Picasso’s Legendary Ceramics Studio Under Threat (also from artnet.com).

Below are a few works I adore and a few articles about Picasso's ceramics.

Understanding Picasso's Ceramics - Artsper Magazine

The Story Behind Picasso Ceramics - artnet.com

Never-Before-Seen Picasso Ceramics Hit the Auction Block in Geneva - artnet.com

Picasso, the potter: A new look at the artist’s bravado in ceramics - LA Times

Picasso Ceramics History and Valuation - picasso-ceramics.org

Life at Vallauris - picasso-ceramics.org

Marcelin Cardinal's art

 Marcelin Cardinal is a Canadian artist I only recently discovered. His work is spectacular!

Marcelin (a.k.a. Marcel) Cardinal was born in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan on April 26, 1920. Marcelin died, in Montréal, on October 25, 2019. 

I haven't been able to find a Wikipedia page or any wikicommons images, so I'm just putting in a couple of screengrabs from his website, with the hope that readers will visit his website to learn more. 

Marcelin Cardinal - official website

Marcelin Cardinal - about page

Why did I set up a website dedicated to the art of Marcelin Cardinal?

Marcelin Cardinal - blog

Marcelin Cardinal - list of exhibitions, including many in New York 

Marcelin Cardinal - on Art Net

Hieronymus Bosch

I have discovered that I have not paid enough attention to the artist Hieronymus Bosch. He came up in my War and Peace book club today. 

Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450 – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch painter. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oak wood, mainly contains fantastic illustrations of religious concepts and narratives. Within his lifetime, his work was collected in the Netherlands, Austria, and Spain, and widely copied, especially his macabre and nightmarish depictions of hell.

Well, those aren't topics I'm drawn to, but I still appreciate masterpieces and talented artists.

It seems I missed an opportunity: to see his work The Garden of Earthly Delights at the Prado in Madrid. 

The Garden of Earthly Delights
by Hieronymus Bosch
at the Prado in Madrid - wikicommons

Just making a note here, to remind myself to learn more about him and his work.

Sonia Delaunay

A new-to-me artist today: Sonia Delaunay

Sonia Delaunay, 1914, Prismes électriques
oil on canvas, 250 x 250 cm
Musée National d'Art Moderne

An art collector in my art club named the works on the wall behind him today, and one was by Sonia Delaunay. I say new-to-me, as I don't remember her name, but when I googled her, I wondered if I had been exposed to her work before (at the Centre Pompidou in Paris).

Sonia Delaunay, Rythme, 1938
oil on canvas, 182 x 149 cm,
Musée National d'Art Moderne
Centre Pompidou, Paris

Sonia Delaunay
wearing Casa Sonia creations
Madrid, c.1918-20

Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) was a Russian-born French artist who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was part of the School of Paris and co-founded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes, with her husband Robert Delaunay and others. 

Sonia Delaunay was the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in 1964. Her modern design included the concepts of geometric abstraction, and the integration of furniture, fabrics, wall coverings, and clothing into her art practice.

In 1967 (25 February – 5 April) she was a part of an exhibition of artist-decorated cars entitled 'Cinq voitures personnalisées par cinq artistes contemporains' ('Five Cars Personalized by Five Contemporary Artists') organized by the journal Réalités as a fundraiser for French medical research. She designed the pattern for a Matra 530 by experimenting with optical effects causing the car to recompose the pattern into a light blue shade when in motion 'so as not to attract other drivers' attention to the point of causing accidents through distraction. See pic below. 

Sonia Delaunay Was a Multimedia Artist Before the Term Was Invented - 1000 Museums

One for the Ages: Sonia Delaunay’s Wearable Abstractions - NY Times

‘Sonia Delaunay: Living Art’ Review: Radiantly Modern - WSJ

Sonia Delaunay on Wikipedia

Sonia Delaunay or Robert Delaunay
(or both), 1921-22
published in Der Sturm
Volume 13, Number 3, 5 March 1922

Mondial de l automobile de Paris
(October 2006)

Sonia Delaunay, Blaise Cendrars, 1913,
La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France
(illustrated book)

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva

 

I discovered a new-to-me artist today, via my online art club: 

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908–1992) was a Portuguese abstract painter. She was considered a leading member of the European abstract expressionism movement known as Art Informel. Her works feature complex interiors and city views using lines that explore space and perspective. She also worked in tapestry and stained glass.

