Escher X nendo | Between Two Worlds is a groundbreaking exhibition that features the work of Dutch artist M. C. Escher in dialogue with the work of acclaimed Japanese design studio nendo.

Borrowing about 160 Escher prints and drawings from the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, the NGV engaged the nendo design studio in Tokyo and its Chief Designer and Founder, Oki Sato, not to design an exhibition around Escher, but to enter into a collaborative dialogue with the artist.

M. C. Escher (1898–1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made some of the most iconic prints of the twentieth century. His early life was spent in Italy, where he travelled extensively, drawing from nature and perfecting his technique. Escher and his family left Italy in 1935 due to the rise of fascism. This marked a shift in focus for the artist, from the external world to his inner, imaginary world. From this point he used his refined skills to explore the mysterious and paradoxical nature of space, time and human perception. His tessellations, optical illusions, impossible inventions and representations of infinity are at once serious and playful, and continue to inspire audiences of all ages.

Nendo is a design studio founded in 2002 by Oki Sato, one of the world’s most well-known and prolific designers. Based in Tokyo and Milan, nendo (meaning ‘clay’ in Japanese) designs graphics, products, furniture, installations and interiors that seek to surprise people in subtle, intelligent and playful ways. At the heart of the studio’s vision is simplicity, curiosity and craftsmanship. Nendo has presented exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Centre Pompidou in Paris; the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; and the Design Museum Holon in Israel.

Paris, Auditorium du Louvre / Italian Cultural Institute, December 12-13, 2018

The "Diaspora" Venetian artists and artistic exchanges in Europe in the eighteenth century
seminar

The Dazzling Exhibition Venice. Venice, arts and Europe in the eighteenth century (Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, September 26, 2018 - January 21, 2019) offers a tour of Venetian civilization of the eighteenth century through a selection of paintings, sculptures, works of art, costumes and musical instruments.

On this occasion the Louvre Auditorium organizes a symposium in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute and the Association of Historians of Italian Art (AIHA), which will focus on the diaspora of Venetian artists and artistic exchanges in Europe in the eighteenth century. This radiation Venice beyond its borders is a singularity and is explained by various economic, diplomatic and political factors beyond the genius artists that attracts the most powerful patrons. The conference aims to deepen some of the most complex aspects and richest of this phenomenon.

This presentation is only one of several papers being delivered on this day. For more information on the full schedule, please click on the 'External Link' below.

A presentation as part of the International Symposium: "Arts of the Ryūkyū Kingdom" (14-15 December 2018)

The symposium will take place at the University of Zurich on Friday, 14th and Saturday, 15th December 2018 in room HAH-E-11
(University of Zurich, Häldeliweg 2, 8044 Zurich)

The symposium is free and open to the public, no prior registration is necessary.

Presentations will be held in Japanese and in English. Texts in English will be supplied for presentations given in Japanese.

For questions, please contact the Section for East Asian Art: kgoa@khist.uzh.ch

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The islands between China and Japan have long been embroiled in a sea of multiple identities, lasting into the present. A few of these islands, an archipelago that was called, at various points in time, the Loochoo Islands, the Ryūkyū Kingdom, and recently Okinawa, have been enmeshed in a complex mix of multiple identities throughout their history, resulting in a complex and controversial understanding of their arts and culture. The arts of these islands have been described as 1) expressions of a distinctly Japanese tradition, 2) as resulting from a mixture of Japanese and Chinese traditions, or 3) as a distinct culture of its own with receptions from other neighboring cultures. The works of arts in this symposium will be examined from these conflicting parameters in order to explore the questions of cultural heritage and national identities.

Themes of the symposium

The symposium on Ryūkyū and Okinawa arts is organized by the University of Zurich in collaboration with the Museum der Kulturen, Basel (MKB). It is part of a multi-year project between the two institutions that is based on the remarkable collection of Ryūkyū textiles in the collection of the MKB. The university, the museum, and Japanese researchers from Okinawa have been examining the museum's textile collection in a survey to be completed in 2018. This symposium marks a milestone in the project, and will be followed by major exhibitions in Japan and at the MKB.

The symposium features experts from Japan, USA and Europe and will be held over three days. The first two days will feature presentations at the University of Zurich, and are open for both scholars and members of the public to attend. The third day (limited to speakers and panel chairs) will be held at the MKB in Basel and will include the viewing of the Ryūkyūan textiles in the museum storage.

The symposium examines topic such as:

The history, tradition, and techniques of the Ryūkyūan textiles
History of the Ryūkyū Kingdom and Okinawa
Comparisons to textiles from other cultures
Alfred Bühler, Jaap Langwiess, and the collection’s provenance

For a full schedule of the symposium, please click on the "External Link" below.

