Avere una Bella Cera at Fortuny

The exhibition at Museum Fortuny in Venice opens tomorrow 10th March until June 25 and is the world’s first exhibition on wax portraits analizing a field that has been studied very little by art historians.
The world’s first exhibition on wax portraits will analyse a field that has been studied very little by art historians: that of life-size wax figures. This fascinating subject has recently attracted the attention of numerous contemporary artists, but has never had a specific exhibition devoted to it.

The project was inspired by two fortunate coincidences, the existence of a series of life- size wax portraits in Venice’s public collections and churches, and the centenary of the publication of Geschichte der Porträtbildnerei in Wachs (“History of Portraiture in Wax”), written by the famous Viennese art historian Julius von Schlosser and the first work devoted to the history of wax portraits. A superb Italian translation of Schlosser’s work by Andrea Daninos has recently been published, complete with an extensive and detailed critical commentary.

The Venetian exhibition is the outcome of more than three years of research and, for the first time, it brings together nearly all of the extant sculptures in Italy, most of which unpublished or never displayed before.

Diana Vreeland at Fortuny

Press preview today of this great exhibition of such style and fashion icon.
This is the first major exhibition to be dedicated to Diana Vreeland. Open until June 25th at Palazzo Fortuny it will explore the many sides of her work and seek to offer a fresh approach with which to interpret the elements of her style and thinking.

This is the first major exhibition to be dedicated to the extraordinary and complex Diana Vreeland (Paris, 1903 – New York, 1989). It will explore the many sides of her work and seek to offer a fresh approach with which to interpret the elements of her style and thinking.

On the trail of Tintoretto

An exhibition honouring 16th-century Venetian master Tintoretto opens in Rome today Saturday, following the painter’s career from his days as an ambitious disciple of Titian to a bitter old age. “Tintoretto was the most controversial painter of his time,” Melania Mazzucco, one of the organisers, told reporters in the Italian capital.  Tintoretto, whose real name was Jacopo Robusti, owed his nickname to his father who was a manufacturer of dyes (“tinta” in Italian). He became one of the greatest practitioners of the Venetian style.

Tintoretto used to live meters away from Campo Dei Mori where he used to walk probably every day

The exhibition, which runs until June 10, begins with one of his monumental works “The Miracle of the Slave” (1548), measuring 4.16 metres by 5.44 metres (14 feet by 18 feet)

Faith……

 

Tear down the Mosque, tear down the temple Tear down everything in sight But don’t (tear down) break anyone’s heart Because God lives there

(Bulleh Shah)

Fog shrouds Venice

 

Venice woke up this morning under a heavy blanket of fog adding to the atmoshere of the city.

Sior Rioba

 

 

Sior Rioba has last night spoken, when few hundred posters appeared overnight on statues, bridges and lamp posts in Venice aheadof a national mobilization of Italian women which will take place in cities across the country on February 13 for the Giornata Nazionale di Mobilitazione delle Donne

Mr. Rioba is portrayed in a corner of the Campo dei Mori, originally he came from Morea along with his two brothers, Sandi and Afan. They arrived in Venice around 1112 and were traders of spices. Signor Antonio Rioba, spokesman of the Venetians in the satire against the Republic, was for a long time for Venice what Marforio and Pasquino were for Rome,

Vorticists in Venice

A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him. (Ezra Pound)

The Vorticism group began with the Rebel Art Centre which Wyndham Lewis and others established after disagreeing with Omega Workshops founder Roger Fry, and has roots in the Bloomsbury Group, Cubism, and Futurism. Lewis himself saw Vorticism as an independent alternative to Cubism, Futurism and Expressionism.

Though the style grew out of Cubism, it is more closely related to Futurism in its embrace of dynamism, the machine age and all things modern (cf. Cubo-Futurism). However, Vorticism diverged from Futurism in the way it tried to capture movement in an image. In a Vorticist painting modern life is shown as an array of bold lines and harsh colours drawing the viewer’s eye into the centre of the canvas.

The name Vorticism was given to the movement by Ezra Pound in 1913, although Lewis, usually seen as the central figure in the movement, had been producing paintings in the same style for a year or so previously.

Pictures from today opening of the Venice Exhibition

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Vaporino

 

When you walk in the winter fog, there seems to be no division between water and embankment, life and death, love and hate. You feel that you can walk through walls, through sky, through time.

My Venice is the Venice of winter, the Venice of Cannaregio, the Venice of fog. Walking down the Fte Novein la nebbia, wearing rubber boots against the high water, it is hard to tell where terra firma leaves off and sky and water begin. The city seems to hang in the air like a mirage. Sounds bounce off the waters and deceive you with their closeness or farness. Figures appear and disappear around corners. The past beckons. It is quite possible to believe that it can take you and never give you back.

Related articles

• The peaceful pleasures of Venice in winter (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Must stop moaning

Image by ophelyee via Flickr

I have complained before about the so called Artist Block at least here and just few days ago . Today I realized that I must stop moaning, at least for the time being, and here are few of the  reasons:

• I am lucky enough, in this period of my life, to leave in one of the most beautiful and inspiring places of the world: Venice.
• I live very close to the sea, probably 20 meters and I believe the sea is very inspiring
• I live about 100mt from where Tintoretto used to live and work, there are so many of his works close to me that is unbelievable.
• Venice is so rich of libraries, galleries,  museums that is so easy to get inspiration.
• Life here is relaxed and at a different pace, so you do not get stressed and have all the time you need to get inspired.
• In Venice lived just to mention some Italian Artists  Canova, Canaletto, Vasari, Giorgione, Mantegna, Titian….

No more excuses then!

Related articles

• Visions of Venice 300 years apart (bbc.co.uk)
• Canaletto’s Venice: a city for pleasure seekers (telegraph.co.uk)
• 12 Hours In Venice – Venice, Italy (travelpod.com)