We start the month with 7 recommendations of art highlights for February. With the beginning of the year comes new exhibitions and festivals that do not disappoint.
The International Film Festival, Berlinale, kicks off with enthusiasm and excitement. Madrid, meanwhile, kicks off its art week with the Art Madrid Fair, held in the Galería de Cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles. The French designer, Jean Paul Gaultier, has also landed in the capital, with the exhibition Cinema and Fashion at CaixaForum. If you want to travel through the history of art, the Morozov Collection at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, and From Fauvism to Surrealism, at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, offer a glimpse into the past. On the other hand, Qatar Museums and Fondation Beyeler invite us to discover how art impregnates each one of us in a personal way. And how artists reflect their feelings in everything they create, with the experience of artists Jeff Koons and Georgia O’Keeffe respectively. Let’s take a look at the 7 Art Highlights for February 2022.
The Golden and Silver Bears are looking forward to the 72nd Berlinale
The prestigious International Film Festival is back in Berlin to celebrate the new year with art and culture. This year, the Berlinale wanted to develop a new concept for the presentation of the screenings, taking into account the need for safety between people.
Mariette Rissenbeek, Executive Director, and, Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director of the Berlin International Film Festival
The opening ceremony will take place on 10 February at the Berlinale Palast, and until 16 February, film crews will be able to present their films to the public. On the same day, at nightfall, the Gold and Silver Bear Awards as well as the GWFF Best First Film Award and the Documentary Award will await the winners. Claudia Roth, Minister for Culture and Media, commented that citizens want to enjoy the Berlinale, and have been working hard to bring cinema to the streets of Berlin.
We want the festival to send a signal to the entire film industry, to cinemas and cinephiles, and to culture as a whole. We need cinema, we need culture. The pandemic situation is dynamic and the Berlinale is adapting to the resulting challenges. I would especially like to thank the Berlinale management for embarking on this journey together with us, and the Berlinale staff for their perseverance and enormous commitment, without which the Berlinale 2022 could not take place. – Claudia Roth.
Berlinale Talents. Peter Himsel
The festival has been completely adapted, and many of the activities will be held digitally so that they will not be missed. European Film Market, Berlinale Co-Production Market, Berlinale Talents and World Cinema Fund will all take place online. Dennis Ruh, director of EFM, believes that the industry wanted to meet physically, as the number of bookings to participate was high. But last year it also took place virtually, and it was a great result. So this year, they are relying on it again.
When?: February 10 to 20
Tickets: You can buy the tickets here
Emblematic legacy of modern art in the Morozov Collection
Fondation Louis Vuitton continues to invite art lovers to visit its premises, this time with the exhibition The Morozov Collection. Icons of Modern Art. The event brings together more than 200 masterpieces of French and Russian modern art by the artist brothers Mikhail and Ivan Morozov. Exhibiting for the first time outside Russia since its creation in the early 20th century. The exhibition, curated by Anne Baldessari, makes historical and timeless references to the iconic works on display. Among them are works created by Monet, Rodin, Maillol and Sérov.
For the first time, the Music Room of Ivan Morozov’s mansion, a set of 7 panels commissioned in 1907 from Maurice Denis, can be seen outside the Hermitage Museum. This work can be seen in the last gallery of Frank Gehry’s building, in addition to the 4 sculptures created by Aristide Maillol.
Portrait of the collector of modern Russian and French painting Ivan Abramovich Morozov, Moscow, 1910, Valentin Sérov
The Morozov brothers, lovers of contemporary art, brought together a wide range of emblematic paintings and sculptures by European artists such as Van Gogh, Marquet, Cézanne, etc. Always with the help and adviceof Paul Durand-Ruel, Ambroise Vollard, Georges Bernheim, among others. In addition, they also collected works by local artists, compiling around 400 modern paintings of the Russian school, including works by Vrubel, Golovin and Utkin.
From left to right: Portrait of Jeanne Samary, Paris, 1877, Auguste Renoir. Eu haere ia oe, La Femme au fruit, Tahiti, 1893, Paul Gauguin
The extensive collection was nationalised in 1918, enabling the creation of the world’s first museum of modern art: the National Museum of Western Modern Art. A few years later, from 1930 to 1948, its collections were distributed among the Hermitage Museum, the Pushkin Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery.
When?: From 22 September 2021 to 22 February 2022
Where: 8 Av. du Mahatma Gandhi, Paris
Hours: Monday to Thursday from 10.00h to 20.00h. Friday from 10.00h to 23.00h. Saturdays and Sundays from 9.00h to 21.00h.
