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Comic strip artists celebrate Brussels Atomium
Updated: June 3 2009, 11:09 CET
BRUSSELS: On the occasion of the Year of the Cartoon in Brussels the world famous Atomium opens her doors tow two exhibitions. ‘Atomium 58: 14 visies’ and ‘In search of the Atom Style’. The Atomium, built for Expo '58, is one of the most visited attractions in Brussels today. In 2008, the Atomium celebrated its 50th birthday.
The exhibition ‘Atomium 58: 14 visies’ presents the work of 14 European comic strip artist featuring the Atomium and the spirit of “Expo ’58.”. Among the artists on show are François Avril, Ted Benoit, Philippe Berthet, Dupuy&Berberian, Ever Meulen, Frank Pé, François Schuiten, Joost Swarte and Bernard Yslaire. Depending on what this emblematic monument evokes in them, each artist has situated his composition in the Fifties, or in a more contemporary, even futuristic setting.
The exhibition ‘In search of the Atom Style’ turns the spotlight on the contemporary international comic artists who are continuing to make a vibrant artistic movement out of the so-called ‘Atome Style’ that reached its apogee with the Universal Exhibition of Brussels, in 1958. Nine audiovisual projections highlight the graphic impact, seductive composition and aesthetic intelligence of the masters of the ‘Atom Style’. Seven projections are dedicated to seven key artists of this style.
Designed by André Waterkeyn, it is 102-metres (335 ft) tall, with nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. One of the original ideas for Expo '58 was to build an upside-down version of the Eiffel tower; however, Waterkeyn felt that an atomic structure would be more symbolic of the era. The building soon became a symbol not only of the World's Fair, but of modern architecture and Brussels.
This year the Brussels Festival celebrates what has come to be known as the “Ninth Art”, the world of comic books. No wonder because the Belgium capital is famous for many comic strips. Anyone who has explored the streets of Brussels will know that you won’t walk far before stumbling across one of the city’s comic-book inspired street murals or trompe l'oeils. The city has been birthplace and home to a number of ninth art legends: Hergé (Tintin), Franquin (Gaston Lagaffe, the lazy and accident-prone office junior - his surname means "the blunder" - that is very popular in large parts of Europe) and Peyo (The Smurfs) all originate from Brussels. Brussels is also home to the world-famous Centre Belge da la Band Dessinee (Belgian Centre of Comic Strip Art), known locally as CeBeBeDe, housed in a magnificent Art Nouveau building which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary.
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Major retrospective on friend Rembrandt in Amsterdam
Updated: May 18 2009, 09:10 CET
AMSTERDAM: This weekend the Museum het Rembrandthuis opened her doors to the exhibition ‘Jan Lievens (1607-1674). A Child Prodigy’s Career’ a major retrospective of the Dutch painter, draughtsman and printmaker Jan Lievens, friend and rival and fellow citizen of the famous Dutch painter Rembrandt. The show, for the first time, presents an overview of the full range of Lievens’ career, featuring about 45 paintings, and a select group of his drawings and prints drawn from collections in England, Europe, and America. A child prodigy, Lievens was one of the most highly regarded and successful artists of his time. Lievens created a number of memorable character studies, genre scenes, landscapes, formal portraits, and religious and allegorical images that were not only widely praised and highly valued during his lifetime but also today.
The Museum het Rembrandt huis is based in the house where Rembrandt lived between 1639 and 1658. The building was constructed in 1606 and 1607 in what was then known as the Sint Anthonisbreestraat. In 1639 Rembrandt signed a contract governing the payment for the purchase of the house in the Breestraat. The purchase price was thirteen thousand guilders, a huge sum, which he could not come up with in its entirety. He was, however, allowed to pay it off in instalments. At this time Rembrandt had already established his reputation as an artist. Between 1652 and 1656 Rembrandt made frantic attempts to get his hands on money to pay off his debt. He did not succeed and was forced into bankruptcy. In 1656 Rembrandt’s property was inventoried for the benefit of his creditors, and his household effects and collection of art and curiosities were sold. The house was auctioned in 1658 and fetched something over eleven thousand guilders. Rembrandt moved to a small rented house on the Rozengracht, where he lived until his death in 1669.
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Portraits of Bob Dylan on show in London
Updated: May 11 2009, 16:40 CET
LONDON: Today the National Portrait Gallery in London opens ‘Bob Dylan 1966 European Tour’, the first exhibition in the British capital of photographs of the 1966 European Tour of the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan (b. 1941) by Barry Feinstein. The photographs on show offer a rare insight into the time when Dylan was arguably at his most controversial and iconic. Having taken the portrait of Dylan that appeared on the sleeve of his 1964 album ‘The Times They are A-Changin’, Feinstein was commissioned by LIFE magazine to photograph the 1966 European tour. The photographs on display were taken in Birmingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, London, Bristol, and Paris.
