Who:
Musée du Louvre-Lens
When: May 28, 2014 – June 1, 2015 (Hours Vary)
Where:
Musée du Louvre-Lens Temporary Gallery
99 Rue Paul Bert
62300 Lens, France
More Information: Here.
This exhibition presents an overview of acquisitions by museums in the Nord-Pas de Calais region over the last thirty years.
It is an excellent opportunity to explain to visitors the meaning and logic behind a purchase. The event is therefore part of the Louvre-Lens’ mission to go behind the scenes and reveal the inner workings of museums. Featuring works acquired thanks to the involvement of the FRAM regional acquisition fund for museums, endowed in equal part by the State and Region, the exhibition showcases the efforts of various players in enriching museums: the local authorities answerable for the collections, the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs, and the Nord-Pas de Calais Regional Council.
Organized by:
Luc Piralla, Musée du Louvre-Lens;
Philippe Gayot, Musées de la Porte du Hainaut, association of museum curators for the Nord-Pas de Calais.
Who: Musée d’Orsay
When: Apr. 14, 2015 – Sept. 13, 2015 (View Hours Here)
Where:
Musee d’Orsay
1 Rue de la Légion d’Honneur,
75007 Paris, France
How Much: (View Pricing Here)
More Information: Here
“In Italy in the early twentieth century the decorative arts were used to interpret the desire for progress of a nation that had only just found its unity. Cabinetmakers, ceramicists and glass-makers all worked together with the leading artists, creating a veritable “Italian style”.
This period of extraordinary creativity is recalled through around a hundred works in a chronological display. The “Liberty” style, which came into its own at the turn of the century, is recalled with designs by Carlo Bugatti, Eugenio Quarti and Federico Tesio mixed with works by the Divisionist painters. A second section is devoted to Futurism, its esthetic inspired by progress and speed extending to every aspect of life.
Later, the return to classicism in Italy came in various guises, finding its expression in the ceramics of Gio Ponti or the glass creations of Carlo Scarpa, up to the stern language of the “Novecento”.
Meanwhile, the rationalist style marked the advent of modern “design”.“
The tomb of an Iron Age Celtic prince has been unearthed in a small French town.
The ‘exceptional’ grave, crammed with Greek and possibly Etruscan artefacts, was discovered in a business zone on the outskirts of Lavau in France’s Champagne region.
The prince is buried with his chariot at the centre of a huge mound, 130 feet (40 metres) across, which has been dated to the 5th Century BC.
The biggest find at the site was a huge wine cauldron. Standing on the handles of the cauldron, is the Greek god Acheloos. The river deity is shown with horns, a beard, the ears of a bull and a triple mustache
A team from the National Archaeological Research Institute, Inrap has been excavating the site since October last year.
They recently dated it to the end of the First Iron Age – a period characterised by the widespread use of the metal.
Its discovery could shed light on Iron Age European trade, researchers say.
The 2,500-year-old burial mound has at its heart a 14 square metre burial chamber, not yet opened, of an ancient royal.
An Iron Age Celtic prince lay buried with his chariot at the center of this huge mound in the Champagne region of France, according to the country’s National Archaeological Research Institute (Inrap)
Eight lioness heads decorate the edge of the cauldron (right). Inside the cauldron, the archaeologists found a ceramic wine vessel, called oniochoe (left)
A team from the National Archaeological Research Institute, Inrap has been excavating the site since October last year. Pictured is part of the cauldron found
‘It is probably a local Celtic prince,’ Inrap president Dominique Garcia told journalists on a field visit.
The most exciting find, he said, was a large bronze-decorated cauldron that was used to store watered-down wine. It appears to have been made by Etruscan craftsmen from an area that is today in Italy.
The cauldron has four circular handles decorated with bronze heads that depict the Greek god Acheloos.
The river deity is shown with horns, a beard, the ears of a bull and a triple mustache.
Eight lioness heads decorate the edge of the cauldron.
The mausoleum contained a decorated ceramic wine pitcher made by the Greeks.
Decorations on the vessel reveal the god Dionysus, lying under a vine and facing a woman.
The archaeologists also found remains of a iron wheel, from a chariot buried with the prince.
Another interesting discovery was a perforated silver spoon that was part of the banquet utensils, presumably to filter the wine. . . . .
Van Gogh and the decision that changed art history By Alastair Sooke via BBC Culture
STATE OF THE ART| 27 January 2015
Van Gogh and the decision that changed art history
Alastair Sooke
Art Art history Exhibition
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(Corbis)
(Corbis)
In 1878 Van Gogh was a struggling would-be preacher. At his lowest ebb, he began to draw. Alastair Sooke looks back at this pivotal moment in history.
In the spring of 1878, Vincent van Gogh turned 25. As he looked back over his short life, the Dutchman found little to celebrate among the meagre endeavours of his faltering career. By conventional, middle-class standards, he was a failure.
A stint working for an art dealership first in The Hague then in London and Paris hadn’t worked out: shy and awkward, he didn’t take to the profession, and in 1876, he was fired. That was followed by a couple of dead-end teaching jobs in England, as well as a short, forgettable spell working in a bookshop in Dordrecht, before he moved to Amsterdam to become a minister of religion, following in his father’s footsteps.
However, he didn’t have the patience or rigour to master the necessary study, so in 1878 – a few months after his 25th birthday – he left for Brussels, in order to enrol in a swifter training school for evangelists. Even this, though, was beyond him. After a three-month trial period in which his performance was less than mediocre, he was told that he would not be admitted to the course.
By now, Van Gogh’s family was beginning to despair. He had not curbed his socially inept and awkward manner, which was exacerbated by an eccentric tendency to dress in a deliberately unkempt fashion. How could an oddball like Vincent ever hope to scrape a living? His father was beginning to wonder whether his eldest son should be admitted to a mental hospital.
Van Gogh, though, was still fired with religious zeal and remained adamant that he could find work as an evangelist. At the end of 1878, he set off for the depressed coalmining district of the Borinage to the west of the city of Mons in Belgium, determined to establish himself as a lay preacher to the working
As a new exhibition, Van Gogh in the Borinage, at BAM (Beaux-Arts Mons) documents, he stayed in the region until October 1880, when he returned to Brussels. (Mons is one of the European capitals of culture for 2015.) Although ultimately his ambitions to become an evangelist would be thwarted – things got so bad that at one point his sister suggested that he should re-train as a baker – the Borinage was the making of Van Gogh in one fundamental respect. It was here, encouraged by his gentle brother Theo, that he decided to become an artist.
The startling thing is that his experiences in the Borinage seem to have set the template for many subjects and motifs that would continue to fascinate him as an artist over the next decade, until his death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest in the summer of 1890.
True to form, life for Van Gogh in the Borinage was not straightforward. He lived in a humble hut, gave away much of his money, and swapped his smart clothes for the practical work-wear of the ‘Borins’. Unfortunately, he was not a gifted orator, so his meetings were sparsely attended. His inability to connect with the local coalminers was compounded by a practical, linguistic difficulty: he couldn’t make head or tail of their quick-fire patois known as ‘Walloon French’, while they were mystified by his own attempts at French, which to their ears sounded overly formal and fussy. In July 1879, only half a year after he had arrived in the region, he received another setback: the authorities terminated his trial appointment as an evangelist, precipitating a crisis of self-doubt.
The Cultured Muse 