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Picasso and Manet Paintings Included in The Louvre Abu Dhabi’s First Permanent Collection

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

The still under construction Louvre Abu Dhabi recently unveiled the first glimpses into its initial permanent collection. Plans for the new museum began back in 2007 after announcements from the Louvre Paris, but construction has been delayed numerous times.

The first look into the collection featured 130 works from a wide array of genres and mediums, including everything from Persian artifacts to 20th century French paintings. Curators from the Louvre Abu Dhabi said no artistic pieces are off-limits, but the museum will not “shock for the sake of shocking.”

The collection is not without its share of fine art heavy hitters, with works by Paul Gaugin and Rene Magritte, and famed pieces such as Pablo Picasso’s “Portrait of a Lady,” and Edouard Manet’s “Portrait of a Gypsy.”

In spite of repeated construction setbacks, the Louvre Abu Dhabi is scheduled to open in 2015 with its complete permanent collection. Despite criticisms from its neighboring countries and conservatives within, the museum will not exclude themes such as sexuality and religion in its pieces. Museum planners hope its expansive collection can help bring people together and realize cultural connections.

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Matisse, Picasso, and Warhol Featured at Wandsworth Museum in Printmaking Exhibit

Monday, March 11th, 2013

The Wandsworth Museum in South London is delving into printmaking with their new exhibit, “Modern Masters in Print: Matisse, Picasso, Dali, and Warhol.” The limited engagement 6 week exhibit will explore printed pieces from four of modern art’s biggest players, and draw from a span of over 75 years of art making. The Wandsworth will be the exhibit’s only stop in London on its tour.

Each artist featured in the exhibit approached printmaking differently. To Matisse and Picasso, printmaking was an important, albeit exterior collection of their work. Dali harnessed printmaking primarily as a method of experimentation. And for Andy Warhol, with his iconic prints in stunning grids of 1, 2, 4 or more, printmaking made up his central body of work.

“Modern Masters in Print” will be on display at The Wandsworth Museum until April 21st and was organized by The Victoria and Albert Museum in West London.

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Picasso Painting Discovered Underneath Early Work by Picasso

Friday, March 8th, 2013

What do you find when you look behind a Picasso painting? As art restorers in Barcelona learned, sometimes, another Picasso painting!

One of Picasso’s earliest works, “Portrait of the Artist’s Mother,” painted by a 15 year-old Picasso, was undergoing restoration at Barcelona’s Picasso Museum when a previously unknown, older work was discovered on the cardboard backing. The uncovered work revealed a charcoal drawing of a man in a hat with a pipe.

Head of Restoration at the Picasso Museum, Reyes Jimenez said the recently exposed drawing only adds to the mastery we already knew Picasso possessed. The early painting shows technical talent and skill, which we now know manifested itself in Picasso at a very early age.

The Picasso Museum in Barcelona focuses on the formative years of Picasso’s career as an artist. Picasso donated more 900 of his earliest works to the museum in 1970. A newly restored “Portrait of The Artists Mother” is currently on special display at the Picasso Museum.

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X-Rays Reveal Picasso’s “The Red Armchair” was Created with House Paints

Wednesday, February 20th, 2013

True genius comes from the artist, not the tools. This sentiment rang so perfectly true when it was discovered recently, thanks to X-Ray technology, that Picasso’s “The Red Armchair” was created not with costly oils paints, but instead using common house paint.

The discovery confirmed what art historians have believed for some time now, that Picasso employed alternative painting methods in order to achieve his signature glossy canvasses, with no visible brush strokes.

A team of scientists made the discovery using a high-intensity X-ray nanoprobe, capable of analyzing paint samples down to a scale of 30 nanometers—for a reference point, a sheet of typical copy paper is 100,000 nanometers thick.

The switch over to materials like house paints coincided with a shift in Picasso’s style, illustrated by glossy, smooth paintings, as opposed to the thick, brush-stroke laden works of years prior.

“The Red Armchair” is currently on display at The Art Institute of Chicago, where it will stay until May 12th in their “Picasso and Chicago” exhibit.

