Apollo articles from October 2005

Apollo archives from October 2005

Death--and transfiguration?(Palace of the Republic, Berlin, Germany)
October 1, 2005... An exhibition about death may not sound all that enticing. Nonetheless, 'Tod', the fourth in the 'Fraktale' series of contemporary art exhibitions mounted by Jonas Burgert and Ingolf Keiner in Berlin, is likely to prove a big popular success....

10 to catch: Apollo's selection for the month ahead.(Calendar)
October 1, 2005... 'Rubens: A master in the making' which opens at the National Gallery, London, on 26 October, analyses the development of the first fifteen years of the artist's career. when he visited Italy and then returned triumphantly to Antwerp. There are...

Tate Britain's director, Stephen Deuchar, explains to Samson Spanier the new re-hang at the museum, which includes types of art never previously exhibited there.(London News)
October 1, 2005... Tate Britain's new gallery dedicated to the English Civil War is full of portraits, the prevalent genre in an era of iconoclasm, so Henry Gibbs's Aeneas and His Family Fleeing Troy (1654) stands out. The sacking of Troy would have reminded any...

The British Museum is taking on a new role.(London News)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: The British Museum is taking on a new role: as a forum for international diplomacy. The opening of the current 'Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia' exhibition on 8 September included a speech by...

Two paintings by Manet of 1878 that began as a single composition have been reunited for the first time.(News)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Two paintings by Manet of 1878 that began as a single composition have been reunited for the first time. London's National Gallery has lent its Coin de cafe-concert (right) to an exhibition at the Oskar...

The only European renaissance portrait of an African man has been acquired by the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.(News)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: The only European renaissance portrait of an African man has been acquired by the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The work is by Jan Mostaert, a little documented Haarlem painter (c. 1472-after 1554), and can be...

The Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art, Madrid, opened its new wing on 28 September.(News)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: The Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art, Madrid, opened its new wing on 28 September. The building, designed by French architect Jean Novel, consists of gallery rooms, a library and an auditorium, each of which...

The Republic of Ireland has announced that it intends to establish an independent Irish Heritage Trust that will preserve major buildings.(News)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: The Republic of Ireland has announced that it intends to establish an independent Irish Heritage Trust that will preserve major buildings. The announcement was made on 9 September by the Taoiseach, Bertie...

The vanishing boat.(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2005... I really must protest in the strongest possible terms about the way in which the director of Artwatch UK, Michael Daley, has wilfully misrepresented me in your columns. In 'Turner's Vanishing Boat' ('Letters', APOLLO, August 2005), I stated...

'Hi, I'm in a museum'.(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2005... Am I alone in thinking that the great museums of Europe condone the use of mobile telephones in their galleries? While I was enjoying an exhibition at Tate Modern recently, a woman answered a call, after fumbling for a phone while it rang...

Don't drain the pool in the V&A's garden.(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2005... The V&A's new garden ('Gardening in a Palace of Art', APOLLO, August 2005) is assuredly a palace garden for a palace of art. It is extremely fresh yet draws beautifully on French formal gardens, at first luring the viewer with a sense of calm...

The Guggenheim's exhibition of Russian art is a triumph for its impresario-director.(New York News)(Thomas Krens)
October 1, 2005... Among the city's autumn shows it is the Guggenheim, plagued by controversy over its administration, finances and expansionist policy, that looks set to grab the limelight and the audience figures. 'Russia!' (until 11 January 2006,...

New Yorkers need to focus their eyes upwards on Manhattan's downtown streets this month.(New York News)
October 1, 2005... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: New Yorkers need to focus their eyes upwards on Manhattan's downtown streets this month. To celebrate twenty-five years of arts support, the high-tech company United Technologies Corporation has commissioned...

Delaroche, Napoleon and English collectors.(Cover Story)
October 1, 2005... To celebrate the bicentenary this month of the Battle of Trafalgar, this special issue of APOLLO is devoted to Napoleon and collectors of Napoleonica. We begin with an examination by Stephen Bann of the four portraits of the emperor by Paul...