Potsdam, Museum Barberini, Alter Markt, Humboldtstr. 5-6, 16.01.2019
Registration deadline: Jan 16, 2019

A presentation as part of the Symposium, "Monet. Places"

The reproduction of fleeting natural impressions played a central role in the art of Claude Monet (1840-1926). Like no other Impressionist, he explored the topography and the specific lighting moods of different locations, from the metropolis of Paris to the remote Seine villages of Vétheuil and Giverny. This symposium explores the evolution of Monet's art from the 1850s to the 1920s with a focus on the places - both at home and on the road - from which he drew inspiration for his painting.

All lectures will be in English.

Please click on the "External Link' below to learn more.

Save the Date for an exclusive VIP Preview for APS members on Wednesday, January 30, 2019, from 9 am–11 am!

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
200 N. Boulevard, Richmond, VA 23220

Please join us for a preview of this exciting exhibition Hollar’s Encyclopedic Eye: Prints from the Frank Raysor Collection (on view February 2, 2019 – May 5, 2019). One of the most prolific printmakers of the Baroque period, Wenceslaus Hollar (Bohemian, 1607–1677) rose up out of obscurity in one of Europe’s most turbulent eras to amass an astounding body of work. Drawn exclusively from the Frank Raysor Collection, a promised gift to VMFA, this exhibition presents over 200 Hollar prints—remarkable for their range of subjects, stunning details, and rare visual records of 17th-century Europe. The Raysor Collection, as a promised gift, makes VMFA one of the world’s five major Hollar repositories.

Please RSVP to Ellie McNevin at ellie.mcnevin@vmfa.museum.

The exhibition James Ensor & Alexander Kluge : Dark Centuries proposes a unique pairing between the graphic oeuvre of Belgian artist James Ensor and the films of German filmmaker and writer Alexander Kluge.

More than thirty engravings by James Ensor, produced between 1886 and 1904, map out a route along which we encounter scenes of crowds, by turns petrified and riotous, and a society in masks, parading in the guise of its demons. Madness accompanies pre- and post-revolutionary forces and carnival seems to go hand in hand with the idea of progress.

A prolific writer, film director, and engaged in TV since the end of the 1980s, Alexander Kluge produces short, often burlesque audio-visual narratives which take up famous and lesser-known episodes in history and religion. The exhibition at the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles presents an ensemble of old and new films seeking to replace historical and anecdotal fact, which encompasses works by James Ensor and Vincent van Gogh in a broader constellation. Dark Centuries is thus the forum for a dynamic that has recently led Kluge to take a close look at the works of visual artists, such as George Baselitz and Hokusai.

This month, the Foundation will launch the Frankenthaler Prints Initiative for university museums, comprising gifts of selected prints by the artist to ten museums. Each will receive ten prints and five to ten related trial proofs, drawn from the Foundation’s extensive collection of prints by the artist. The gifts—spanning etching, lithography, monotype or monoprint, pochoir, screenprint, woodcut, and other techniques, sometimes in combination—will reflect the variety of media Frankenthaler used.

Each museum will also receive a one-time grant of USD 25,000 to develop a project or program for the study, presentation, and interpretation of the works within a three-year timeframe.

Ruth Fine, former Curator of Special Projects in Modern Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and a leading authority on Frankenthaler’s prints, has selected the prints and is working with the Foundation as an advisor on the multi-year initiative.

The museums have been selected for their dedicated commitment to prints as a significant collecting area and teaching tool, while having few or no examples of Frankenthaler’s prints in their collections. These are:

Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum
Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts/Hammer Museum, UCLA
The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Princeton University Art Museum
RISD Museum, Rhode Island School of Design
SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah College of Art and Design
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence

The second group of museums for the prints initiative will be announced in 2019.

Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011), whose career spanned six decades, has long been recognized as one of the great American artists of the twentieth century, widely credited for her pivotal role in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field painting. She produced a body of work whose impact on contemporary art has been profound and continues to grow. Her work is represented in the collections of major museums worldwide and has been the subject of numerous national and international exhibitions and substantial publications.

The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation was established and endowed by the artist during her lifetime and became active in 2013, on the closing of the artist’s estate. The Foundation supports the artist’s legacy through a variety of initiatives, including encouraging and facilitating significant exhibitions of Frankenthaler’s work, grant-making, and the publishing of a catalogue raisonne. Its holdings include an extensive selection of Frankenthaler’s work in a variety of mediums, her collection of works by other artists, and original papers and materials pertaining to her life and work.

Location: Room 132, College of Arts & Sciences, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston

Please join us for a lecture on Thursday, December 6, by the brilliant Meredith Gamer, from Columbia University. She will be discussing her work on the visual culture of punishment in eighteenth-century Britain, with a focus on Hogarth.

The exhibition presents the most recent print acquisitions of the Fondation William Cuendet & Atelier de Saint-Prex.