Museums you've visited (or want to see)

[The new erato]

Interesting, I have rented an apartment in Biot for the last week of September. And I saw a major Leger exhibition in Baden-Baden in 2012.

BTW, Matisse is probably in my top 10 of painters. I was in Vence  20 years ago, must make the trip again in September.

Guess the Hermitage is off my list forever.

[MusicTurner]

A lot of people, also Russophiles, are skipping prospects as regards any future visiting Russia. Just heard a local connoisseur, novellist and former Moscow correspondent, Leif Davidsen, stating the same ... likely he's been to Russia for the last time.

[ritter]

Visited a small exhibition of works by José María Sert (1874-1945) at the Fundación Juan March here in Madrid this morning.

Sert was a fashionable decorative painter in the first half of the 20th century. He's mainly remembered today because when Diego Rivera's murals were deemed unsuitable for the Rockefeller Center in New York City, Sert was commissioned to paint new ones over Rivera's work (they're still on display). He also painted large panels for one of the dining rooms ofthe Waldorf Astoria Hotel (they've since been removed and can be seen at the Fundación Banco Santander in the outskirts of of Madrid).

The exhibition consists of two rooms,  mainly showing the decorations Sert made in 1916 for railroad tycoon Sir Saxton Noble's country manor in Norfolk, and the B&W panels he prepared for Juan March's Madrid dining room in the 1940s.

This is very theatrical, baroque and decorative painting, with a strong influence of Goya an El Greco. Rather enjoyable.

Some of the works from 1916:





And from 1942:

[pjme]

For music lovers, It is well worth to explore the life of Misia!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misia_Sert

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Kyoto National Museum, etc. Kyoto, Japan
Various. Tokyo, Japan
National Palace Museum. Taipei, Taiwan
National Archaeological Museum, Byzantine Museum, etc. Athens, Greece
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada
Museum of Vancouver. Vancouver, Canada
Museo Nacional de Colombia. Bogota, Colombia
Antioquia Museum. Medellin, Colombia
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, etc. Buenos Aires, Argentina
Museo Municipal De Bellas Artes. Rosario, Argentina
Various. NY, New Orleans, Atlanta, LA, USA.

[Wanderer]

After covid-lockdowns report: museum visits in Spain (June 2022), Italy (March 2022) and Paris (October 2021) - temporary exhibitions in parentheses.


Madrid, June 2022

Museo Nacional del Prado
Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
Museo Lázaro Galdiano
Palacio de Liria
Palacio Real de Madrid
Museo Reina Sofía - Fluffy political art has ousted most of the permanent collection off the walls; apparently, a personal crusade of the current director. Stunning Guernica, thankfully, did not have to move.
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (Ragnar Kjartansson - Paisajes Emocionales, Arte americano en la Colección Thyssen)


Cordoba, June 2022

Palacio de Viana
Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba


Toledo, June 2022

Museo de Santa Cruz (Alfonso X - El legado de un rey precursor, Juan de Borgoña: un maestro oculto)
Museo Convento de Santo Domingo el Antiguo
Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes
Museo del Greco
Iglesia de Santo Tomé
Catedral de Toledo


Granada, June 2022

Alhambra
Catedral de Granada
Capilla Real de Granada


Rome, March 2022

Palazzo Farnese - the Galleria Carracci stunning as ever
Musei Vaticani
Galleria Borghese (Guido Reni a Roma - Il sacro e la natura)
Museo di Roma - Palazzo Braschi (Klimt - La Secessione e l'Italia)
Area archaeologica del Vicus Caprarius
Palazzo Barberini (Caravaggio e Artemisia: La Sfida di Giuditta - Violenza e seduzione nella pittura tra Cinquecento e Seicento)
Musei Capitolini


Florence, March 2022

Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore (The Three Pietàs of Michelangelo)
Gallerie degli Uffizi


Siena, March 2022

Complesso museale e cripta del Duomo di Siena
Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo


Paris, October 2021

Halle Saint-Pierre (Dans les têtes de Stephane Blanquet, Tranchée Racine)
Musée du Louvre (Paris-Athènes, Naissance de la Grèce moderne)
Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection (Urs Fischer: Untitled (2011)*)
Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou (Baselitz)
Musée de l'Orangerie (Soutine/de Kooning)
Musée National Gustave Moreau (Les Fables de La Fontaine)
Fondation Louis Vuitton (La Collection Morozov - Icônes de l'Art Moderne)
Petit Palais - Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris (Ilya Répine - Peindre l'âme russe)
Musée d'Orsay (Signac collectionneur)