Miniville, Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva Foundation, Praça das Amoreiras, Lisbon, Portugal
Creative Commons via Pedro Ribeiro Simões

Self-Portrait, Wikipedia

The above is a tile mural from 1970 by Helena Vieira da Silva Mural at the Largo do Rato Metro Station in Lisbon, Portugal (click to enlarge!)

(WikiCommons) 

Something to seek out in Paris!
WikiCommons

The above is a small detail of tile panel, present at Cidade Universitária station of the Lisbon Metropolitano by Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (WikiCommons)

Resources:

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva at the MoMA (4 works) 

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva at the Guggenheim (2 works)

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva at the Tate (4 works) 

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva on ArtNet

Artemisia Gentileschi

Today I learned about the Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi. Her work is quite stunning... and very haunting (think Caravaggio!).

Highlights from Wikipedia: 

• Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing professional work by the age of 15. She was also known as Artemisia Lomi.
• In an era when women had few opportunities to pursue artistic training or work as professional artists, Gentileschi was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence and she had an international clientele.
• Many of Gentileschi's paintings feature women from myths, allegories, and the Bible, including victims, suicides, and warriors. 
• Gentileschi was known for being able to depict the female figure with great naturalism and for her skill in handling colour to express dimension and drama.
• Her achievements as an artist were long overshadowed by a trauma as a young woman. I'll let you read about it in Wikipedia. 

Gustave Caillebotte's Floor Scrapers

Gustave Caillebotte, The Floor Scrapers 1875
Musée d'Orsay, Paris (wikicommons)

This is one of my favourite paintings. 

Named in French as Les raboteurs de parquet, The Floor Scrapers was painted painting by French Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte in 1875. It was painted in oil on canvas and measures 102 by 146.5 centimetres (40.2 in × 57.7 in).

In the scene, the observer stands above three workers on hands and knees, scraping a wooden floor in a bourgeois apartment—now believed to be Caillebotte's own studio at 77, rue de Miromesnil, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.

This is one of the first paintings of the time to feature the urban working class. Instead of the heroes of antiquity, here are the heroes of modern life—sinewy and strong—in stooped poses that would appear demeaning if they did not convey a sense of masculine strength and honest labor.

Sadly, Caillebotte's magnificent work was rejected by France's most prestigious art exhibition, the Salon, when he first showed it, but this was common of the times, when anything nearing nudity was considered vulgar. The painting received praise from many critics, though.

I first saw this painting at the Musée d'Orsay during my first visit to the city. I was entirely captivated and enthralled, and kept returning to it to look again. The quality of the light and the reflections were stunning. More recently, when I re-discovered the painting (I had lost the name of the artist and artwork for many yars!), I have come to appreciate the artist's use of perspective. 

More about the work on Wikipedia

Musée d'Orsay's write-up on the work

Great description of the work on TheHistoryOfArt.org

Bio of the artist on Brittanica.com featuring the work

 

When Picasso met Lump

 

Lump didn't start out as Picasso's dog, Lump was David Duncan's dog. David Duncan was Picasso's photographer and wrote several books about Picasso (highly recommended). David brought his dachshund by when he visited Picasso in the south of France, and the two fell in love (Picasso and Lump, that is).

Read the full article below, but here is my favourite quote:

Lump and Picasso remained friends for the rest of their lives.  Lump lived to 1973 reaching the ripe old age of 17. Picasso died ten days later.

Duncan’s Dog meets Picasso - Lewis Art Café (lewisartcafe.com)

Lump (dog) - Wikipedia

For the love of throw pillows

Cliff Schorer* recently located a missing painting by Dutch master Hendrick Avercamp after finding an image of it online on an $18 throw pillow. Last year, Schorer used a reverse image search engine to find an image of Winter Landscape with Skater and Other Figures, stolen in 1978 and now worth around $10 million, on the print-on-demand website Pixels.com. By looking at the metadata of the Pixels.com image, Schorer was able to determine that it was taken years after the famous theft. Schorer traced the painting to a sale at a European art fair in 1995 under the name of Barent Avercamp, the artist’s nephew and student. The painting was sold to a Dutch couple, who have since died... [continue reading on Art News].

*Cliff Schorer is the Worcester Museum of Art's former board president, the museum where it was originally supposed to have been donated to. 

