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Friday, December 31, 2021

The Last Day of 2021 in Venice Is Magical - Bring On 2022!

The Grand Canal in the Fog from the Accademia Bridge - Photo: Cat Bauer

(Venice, Italy) On the last day of the year 2021, Venice wrapped herself in a cloak of caigo, that thick fog that nestles the city in a protective embrace. Walking through Venice during caigo is like stepping through a cloud and finding solid ground beneath your feet. 

Venice, the impossible city, becomes even more enchanting in the mist. The caigo softens the view and casts a spell on everyone who is fortunate enough to be in town to finish out the year tucked inside the arms of the lagoon.
 

New Year's Eve Day Concert at Palazzo Polignac - Photo: Cat Bauer

Wandering through the caigo and arriving at Palazzo Polignac on the Grand Canal for the morning concert on the day of New Year's Eve made the end of the year even more wondrous.

Covid regulations had knocked out the tenor, but not the spirit of the concert, which overcame a great obstacle with grace and pizzazz. The music was thoughtful and inspirational. From the Overture of William Tell by Rossini played by the four hands of Louis Lortie and Paolo Bressan to the rich notes of soprano Ekaterina Siurina, the experience was simply beautiful. 

The concert was:

In honour of Winnaretta Singer
Princesse Edmond de Polignac (1865-1943)
and in support of the Spirit of Venice

Let's hope that the New Year continues in the same key, and that we can continue to surround ourselves with beauty, creative endurance, and the magical Spirit of Venice.

Happy New Year from Venezia,
Cat Bauer

Monday, December 27, 2021

Molten Magic: Glass Sculptures of Tony Cragg on the Island of Murano in Venice - #SiliconDioxide

Glass Tooth (Untitled) 2021 by Tony Cragg - Photo: Cat Bauer

(Venice, Italy) The British sculptor Sir Tony Cragg marvels that the human body forms teeth, creating natural sculptures made out of minerals. The enamel that covers human teeth is 96 percent mineral and stronger than bone. Otherwise, he thinks that human beings make boring things and that industry is killing our form. 

"We have to stop impoverishing form. Sculpture is the only way to put form back in the world," said Cragg at the opening of Silicon Dioxide on December 3, his solo show at the Murano Glass Museum. Curated by Berengo Studio in association with the Civic Museums of Venice, it is the first exhibition dedicated to Cragg's use of glass as an artistic medium.

Going to Murano in December - Photo: Cat Bauer

On a clear day, taking a trip to Murano in the winter is like traveling into a surrealistic postcard come to life. The snow-capped Italian Alps loom so close to the water of lagoon that they seem photo-shopped onto the sky. The air is crisp; the locals inhabitants are warm; and the tourists are intelligent. Add the opportunity to view Cragg's glass sculptures up close at the Silicon Dioxide exhibition, and the journey to the Murano Glass Museum becomes a wonderful winter adventure. 
 
Silicon dioxide is the primary ingredient that glass is made of, a miraculous material that transforms from its molten form in the fiery furnaces on Murano to swirling works of art as it cools into a breakable solid. From Cragg's imaginative mind to the hands of master glass-blowers, the glass solidifies into distinct sculptures -- everything from ordinary bottles filled with vegetables and beans to a haunting triptych self-portrait.
 
Self portrait by Tony Cragg - Photo: Cat Bauer
 
Tony Cragg first came to Venice in 1980. Since then, his work has been featured in several editions of the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition. He represented Britain at the national pavilion in 1988, the same year he won the esteemed Turner Prize. 

In 2009, Cragg first started working with Berengo Studio, the revolutionary glass movement founded by Adriano Berengo in 1989 to whisk the ancient art of glass-making into the future. International artists collaborate with maestro glass-blowers on the island of Murano to create contemporary works of art using the powerful magic of glass. Cragg was featured in the first edition of Glasstress, a collateral exhibition of the Venice Biennale that showcased works produced by Berengo Studio, which has since grown into a recurring contemporary exhibition featuring some of the world's greatest artists.
 
Tony Cragg & Cat Bauer in front of Cisten (1999) sculpture of glass bottles
Photo 2021 Museo del Vetro by Nally Bellati of Contessanally
 
I first saw Tony Cragg's work in Venice at Ca' Pesaro in 2010, and then again in Merano in 2011 where I had the opportunity to talk to him at dinner. I was struck then by the way he seemed to feel the actual spirit of the molecules that make up the different materials he forms into sculptures. Click to read the post:


With Silicon Dioxide, Cragg juxtaposes his glass sculptures of the past with new works that have never been exhibited before, including the sculpture of the glass tooth. "I'm fascinated by teeth because they are a mineral sculpture that the body makes. I think it's a great, amazing idea that we eat stuff and somehow we make mineral things -- I think that's quite an astonishing notion... and anthropologically, what we find of a lot of species of human beings, two million years old, whatever -- all that's left are the teeth. It's very archaic and has a strong emotional meaning and quality to it."

