Grindelwald, Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The annual snow sculpture contest in the Bernese Alpine resort of Grindelwald ends Saturday 27 January with awards being handed out in the afternoon. The American team says the Italian team is tipped to win, according to Jungfrau Zeitung, which carries a video and several photos as part of a feature story on the event. It adds that Canadians have a good chance as well, with the best track record, having won 8 of the past 28 contests. Ten national teams are entered. Event details on GenevaLunch
Title: Lecture: expert Yves Bonnefoy on art, poetry
Location: Geneva, Museum of Art & History
Link out: Click here
Description: Lecture, free but limited seats, followed by brunch CHF20
Start Time: 11:00
Date: 2010-01-17
End Time: 12:30
Montreux Jazz Festival 2010, by Britto
Montreux, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The new Montreux Jazz Festival poster is out, with Romero Britto, Brazilian neo-pop artist providing the bright and lively artwork. This is not Britto’s first work for the Festival: some will remember that he did the poster work for the 33rd Montreux Festival in 1999.
His work is energetic, lively and fresh, defined by a harmonious use of colour and space. His style is on the edge between the directness of marketing and the subtlety of fine art. Think of Paul Klee with a spray can.
Self-portrait with Japanese print, December 1887
Images courtesy of Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland. Click on images to view larger
By Bob Evans
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - “In landscapes, Van Gogh found the peace of mind and balance that was missing from his own life.”
Visitors to a stunning exhibition at Basel’s Kunstmuseum this summer could be excused if they found reason to quibble with this assertion from its curators as they emerge from the 70-painting survey of the Dutch artist’s frenetic 10-year career in the last-but-one decade of the 19th century.
A European cultural event of the year
But there is no doubt that the show in this 1,000-year-old art-mad city is a European cultural event of the year.
”Vincent Van Gogh-Between Earth and Heaven: The Landscapes” has already attracted a record for the Kunstmuseum, one of the continent’s recognized greats, with 250,000 people from around the world in the initial 90 days of its five-month run.
Billed as the first-ever exhibition to cover landscapes from every period of Van Gogh’s work, it ranges from the dark tones of the 1881-85 Brabant rural scenes through to the bright but restrained northern French country views of the frenziedly-productive three months in Auvers before he shot himself in July 1890 on a walk through the fields.
Farmhouse in Provence, June 1888
Cornfield in Provence, June 1888
In between, it covers the bright cityscapes and suburban vistas of his two years in Paris from 1886-88, the blooming orchards and deep-blue sky-and-yellow- wheat Provence harvest scenes of his eventful year in Arles, and the menacing cloud swirls and twisting trees of the 12 months he spent as a patient in the psychiatric hospital at St Remy.
An hour of fame for Everyman and Everywoman in Trafalgar Square: a 100-day art project known as the “Fourth plinth” which presents ordinary citizens as part of a changing, living sculpture, orchestrated by UK artist Antony Gormley, is provoking talk: is it art? Is he the artist or are the true artists his randomly picked subjects? Does this really show 21st century Britain as Gainsborough showed the country in an earlier era? Or is it just a pedestal for attention-getters? Reactions: BBC, Guardian, Times
Thirty-three sketches and drawings made by Pablo Picasso from 1917-1924 were stolen from a first-floor unlocked case at the Picasso Museum in Paris, police announced Tuesday 9 June. The sketches are valued at $11 million and are believed to have disappeared between late Monday and early Tuesday. The museum is currently undergoing major renovation work and security is reportedly weak. BBC, afp/Google, Fre
Title: Gallery hopping (nuit des bains)
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: Once again the galleries in the “quartier de Bains” in Geneva hold simultaneous inaugurations of their exhibitions.
Go gallery hopping, enjoy art, meet the artists and sample some wine.
Date: 14 May 2009
Title: Exhibition: La Ruche, city of artists
Location: Evian, France
Link out: Click here
Description: La Ruche, city of artists is an exhibition encompassing 87 years of art at the heart of Montparnasse in Paris.