A Former Museum President Tracked Down a Stolen Painting Using an Image Printed on a Decorative Throw Pillow - Art Net

Art Collector Cliff Schorer Locates Stolen $10 M. Hendrick Avercamp Painting with the Help of an $18 Throw Pillow - Art News

What's in a name?

Ceci n’est pas une rue.
Brussels honours artist René Magritte with a new street name.

Interesting stuff, from 2018...

"If you could name a street in your hometown, what would you choose? Belgian citizens had the opportunity to mull just that question as part of an initiative to name 28 streets, squares, and walkways in the Belgian capital’s Tour & Taxis district*. The city crowdsourced the names as part of an ongoing regeneration project in the Tour & Taxis district—a formerly industrial area now set to become one of the city’s cultural and residential meccas. After receiving nearly 1,400 suggestions from the public, the final list was chosen by a jury of city officials, historians, and the site’s property developer, Extena...""[read more on Quartz]. 

*The district is named after the famous Thurn and Taxis, a German noble family that was a key player in European postal services until the fall of the Holy Roman Empire.

Street name signs in Brussels are in Flemish and French.
There have been more going up lately.

"Once a railway station and inland port, the district was a maze of warehouses, customs buildings and post and telegraph offices. By the early 1990s the area had fallen on hard times: lorry transport had rendered rail freight lines obsolete, while the introduction of a European customs union and harmonisation of standards drastically reduced incoming goods..." [read more on The Guardian].

"Did you know that the site once served as the largest freight station of Europe? The historic buildings were years ahead of the rest of Europe. The architects and engineers combined beautiful Belgian architecture with the most innovative technologies of the time. The result? Buildings that still have all modern facilities with an attractive, historic flavour..."read more on the official website].

"The eclectic mix of new names chosen by Brussels residents range from Passage de la Kriek, named after a famous Belgian cherry beer, to Ceci n’est pas une rue (This is not a street), inspired by the art of Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte. “To give a street a name, it gives it a certain identity,” Kris Verhellen, CEO of the Extensa development group which owns the former transport hub in the north of the city..." [read more on Reuters].

The new Brussels street names - and what they mean

• Allée des Douanes: Customs Alley
• Ceci n’est pas une rue: This is not a street (honouring Belgian artist René Magritte)
• Chemin du Bonheur: Path to Happiness
• Chemin d’Un Monde Meilleur: Path to a Better World
• Drève des Rêves: Drive of Dreams
• Drève du Parc: Park Drive
• Drève Maritime: Maritime Drive
• Drève von Thurn und Tassis: Tour and Taxis Drive
• Mer des Pavés: Sea of Cobblestones
• Passage de la Caricole: Passage of the Caricole
• Passage de la Frite: Passage of the fries
• Passage de la Praline: Passage of the Praline
• Passage de la Kriek: Passage of the Kriek (Belgian beer)
• Passage du Chicon: Passage of Chicon (a Belgian cheese and endive dish)
• Passage du Cuberdon: Passage of Cuberdon (a Belgian candy)
• Passage du Speculoos: Passage of the Speculoos (a Belgian spiced cookie)
• Passage du Stoemp: Passage of the Stoemp (a Belgian vegetable dish)
• Place de la Musique: Place of Music
• Place des Choukes: Place of Choukes (a Belgian term of endearment)
• Place des Grands Hommes Place of Great People
• Quai des Brumes: Quay of the Mists
• Rue Chantal Akerman: Chantal Akerman Street (a famous Belgian feminist and avant-garde filmmaker)
• Rue des Entrepôts: Warehouse Street
• Rue du Méandre: Meander Street
• Rue Isala Van Diest: Isala Van Diest Street (Belguim's first female medical doctor)
• Voie 1: Way 1
• Voie 2: Way 2

The Brussels city flag

To learn more
Tour & Taxis District - official website
Belgians chose “This is not a street” as one of 28 new Brussels street names - Quartz
Beer, chips and historic women inspire new Brussels street names
New names of the Tour & Taxis streets - Brussels city website
Ceci n’est pas une rue: Brussels to adopt whimsical new street names - The Guardian
Brussels Honors René Magritte & Other Painters With Bizarre Street Names - The Travel

This post was published previously on my citytravelbug blog

Tom Wolfe: The Painted Word

Recently listened to The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe, and attending a very interesting virtual book club meeting, and was inspired. It's worth a listen.