*The most striking part of the exhibition in the impressively renovated Bourse de Commerce was an imposing installation by Urs Fischer which dominated the expansive central space under the glass dome.
Composed of wax sculptures, Untitled (2011) is a group of monumental candles lit on the first day of the exhibition. The centerpiece is a life-size replica of Giambologna's The Abduction of the Sabine Women. "The wax liquefies, and that which seemed perennial and genuine, turns out to be fragile and fictitious." Untitled lasts as long as the wicks of the candles continue to burn. Initially whole, then gradually disintegrating or trickling away, the work is meant as "a monument to impermanence, transformation, the passage of time, metamorphosis, and creative destruction."

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Visited a small exhibition of works by José María Sert (1874-1945) at the Fundación Juan March here in Madrid this morning.

Sert was a fashionable decorative painter in the first half of the 20th century. He's mainly remembered today because when Diego Rivera's murals were deemed unsuitable for the Rockefeller Center in New York City, Sert was commissioned to paint new ones over Rivera's work (they're still on display). He also painted large panels for one of the dining rooms ofthe Waldorf Astoria Hotel (they've since been removed and can be seen at the Fundación Banco Santander in the outskirts of of Madrid).

The exhibition consists of two rooms,  mainly showing the decorations Sert made in 1916 for railroad tycoon Sir Saxton Noble's country manor in Norfolk, and the B&W panels he prepared for Juan March's Madrid dining room in the 1940s.

This is very theatrical, baroque and decorative painting, with a strong influence of Goya an El Greco. Rather enjoyable.

Some of the works from 1916:





And from 1942:

Interesting re Sert and Diego Rivera.  I expect that "they" have done some work to examine the paintings/layers under the Sert paintings?

After covid-lockdowns report: museum visits in Spain (June 2022), Italy (March 2022) and Paris (October 2021) - temporary exhibitions in parentheses....

Sounds like you've been busy visiting museums!    I'm happy for you.  Must have been some nice wanderings and explorations?

PD

[Irons]

Visited a small exhibition of works by José María Sert (1874-1945) at the Fundación Juan March here in Madrid this morning.

Sert was a fashionable decorative painter in the first half of the 20th century. He's mainly remembered today because when Diego Rivera's murals were deemed unsuitable for the Rockefeller Center in New York City, Sert was commissioned to paint new ones over Rivera's work (they're still on display). He also painted large panels for one of the dining rooms ofthe Waldorf Astoria Hotel (they've since been removed and can be seen at the Fundación Banco Santander in the outskirts of of Madrid).

The exhibition consists of two rooms,  mainly showing the decorations Sert made in 1916 for railroad tycoon Sir Saxton Noble's country manor in Norfolk, and the B&W panels he prepared for Juan March's Madrid dining room in the 1940s.

This is very theatrical, baroque and decorative painting, with a strong influence of Goya an El Greco. Rather enjoyable.

Some of the works from 1916:





And from 1942:

Realise you are based in Madrid, a city I would love to visit. But can you recommend places of particular interest in Saville and Barcelona where I will be visiting in October?

[Florestan]

Realise you are based in Madrid, a city I would love to visit. But can you recommend places of particular interest in S[e]ville and Barcelona where I will be visiting in October?

You didn't ask me, nevertheless I'd say just roam freely in both cities, Seville especially; you'll be as in an enchanted garden: could not and would not escape it. 

[Wanderer]

Sounds like you've been busy visiting museums!    I'm happy for you.  Must have been some nice wanderings and explorations?

Indeed it has! Any interesting museums/exhibitions that you visited recently?

Being able to see places during this period was like a trip to the past. In Greece, Santorini, for instance, was for two years eerily quiet and quaint again and we were able to savour its beauty without the hordes that normally descend upon it. Locals were saying that it felt like the '70s were back. The island of Cephalonia last summer was as I remember it in the early/mid '80s (it's where I spent most of my childhood summers).

Rome is always pleasantly devoid of mass tourism in the winter, but in March this year it was the first time I actually saw the Vatican Museums uncrowded from end to end and the Sistine Chapel almost empty for the duration of my visit (pro-tip: the Etruscan antiquities section is always empty, despite holding, among other treasures, one of the most amazing works of ancient Greek pottery: the Exekias amphora - discovered in an Etruscan tomb in Vulci. When there, don't miss it.) People were actually standing and praying in the Cappella Sistina for a change, instead of trying to take clandestine photos behind the guards' backs.