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Picasso named 2012’s Most Popular Artist

Thursday, January 10th, 2013

Overstockart.com, an online retailer which sells hand painted replicas of famous art works recently announced that Picasso’s “The Dream” 1932 was the most popular painting of 2012. And not just popular because people said so, popular because it was bought by more people than any other painting last year.

Though works by Picasso have always fared well on the auction circuit, in the replica market his work has been consistently surpassed by Van Gogh. Last year put an end to Van Gogh’s reign at the top, though his “Starry Night” still finished the year at an admirable second. Works by Picasso and Van Gogh dominated the top 10 list, with the two artists totaling a combined 6 out of the 10 most popular paintings of 2012. Other works to top the list included two pieces by Monet: “Water Lilies” and “Garden Path at Giverny.”

While record-breaking auction sales capture which works are popular with individuals, sites like Overstockart.com illustrate which art is captivating among the masses. Overstockart’s CEO David Sasson explained, “Our numbers indicate that as the years turn and our world evolves some things remain consistent. People are still captivated by the elegance and beauty that the classic artists bring to their home.”

Galerie Michael is proud to sell original pieces by Piasso, Van Gogh, and Monet—artists whose work clearly never goes out of style.

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“Picasso and the Mysteries of Life: Deconstructing La Vie” at The Cleveland Museum of Art

Thursday, December 27th, 2012

The Cleveland Museum of Art’s new exhibit, “Picasso and the Mysteries of Life: Deconstructing La Vie” offers viewers an all-encompassing look into “La Vie,” the culminating work of Picasso’s blue period. The exhibit features related works by Picasso, as well as works by other artists, which display Picasso’s progression up to the painting and the works that had a particular influence on him. Also featured in the exhibit are x-radiographs, infrared reflectographs, and other scientifically enhanced pieces to expose some of Picasso’s early drafts and offer more insight into his process.

Picasso’s blue period lasted from about 1901-1904, during which his paintings contained almost exclusively cool, somber colors, and an often dismal subject matter. The suicide of one of Picasso’s closest friends, fellow artist Carlos Casagemas, is thought to have sparked the blue period, as the unexpected death threw Picasso into a deep depression. Critics and art buyers of the time were mostly uninterested in the melancholy works produced during this literal blue period, and Picasso suffered financially. Today however, Picasso’s blue period represents some of his most popular and critically acclaimed pieces.

Picasso started the first sketches for “La Vie” when he was 21 years old and living with his parents in Barcelona. After many drafts and re-workings, “La Vie” became a complex allegorical narrative about life and art, a piece art historian John Richardson described as Picasso’s “first exorcism.”

The exhibition runs through April 21st and is accompanied by “Picasso and the Mysteries of Life: La Vie,” a 163-page book by William H. Robinson, curator of modern European art.

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X-Ray Technology Reveals Hidden Layer in Picasso’s “Girl Before a Mirror”

Friday, December 21st, 2012

Before behind the scenes specials, or “making of” documentaries, all an art historian had to dissect an artist’s process was historical context and their own analytic capabilities. Recent advancements however have led historians to turn to an unlikely source for art analysis: science and technology. Using chemical analysis, computer software, x-rays, and other tools, art historians are now able to answer some of the art world’s most perplexing questions.

The latest piece to, literally, go under the microscope was Picasso’s “Girl Before a Mirror.” Curator Anne Umland from Los Angeles’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) uncovered a hidden layer of the painting using X-ray technology. The layer beneath the original reveals that Picasso initially depicted the woman in a far more realistic way, with curved hips and an arched back turned towards the viewer. The information sheds new light on

Picasso’s process, showing how Picasso took what was at first a seemingly natural portrait, and transformed it using shapes, colors, and distortions into something that became so distinctively his own. The insights also ring true with Picasso’s own description of his process, “There is no abstract art. You must always start with something.”

An in-depth analysis of Picasso’s “Girl Before a Mirror” can be purchased from MoMA as a booklet, and is just one of many detailed essays in their “One-on-One” series.

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“Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901” to Premiere at London’s The Courtauld Gallery

Thursday, December 13th, 2012

London’s The Courtauld Gallery has recently announced a new exhibit on Picasso to premiere in early February. The exhibit, Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901 chronicles the momentous year during which Picasso emerged as a leader in the historic Paris art movement of the early 20th century. The year would also set Picasso up to become one of the most famous artists of the modern era.