Silicon Dioxide runs through March 13, 2022. Go to the Murano Glass Museum for more information. 
 
UPDATE: Tony Cragg's Silicon Dioxide has been extended until May 15, 2022, and is open to the public every day from 10:00AM to 5:00PM.
2ND UPDATE: Tony Cragg's Silicon Dioxide has again been extended, this time until August 21, 2022.
3RD UPDATE: Tony Cragg's Silicon Dioxide has been extended again until October 16, 2022.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer

Monday, November 22, 2021

Anish Kapoor & the Blackest Black in the Universe in Venice, Italy at the Accademia & Palazzo Manfrin + Gillo Dorfles at the Cini

Anish Kapoor & Taco Dibbets at Gallerie dell'Accademia 
Background painting: Madonna of the Treasuers by Tintoretto (1567) 
Photo: Cat Bauer
 
(Venice, Italy) "I'm going to ask Anish Kapoor why he's got exclusive rights to the blackest black in the universe and why he won't let other artists use the color," I said to some colleagues over at the Giorgio Cini Foundation. 

On the morning of Friday, November 12, we were at the Cini for the inauguration of Ghiribizzi  or "Whims," an exhibition of fanciful drawings with clever titles that Gillo Dorfles, the Italian art critic, painter and philosopher, sketched in 2018, just months before his death at age 107. They reminded me of John Lennon's drawings. 

The conversation took place in the impressive Nuova Manica Lunga, designed by the architect Michele De Lucchi. About a decade ago, De Lucchi had transformed the ancient dormitory of the Benedictine monks into a very cool contemporary library. The exhibition is in a small room, Sala Barbantini, off to the right, and will run through January 31, 2022.

Vitriol by Gillo Dorfles over the fireplace. - Photo: Cat Bauer

We all vaguely knew the story about how Anish Kapoor had scored the blackest black color, and the resounding tumult from the art world. Kapoor had signed an exclusive deal with the inventor of Vantablack, "the blackest material in the universe," granting him the right to be the only artist allowed to use it. This caused chaos in the art world. Other artists were outraged that an artist would dare to own a color -- especially pure black -- and attacked Kapoor on social media. 

The artist Stuart Semple led the onslaught. He coined the Instagram hashtag #sharetheblack and created his own exclusive color, Pinkest Pink, which he sold on his website for £3.99 to anyone except Anish Kapoor with the following caveat: 

"You are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated to Anish Kapoor, you are not purchasing this item on behalf of Anish Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor."

Kapoor responded with an Instagram image of his middle finger dipped in a jar of Pinkest Pink and the caption: "Up yours #pink."

I had been surprised at Kapoor's response, which seemed almost peevish. I thought he was supposed to be enlightened and above the fray. I told my colleagues I couldn't stay for refreshments. "I don't want to be late. I'll let you know what Kapoor says." 

Manica Lunga Library at the Giorgio Cini Foundation - Photo: Cat Bauer

I made my way out of the monumental Cini Foundation and across the Giudecca Canal to the Gallerie dell'Accademia, where the press conference was being held. 
 
The headline in the press notes, in English:

THE GREAT EXHIBITION THAT THE GALLERIES OF ACCADEMIA IN VENICE
DEDICATE TO THE MAESTRO ANISH KAPOOR
IT WILL ALSO BE ARTICULATED IN A SECOND VENUE, THE HISTORIC GALLERY OF PALAZZO MANFRIN 

Palazzo Manfrin - Photo by Wolfgang Moroder
 
The main reason for the press conference was to announce that not only would Kapoor be having an exhibition at the Accademia next year from April 20 to October 9, there would be a second venue: the historic Palazzo Manfrin in the Cannaregio district, which Kapoor had bought and is in the process of restoring to be the seat of his artistic foundation. 

And yes, the blackest black is coming to Venice. The exhibition will include ground-breaking new works created using carbon nanotechnology, which will be shown for the first time.

