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.

Home at last

There was Richmond ready to greet us. We were finally home. And only one small suitcase was lost. And luckily it was delivered the next day. Stay tuned for more art adventures.

Across the water from Arsenale

Known as the Arsenale di Venezia, this area is part of the Sestiere di Castello. The merchant and military fleets actually sailed from here. A big part of the exhibit we saw was housed in the main building. This view is set across from the Arsenale. We saw these large pieces, but never went to look closely at them.

Arsenale - Chinese Pavilion

Situated at the end of a long, hot walk, the Chinese pavilion exhibited these beautiful sculptures.

The first Chinese pavilion was at the 51st biennale--two years ago.

I don't think I agree with Michael Kimmelman when he says the biennale is subtle and sober and just a little bit of a bore. I wasn't really bored--although I wasn't quite bowled over either.

Arsenale - Italian Pavilion

Two artists were represented in this pavilion: Giuseppe Penone and Francesco Vezzoli. Penone 's lymph sculptures or leather trees were in sharp contrast to the contemporary videos of Vezzoli. This exhibit, curated by Ida Gianelli, were housed in this new Italian pavilion.

Arsenale - Black Light

I can't quite remember what this is, but it certainly made us look weird.

More of Happy Together

More of Kami's work

Arsenale - Y. Z. Kami

Kami was born in Tehran and now lives in New York and is represented by Gagosian.

Best known for his portraits of humble people.

Art Basel and Venice Biennale - Russian Videos

 

One installation we saw in two locations was a Russian video. This work was created by AES+F. At Art Basel I found many people congregated at this small video installation. It combined an almost surrealistic story of real and simulated individuals. At the Russian Pavilion in Venice, and installation was in a very large, darkened space and was displayed on 3 screens. The audience seemed glued to the action.

June 10. Getting Ready for the Grand Tour - Last phone call at Dulles

It is Sunday night, June 10 and we are at Dulles Airport getting ready to fly to Zurich. These next postings are a more or less chronological account of The Grand Tour 07 that Judy, Jim and I took. The Grand Tour was originally a tour taken by British men when they finished their education and prior to their embarking on their life's work. They often traveled to Europe and stayed an extended time, sometimes as frequently as several years. You can read more about the original tour here. The time period was from around 1660 until the arrival of mass travel by rail in the 1820s. The Getty had an exhibition about the Grand Tour in Italy in 2002. By 2007 you could take a Grand Tour sponsored by Wine Spectator, a Grand Tour bike ride in Malibu, and our wonderful Grand Tour of art in Europe, not to be confused with the official one.

David Altmejd - Canadian Pavilion.

I took this picture at the Venice Biennale in Il Giardini. I must have been looking in a mirror because I see myself in the picture. I am not sure whose body is attached to the head, or the other way around.

El Anatsui detail

Throughout our day at the Arsenale, I was struck by the detail and care that some of the artists showed in their work. Here you can see Anatsui's care in construction of this. As you read on, you will see the work of Emily Prince and Christine Hill, both of whom must of spent countless hours collecting, organizing, and documenting items for the construction of their art.

Dusasa by El Anatsui

We took several photos of two works by this artist. Born in 1944 in Ghana, Anatsui is considered one of Africa's most renowned sculptors. His art degrees are from universities in Ghana in the 1960s. Currently he is a professor of sculpture at the University of Nigeria. He had two one person shows in 2006, one in New York and one in Milan.

As you can see, this work is an enormous wall hanging or tapestry. I have no idea how heavy it is, but it is made out of small pieces of foil or wrappers from bottles. Since much of his work is done with a chain saw, I wonder whether he collected these small pieces of foil or more likely cut larger pieces in the size and shape he wanted.

You can see another photo and read more about the Biennale in an article by Michael Kimmelman in his June 15 New York Times piece reviewing the Biennale.

Detail from El Anatsui

Gerhard Richter at the Biennale

The Italian Pavilion at the Biennale was the largest of all the pavilions and housed many wonderful objects. Born in Dresden in 1932 and now working in Cologne, Richter's large abstract work was quite different than work I had seen previously. We saw a lovely painting of his daughter Betty (from 1977) at Documenta in Kassel and now this.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres at the Biennale. Licorice closeup

A closeup of the licorice candies. You can see how the space was disturbed as people touched or took the candy. I assume that additional candy will be added as people take things. Born in Cuba, Gonzalez-Torres is known for conceptual art. According to one writer, his work treads a fine line between two realms--social commentary and personal disclosure. Randy Kennedy talks about this art on many levels: "candy as candy; as art object; as a questioning of art objects; as a metaphor for mortality and depletion in the age of AIDS; as a means for his art and ideas literally to be spread, like a virus — or maybe like joy — by everyone who took a piece."

He is only the second artist to be represented in the Biennale posthumously--the other being Robert Smithson.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres at the Biennale

Felix Gonzalez-Torres represented the United States in the US Pavilion. Gonzalez-Torres died of AIDS in 1996. He was the official representative of the US. In this and the next posting you can get a sense of his installation. Consisting of licorice candies wrapped in cellophane, this rectangular space was said by some to be magical and peaceful. The public understood that they could pick the candies, in a sense disturbing the nature of the installation. I took two home with me. I saw a woman unwrap and eat one of the candies. I chose not to. According to Nancy Spector, curator at the Guggenheim and curator of the pavilion here, she was surprised that his work was chosen. She spoke about the influence on younger artists (Pierre Huyghe, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Tino Sehgal). I have to confess, I had never heard of these artists before reading their names in Randy Kennedy's article.

In addition to the licorice--candy spill--were hugh stacks of paper free for the taking. You can see that Jim has some of them rolled up. We later decided that we would not take these and gave them to someone else. As we wandered around the Giardini, we saw some people wearing the paper as a kind of skirt and others sitting on them on the lawn. Some of the papers were edged in black, reminiscent of a funeral announcement. Somehow because they were free people took them. I guess than they had to decide what to do with them.

Sigmar Polke at the Biennale

Well, you can hardly see the art, but these are some works by Polke. I hope to post some better pictures shortly. What struck me about this photo, is that noone was looking at the art. What a shame. They were quite magical.