No less interesting, and perhaps even more so, will be the exhibition of German Expressionist Kirchner in Hamburg, and in Rome itself – Lucas Cranach the Elder and the combined "Venetian Painting". In Barcelona, the public will be shown the influence that Edgar Degas had on the young Picasso (more exhibitions with an art history theme like this, please). In Paris, a large exhibition of remarkable art from the period of transition from Gothic to Renaissance (late 15th – early 16th centuries) opens.
If to this list – and it is far from complete! – we add the large-scale "European Month of Photography" in Berlin, it becomes clear that in October travelers may indeed find themselves spoiled for choice.
Yes, another interesting point: in Zurich, they are reviving the 1932 Picasso exhibition (the same Kunsthaus museum, the same paintings), which was visited by 28,000 people at the time. Reproducing famous exhibitions of the past is a new and interesting genre in museum display. In 2010, the number of visitors will surely be higher – Picasso's popularity with the general public is now at an all-time high.
AUSTRIA
"Michelangelo. Drawings of a Genius", October 8 – January 9, Vienna. The main autumn exhibition in Vienna will undoubtedly be the exhibition of drawings by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) opening in early October. Visitors will see 120 drawings by the famous Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, and architect. These include drawings from the early Florentine period, sketches for the fresco "Battle of Cascina", in which the artist, according to Vasari, "sang the strength and beauty of the human body in motion", and studies for the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, and even a sonnet-letter addressed to Giovanni da Pistoia in which Michelangelo describes the difficult work on the ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. Exhibits for the exhibition are provided by many museums in Europe and the USA. //www.albertina.at
"Rodin and Vienna", October 1 – February 6, Vienna. An exhibition dedicated to the exhibition activities of French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) in Vienna opens at the Lower Belvedere in Vienna. Several of his works were presented in 1898 at the First Exhibition of the Vienna Secession – an association of artists opposed to official academism – and already the following year his sculptures and busts were acquired for the Belvedere. In 1901, at another Secession exhibition, such works by Rodin as "The Burghers of Calais" (1884-1888), "The Age of Bronze" (1871), "Balzac" (1898), and "Eve" (1881) were displayed in the main hall. The Viennese got acquainted with Rodin's graphic works in 1908 at the Heller art salon, after which the Belvedere acquired two works. The current exhibition will feature Rodin's sculptures, including the bust of Victor Hugo and "Eve", and the artist's graphic works from the museum's own collection and other museum collections. //www.belvedere.at
BELGIUM
James Ensor, October 7 – February 13, Antwerp. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp has prepared a new exhibition timed to the 150th anniversary of the birth of the famous Belgian artist James Ensor (1860-1949). The main focus of the exhibition will be on Ensor's mystical and symbolic "masks", which appear both in carnival and Christian subjects of his paintings. "The mask gives me freshness of tones, sharp expressiveness, lavish decoration, unexpected broad gestures, chaotic movements, refined restlessness," wrote Ensor. The exhibition will feature paintings and drawings by the artist from European museums and private collections, as well as letters, school notebooks containing sketches for future canvases.
Parallel to the Antwerp exhibition, the exhibition "Ensor – Composer and Writer" will be held at the Center for Fine Arts in Brussels. //www.kmska.be
"Planet Mars", September 30 – March 20, Brussels. The Museum of Natural Sciences at the Royal Belgian Institute has prepared another fascinating exhibition, this time dedicated to the planet Mars. Multimedia and interactive objects presented at the exhibition will allow visitors to learn about the history of the planet's exploration in three sections: "The Planet", "Research", "Images". //www.naturalsciences.be
UNITED KINGDOM
Gauguin, September 30 – January 16; Turner Prize 2010, October 5 – January 3, London. "Maker of Myths" – that is the name of perhaps the most interesting exhibition of October, dedicated to the work of French Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). It will gather over 130 exhibits from museums and private collections around the world – paintings, drawings, ceramics, and decorative works, including carved door panels from Gauguin's Tahitian "House of Pleasure". Of course, visitors will see Gauguin's Tahitian series, but special attention should be paid to the artist's self-portraits and the paintings brought together for the first time: "The Yellow Christ" (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo), "The Green Christ" (Brussels, Museum of Fine Arts), "The Vision after the Sermon" (National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh). Tickets for the exhibition at Tate Modern should be booked in advance.