Tickets: You can buy the tickets here
The influence of art on Jeff Koons
Qatar Museums presents for the first time in the Gulf region the exhibition Lost in America by the artist Jeff Koons. The American, one of the best known faces in contemporary art, is known for his minimalist, pop and conceptual works. Through the visit you can travel through American culture from a very personal point of view, as Koons himself exhibits his autobiography. The exhibition has more than seventy works taken from the artist’s four-decade career, all divided into 16 different galleries. Each zone exhibits specific moments and situations, emphasising his memories, his childhood, everything that influenced him growing up and his fascination with American visual culture.
https://youtu.be/7oBY1AeUBU0
I know this may sound strange, but I’ve really always felt that my genes and my DNA have been changed by many of the artistic experiences I’ve had. Art can do that. I think it really can. When you look at something, not only does your mind change, but your whole DNA changes as well.
The exhibition has been created as an expansive self-portrait, which includes paintings with fascinating surfaces, sculptures, and even mirrored areas, where viewers see themselves reflected. Among the works on display are The New (1980-87), Popeye (2002-13), Antiquity (2008-), along with other more recent works that had not been shown before.
One of the interior areas of the exhibition Jeff Koons: Lost in America. Here we can see the stainless steel sculpture Ballon Dog (Orange), 1994-2000.
Koons, throughout his career, has contributed small ideas to the art world, transforming it and forging new relationships between avant-gardism and mass culture. At the same time he has developed new paradigms for the role of the artist in the age of hyper-communication. Jeff Koons acknowledges that he himself, from the very beginning, feels a “moral responsibility” to transmit a pure work and for viewers to grasp it. Because creating art is a unique experience with which you share and receive very different sensations.
When?: From 21 November 2021 to 31 May 2022
Where: Qatar Museums Gallery Al Riwaq, Parking lot, Doha, Qatar
Hours: Saturday to Thursday from 9.00h to 18.30h. Friday from 13.30h to 19.00h.
Tickets: You can buy the tickets here
20th century artistic revolution through the history of the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (MAM) will present the exhibition From Fauvism to Surrealism: Masterpieces from the MAM. The exhibition, with 70 works by renowned artists, will trace the history of the Parisian museum’s collection. It offers a broad overview of the avant-garde movements that flourished in Paris in the first decades of the 20th century.
Still Life with Sonata, Georges Braque, 1921, Oil on canvas
Visitors will begin the exhibition chronologically, discovering the origins of the MAM, which was built in 1937 for the International Exhibition. Years later, thanks to Dr. Maurice Girardin, who made a substantial donation, the centre became a nucleus of modern masters. These included Fauvist and Cubist artists, whom they considered scandalous and revolutionary in the traditional representation of portraiture, landscape and still life;
The River, Winter 1904-1905, André Derain, Oil on cardboard
Continuing the visit, the School of Paris is also represented, bringing together painters and sculptors who created to initiate a new artistic scene in the French capital during the interwar period. A generation of creators of different nationalities who started an artistic revolution in the streets of Paris. In this space you can see works by Marc Chagall, Amadeo Modigliani, María Blanchard and Léonard Foujita.
From left to right: Hermetic Melancholy, 1919, Giorgio De Chirico, Oil on canvas. The Port of Call, 1913, André Lhote, Oil on canvas
At the end of the tour, you can delve into Surrealist works, the artistic movement led by André Breton. The French poet inspired with his thoughts, resorting to symbolism, the unconscious, chance or a taste for the marvellous. His influence on all areas of artistic creation was such that he gave rise to innovations that had not been touched until then. Promoting the irrational, liberating the mind and looking far beyond the known, Surrealism was adopted by artists such as Wifredo Lam, Vera Pagava and Leonor Fini.
When: 11 February to 22 May 2022
Where?: Abandoibarra Etorb, 2, Bilbao
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday from 11.00h to 19.00h
Tickets: You can buy the tickets here
The Art Fair in Madrid continues to attract new audiences .
Art Madrid returns with its seventeenth edition during Art Week, once again hosted at the Galería de Cristal del Palacio de Cibeles. The venue, recently recognised as a World Heritage Site, is a beautiful spectacle, and the Madrid art fair is the only one chosen to present there. Over the years, Art Madrid has firmly established itself and year after year attracts more collectors and new audiences attracted to and interested in contemporary art. This year, the fair will bring together 35 national and international galleries. More than 160 artists will exhibit their works in different disciplines such as painting, sculpture and photography, offering a unique experience for art lovers.
Interior of the Art Madrid Fair
Within the fair, visitors will be able to enjoy different programmes. On the one hand, an initiative curated by Natalia Alonso, who will offer a tour of various works on display with the intention of introducing and bringing the public closer to understanding the world of the art market. On the other hand, a collecting programme by Pía Rubio, art advisor, who aims to help strengthen the commercial work of the galleries, as well as offering advice to new buyers who wish to acquire a work.