A collector in hot pursuit of the emperor: in only a few years Pierre-Jean Chalencon has assembled one of the world's finest new Napoleonica collections. Christopher Woodward visited him in his apartment in Paris to talk about his passion for Napoleon and the exhibition of his treasures that has just begun a six-year tour of the USA.
October 1, 2005... Pierre-Jean Chalencon is only thirty-five years old but in his apartment in Paris he has assembled one of the most important new Napoleonic collections in the world. On the day I visited he was awaiting the packers who will take 300 objects for...

How Canova and Wellington honoured Napoleon: when the Duke of Wellington was given Canova's monumental statue of Napoleon as Mars in 1816, he placed it in the stairwell of Apsley House in London. This position is often interpreted as a calculated insult to the duke's old foe, but, as Julius Bryant argues, it was in fact a carefully thought-out tribute.
October 1, 2005... Few classic works of art in London make such an immediate and lasting impression as does Canova's statue Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker (1802-1806) at Apsley House, Piccadilly (Fig. 1). Napoleon's familiar remark made after his retreat from...

With royal approval the figurehead of HMS Queen Charlotte: earlier this year, a model for the figurehead of HMS Queen Charlotte, launched in 1790, was acquired by the Historic Dockyard, Chatham. Richard Hunter explains the importance of this carving, a design for one of the Royal Navy's last great figureheads, made in Chatham for Lord Howe's flagship in the war against France.
October 1, 2005... Earlier this year, a model of a ship's figurehead was sold at Bonhams in London, after 220 years hidden away from public view, its true significance as an icon of Britain's naval heritage unrecognised. (1) This small yet exquisitely carved...

How England first saw Bonaparte: a painting by Francesco Cossia commissioned by Maria Cosway in 1797 was the first true portrait of Napoleon to be seen in England. It was acquired by Sir John Soane, who, as Xavier F. Salomon and Christopher Woodward explain, juxtaposed it with a miniature by Isabey in a graphic comparison of the youthful hero with the tyrannical dicatator.
October 1, 2005... 'On the 15 May 1796, General Bonaparte made his entry into Milan at the head of the young army that had just marched over the bridge at Lodi, and showed the world that after so many centuries, there was now a successor to Caesar and Alexander.'...

Daniel Fisher, ceramicist: among the exhibitors in Joanna Bird's popular annual exhibition of contemporary ceramics at Browse & Darby, London, is Daniel Fisher, who uses innovative techniques to create vessels of great delicacy. Amicia de Moubray talked to him about the special appeal of working with porcelain.(Contemporary Design)
October 1, 2005... Over the past decade, there has been a surge of interest in British studio ceramics, and collectors eagerly await Joanna Bird's annual exhibition of contemporary ceramicists. Her interest in the subject having been aroused when at school, she...

Pathology of an era: France's obsession with its supposed degeneracy lies at the heart of Richard Thomson's ambitious attempt to relate French visual culture of the 1890s to its political and social context.(Book Review)
October 1, 2005... The Troubled Republic: Visual Culture and Social Debate in France 1889-1900 Richard Thomson Yale University Press, 40 [pounds sterling] /$60 ISBN 0 300 10465 0 The twelve years of French history that concern Richard Thomson here began...

White Salt-Glazed Stoneware of the British Isles.(Book Review)
October 1, 2005... White Salt-Glazed Stoneware of the British Isles Diana Edwards and Rodney Hampson Antique Collectors' Club, 45 [pounds sterling] ISBN 1 85149 4804 Hilary Young praises the way that the formidable difficulties confronting the study of...

Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement.(Book Review)
October 1, 2005... Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement Judith B. Tankard Abrams, $50, ISBN 0 300 10334 4 Like almost all historians of the Arts and Crafts style, Judith B. Tankard rarely challenges its ideals. yet, as Tim Richardson explains, this...

Henri-Cartier Bresson: A Biography.(Book Review)
October 1, 2005... Pierre Assouline Thames & Hudson, 20 [pounds sterling] ISBN 0 500 151233 X The first biography of Cartier-Bresson since his death is far from definitive, writes John Jolliffe, but it makes a good accompaniment to the memorable...