No such luck of wistful quietness at the Louvre in front of the Mona Lisa, I'm afraid, however the museum seemed to have finally found an efficient crowd control method that also allows for everyone to get a (for most, selfie-related) chance in front of the painting. Crowds were noticeably lighter compared to pre-covid times in general and the rest of the museum was either uncrowded (Italian and French monumental paintings, Greek antiquities) or downright empty (decorative arts, French and Dutch paintings - very disappointed that one of my favourite paintings, Vermeer's Astronomer, was not there: it had been lent to Abu Dhabi for an exhibition). And as for the splendid Morozov Collection exhibition, it already feels like it happened in a different era; blockbuster exhibitions in collaboration with Russian museums are not likely to be happening again any time soon.

By June, it became readily apparent that people were travelling again; Athens airport, quiet for two years, was again teeming with activity. Whereas Madrid felt normally crowded in the tourist areas (no frame of reference, this was my first trip to Spain), Toledo and Granada, Toledo especially, were unexpectedly devoid of crowds. The Alhambra was simply a delight. Cordoba exceeded expectations, such a jewel of a place and apart from what I felt was a normal amount of visitors at the Mezquita (timed entry only for crowd control, but I was allowed to get in upon arrival at the doors half an hour early) the rest of the town felt like there were no tourists at all. No huge crowds at the Prado museum, either; I visited two times in different days to be able to see everything comfortably and give ample time to my highlights.




The first museum I want to visit upon return to Athens is the National Gallery, for its new retrospective exhibition of one of my favourite Greek painters, Konstantinos Parthenis.


"RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION: KONSTANTINOS PARTHENIS, PAINTING AN IDEAL GREECE
 
 
The National Gallery presents the exhibition "Konstantinos Parthenis (1878–1967) – Painting an Ideal Greece", the first comprehensive retrospective exhibition dedicated to the oeuvre of one of the most outstanding figures of modern Greek painting. The exhibition showcases the artist's multifaceted, uplifting and deeply Greek creative output in a gesture of powerful symbolism, being the first retrospective dedicated to a Greek artist in the new National Gallery, following on the first, monumental temporary exhibition "The Art of Portraiture in the Louvre Collections".
Konstantinos Parthenis's life and career spans from the late 19th century until the late 1960s, when he lived and worked in his home studio at the foot of the Acropolis. Alexandria, Vienna, Paris, Corfu and Athens are landmark cities in a career that is yet to be comprehensively documented and definitively assessed in art history. In his painting, Parthenis developed a creative dialogue with the modernist movement while maintaining his own distinct style, where iconographic references to antique and Byzantine art expand his extraordinary painting vocabulary, which evolved steadily throughout his life in a wide range of works.
He pioneered a groundbreaking approach to modernism and justified his belief that the artist deserves recognition and support from the state.
With his appointment as professor to the Athens School of Fine Arts, he changed the way art was taught and introduced a new ethics in fine art education. His close friendship with intellectuals and politicians, as well as his views on the political turbulence of Greek history in the interwar period, left a strong mark on his career and work.
The tensions his presence generated in his colleagues and his courageous withdrawal to his home studio in the last 30 years of his life gave rise to a mystery surrounding his often esoteric painting.
Most of Konstantinos Parthenis's paintings, drawings and documents are in the National Gallery collections. Their provenance is mainly by bequest from the artist's two children. For the first time in this retrospective, selected exhibits from the museum's collections are complemented by major works from private and public collections, which trace with sobriety, clarity and simplicity the evolution of his painting.