Saving a few links for myself to come back to later...

Tom Wolfe, 88, ‘New Journalist’ With Electric Style and Acid Pen, Dies

Five Essential Tom Wolfe Books You Should Read

Tom Wolfe: The Satirist Whose Wit Hardened into Contempt

Tom Wolfe, Sage of Status Anxiety

A Guide to the Work of Tom Wolfe

15 Great Articles by Tom Wolfe

The definitive works of Tom Wolfe

How Tom Wolfe Became … Tom Wolfe | Vanity Fair

Perspicacity

Perspicacity (also called perspicaciousness) is a penetrating discernment (from the Latin perspicācitās, meaning throughsightedness, discrimination)—a clarity of vision or intellect which provides a deep understanding and insight.

It takes the concept of wisdom deeper in the sense that it denotes a keenness of sense and intelligence applied to insight. It has been described as a deeper level of internalization.

Another definition refers to it as the "ability to recognize subtle differences between similar objects or ideas".

The above is what Wikipedia told me after I head this word in use in an audiobook today. 

It seems it is also what Rene Magritte named one of his paintings (I’ve seen it, but didn’t know the title. 

Keith Haring meets Doc Marten

 If you love Keith Haring’s art, and like to sport Doc Martens, this is for you.

The famed footwear brand has partnered with Keith Haring’s estate to create a line of Keith Haring Doc Martens. 

Read more on Art News.

, 

Operation Night Watch

I was listening to a podcast not long ago and learned many interesting things about Rembrandt's Night Watch. So much has come to light about his technique, and the many instances he changed his mind and painted over spots. All this is thanks to modern day technology.

That's only half the story.

When I started to draft this post, I turned to Wikipedia.

What really caught my attention was the image size choices, as I generally select the largest size for use in my blog. Here's what I saw: 287 × 240 pixels | 573 × 480 pixels | 917 × 768 pixels | 1,222 × 1,024 pixels | 57,813 × 48,438 pixels. "Wow," I thought, then I wondered why.

Here's the story:

On May 13, 2020, the Rijksmuseum published a 44.8 gigapixel image of The Night Watch, made from 528 different still photographs (24 rows of 22 pictures stitched together digitally with the aid of neural networks). Created primarily for conservator scientists, by making it public the Rijksmuseum has opened the virtual door for anyone to see the master's brushstrokes.

Never before has such a large painting been photographed at such high resolution, and it is still a work in progress. In total the robot will take more than 8400 photos at an extremely high resolution of 5 microme-tres, or five thousandths of a millimetre.

Operation Night Watch - Rijksmuseum

French Man Bequeaths Money to Hermitage Cats

 I trust you have heard about the cats that reside in the basement of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia?

On the off- chance you haven’t, there are 50 of them, and their job is to keep the rodents at bay. They have three caretakers and their very own Press Secretary.

Now a Frenchman has donated a tidy sum to pay to for their care an needed upgrades to their abodes. Although he has been named in some media, he made the donation anonymously and prefers to stay that way. 

Whoever he is, I like his kind heart.

Read more in the New York Post.

US Capitol art damage

Despite the outrageous assault on the US Capitol, damage to the artworks in the historical building was surprisingly minor. Curators have been on the ground inspecting the damage and starting restoration, but it could have been so much worse.

I can’t decide whether the thugs didn’t know what they were surrounded with (so paid no attention to the works) or did know (and restrained themselves)... probably the former, but who knows. But I am always glad when art is protected.  

Read more in this topic:

New York Times

Art News

David Hockney's pool-less lockdown

David Hockney is spending his COVID lockdown in his home in France, sans pool. So what does the artist who is known for his iconic paintings of pools do with his time? 

"This year 2020 I have just been working on my iPad depicting the arrival of spring, which will be shown at the Royal Academy in London in March 2021 and in October at the Orangerie in Paris. This is 118 pictures but I have gone on making them and will finish up with about 200 for the whole year...” [read more].

Recent art

Realize I have been posting very little of my own art of late. I'm always meaning to get better pics, sign or watermark, list for sale, blah, blah, blah... so post very little. BUT I have been creating like crazy, mostly on blank playing cards, and involving stamp collage. I'm in the ACEO arena here, and will probably sell as such on eBay soon. Might even dust off my old Etsy store. But, for now, creating and not worrying about all that.