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New museum transforming Qatar into an art destination
Updated: November 24 2008, 12:52 CET
DOHA: Last Saturday inaugural festivities started for the opening of the new Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in Doha (Qatar) started with fireworks and a performance by cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The building, calling to mind the Tunisian fortresses, is designed by the 91 year old American architect I.M. Pei (Ieoh Ming Pei, - the man behind the glass pyramid at the Louvre In Paris -), who has described it as his last major cultural building. The hope is that - like hosting a Grand Prix or buying a football club - a fabulous collection of art will bring prestige, attract tourists and create a brand. That's why along the coast, two museums are planned for Abu Dhabi - branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim.Worried that his building might one day be hemmed in by new construction, I.M. Pei asked Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, chairman of the museum’s board, to build him a private island so that his monument would be isolated from the rest of the city. Rising on its own island just off the city’s newly developed waterfront, the museum is one of the main part of the activities of the city of Doha aiming to transform Qatar into an arts destination. The museum, with 41,000 square feet of galleries, houses one of the world’s most encyclopedic collections of Islamic art including manuscripts, textiles, ceramics and other works mostly assembled over the last 20 years. The origins of its artifacts range from Spain to Egypt to Iran, Iraq, Turkey, India and Central Asia. The museum is an initiative of the al-Thani family, rulers of Qatar, who bought and collected the finest examples of Islamic art. Among the highlights of the museums remarkable wide range collection includes a jade pendant and an earthenware. The jade pendant was worn to cure a broken heart. The pendant with Quranic inscriptions belonged to Mugal Emperor Shah Jahan (15th centuary) the brewed widower who built the famous Taj Mahal in tribute to his wife. The museum has one of the rarest and the earliest versions of the Quran to survive. Dating from the seventh century, it must be perhaps written within decades of death of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH). It displays a page from a colossal Quran (1400) which was created for emperor Timur.
Celebrating the grand opening, MIA has organised a special inaugural exhibition that is the first of an ambitious programme of international exhibitions and collaborations. Beyond Boundaries: Islamic Art Across Culture, has brought together leading cultural institutions from round the world, all of which have loaned artworks that reflect the theme of cultural diversity. The exhibition opens 1 December and runs until 22 February 2009.
For more information: www.mia.org.qa
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Fashion capital celebrates 40th anniversary Rykiel fashion house
Updated: November 21 2008, 14:03 CET
PARIS: From the 17th century until well into the 20th century Paris has been the international capital of woman’s fashion. Every year the French capital attracts thousands of people to the prêt a porte and the boutiques of the world’s top haute couture designer. The coming month the focus will be on French designer Sonia Rykiel. Yesterday the Musée de la Mode et du Textile opened her doors to the First retrospective of the work of this French designer, marking the 40th anniversary of her fashion house.On show are clothes, fashion photographs and fashion show videos. Ethnically a Polish Jew, Sonia Rykiel was born in Paris. At the age of 17, she was employed to dress the window displays in a Parisian textile store. Later she married the owner of a boutique which sold elegant clothing. In 1962 she couldn't find any soft sweaters to wear when she was pregnant and used a supplier to her husband from Venice to design her own. The sweater became her symbol and she was crowned ‘Queen of Knits’ by the Americans in 1967. From then, she has experimented with seams inside out and became a pioneer: using figure-hugging black fabrics in the late 60s, exposing the insides and unfinished hems of her garments, and even daring to use materials such as sponge.
The world’s top haute couture designers, from Chanel to Dior to Yves Saint Laurent showcase their talent in Paris in an area called the ‘golden triangle’. The Champs-Elysées, Avenue Marceau and Avenue Montaigne form the perimeter of this triangle.
The exhibition runs until 19 april 2009.
The next Pret a Porte Paris will take place from January Friday 30th to February Monday 2nd 2009 at the Paris Expo - Porte de Versailles.
Sonia Rykiel Boutique
175, Boulevard St Germain, Paris
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Museum of American History reopens adding Obama at the timeline
Updated: November 20 2008, 14:18 CET
WASHINGTON: Tomorrow the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will open its doors to the public with a three-day festival providing a new look at the almost 200-year-old Star-Spangled Banner and a rare chance to see the White House copy of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The museum, which draws millions of visitors and the reopening marks the completion of a two-year, $85 million renovation of the building’s center core, dramatically transforming the museum’s architectural appeal while reorganizing and renewing the presentation of its extensive collections. Curators have already added President-elect Barack Obama to the museum's timeline of American presidents.Former Secretary of State Colin Powell will open the 44-year-old museum tomorrow with a reading of President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The White House has lent the last-known copy of the speech written in Lincoln's hand to the museum for six weeks. At a rededication ceremony for the museum last Wednesday, President George W. Bush urged all Americans to visit the museum, which he called a "fantastic place of learning."
