The Grand Tour - A Look Back

We began planning for the Grand Tour in January 2007. Our original intention was to visit the four major art events in Europe in the summer of 2007. Well, we made 3 of 4. Julia Chaplin writes about her grand tour in The Times.

We arrived in Basel, Switzerland on the opening day of Art Basel 38. The weather was perfect. Art Basel is an annual event. In fact, it has grown so large that there is now Art Basel-Miami held in December of each year.

This is an event where everything is for sale. About 300 major galleries from around the world apply and are selected to have a booth where they will showcase works in their collection. Many of these works are by well-known artists. The crowd at Art Basel was clearly well-heeled and ready to buy. The website for Art Basel 39 is already up and ready for your viewing. You can read articles about Art Basel from The New York Times. My final thoughts about Art Basel. I can't say I saw a lot of new and exciting art. I was most taken with a very large painting from China, a performance piece with William Hunt in a car filled with water, and by the Russian videos. The peripheral events such as Scope provided access for some of the lesser known galleries and artists. Perhaps those are the ones to watch in the future.

Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany was entirely different. Documenta began in Kassel in 1955 and was curated by Arnold Bode, an artist from the area. You can read a history of this event from their archives. Documenta occurs every 5 years. As with Art Basel, we arrived on opening day. Again the weather was just perfect. Now while Art Basel seems to be located in a large convention center type of space with booths from various galleries completely adjacent to each other, Documenta is located in 5 main spaces in this small town of Kassel, some 2 hours north of Frankfurt. The show was curated by the husband and wife team of Roger Buergel and Ruth Noack. Unlike Basel, this show is for the intellectual. Works of art are not for sale. Rather it offers an opportunity for works of art from a global perspective. Much of the work is from 2000 and upward, with many pieces from 2007. This is more conceptual than Art Basel or even the Biennale. You can read what The New York Times has to say. You can also see a slide show of some of the art works. What can I say about the art? I found the large sculpture by Ai Weiwei constructed from old doors and windows and located in the open garden space just behind the Orangerie wonderful. I did not like many of the video installations. This exhibit was extremely varied--with many new works that were challenging and interesting. Much of the art was very political.

We left Germany by car and plane and flew into Venice on June 18. The Biennale has opened a week earlier so I think we made a good choice in coming at this time and were able to avoid some of the crowds. As its name implies, the Biennale occurs every other year. The oldest of all these art events, the Biennale began in 1893 with the city of Venice passing a resolution to set up a biennial exposition of Italian art to begin in 1894. Read this detailed fascinating history up until World War 2. And for a recent historical account you can go here. For the first time, the Biennale has had an American curator: Robert Storr. Storr was named Dean of the Yale School of Art in 2006. Prior to that time he was at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and New York University. The Biennale is unlike either of the other two art events. First of all, it has a very long history. Permanent pavilions are located in Giardini in Venice. About 76 countries were chosen to be in the Biennale. I want to make some comment about the art. My favorite painter was Sigmar Polke. The canvasses were monumental in nature. He used materials that were really hard to discern. The content of the paintings was so enigmatic that I found myself wondering what I was looking at. As with Documenta, I found much of the art political in nature. The work by Gonzales-Torres got a lot of press, but I am not really sure why. Sophie Calle's installation in the French pavilion of responses by women to her "dear John" letter did nothing for me.

Now, unfortunately we ran out of time and never got to the Munster sculpture show. And it won't be up for another ten years. But I read that much of the work was old.

This turned out to be a marvelous experience. Art looking and family bonding were definitely two highlights. I can't forget the wine and beer and the other wonderful experiences all of us had.