Carla Toffolo, Anish Kapoor, Giulio Manieri Elia, Taco Dibbits

Anish Kapoor is considered to be one of the most influential artists working today. Born in Mumbai, India in 1954, he now lives and works in London. His works are permanently exhibited in major museums and collections around the world.

After Giulio Manieri Elia, the Director of the Accademia kicked off the introductions, Taco Dibbits, the curator of the exhibition and distinguished Director of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, started the conversation. Both Kapoor and Dibbits said they were perfectionists and after being forced to communicate using Zoom during the pandemic, they were glad they could be physically together in Venice. 

Dibbits asked Kapoor: "Why Venice and not Florence?" 

Kapoor replied (I am paraphrasing) that Florence is the City of Light and Venice is the City of Darkness. They call it Death in Venice, not Death in Florence. There is melancholy in this city. Titan's the Flaying of Marsyas is a dark, dangerous thing. It is not a work that depicts a scene, it is very contemporary -- it is a thing that is actually taking place.

This immediately struck a chord because one of the very first posts I wrote on this blog way back in January 2008 was about Titian's disturbing work of art:

Late Titian and the Sensuality of Painting (L'ultimo Tiziano e la sensualità della pittura)

Flaying of Marsyas by Titian (c.1570-76)

Dibbits said that Kapoor's work always digs under the surface. Kapoor said that he sees himself as a sculptor who is a painter. 

It was a labyrinthine conversation about the relationship between pigment and thought and physical expression and how color makes a dreamy link between the physical and non-physical world. About how violence and beauty live right next to each other. They wondered where does God exist? And how Art gives a face to God. How human beings invented God and Art...

Kapoor said that Plato sat in the cave and looked out at the light -- that it was a masculine, forward observation -- while Freud looked at the back of the cave into the darkness, which was more feminine and inward. Kapoor said that artists must look into the darkness.

Anish Kapoor Black Within Me, 2021 Oil on canvas Photograph: Dave Morgan ©Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved SIAE, 2021
Anish Kapoor
Black Within Me, 2021 Oil on canvas
Photograph: Dave Morgan
©Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved SIAE, 2021

It was one of the best press conferences we've had in years. Much of the credit for the ebb and flow must be given to the translator, the astonishing Carla Toffolo, who appeared to have a photographic memory and translated long, winding dialogues on complicated subjects effortlessly from English to Italian and back again. 

As the discussion delved deeper into esoteric topics, we slowly realized that Toffolo was some kind of genius. No one had ever seen anything like it. At one point Kapoor picked up Toffolo's notebook and showed it to all of us. There were just a few scribbled words. She had not only translated long paragraphs of Kapoor's philosophical meanderings seamlessly, but had captured the essence of his complex soul -- without notes! 

The Blackest Black

I finally had the opportunity to ask Kapoor about Vantablack, the blackest color in the universe, and how other artists were calling it "Kapoor Black," and why wouldn't he share it? Kapoor said that it was an inaccurate criticism -- that he must live with this criticism, but it is inaccurate. 

He said he was sitting in his studio reading the newspaper, and came across a little article about this dark material, Vantablack, a material that was created for military purposes and had no relation to art. It was blacker than a black hole and absorbed 99.8% of light. 

Kapoor wrote to the creator of the material, Ben Jensen. They have since been collaborating for about six or seven years to develop a way Kapoor could use the material in his art. It is not a paint that comes out of a tube. It is very technical and difficult to describe. 

Afterwards, I went up to him and said, just tell me how it feels to work with the black. He said, "You cannot touch it. It is too dangerous."

Anish Kapoor The Dark, 2021 Oil on Canvas Photograph: Dave Morgan ©Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved SIAE, 2021
Anish Kapoor
The Dark, 2021 Oil on Canvas
Photograph: Dave Morgan
©Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved SIAE, 2021

I have since found a brilliant in-depth article written by Stuart McGurk for the August 2017 issue of GQ. It answers every question you want to know about the story of the blackest black in the universe, and how Kapoor got the exclusive right to use it. After reading the article, I understood completely why Kapoor had dipped his middle finger in the Pinkest Pink.

Like all good controversies, the Battle of the Blackest Black will raise the awareness of the Kapoor exhibition in Venice next spring to a whole other level.

From GQ
:

Who’s behind art’s dark little secret, Vantablack?

When one self-taught scientist discovered a substance so black even Nasa couldn't find it, it was set to disrupt everything from Hollywood to fashion. Yet it was an art-world altercation that would hit the headlines. GQ goes behind the scenes in the war for the blackest black


I don't think I've ever read a GQ article before. I was impressed, once I got past the guyspeak. Stuart McGurk does the work of an investigative journalist, taking a deep dive into the controversy of color and examining the issue from all angles. It should have put a stop to the squabbling, but apparently not. Read it yourself and decide. 