Architects reorganized the central core of the museum to make it easier for visitors to navigate. They sliced through the five-story building to create a central skylit atrium and knocked down walls in what was once a dark entryway. Once overlooked by some visitors as it hung near the museum entrance, the nearly 200-year-old flag that inspired the words of the national anthem is now the centerpiece of the reinvented museum. The flag gallery's carefully controlled climate will help preserve the fragile fabric that has deteriorated over time. Six landmark objects — including an 1865 telescope from Vassar College, a statue of George Washington, and a "Dumbo" car from a 1960s Disneyland ride — now mark the wings of the three exhibit floors to help orient visitors to the themes that organize the galleries. Throughout its reopening year, the museum will present new exhibits and programs with one highlight being the 8,000-square-foot exhibition, “On the Water: Stories from Maritime America” which opens in spring 2009. The Susan and Elihu Rose Gallery, also opening in 2009, will feature changing exhibitions. Programming will take center stage with visitors able to encounter historic characters every weekend and on federal holidays as well as tours, theater and popular song programs. A list of 2008-2009 exhibitions and programs will be available in October.
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Major kick-off Darwin Year at London museum
Updated: November 19 2008, 10:11 CET
LONDON: Every year we celebrate the anniversary of important people in the arts and history, organising major events to attract extra people to a town, museum or concert hall. Next year we celebrate the Haydn Year, presenting the Austrian composer (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and the Darwin Year celebrating the birth of the British naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and the sesquicentennial of publication of his book "The Origin of Species". . In London the Natural History Museum just did the kick-off with a major exhibition about the life and work of Darwin.On show are some of the specimens Charles Darwin discovered as a young man during his life-changing journey aboard the HMS Beagle. Its mission was to chart the coastline of South America and included Darwin's famous visit to the Galapagos Islands. Among the highlights are his notebooks, artefacts, rare personal belongings and the fossils and zoological specimens Darwin collected on his travels, a real live iguana and a colony of Darwin's frogs. The show includes a reconstruction of the study where Darwin worked at Down House near London. After his adventure on the Beagle Darwin took rooms in London near his brother Erasmus in 1837. At the end of 1839 he married his cousin Emma and the couple lived in Gower Street for a while. By 1842 Darwin could not take the strain of a city life and they moved to Down House in Kent, sixteen miles outside London.
The exhibition runs until 19th April 2009
For more information about Darwin Year:
www.darwin-year-2009.org
www.darwin200.org
www.darwinday.org
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Florence examines the commercial power of contemporary art
Updated: November 17 2008, 10:57 CET
FLORENCE: As of this weekend Palazzo Strozzi in the Italian city of Florence examines the increased links between contemporary art and the international market. On show at the exhibition
‘Art, Price and Value – Contemporary art and the market’ is work of contemporary artists throwing light on the mechanism of the international art system. Among the artists represented are Denis Darzacq (France), Damien Hirst (UK), Christian Janowski (Germany), Aernout Mik (The Netherlands), Antoni Muntadas (Spain) and Ad Reinhardt (USA).The economic power of contemporary art is reflected in the exorbitant prices now reached at international auctions and in the increased popularity of exhibitions, biennals, festivals, shows and mega-happenings. The power now exerted by the economy on political, social and cultural life has extended its hold on art production so that the whole system is undergoing a complete transformation in response to the demands of an increasingly global market. Artists are drawn into the international dynamics of a highly competitive system and with the growing interest of collectors, galleries and institutions art has become the ideal environment for speculators.
Florence has always been a centre where the arts and commerce met. Cosimo de' Medici (1389 –1464) was the first Medici family member to essentially control the city from behind the scenes. Although the city was technically a democracy of sorts, his power came from a vast patronage network along with his alliance to the new immigrants, the gente nuova. The fact that the Medici were bankers to the pope also contributed to their rise. Cosimo was succeeded by his son Piero, who was shortly thereafter succeeded by Cosimo's grandson, Lorenzo in 1469. Lorenzo was a great patron of the arts, commissioning works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli. Lorenzo was also an accomplished musician and brought some of the most famous composers and singers of the day to Florence, including Alexander Agricola, Johannes Ghiselin, and Heinrich Isaac.
The exhibition runs until 11 Januari 2009.
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