The largest, perhaps, can be called the Madrid exhibition "XIX Century in the Prado", which will last until April 20 next year, and the Hague "Dutch Portrait", which this summer has already been successfully held in England. Also interesting in concept and exhibits are exhibitions with an Italian flavor: "On Stage" at the Roman Colosseum, and "Renaissance Siena" at the National Gallery in London. Some will certainly be interested in ancient globes in Venice, while others will be interested in the retrospective of Austrian art 1918-1938 in Vienna. Those who would like to visit Courbet in Paris or Gauguin in Rome can still easily make it in November: both exhibitions are still open. Read more about these and other November exhibitions in the monthly review "Exhibitions of Europe".
AUSTRIA
"Between Wars. Austrian Art 1918-1938", until January 28, Vienna. A recently opened exhibition at the Vienna Leopold Museum is dedicated to one of the most interesting periods of 20th-century Austrian painting ("between wars"). Turbulent political events – from the abdication of Emperor Charles I, the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the proclamation of the Austrian Republic, the failed fascist putsch in 1934, the assassination of Chancellor Dollfuss, to the entry of German troops into Austria and its annexation to the German Reich as a separate province in 1938 – could not but influence the equally turbulent development of art. The exhibition presents all trends of Austrian painting of this period – "expressive colorism", constructivism, "magic realism", kineticism, abstractionism. It includes over 150 paintings, collages, sculptures, drawings, and posters. Austrian museums and private collectors have provided works by 75 artists for this exhibition, including E. Schiele, O. Kokoschka, G. Klimt, H. Boeckl, G. Bayer, R. Wacker, A. Kolig, and others. //www.leopoldmuseum.org
"Splendor of Things. Dutch Still Life", November 17 - February 3, Salzburg. An exhibition dedicated to the four-century history of Dutch still life opens at the Salzburg Residenzgalerie. It presents paintings by 30 artists, including such masters as Willem van Aelst, Abraham van Beyeren, Pieter Claesz, Willem Heda, Willem Kalf, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Jan van Huysum, Samuel van Hoogstraten. //www.residenzgalerie.at
BELGIUM
Exhibitions within the cultural festival "Europalia", until February 2, Brussels. Undoubtedly, the main event of autumn and winter in the capital of Belgium is the arts festival "Europalia" (read about it in the October "European Poster"). Within "Europalia", 9 exhibitions are already running, including an exhibition of ancient maps of Europe, a photo exhibition dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the first European supermarket, the exhibition "Portuguese Art of the 16th-17th Centuries" and "Diamond of Europe", which features antique and modern jewelry. Three exhibitions are devoted to contemporary European art, and until mid-December, works by 27 young artists can be seen on the main streets and squares of the city. At the Palais des Beaux-Arts, the exhibition "Paths of European Art of the 5th-18th Centuries" has opened, gathering 350 masterpieces from 100 best European museums (open until January 20), and at the Musee d'Ixelles, the exhibition "All Roads Lead to Rome" is running, dedicated to the theme of travel in European painting of the 16th-19th centuries (open until January 26). //www.europalia.be, www.ixelles.be
GREAT BRITAIN
"Renaissance Siena: Art for the City", until January 13, London. A major exhibition dedicated to the art of the Sienese school has recently opened at the National Gallery in London. It is devoted to the era of the last century of the Sienese Republic and focuses mainly on works by such famous Sienese artists as Domenico Beccafumi and Francesco di Giorgio Martini. The exhibition features about a hundred paintings, sculptures, drawings, and manuscripts from European museums and private collections. Paintings by Matteo di Giovanni, Francesco di Giorgio, Signorelli, and Pinturicchio from the National Gallery's own collection were specially restored for this exhibition. //www.nationalgallery.org.uk
Exhibition of modern Scottish handmade items, November 16 - January 6, Edinburgh. The National Museum of Scotland will host a fair-exhibition where you can see and purchase original designer items by popular Scottish designers – jewelry by Laura Murray, Nicola Morrison, Anne S. King, textiles by the Imtage sisters, ceramics by Maggie Broadley, miniature sculptures by Lisa Hansen, as well as items made of wood and copper. Admission is free, souvenir prices are negotiable. By the way, parallel to this exhibition, the museum is also hosting another one – of modern jewelry nominated for the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize 2007. //www.nms.ac.uk
GERMANY