One section that struck me was when McGurk seeks out Kassia St Clair, a writer, cultural historian and color expert who explains the importance of pigments and colors. McCurk writes:
It used to be part of an artist's job to source their own colours: to know a pigment alchemist, known as "colourmen", or a Silk Road trader who knew how to get things, or at least make a trip to Venice, at one point the pigment trading capital of the world.

Perhaps this is part of where the outrage about Vantablack comes from: a generation of artists too used to getting their colours in a shop. In some ways, Kapoor sourcing Vantablack for himself is a throwback to what an artist's job used to be.

"Yes," says St Clair. "We're so used to colour being democratic, to going into a shop. But, originally, artists would have to make their own pigments or source them from a particular place. That was part of your craft. That would," she says, "have been part of your reputation."

So it seems that Anish Kapoor, like all great artists, has committed the offense of actually doing his homework. And after seeing him with my own eyes, hearing him with my own ears, speaking to him one-on-one, and reading the GQ story, I have changed my opinion. His response to the Pinkest Pink no longer seems peevish. It seems funny. 

It is fitting that Anish Kapoor will have an exhibition in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, one of the finest collections of classical painting anywhere in the world. Kapoor said, "All art must engage with what went before. The Accademia presents a wonderful and wondrous challenge. I feel a deep commitment to Venice, its architecture and its commitment to the contemporary arts."


I am really looking forward to the arrival of the Blackest Black in the Universe and more from Anish Kapoor both at the Gallerie dell'Accademia and at Palazzo Manfrin. I think it's fantastic that Kapoor is restoring a palace in Venice as the headquarters of his foundation. 

And I never did much like pink.

The Anish Kapoor exhibitions at the Accademia Galleries and Palazzo Manfrin will run from April 20 to October 9, 2022 in conjunction with the next International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Go to the Gallerie dell'Accademia for more information.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer

Sunday, October 24, 2021

A Brief History of Palazzo Grimani + Domus Grimani & The Room of the Doge (+ Georg Baselitz Does Double Duty in Venice - Vedova Foundation)

Archinto by Georg Baselitz at Palazzo Grimani - Photo: Cat Bauer
 
(Venice, Italy) Georg Baselitz, the renowned German artist who flips life upside down on its head, has two major installations in Venice showing about the same time as the Biennale International Architecture Exhibition, which opened to the public on May 22 and runs through November 21.  

At age 83, Baselitz seems to have been firing on all cylinders during the pandemic, with a slew of new works now showing at both the Vedova Foundation on the Zattare, Vedova accendi la luce (Vedova Turn on the Light) which closes on October 31, 2021, and Archinto at Palazzo Grimani in Castello, which is scheduled to run another year through November 27, 2022, coinciding with the Biennale International Art Exhibition

Vedova accendi la luce by Georg Baselitz at Maggazino del Sale - Photo: Cat Bauer

Maggazino del Sale
 
If you hurry, you can catch Georg Baslitz's Vedova accedi la luce in the Magazzino del Sale, the space of the Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova on the Zattare designed by Renzo Piano. The Venetian artist Emilio Vedova and the German artist Georg Baselitz were great friends, a relationship that began when the two men met in Berlin in the early 1960s. 

Even though Vedova died in 2006, it seems that Baselitz still talks to his friend through the ether. He has produced 17 paintings three meters high that are divided into two sequences. Baselitz presents seven works that play with painting "in the manner" of Vedova and 10 paintings that explore the theme of… ice cream. 
 
The title of the exhibition, Vedova, Turn On the Light is taken from the title of one of the works on display, painted by Baselitz in 2020. The range of different flavors of ice cream with titles like Erdbeere (Strawberry) and Vanille (Vanille) are images of the artist's wife, Elke, to whom he has been married for more than 60 years.
 
Vedova accedi la luce runs through October 31, 2021. Go to the Vedova Foundation for more information.  

Archinto by Georg Baselitz - Photo: Cat Bauer

Palazzo Grimani

What a brilliant idea to install Archinto, an exhibition of new and recent paintings and sculptures by Georg Baselitz, inside Palazzo Grimani. The exhibition has top pedigree, curated by Mario Codognato and organized by Venetian Heritage and Direzione Regionale Musei Veneto, in association with Gagosian.