Start Date: 01 May 2009
End Date: 10 May 2009
Title: Europ’art’09
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: europ’art’09, the international art show of Geneva, will take place from 22-26 April, 2009 in Hall 2 of Geneva Palexpo.
This vintage year of 2009 will mark the 18th edition of this event.
Start Date: 22 Apr 2009
End Date: 26 Apr 2009
Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland (Le Nouvelliste, Fre) – Ferdinand Hodler, the influential Swiss artist whose painting of Saint Prex in Vaud fetched the highest price for a Swiss painter, CHF10.9 million in 2007, is now officially acknowledged to have created three sculptures, after years of the art world believing he had done only two, plus four bronze figures. Hodler, who is best known for his paintings, died in 1918.
Title: An evening of art and fun: Nuit des bains
Location: Geneva, quartier des bains
Link out: Click here
Description: Galleries stay open until very late in the evening to showcase their artists. Part of the fun is going “gallery hopping” and admiring the work of artists who will compete for the award of the “Nuit des bains”.
Date: 19 Mar 2009
Title: Six visions of Latin American art
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: The exhibit will take place at the American International Womens’ Club. Opening night is 12 March from 18h30 to 22h.
11 Route de Chene, 1207 Geneva
Start Date: 12 Mar 2009
End Date: 10 Apr 2009
Title: Live art installation, Fionna Wright, Lausanne
Location: Lausanne, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: As part of the Urban festival in Lausanne. Other performances all over town also available.
Start Date: 04 Dec 2008
End Date: 06 Dec 2008
Title: Exhibit: Russian painters and travellers
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: Russian drawings and paintings. At the museum of art and history of Geneva.
Start Date: 04 Dec 2008
End Date: 15 Feb 2009
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – It’s not every day that customs officials pull someone over and find several Pablo Picasso sketches in a bag.
A “traveller” whose details are not being shared by customs was pulled out of the “nothing to declare” line at Zurich Airport and asked to open a bag. There sat 14 sketches, made during May and June 1971 by Picasso.
Title: art lecture series
Location: Geneva, Musée d’art et d’histoire
Description: A series of Lectures in English on Thursdays beginning October 30: “The Seductive Appeal of Fashion Photography.” The first speaker will be William Ewing, Director of the Musée d’Elysée in Lausanne who will talk about Edward Steichen and the origins of Fashion Photography.
Start Time: 12:30
Date: 30 Oct 2008
Lausanne, Switzerland (24 Heures, Fre) – Ecal (University of Art and Design of Lausanne) has begun its new master’s degree, a one-year programme in luxury design that aims to fill a gap in the design world, with a focus on sustainable development and new technologies as part of design work at the highest level.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The world’s top modern and contemporary art fair opens in Basel today, where it is likely to pull in 55,000 people, as it did in 2007.
Photo: Pedro Barateiro, Aerial View (Psycogeography Maps) 3, 2006, courtesy Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon, Portugal.
Art Basel is primarily an art market, with 300 galleries represented and works on sale from more than 2,000 artists from around the world. This year’s market, according to Le Temps, which carries a review in French of the show, was off to an odd start, as if something were missing. Indeed, the Knie circus was missing as the doors opened: it normally sets up camp across the street from the market, which also always offers a good deal of showmanship.
This year Basel Art has been affected by the Euro2008 football championship which begins 7 June, just as the art show ends. The art show was moved up to avoid having the two major events running at the same time, ostensibly to avoid a shortage of hotel rooms. Le Temps points out that the two crowds are probably not a natural mix and this may have also been a factor in the date change.
Photo: Qiu Xiaofei, Bathroom, 2007, courtesy Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing
Le Temps writer Laurent Wolf wanders around the halls and points out that Basel Art offers an extraordinary mix of beautiful, kitsch, disturbing and more. It’s a place where art and money come together and cultures can clash, writes Laurent Wolf, and anything and everything goes.
Art Basel sells tickets online, CHF35-85, or they can be purchased at the door. Opening hours, Wed-Sun, 4-7 June 2008, 11:00-19:00. The market offers free babysitting and art activities, plus food and drink for children aged 3-13 whose parents are attending the fair. Details
