FT Weekend Festival 2021 commissioned Inua Ellams to write a response to Keats’s classic work ‘To Autumn’ marking his 200th anniversary. The animated poem ‘To John’ exposes the impact of humans on nature over those 200 years.
Category Archives: Arts & Literature
Art Books: ‘Caravaggio – The Complete Works’
Caravaggio, or more accurately Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610), was always a name to be reckoned with. Notorious bad boy of Italian painting, the artist was at once celebrated and controversial: violent in temper, precise in technique, a creative master, and a man on the run. Today, he is considered one of the greatest influences in all art history.
This edition offers a neat and comprehensive Caravaggio catalogue raisonné. Each of his paintings is reproduced from recent top-quality photography, allowing for a vivid encounter with the artist’s ingenious repertoire of looks and gestures, as well as numerous detail shots of his boundary-breaking naturalism. Five accompanying chapters trace the complete arc of Caravaggio’s career from his first public commissions in Rome through to his growing celebrity status and trace his tempestuous personal life, in which drama loomed as prominently as in his canvases.
The author
Sebastian Schütze was a longtime research fellow at the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max Planck Institute for Art History) in Rome. He is a member of the academic board of the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici in Naples, and a member of the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. From 2003 to 2009 he held the Bader Chair in Southern Baroque Art at Queen’s University in Kingston. In 2009 he was appointed professor of early modern art history at Vienna University.
Top Photography Exhibits: ‘Mario Giacomelli – Figure /Ground’ (The Getty Video)
In this virtual art opening and gallery walk-through, Getty curator Virginia Heckert guides you through two exhibitions of photography: Mario Giacomelli: Figure/Ground and The Expanded Landscape. The galleries reveal Giacomelli’s stunning, high-contrast black and white images made in and around the photographer’s hometown of Senigallia on the Adriatic coast of Italy in the late 20th century. Also presented are works in The Expanded Landscape, which focuses on contemporary photographers whose innovative approaches and insightful observations expand concepts of “landscape.” Learn more about the exhibition: https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions…
New Art Books: ‘Vermeer – The Complete Works’
In his lifetime, however, the fame of Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) barely extended beyond his native Delft and a small circle of patrons. After his death, his name was largely forgotten, except by a few Dutch art collectors and dealers.
Despite numbering at just 35, his works have prompted a New York Times best seller; a film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth; record visitor numbers at art institutions from Amsterdam to Washington, DC; and special crowd-control measures at the Mauritshuis, The Hague, where thousands flock to catch a glimpse of the enigmatic and enchanting Girl with a Pearl Earring, also known as the “Dutch Mona Lisa”.
Outside of Holland, his works were even misattributed to other artists. It was not until the mid-19th century that Vermeer came to the attention of the international art world, which suddenly looked upon his narrative minutiae, meticulous textural detail, and majestic planes of light, spotted a genius, and never looked back.
This 40th anniversary edition showcases the complete catalog of Vermeer’s work, presenting the calm yet compelling scenes so treasured in galleries across Europe and the United States into one monograph of utmost reproduction quality. Crisp details and essays tracing Vermeer’s career illuminate his remarkable ability not only to bear witness to the trends and trimmings of the Dutch Golden Age but also to encapsulate an entire story in just one transient gesture, expression, or look.
The author
After completing his studies of art history and archaeology at the University of Vienna, Karl Schütz joined the staff of the Gemäldegalerie of the city’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, serving from 1972 as a curator and from 1990 to 2011 as its director. His particular scholarly interests include Netherlandish and Flemish painting, early-16th-century German painting, courtly portraiture, and the history of the Gemäldegalerie collection.
Met Museum Exhibit Tour: The Medici – Portraits And Politics, 1512-1570 (Video)
Join exhibition curator Keith Christiansen and Renaissance art historians Linda Wolk-Simon and Davide Gasparatto in conversation about the exhibition “The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512–1570,” and the development of the Florentine identity through portraits under Cosimo I de’ Medici’s rule. Film made possible by the generous support of The Brownstein Family Foundation, a Patron Member of The Friends of the Bargello. Learn more about the exhibition “The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512–1570” on The Met’s website: https://www.metmuseum.org/MediciPortr…
Art: Vasudeo S. Gaitonde’s “Painting 4” – The Abstract Artist ‘Haven From Chaos’
Cara Manes, Associate Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture, discovers a haven from the chaos of the everyday amid the “silence” and imperfection of Vasudeo S. Gaitonde’s “Painting, 4.”
Vasudeo S. Gaitonde was regarded as one of India’s foremost abstract painters. He received the Padma Shri Award in 1971.
Books: “Inside The Morgan – The Librarian’s Office”
Symbolist Views: Austrian Painter Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d’art. Klimt’s primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism.
Montana Views: John Maclean’s Backstory Memoir ‘Home Waters’
John Maclean’s family was the topic of “A River Runs Through It,” the novella that became a hit film. Now, his own new book tells the backstory of the captivating drama. Jeff Glor takes a look at Maclean’s love for Montana’s great outdoors.
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