This summer (1 July – 15 August) Bob Dylan will go on tour in the US with his The Bob Dylan Show, featuring fellow troubadour Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp, marking just the second time in the past 24 years that these three performers have shared the concert stage.
The National Portrait Gallery was formally established on 2 December 1856, and amongst its founder Trustees were Stanhope as Chairman, Macaulay, Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Ellesmere, a former Trustee of the National Gallery, who offered to the nation the so-called Chandos portrait of Shakespeare, which became the first picture to enter the Gallery's collection. On Ellesmere's death in 1857 Carlyle became a Trustee.
The National Portrait Gallery was established with the criteria that the Gallery was to be about history, not about art, and about the status of the sitter, rather than the quality or character of a particular image considered as a work of art. This criterion is still used by the Gallery today when deciding which works enter the National Portrait Gallery's collection. Originally, it was decided by the Trustees that "No portrait of any person still living, or deceased less that 10 years, shall be admitted by purchase, donation, or bequest, except only in the case of the reigning Sovereign, and of his or her Consort". This rule changed in 1969 in order to encourage a policy of admitting living sitters.
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Major retrospective Belle Epoque artist in Brussels
Updated: May 8 2009, 11:47 CET
BRUSSELS: Today the Museum voor Oude Kunst (Museum of Ancient Art) opens her doors to a major retrospective devoted to the Belgian artist of the Belle Époque Alfred Stevens (1828-1906). On show is a selection of around 100 paintings, drawings and pastels, including the canvases and fragments of Panorama du siècle (Panorama of the Century), an enormous historical fresco painted with Henri Gervex for the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889. After settling in Paris in 1852, Stevens made his mark on the artistic life of the second half of the 19th Century. His work illustrates both the modernity and social changes of his time, capturing the stifling atmosphere of the boudoir, the cruelty and futility of the bourgeois salon.
The Museum of Ancient Art houses a vast collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the 15th to the 18th century. The core of the collection is made up of works of art confiscated during the revolutionary period and works of art deposited by the French State. The collection has been subsequently enhanced thanks to not only acquisitions, but also donations and bequests from numerous patrons. Paintings from the former Southern Netherlands represent the bulk of the collection. The works are presented in chronological order in order to allow visitors to apprehend the development and evolution of the pictorial art of these regions under the Ancien Régime.
www.fine-arts-museum.be
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Austrian capital starts off Festwochen 2009
Updated: May 6 2009, 14:50 CET
VIENNA: In two days the Austrian capital will start off the Wiener Festwochen 2009 a major annual art festival presenting 178 performances from 28 countries – opera, concerts, theatre, dance, shows and an exhibition. This years highlights include performances by Bruno Beltrão, Philippe Boesmans, Heiner Goebbels, Christoph Marthaler, Robert Lepage, Alvis Hermanis, Philippe Quesne, Peter Sellars, Peter Stein and Krzysztof Warlikowski. This year’s music program is dedicated to Aeneas, who cannot speak to Dido about the reasons for his departure and his inexplicable change of heart, and includes Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell as directed by Deborah Warner; the Austrian premiere of the new work by Philippe Boesmans, Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy based on the play by Gombrowicz; and Heiner Goebbels’ I went to the house but did not enter inspired by texts by T. S. Eliot, Blanchot, Kafka and Beckett.
Amongst the top-class names on the program of plays are Peter Stein’s Berlin production of Kleist’s “Der zerbrochene Krug” with Klaus Maria Brandauer. At the Theater Akzent, one can experience Shakespeare’s “Othello”, directed by Peter Sellars. Andreas Kriegenburg’s hit production of “Der Prozess” after Franz Kafka plays at the Volkstheater and Jürgen Gosch’s “Uncle Vanya” after Anton Chekov in Hall E in the MuseumsQuartier. Wiener Festwochen 2009.
The inauguration event for Wiener Festwochen 2009 embarks on a quest for the musical emotions that characterise Vienna and kindred cities: Paris, Lisbon and New York. Yet the aim is less to highlight the bright and sparkling aspects of metropolitan life but rather to delve into the world behind the scenes: feelings, love, passion, not always brilliant “real” life and, inevitably, death. All of the songs performed will respect the emotions of the anonymous people living in the city – they will not degrade them to the level of cliché but rather emphasise that these people have hearts and souls, aspirations and desires, a right to love and, above all, to dignity.
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