"From Spark to Pixel", until January 14, Berlin. An exhibition of contemporary installation has opened at the Martin-Gropius-Bau exhibition hall in Berlin. Its concept corresponds to certain stages of human evolution: fire – electricity – pixel, which is the "cell nucleus of the electronic image". The use of digital and interactive media in contemporary art, in addition to LED Spots and other technologies, has radically changed the perception of the object world, as demonstrated by the 24 exhibits of this exhibition, created between 1991 and 2007. These include Erwin Redl's installation "FLOW Berlin, 2007", Saburo Teshigawara's mirror performance "Light Behind Light", Jean-Michel Bruyère's "iFilm" "Si Poteris Narrare, Licet", which is an interactive journey, the interactive light-reflection game installation "Ondulation" by Canadian Thomas McIntosh, and other interesting works. //www.berlinerfestspiele.de
A retrospective exhibition of Sigmar Polke, until January 27, Dresden. A monographic retrospective of one of the most witty artists of the 20th century, German postmodernist Sigmar Polke, opened at the Dresden gallery Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau. Since the 1960s, Polke has been boldly experimenting with blending old and new artistic techniques and formats, achieving incredible ironic effects. He first became interested in pop art and created a series in the style of naive signs, then paintings based on photographs (the "Rasterbilder" series, 1963-69), followed by works on printed fabrics. Polke experimented with ornamentation and created collages from any materials. He used the most incredible chemical compounds, for which he was nicknamed the "alchemist" in the art world. For his work "The Alchemist's Cauldron," presented at the Venice Biennale in 1986 (an abstract composition that changed depending on the number of visitors, humidity, temperature, lighting, etc.), Polke received the Golden Lion in painting. In one of his latest series of plastic works, called "Laterna magica," depending on the lighting, one can see not only the front but also the back of the paintings. The works for this exhibition were provided by three collectors—their tastes and preferences for certain creative experiments of Polke are also reflected in this exhibition. //www.skd-dresden.de
SPAIN
"Three Centuries of American Art," until April 27, Bilbao. This grand joint project of the Guggenheim Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art has already been exhibited in two Chinese cities and Moscow, and has now reached Bilbao. However, unlike the Moscow exhibition, the Spanish exhibition will be significantly expanded with works by contemporary artists, for which there was simply no room in Russia. Visitors are invited to explore the history of American art in chronological order—all art objects are arranged in six sections. Viewers will see and appreciate works by John Copley, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Cole, George Catlin, William Morris Hunt, Winslow Homer, George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Carl Holty, Ad Reinhardt, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning, Jeff Koons, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kehinde Wiley, and Dana Schutz. //www.guggenheim-bilbao.es
Exhibition "The 19th Century at the Prado," until April 20, Madrid. At the Prado in Madrid, the five-year construction and finishing work of the new wing of the museum has finally been completed. It will house an exhibition of masterpieces of 19th-century Spanish painting from the museum's collection, which due to lack of space had been stored in the vaults for many years. From November to April, museum visitors will be able to see over a hundred paintings—"from Goya to Sorolla," as the exhibition organizers assure.
The first room features portraits created in the first quarter of the 19th century. These are works by Francisco Goya, Vicente López, and José de Madrazo. Next come romantic paintings by Leonardo Alenza, Genaro Pérez Villaamil, Eugenio Lucas, and Antonio Esquivel. The overview concludes with a section "Federico de Madrazo and the Academic Style." The second room presents historical Spanish painting—paintings by José Casado del Alisal, Antonio Gisbert, Eduardo Cano, and other artists. The third room is dedicated to artists of the end of the century: there you can see landscapes by Carlos de Haes and Martín Rico, paintings and sculptures by artists of the Mariano Fortuny circle. The exhibition concludes with a section "From Realism to Modernism," featuring works by Joaquín Sorolla and other artists. //www.museodelprado.es
ITALY
"On Stage" and Other Exhibitions, until February 17, Rome. In November and December, Rome offers many interesting exhibitions: a painting exhibition of Paul Gauguin at the Complesso del Vittoriano (which we already wrote about in the October review), exhibitions of Mark Rothko and Stanley Kubrick at the exhibition hall on via Nazionale, an exhibition of Antonio Canova at the Galleria Borghese, and a pop art exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale. But the most important one is perhaps the archaeological exhibition "On Stage." It is dedicated to the history of Roman theater and takes place on the grounds of the Colosseum. About 100 exhibits collected from various Italian museums will illustrate the thousand-year history of theater, organically linked to ancient Greek culture and art. Architecture, sets, masks, special effects creation, the literary basis of the performance—all of these are at the center of the exhibition. Originals and models, complementing each other, will allow visitors to reconstruct the historical changes in both the form and the idea of Roman theater. //www.romaturismo.com