A PROTEAN ARTIST

Parthenis's creative output is characterised by protean transformation. Only Picasso (1881–1973), who was of the same age with Parthenis, can be compared with him in this respect. Moreover, the Greek artist shares with his Spanish peer another rare privilege: both artists manage to maintain a stylistic constancy, an unmistakable genetic code, an instantly recognisable style that permeates and unifies their wide-ranging creative endeavours. What gives Parthenis's work its unique individuality is the way he treats the creative act as a purely intellectual affair, as a cosa mentale, to quote Leonardo da Vinci (1459–1519). Its destination is pure poetry but the path leading to that peak is research, expertise, wisdom: "Yet art must also possess science... And anyone can be taught science. Art is essentially individual, personal."
After his return from Paris, with his impressions of the bold colours of Les Fauves and Les Nabis still vivid, Parthenis painted a few delightful landscapes from life, mainly on Corfu but also elsewhere in Greece, without any symbolist connotations. It was only during that period that the painter joined his peers of Techni art group, who in the first two decades of the 20th century produced pure plein-air works as part of a quest for a Greek modernism. Strong stylisation would prevail in his work soon after, while a poetic wind transformed his landscapes into transcendental, Elysian visions. Paradoxical as it may seem, this stylisation reveals a latent quality of the Attic light which results in a sharp delineation of volumes and incisive forms, giving primacy to line over colour. It is this quality of his teacher's painting that the insightful Tsarouchis would call "Atticism."
The 1920s would see Parthenis gradually retreat from society and immerse himself in the visionary world of his mature painting, populated by allegorical and symbolic images. Curvilinear, wavy, dancing, his human figures are harmoniously integrated into their setting and resonate with the surrounding compositional elements – trees, mountains, hills. Memories of the European symbolists, both older and younger ones (Puvis de Chavannes, Maurice Denis, Ferdinand Hodler), but also influences from Byzantine art or El Greco, well-assimilated and subordinated to the painter's personal idiom, can be traced in his works of that period (The Benefits of Transportation, 1920–1925). Colour, which retains its freshness in the large-scale allegorical and decorative compositions of the 1920s, would give way to more cerebral forms, reminiscent of the analytical phase of Cubism. It is no coincidence that this shift is observed in the post-Cubist still life paintings that came in parallel with the neoclassical still life paintings by Cubist pioneers – Picasso, Braque, Gris – which were produced during the same period in Paris. These colours, which Tsarouchis would describe as Polygnotan, are none other than the Byzantine colours introduced with true nationalistic zeal by Kontoglou in his paintings of the same period, influencing several artists of the Generation of the Thirties.
Parthenis's writing becomes increasingly geometric; curvilinear and straight lines alternate, often drawn using a ruler and compass, while the painting material becomes lighter, a spiritual essence. The naked canvas is transformed into a screen onto which are projected the transcendental images of his great visionary compositions, on which the artist focused almost exclusively in the 1930s. To utilise the rough texture and off-white colour of the back of the canvas, he did not hesitate to incorporate it into his most ambitious compositions, such as the monumental Apotheosis of Athanasios Diakos (1933). The supernatural events in these works can be described as theophanies, manifested by means of a technique that makes them look as if not made by human hand. Pigments lose their material substance, becoming a pure spiritual projection. The figures seem suspended, floating in a transcendental space where time has been abolished as in Byzantine art and where the relics of the visible world have been reduced to Platonic archetypes. One could say that Parthenis's mature works strive towards an ideal, sacred archetype not made by hands, reminiscent of the Veil of Veronica.
The catalyst in the crucible of the Alexandrian artist's unique eclecticism at the core of his style is an ideal celestial homeland of myth, history and art envisioned by an educated Greek of the diaspora from a privileged vantage point. This was precisely how Cavafy, too, envisioned and injected into his poetry the history and myth of a cherished, ideal and timeless Greece, charged with longing, from a distance. For, in reality, Parthenis remained forever self-exiled and unattached – a citizen of his own, utopian Greece."

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Indeed it has! Any interesting museums/exhibitions that you visited recently?

No, alas, nothing lately.

PD

[ritter]

Realise you are based in Madrid, a city I would love to visit. But can you recommend places of particular interest in Saville and Barcelona where I will be visiting in October?

Hi Irons.

It all depends on where your interest lie. I haven't been to Seville in years, but concur that wandering the streets , as suggested by Florestan, is a great option —mainly the barrio de Santa Cruz). As for particular buildings, the mammoth cathedral and its belfry (the Giralda, of Muslim origin), the Reales Alcázares (royal palace), the Plaza de España (used in many films, including one of the Star Wars movies), the Casa de Pilates (palace of the Dukes of Medinaceli), Dueñas (Dukes of Alba), can all be worthwhile.

In Barcelona, the old gothic quarter is beautiful, and then you have all the modernist architecture (the incomplete Sagrada Familia cathedral) Casa Milà and Casa Batlló on Paseo de Gracia, Parque Güell —all by Gaudí). If you're into modern art, the Miró Foundation on Montjuïc is also very attractive (depending on what's on display, but the building itself —by José Luis Sert, no relation to the painter José María— is worth a visit). I've never visited the National Art Museum of Catalonia, but the collection of Catalan Romanesque and Gothic art, as well as of modernist (turn of the 20th century) painting is supposed to be impressive. It also has a room dedicated to José María Sert (if you liked what I showed in my previous post  ).