In the summer of 1901, a 19 year-old Picasso lost one of his closest friends, fellow artist Carles Casagemas. Fueled by the tragic loss, Picasso worked feverishly in preparation for a Paris show set to open in just over a month, sometimes producing as many as three finished canvasses a day. The works created during this time display Picasso’s appreciation for Van Gogh, Degas, and Toulouse-Lautrec, and also hint at the formations of Picasso’s famous blue period. The bout of creative passion set Picasso on a path to develop the unique artistic style that became synonymous with his name.

The exhibit is set to run in London from February 14 through May 26. Tickets to the show can be purchased starting on January 1st.

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Bees Distinguish Between Picasso and Monet

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

A recent article in Art Info revealed a scientific experiment that involved honeybees, Picasso, and Monet.  Scientists from the University of Queensland were able to prove that bees can differentiate between Cubist paintings by Picasso and Impressionist paintings by Monet.

The experiment involved two groups of bees trained with a reward system to favor Picasso or Monet paintings.  The bees were then able to gain the reward, a piece of sugar located behind specific paintings, by choosing the correct painting.  The researchers concluded that the bees “do not only rely on color, luminescence and patterns to visually discriminate among objects, landscapes and such, but are attuned to different sorts of features that differentiate one artist’s work from another.”  The results indicate that bees can identify artistic styles that were once thought to be a complex and unique function of the human brain.

The scientific findings appear in the Journal of Comparative Physiology.

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Bon à Tirers, Working Proofs and Definitive Works on Paper by Picasso, Chagall and Miró

Friday, November 16th, 2012

Bon à Tirers, Working Proofs and Definitive Works on Paper by Picasso, Chagall and Miró opens this Saturday (November 17, 2012) at Galerie Michael.  A bon à tirer (good to print) is a proof that has been approved for the printed edition.  It serves as the version that all following must match.  Our latest exhibit takes a look at the print work of Picasso, Miro, and Chagall and their process from the working proofs to the bon à tirer.

This exhibit allows a rare glimpse into the artistic and creative journey that results in the final work.  From the experiments and broad ideas found in working proofs to the technical perfections worked out in a printing proof, these ingredients contribute to the well crafted and developed version of the bon à tirer.   This exhibit explores the different mediums and tools during the various stages such as lithographic stones and linoleum blocks to reveal the nature of the artist’s process in tangible forms.

Stop in to Galerie Michael to see the exhibit in person or check out the full exhibition online.  Be sure to download the catalog for additional background details and a scholarly essay by Emmanuel Benador.

“Prints have been for me a major art form. It has been a tool of liberation, enlargement and discoveries, even if at the beginning, I was a prisoner of techniques and constraints to traditional tools and recipes … The despotism of the tool was conquered progressively… I even was able to liberate myself from the paper.”    -Miró  (in Miró: Graveur, vol. I Lelong editeur, 1984)

Lezaerd Aux Plumes D’or Planche XV, Joan MIRÓ, 1971, Color lithograph on Arches paper, Color lithograph folded in center . studio proof/ printer proof. Signed and annotated with pencils marks and flash marks throughout. Accompanied by a letter signed and dated to Fernard Mourlot giving his instructions. , Signed lower right, #912318

Le Banderillero, Pablo PICASSO, 1959, Color linocut on Arches , ‘Epreuve d’essai’ of the fourth and final state, before the edition of 50 published by Galerie Louise Leiris in 1960. Printed by Imprimerie Arnéra. Among at least two impressions in addition to the three such proofs recorded by Baer. Ink stamp verso, “Imprimerie Arnéra Archives / Non Signé”., #912091

L’Odyssée I – Polyphème (The Odyssey I – Polyphemus), Marc CHAGALL, 1974-75, Color lithograph with additions in white and light blue wash, An artist’s proof aside from the edition of 250 and 30 numbered proofs. Printed and published by Fernand Mourlot, Paris. From Chagall’s two-volume illustration of Homer’s epic, comprising 43 color plates (six center spread) and 39 in-text plates in gray. , Pencil signed lower right, #912046

 

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