Fornasetti presents a series of 12 hand-knotted tapestries named ‘twelve months and twelve suns’ as well as a previously unseen 13th tapestry.
Fornasetti: precious porcelain, refined furniture and home accessorize illustrate the Atelier’s creativity. The decorations play with shapes and turn everyday objects into multiples of art. The world of Fornasetti floats between imagination and reality, enriched by cultural references and artistic allusions. This is why a Fornasetti object is not simply something to possess, it is something to live and be inspired by.
• An interview with Charles Ray
• The style wars of Ricardo Bofill
• Gamers and galleries don’t quite come to blows
• What has changed at the Burrell?
Plus: the lost palaces of London, Yves Saint Laurent takes over Paris, and how do you commemorate Covid?
‘Suddenly I will see something that seizes me – a shape, a combination of shapes, a play of light or shadows, and I send up a prayer because I know I have seen a picture.’
JEFFREY SMART The year 2021 marks one hundred years since the birth of acclaimed Australian artist Jeffrey Smart. This major exhibition celebrates and commemorates this significant centenary. One of Australia’s most celebrated artists, Smart sought inspiration from the world around him – looking to the environment of urban and industrial modernity – which he transformed through his imaginative sense of theatre and intimate understanding of geometry and composition.
These potent and intriguing images have become emblematic of 20th and 21st century urban experience. Building on the foundational work already undertaken on Smart, this exhibition will bring fresh perspectives to his artistic contribution so that his remarkable legacy will be kept alive in the present. Curators: Dr Deborah Hart, Henry Dalrymple Head of Australian Art and Dr Rebecca Edwards, Sid & Fiona Myer Curator of Ceramics and Design
Mexico City Art Fair: Zonamaco 2022
ZⓈONAMACO is the largest art fair platform in Latin America. It was founded in 2002 by Zélika García, with four events that take place annually at Centro Citibanamex, in Mexico City.
ARTISTS & GALLERIES MENTIONED: About the Fair (0:00) Gabriel Rico, Eduardo Sarabia: Gallery OMR (0:49) Carlos Aires, Omar Barquet: Zilberman (2:13) Darío Escobar: Galería RGR (3:12) Jeppe Hein, König Gallery (3:47) Zhivago Duncan, Colector (4:05) The Hole (4:53) Yoshua Okón: Proyectos Monclova (5:45) Richard Prince: Gagosian (6:39) Olivia Steele: Maia Contemporary (7:07) Frida Orupado: Gallery Nordenhake (7:48) Juan Uribe, Héctor Madera: SGR Galeria (8:09) Furiosa (8:40) Jon Young, Carl Kostál (9:00) Los Bravú, Lyle O. Reitzel (9:47) Dr. Lakra, Kurimanzutto (10:41) Alex Hubbard, Larry Johnson: House of Gaga (11:59) Guadalupe Maravilla, Carlos Alejandro Motta: P.P.O.W (12:36) Miguel Angel Madrigal, Jeffly Gabriela Molina: Galeria Enrique Guerrero (13:10) Dan Lam, Hashimoto Contemporary (13:44) Gabriela Kraviez, CarrerasMugica (14:16) Boris Viskin, Galería Ethra (14:53) Josh Reames, Grip Face: Cerquone Gallery (15:30) Caleb Hahne, Yves Scherer, 1969 Gallery & Cassina Projects (16:19) Le Laboratoire (16:49) Anna Segovia, Lucía Vidales: Galeria Karen Huber (17:49) Donna Huanca, Charlie Billingham, Ana Prata: Travesía Cuatro (18:38) Erick Medel, Seasons LA (19:54) Piers Alsop, Neon Gallery (20:32)
Is Francis Bacon really the greatest painter of the 20th century?
It was not an enormous surprise that an exhibition of works by Francis Bacon at the Royal Academy that is supported by Christie’s should swiftly be followed by an announcement of the auction house offering a large work for sale. Triptych 1986-7, whose central panel depicts the artist’s partner John Edwards, with Woodrow Wilson on one side and the assassinated Trotsky’s study on the other, is being offered in the sale that takes place on 1 March with an estimate of £35m–£55m. Nor is it a surprise that an auction house should drum up interest in one of their lots using superlatives. But Rakewell was a little taken aback by the claim on Instagram from a Christie’s specialist that ‘Francis Bacon is unmistakably on of the greatest painters of the 20th century.’
Wheat Fields after the Rain (The Plain of Auvers) – 1890
Wheat Fields is a series of dozens of paintings by Dutch Post-Impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh, borne out of his religious studies and sermons, connection to nature, appreciation of manual laborers and desire to provide a means of offering comfort to others. The wheat field works demonstrate his progression as an artist from the drab Wheat Sheaves made in 1885 in the Netherlands to the colorful and dramatic 1888–1890 paintings from Arles, Saint-Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise in rural France.
This major exhibition, of works drawn from the Ashmolean’s collections as well as international loans, will span Pissarro’s entire career.
Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) is one of the most celebrated artists of nineteenth-century France and a central figure in Impressionism. Considered a father-figure to many in the movement, his work was enormously influential for many artists, including Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne. It opens in spring 2022.
• An interview with Ai Weiwei
• The art of kabuki theatre
• Dining with Beauty and the Beast
• The drawings of Jacques-Louis David
Plus: a touring display of Islamic arts in France, the hellish mining scenes of George Bissell, Madame de Pompadour’s porcelain, and a preview of Asia Week New York
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