From left to right: Masked Fighter 2021, Lantomo. Graphite, charcoal and watercolour on paper glued to wood. La Frontale 2021, Julien Primard. Oil on canvas
In addition, Art Madrid co-organises with the video art platform Proyector a programme centred on video creation, action art and performance. This year they will focus more on investigating and questioning the concept of “loop” through the great pioneers of video art. All of them from the point of view of creation, distribution and collecting. This section will be curated by Mario Gutiérrez. Related to this, there will also be an installation by Gary Hill, considered the founder of New Media Art; together with works by Llorenç Barber, sound artist;
When: From 23 to 27 February 2022
Where: Galería de Cristal de Centro Cibeles, Calle Montalbán, 1, Madrid.
Opening hours: Wednesday to Sunday from 11.00h to 21.00h
Tickets: You can buy the tickets here
The magic of the seventh art through fashion
After a good reception of the exhibition Cinema and Fashion. By Jean Paul Gaultier at La Cinémathèque Française, the exhibition arrives at CaixaForum Madrid this February. Curated by the designer Gaultier himself, the exhibition will explore the relationship between fashion and cinema. The exhibition will link more than 250 pieces and works that will document the history of fashion, as well as the context in which the garments were created.
French designer Jean Paul Gaultier
This journey, divided into five sections, will allow visitors to delve into how women began to emancipate themselves, to reflect on modernity, the future and eroticism. He devotes special attention to androgynous and transvestites, and to the influence that rock, punk and queer have had over the years. These ideas and curiosities are also shared by the director Pedro Almodóvar, with whom he worked as a costume designer on some of his films;
From left to right: Pedro Almodóvar, Victoria Abril and Jean Paul Gaultier, during the film Kika, 1994. Nacho Pinedo
Throughout the tour, you will be able to see collaborations with renowned faces such as Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Sean Connery and Shopia Loren. Delving into the masculine and feminine archetypes that they represented on screen through their clothes. On the one hand, the ultra-feminised women in tight-fitting outfits, as opposed to the virility of the men. A vision that marked and influenced viewers in one way or another. Breaking with these stereotypes, Gaultier sexualised bodies and feminised male silhouettes. Projecting, in this way, all that is good about what is labelled as distinctive, and always accompanying it with a sense of humour;
Backstage of the Jean Paul Gaultier show, Barbès collection, 1984, women’s ready-to-wear autumn-winter 84-85.
Once the exhibition in Madrid is over, Cinema and Fashion. By Jean Paul Gaultier can be enjoyed in Barcelona from 5 July until 23 October 2022.
When?: From 18 February to 22 June 2022
Where: P. del Prado, 36, Madrid
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday from 10.00h to 20.00h
Tickets: Puedes adquirir las entradas aquí
Georgia O’Keeffe: delicacy and feeling on canvas .
Fondation Beyeler kicks off 2022 with a new exhibition dedicated to the artist Georgia O’Keeffe. One of the most significant painters in modern American art. The exhibition features 85 works from public and private collections, offering a unique overview of the artist’s career. During the exhibition, we delve into O’Keeffe’s creative vision and her great visual development, playing with abstraction and figuration. Combining her style in a delicate way representing the purest nature on her canvases.
From left to right: Series I, No. 8, 1919. Jimson weed/white flower no. 1, 1932, Georgia O’Keeffe
The journey begins with the artist’s early works produced when she was an art teacher in Virginia and Texas, including charcoal drawings such as Early Abstraction, or samples of watercolours such as Red Landscape. A few years later, O’Keeffe began to trace her personal line towards abstraction, defining herself with figurative and abstract painting. As mentioned above, the artist had a passion for nature, and plants, especially flowers, provided key points in her works.
Oriental Poppies, 1927, Georgia O’Keeffe
During the years of the Second World War, O’Keeffe lived in New Mexico, where her vision of landscape changed. The artist introduced greys into her palette, as well as depicting still life. Most of O’Keeffe’s works are in the United States, in more than 100 public and private collections. As for works in Europe, only a dozen of them are in the old continent. This exhibition is curated by Theodora Vischer, and can be enjoyed until 22 May.
When: 23 January to 22 May 2022
Where: Baselstrasse 101, Basel, Switzerland
Hours: Thursday to Tuesday from 10.00h to 18.00h. Wednesdays from 10.00h to 20.00h.
Tickets: You can buy tickets here
Images courtesy of Berlinale, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Qatar Museums, Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, Feria Art Madrid, CaixaForum, Fondation Beyeler