And from October 5 to January 3, Tate Britain will host the traditional exhibition of finalists for the most prestigious prize in contemporary art, the Turner Prize 2010. The winners of this year will be announced on December 6. //www.tate.org.uk
"Venice: Canaletto, His Rivals and Followers," October 13 – January 16, London. An exhibition dedicated to the genre of cityscape in 18th-century Venetian painting will soon open at the National Gallery in London. The focus is on the works of the famous Antonio Canaletto (1697-1768), creator of "ideal" and later "real views" of Venice and the lagoon. All of Canaletto's paintings in the exhibition will be compared with works by his contemporaries, rivals, and followers to demonstrate the variety of techniques and perspectives in depicting the same urban subjects. The exhibition will feature over 50 paintings from various European and American museums by artists such as Bernardo Bellotto, Francesco Guardi, Luca Carlevaris, and Michele Marieschi. //www.nationalgallery.org.uk
GERMANY
Kirchner, October 7 – January 16, Hamburg. In early October, the Kunsthalle Hamburg will open an exhibition of German Expressionist painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), one of the founders of the group Die Brücke, who committed suicide shortly after the Nazi government declared his work "degenerate" and confiscated 639 of his works. This retrospective in Hamburg will present Kirchner's work in stages, from early street scenes in Dresden and Berlin to late Alpine landscapes created in Wildboden. The exhibition will include many drawings and graphic works from museum and private collections. //www.hamburgerkunsthalle.de
European Month of Photography, October 15 – November 28, Berlin. The "Month of Photography" in Berlin is a major project featuring over 150 exhibitions in various city museums and art galleries. Notable among them are an exhibition of urban photographs by Peter Lindbergh (through January 9, C/O Berlin International Forum for Visual Dialogues), "Microphotographs: Beauty Beyond the Visible" (through January 9, Museum of Photography), an exhibition by the famous Spanish photographer of the first half of the 20th century, Luis Ramón Marín (through November 25, Instituto Cervantes), and Hungarian modernist photographer László Moholy-Nagy (through January 16, Martin-Gropius-Bau). Detailed information about the exhibitions and venues can be found on the festival's official website. //www.mdf-berlin.de
SPAIN
Picasso and Degas, October 15 – January 16, Barcelona. The Museu Picasso in Barcelona opens a new exhibition whose ideas and composition are based on the latest art historical research into the creative relationship between two major artists, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Edgar Degas (1834-1917). The dialogical format of the exhibition reveals the influence of Degas's painting on Picasso's "Blue Period" works (1901-1905), his sculpture, and late graphic works. The exhibition will feature 130 exhibits from various museum and private collections, including paintings, drawings, graphic works, sculptures, and photographs. //www.bcn.cat
Renoir, October 19 – February 6, Madrid. The Museo del Prado in Madrid and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, Massachusetts) have prepared a new monographic exhibition on Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). It will present 30 paintings by the artist from the collection of Sterling Clark (1877-1956), who lived in Paris for a long time and collected art for nearly 40 years. Visitors will see Renoir's "Self-Portrait" from 1875, the paintings "Portrait of Madame Monet" (1874), "The Bridge at Château" (1875), "The Opera Box" (1880), "Peonies" (1880), "The Bow" (1881), and other rare works by the artist. //www.museodelprado.es
ITALY
Van Gogh, October 8 – February 6, Rome. The Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome will soon open the main autumn exhibition dedicated to the work of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). The composition of the exhibition is based on the opposition of two important themes in van Gogh's painting: "eternal village – modern city." It will feature over 70 works by the artist from museum collections in Europe, the United States, and Canada, including "The Drinkers" (Art Institute of Chicago), "Gardens of Montmartre" (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam), "A Lane in the Park" and "Cypresses with Two Female Figures" (Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo). Van Gogh's rural and urban landscapes at the Rome exhibition will be compared with thirty landscapes by artists such as Cézanne, Millet, Pissarro, Gauguin, and Seurat. //www.romart.it