Enjoy your trip!

...places of particular interest in Saville ...

In Saville, OTOH, your best bet is the tailors (sorry, couldn't resist making the bad joke)...

[Irons]

Hi Irons.

It all depends on where your interest lie. I haven't been to Seville in years, but concur that wandering the streets , as suggested by Florestan, is a great option —mainly the barrio de Santa Cruz). As for particular buildings, the mammoth cathedral and its belfry (the Giralda, of Muslim origin), the Reales Alcázares (royal palace), the Plaza de España (used in many films, including one of the Star Wars movies), the Casa de Pilates (palace of the Dukes of Medinaceli), Dueñas (Dukes of Alba), can all be worthwhile.

In Barcelona, the old gothic quarter is beautiful, and then you have all the modernist architecture (the incomplete Sagrada Familia cathedral) Casa Milà and Casa Batlló on Paseo de Gracia, Parque Güell —all by Gaudí). If you're into modern art, the Miró Foundation on Montjuïc is also very attractive (depending on what's on display, but the building itself —by José Luis Sert, no relation to the painter José María— is worth a visit). I've never visited the National Art Museum of Catalonia, but the collection of Catalan Romanesque and Gothic art, as well as of modernist (turn of the 20th century) painting is supposed to be impressive. It also has a room dedicated to José María Sert (if you liked what I showed in my previous post  ).

Enjoy your trip!
In Saville, OTOH, your best bet is the tailors (sorry, couldn't resist making the bad joke)...

Well, it could have been worse, a miracle it wasn't (Jimmy) Savile .

I have visited Barcelona twice previously, but only explored Ramblas and football ground. Seville  is a first and really looking forward to it as told a beautiful city. Thanks for tips which are noted.

[Florestan]

Seville  is a first and really looking forward to it as told a beautiful city.

My favorite Spanish city. It's really something else. Plenty of beautiful brunettes in the streets, too. 

[Irons]

My favorite Spanish city. It's really something else. Plenty of beautiful brunettes in the streets, too. 

Cannot claim to be a seasoned traveller but Spain is my favourite country to visit on the continent. My wife prefers Italy which arguably possess more historical interest. But for soaking up the sun with a cold beer, Spain for me.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Cannot claim to be a seasoned traveller but Spain is my favourite country to visit on the continent. My wife prefers Italy which arguably possess more historical interest. But for soaking up the sun with a cold beer, Spain for me.

 

Hope that you enjoy your beer---er, I meant "trip". 

PD

[Spotted Horses]

Cannot claim to be a seasoned traveller but Spain is my favourite country to visit on the continent. My wife prefers Italy which arguably possess more historical interest. But for soaking up the sun with a cold beer, Spain for me.

From what I have read about weather in the UK, traveling to Spain will be superfluous.

[MusicTurner]

A recent trip to the Harz Mountains in Germany included visiting Köthen, where Bach worked from 1717-1723, during the reign of Prince Leopold von Anhalt-Köthen.

We were passing by, and it was just a brief visit to the castle there, where the princely apartments also have a small Bach-related exhibition. Frankly, there wasn't any wow!-effect though, and the castle rooms, such as the renovated Spiegelsaal/Hall of Mirrors, weren't particularly impressive. If one knows a lot about Bach's life in Köthen, it would obviously be of more interest, however. I saw no original objects actually related to Bach, except contemporary paintings of princely and administrative figures, and modest exhibitions on the history of the town and medical sciences there; the rest of the Bach-exhibition consisted in musical instruments, some copies of manuscripts from the age (also by Corelli and others), pictures of the town, and a copy of a wine bill from Bach's wedding there.

But it was nice to see and feel the actual place of course.

Obviously, the town has more Bach-related sights, such as a so-called 'Bach-House' on the premises of one of his two vanished houses there, churches, etc.

A company does a Bach Cycling Tour in the region, lasting 10 days,
https://bachbybike.com/en/the-tours/tour-bachfesttage-kothen/

and of course there's a quite comprehensive, annual comprehensive Bach festival, Köthener Bachfesttage
https://www.bachfesttage.de/

[Florestan]

Cannot claim to be a seasoned traveller but Spain is my favourite country to visit on the continent. My wife prefers Italy which arguably possess more historical interest. But for soaking up the sun with a cold beer, Spain for me.

¡Camarero, una caña mas, por favor! 

[pjme]

A forgotten Belgian impressionist, in Ghent:

https://www.mskgent.be/tentoonstellingen/albert-baertsoen

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Baertsoen