The empty 18th-century stucco-framed panels in the Sala del Portego once held somber portraits of illustrious ancestors. Now Baselitz's bright and colorful upside-down paintings with titles like Archinto All Mixed Up and Archinto Laughing light up the hall, and will remain on long-term loan to the museum from the artist. Never before has a contemporary artist had such an arrangement with a State museum in Venice.

A Brief History of the Grimani Family

For years, it seemed that nobody knew quite what to do with Palazzo Grimani, which is over on the other side of town from the Zattare, just off Campo Santa Maria Formosa. The palace dates back to the Middle Ages, and began life as a typical Venetian Gothic palazzo. 

Portrait of Antonio Grimani attr. Palma il Giovane - Photo: Cat Bauer

Antonio Grimani

Sometime in the late 15th century, Palazzo Grimani was acquired by Antonio Grimani (1434-1523), son of a poor patrician father and mother from the lower classes. Antonio's father died when he was young, and he was raised by an uncle

Antonio worked his way up in society until he earned his right to trod amongst the aristocracy. He married well to Caterina Loredan, from a distinguished noble family, with whom he would have either four or five sons, depending on the source. He traded in pepper and sailed the Eastern Mediterranean, becoming one of Venice's wealthiest and most controversial merchants. 

Antonio had a gift for diplomacy, and dealt with emperors and kings on behalf of Venice. He was nearly 50 when he was appointed to the prestigious post of a Savio di Terraferma, with more important posts to follow. But his greatest love was the sea, and in 1494 at the age of 60 he accepted the appointment as Capitano da Mar, commander-in-chief of the Venetian navy. 

In 1499, after two disastrous battles with the Ottoman Turks, Antonio returned to Venice in shackles. He was imprisoned and put on trial. The judges condemned him to death for treason. The sentence was commuted to exile for life, and Antonio was sent to Osor on the island of Cres in Croatia. 

In July 1500, Antonio passed Palazzo Grimani onto his sons Vincenzo, Girolamo and Pietro. Another son, Domenico, had become a Cardinal and would play a major role in restoring his father’s reputation.

Portrait of Domenico & Marino Grimani attr. Palma il Giovane - Photo: Cat Bauer

Domenico Grimani

Domenico was either the third or eldest son of Antonio and Caterina (depending on the source), and was born in 1463. Destined for the Church from an early age, Domenico was made a Cardinal in 1491. He had inherited his father's gift for diplomacy, and entered the most powerful circles in Rome, coming a breath away from being elected Pope. In 1497 Domenico became Patriarch of Aquileia.

Domenico's position gave the Grimani family hefty weight in mediating relations between Rome and the Republic of Venice. In addition to being extremely wealthy, Domenico was a Humanist and a collector, and assembled one of the most important libraries of the early Renaissance, along with paintings by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgione, Titian and Bosch, as well as sculptures and other works of art. 

Knowing he had a powerful son who was a Cardinal, in 1502 Antonio fled his banishment in exile and hightailed it to Rome. Somehow Domenico obtained permission to live in the massive Palazzo San Marco that had previously belonged to the Venetian Pope Paul II (1417-1471), which was later renamed Palazzo Venezia and became the seat of the ambassadors of Venice.

The Sculptures

Even though the Grimanis were now living in splendor in Palazzo San Marco, Antonio wanted a more permanent home for the family in Rome. He bought a plot of land and started construction. During excavation work for the foundations, a number of spectacular ancient sculptures were discovered, which Domenico was delighted to display in the rooms of Palazzo San Marco. 

These sculptures were the start of the Grimanis' passion for collecting fine antiquities -- and it is these antiquities found 500 years ago in Rome that we can see with our own eyes today in the Domus Grimani exhibition inside Palazzo Grimani in Venice -- some of which date back to before the birth of Christ.

We can only imagine what went on behind the scenes, but Antonio Grimani was back in Venice before the year 1509 had ended and was immediately reinstated in his post of Procurator of Saint Mark. Over the years, his commitment and loyalty to Venice was never again questioned after he showered bountiful good works and performed skillful diplomacy for La Serenissima. On the death of Doge Leonardo Loredan -- who was also the brother of Antonio's wife, Caterina -- on July 6, 1521, Antonio was elected doge at the age of eighty-six. Doge Grimani’s reign lasted less than two years, and he died on May 7, 1523. 