"Venetian Painting," October 15 – January 30, Rome. A new exhibition dedicated to the history of Venetian painting from the 15th to the 18th centuries will open in mid-October at the Chiostro del Bramante museum in Rome. Visitors will see over 70 canvases by great Venetian masters from the collection of the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, whose building is closed for restoration until 2013. The exhibition will feature works by artists such as Pisanello, Giovanni Bellini, Vittore Carpaccio, Palma Vecchio, Titian, Giorgione, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Tiepolo. //www.romart.it
Lucas Cranach the Elder, October 15 – February 13, Rome. "The Other Renaissance" is the title of a new exhibition at the Galleria Borghese in Rome, dedicated to the work of the famous German Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553). It will feature about 50 paintings by the artist from museum and private collections in Europe and the United States, organized into several thematic sections: portraits, Christian painting, genre scenes, and graphic works. Cranach's paintings can be compared with works by Italian Renaissance masters from the Galleria Borghese's own collection. //www.galleriaborghese.it
NETHERLANDS
Exhibition 'Illusion of Reality', October 8 – January 16, Amsterdam. Naturalism in European painting, photography and film – such is the theme of a new exhibition opening in October at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. It will feature works by 'followers' of Émile Zola's naturalistic art in painting, sharing his social concept and adopting his stylistic manner of 'extreme realism' in depicting reality. Naturalistic painting, as close as possible to photography, will be compared, respectively, with photographs and cinema from the period 1875-1918. //www.vangoghmuseum.nl
FRANCE
'Art 1500: Between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance', October 6 – January 10, Paris. A new exhibition at the National Gallery of the Grand Palais (Galeries nationales, Grand Palais) will be dedicated to French art of the late 15th – early 16th centuries. Visitors will see stained glass, tapestries, paintings, sculptures, engravings, books, tableware, and gold jewelry from this era. The exhibits for the exhibition are gathered from many museum collections in Europe and the United States. In February next year, the exhibition will move overseas to the Art Institute of Chicago. //www.grandpalais.fr
Jean-Léon Gérôme, October 19 – January 23, Paris. The Musée d'Orsay in Paris opens an exhibition of one of the most popular academic painters of the second half of the 19th century, Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904). In his time, this artist became famous for leading a group of 'Neo-Greek' painters, traveling extensively, creating a series of paintings with piquant scenes in antique and oriental costumes and settings, passionately defending official art and equally passionately criticizing the Impressionists. The exhibition brings together many paintings from European museums as well as museum and private collections in the United States, as Gérôme's paintings were very popular among American art collectors. In March, the exhibition will move to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. //www.musee-orsay.fr
CZECH REPUBLIC
Exhibition 'From Monet to Warhol', October 13 – January 7, Prague. A large survey exhibition of European art from the late 19th to 20th centuries from the Albertina Museum in Vienna and the Batliner Collection (Liechtenstein) will open in October at the National Gallery's Trade Fair Palace. The exhibition includes popular and lesser-known paintings by artists such as Monet, Matisse, Bonnard, Kirchner, Malevich, Lissitzky, Ernst, Magritte, Dubuffet, Bacon, Lichtenstein, Warhol, Katz, Kiefer. //www.ngprague.cz
SWITZERLAND
Picasso, October 15 – January 30, Zurich. In the autumn of 1932, the Kunsthaus Zurich hosted the first large retrospective exhibition of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), curated by the artist himself. That Picasso exhibition was visited by 28,000 people – a tremendous success. This autumn, the same museum decided to gather 70 paintings from that Picasso exhibition and recreate it as faithfully as possible. The exhibits for the new Zurich exhibition were kindly provided by museums and private collectors. //www.kunsthaus.ch
Nyuta KUKUSHKINA.