Geh-ry! Geh-ry! A strong curatorial vision makes the MARTA museum in Herford, Germany, designed by Frank Gehry, more than just a landmark building.(Exhibitions)
October 1, 2005... Ever since the Guggenheim Bilbao proved to be more than a five-minute wonder, cities with an image problem and the desire to put themselves on the map have looked to the Basque city for inspiration. We have seen the Baltic in Gateshead and the...

The best of failed painters: the exhibition of Roger Fenton's photographs that opens at Tate Britain this month reveals to David Platzer the influence of Turner, Ingres and English Romantic poetry.(Exhibitions)
October 1, 2005... Except to those interested in the history of photography, Roger Fenton is remembered, if at all, for his pioneering images of the Crimean War. A remarkable exhibition that brings his work home for a stay at Tate Britain, after visits to several...

Not just oil and canvas: a rich selection of Van Gogh's drawings moves to New York this month, following its showing in Amsterdam. Martin Bailey welcomes this concentration on a neglected aspect of the artist's work, which raises important issues, such as the problem of fading in Van Gogh's work on paper.(Exhibitions)
October 1, 2005... 'Vincent van Gogh: The drawings' argues that although it is the paintings that shape our image of his oeuvre, the artist's works on paper are highly important. A high proportion of his greatest paintings are permanently on show in public...

Garden of foreboding: Ian Hamilton Finlay's eightieth birthday has been celebrated by three exhibitions in Edinburgh and tours of his garden, Little Sparta. Tim Richardson explores Finlay's mixture of lyricism, wit and implicit violence.(Exhibitions)
October 1, 2005... To celebrate Ian Hamilton Finlay's eightieth birthday, Edinburgh saw no fewer than three retrospective exhibitions, which together illustrated something of his range as a poet, printmaker and sculptor. However, the place where Finlay's work is...

Around the galleries: there are several remarkable rarities on offer this month in London and New York, writes Susannah Woolmer, including Ethiopian manuscripts, poignant photographs of a vanished Africa--and a splendid cup to toast Trafalgar Day.
October 1, 2005... The Shahnama, or 'Book of Kings', was composed at the close of the tenth century by the Persian poet Firdausi, who was born in about 935. Hailed as a Persian equivalent to the Iliad and Odyssey, it is thought to be the longest poem ever written...

Aboriginal art: Although some museums and art fairs still categorise Aboriginal art as ethnography, the market for it has grown in the past thirty years from nothing to nearly $100 million a year. Rebecca Hossack explains why it appeals to so many collectors, and picks out undervalued areas.(Collectors' Focus)
October 1, 2005... In 1972 an American naturalist travelling through central Australia bought a small painted board in Alice Springs for AUS$100. This July the picture--Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri's Emu Corroboree Man (Fig. 1)--was sold at Sotheby's in Melbourne...

On your marks--the season starts! Fairs form the nucleus for frenetic autumn activity in London and New York, while a princely collection is auctioned at a fairy-tale castle in Germany.(Art Market)
October 1, 2005... No event is anticipated with such a frenzy of activity in London as the annual Frieze Art Fair (21-24 October). This young, cutting-edge international contemporary art fair has been a success ever since it first opened its doors in Regent's...

Under the vandals' hammer: the wilful destruction of historic monuments does not belong to a barbaric, bygone era. In Saudi Arabia, historic sites are being deliberately razed by religious fundamentalists.(Architecture)
October 1, 2005... The Vandals were far from unique in their attitude to architectural monuments. Vandalism is a perennial and ubiquitous phenomenon, although possibly cherished by particular cultures and encouraged in particular eras. The 1960s, for instance,...

Did Dickens know best? In February 1981, Anthony Powell reviewed Jane Cohen's book on Charles Dickens and his illustrators.
October 1, 2005... Dickens himself took a keen interest in his illustrations, and was not an easy man to work with. He raises the interesting question of to what extent the author knows best in giving instructions for how his stories are to be depicted. On the...