"The Celestial Sphere and the Terrestrial Sphere," until February 29, Venice. Recently, at the Museo Correr on Piazza San Marco, which no tourist in Venice can miss, a very interesting exhibition opened, bringing together globes from five centuries—from the 16th to the 20th. The best description for this exhibition is V. Dahl's definition: "Globe – a sphere depicting the celestial firmament with stars (celestial globe), or our Earth (terrestrial globe), with respect to its movements, diurnal changes depending on the sun, and the position of lands and waters on it." Visitors to this exhibition will be able to see how the conception of the celestial and terrestrial spheres has changed over five centuries, what symbols were used in the drawings on the globes, and appreciate the amazing handiwork of ancient masters. //www.museiciviciveneziani.it
NETHERLANDS
"Dutch Portrait. The Age of Hals and Rembrandt," until January 13, The Hague. This exhibition of Dutch "Golden Age" portraiture, a huge success when it premiered in London's National Gallery this summer, opened in mid-October at the Mauritshuis in The Hague. The 17th century is considered the most fruitful period for the development of portraiture. It was during this period that individual, family, and group portraits flourished. The two greatest masters of Dutch portraiture are Frans Hals, with his innovative technique and psychological boldness, and Rembrandt, who captivates with his imaginative power and ability to subtly and deeply reveal the soul of his sitters. In addition to works by these artists, the exhibition features portraits by Salomon de Bray, Jan van Ravesteyn, Jan Cornelisz Verspronck, Bartholomeus van der Helst, and other famous Dutch painters. Paintings for this exhibition were lent by many European museums and private collectors. The centerpiece of the Hague exhibition will be Rembrandt's "Portrait of Jan Six." //www.mauritshuis.nl
FRANCE
Exhibition of Gustave Courbet, until January 27, Paris. About 120 paintings and 30 graphic works by Gustave Courbet are presented in an exhibition that recently opened at the National Gallery of the Grand Palais. The organizers claim that this is not a banal monographic retrospective, but a new interpretation of his work, a search for truth, an attempt to understand what place Courbet occupied in the artistic process of the 1840s-1860s. The exhibition consists of eight thematic sections, like symbolic chapters of the artist's career: early "portraits and self-portraits" (a lyrical chapter), "from private to historical" (formation of an individual style), "realist manifestos" (this chapter includes his scandalous, deliberately prosaic works — "Burial at Ornans," "The Artist's Studio," and other paintings), "landscapes" (among them the magnificent "Young Ladies of the Village" and "The Wave"), "nudes" (in addition to the widely known "Woman with a Parrot" and "The Bathers," this section features the painting "Nude," which had not been exhibited for over 60 years), "tragedy of hunting" (including the famous genre scenes "The Death of the Stag" and "Roe Deer at the Stream of Plaisir-Fontaine"), "modern temptations" (this chapter examines Courbet's connection with the emerging Impressionism), and "historical experiments" — the final philosophical section of the exhibition. //www.rmn.fr
"Picasso's Cubism," until January 7, Paris. The occasion for this exhibition at the Picasso Museum in Paris is a round anniversary: this year marks the 100th anniversary of Pablo Picasso's famous painting "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon." This painting is considered a transition from his early work to his mature period, still combining various influences: Cézanne, Spanish sculpture, African art, which was one of the main sources of Cubism for Picasso. Compositionally, the exhibition is divided into two large sections — "The Origins of Picasso's Cubism" and "The Laboratory of Cubism." The paintings are arranged in chronological order, from 1906 to 1925. The exhibition is based on the museum's own collection, so the star of the show — the painting "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," which is housed at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York — is not present in this exhibition. //www.musee-picasso.fr
SWITZERLAND
Exhibition of Félix Vallotton, until January 13, Zurich. The French artist of Swiss origin, Félix Vallotton, wrote a novel titled "A Mortal Life." This title is a highly symbolic commentary on his worldview and his work. At 19, Vallotton came to Paris and entered the Académie Julian, exhibited at the Salon of French Artists, and then at the Salon des Indépendants with the painting "The Bath on a Summer Evening" (1893). It caused a real scandal: the combination of smooth technique and ugly drawing, the caricatural and cold eroticism of the painting earned Vallotton a reputation as a pessimistic and ironic artist who rejected the modern "idyll on the edge of the abyss." That is precisely the title of the exhibition that recently opened at the Kunsthaus Zurich. "He took pleasure only in bitterness," Jules Renard said of Vallotton. Visitors to this exhibition, after viewing about 90 of the artist's works, will have to either agree with this statement or refute it. //www.kunsthaus.ch