Lost in Translation

Over the years, Palazzo Grimani passed to Antonio's surviving sons, and then to his grandsons. Different sources have different histories of the family, with different dates. There is a lot of confusion about who was related to whom and in what way because the Italian word for nephew is nipote, which is also the word for grandson. Some Italians have translated nipote into nephew when writing in English, when it actually should be translated into grandson. In other instances, the word is correctly translated from nipote to nephew, but different relatives have the same first name -- it is utterly confusing, and I wish I had access to genealogy chart.

Portrait of Giovanni Grimani attr. Domenico Tintoretto - Photo: Cat Bauer

Giovanni Grimani

With all that in mind, contrary to some sources, the influential Giovanni Grimani (1506-1593), Bishop of Ceneda was not Doge Antonio Grimani's nephew, he was his grandson, the fourth son of Antonio's son, Gerolamo (the Grimanis were a family packed with male heirs). 

One of Giovanni's older brothers was Marino Grimani (1488-1546), who, like his Uncle Domenico, the Cardinal, (remember that Domenico was Doge Antonio’s son) was also made a Cardinal in 1528. Cardinal Domenico had been dead about five years by then -- leaving his precious carved gemstones, medals and cameos to his nephew Marino. When Cardinal Marino died in 1546, Pope Paul III took all of Marino's loot by "right of spoil."

Giovanni was appointed Patriarch of Aquileia in 1545 -- a position ALSO formerly held by his powerful Uncle Cardinal Domenico. He paid 3,000 scudi to get back his brother Cardinal Marino’s collections, and the rare objects were returned to Venice in 1551. 

Giovanni decided to enlarge Palazzo Grimani, which was completed in 1568. The impressive Sala della Tribuna was created to display the Grimani family's bountiful collection of antiquities, full of pillars and niches in which to place individual precious treasures.

Sala della Tribuna empty - Photo: Venetian Heritage

Palazzo Grimani was the family home until 1865. It slowly sank into decay as ownership changed hands throughout the years. The Italian state acquired the building in 1981 in "deplorable condition," and it underwent years of extensive restoration. It finally opened as a public museum in 2008, but there was not much inside except phantoms of the past. 

The empty Sala della Tribuna was splendid to see, but void of all the precious antiquities that it had been designed to hold, many of which were stashed in the National Archaeological Museum in Piazza San Marco, run by the Italian State.

Palazzo Grimani Joins the Museums of the Veneto

In 2015, Palazzo Grimani became one of the museums in the Regional Directorate for Veneto Museums, the Polo Museale del Veneto -- which means it came under the control of Daniele Ferrara, who is the Director of that museum complex. The complex is a branch of the Italian Ministry of Culture and consists of 20 museums and institutions throughout the Veneto region (and whose website is still only in Italian in the year 2021).

Enter Toto Bergamo Rossi, director of Venetian Heritage, an international non-profit organization that safeguards the immense legacy of Venetian art and culture in what was once the Republic of Venice (and manages to get English translations for all its projects). 

Domus Grimani - Sala della Tribuna in all its glory - Photo: Venetian Heritage

 Domus Grimani 1594-2019

Together, Toto Bergamo Rossi and Daniele Ferrara curated the astonishing Domus Grimani 1594-2019 exhibition which reassembled the Grimani's collection of classical sculptures in the original setting for the first time in four centuries. It is simply breathtaking to see the sculptures back where they were designed to be. 

Room of the Doge - Photo: Nally Bellati of Contessanally

The Room of the Doge

Very different from the Tribuna, the Room of the Doge dedicated to Doge Grimani is an airy chamber with walls decorated with garlands of flowers and panels of colored marble. Armed with an inventory from the State Archives drawn up on October 5, 1593 — just two days after the death of Giovanni Grimani — curators Daniele Ferrara and Toto Bergamo Rosi were able to relocate 20 sculptures inside the room by using the the list of precious items, including the imperial Roman era Dionysus leaning on a satyr in the niche of the front wall. 
 
Archinto by Georg Baselitz in Palazzo Grimani - Photo: Cat Bauer

Georg Baselitz Archinto
 
Toss Georg Baselitz's colorful paintings into the mix with Mario Codognato as the curator and you get an ancient palace filled with precious antiquities and contemporary art at the same time. The title "Archinto" refers to Titian's enigmatic 1558 portrait of a partially veiled Cardinal Filippo Archinto. Baselitz created 12 paintings specifically to be displayed in the Sala del Portego of Palazzo Grimani. Seen through the lens of Baselitz's colorful imagination, Titian's Old Master sensibility travels through space and time and emerges as spectral paintings in the stucco frames that once contained the grim portraits of the Grimani family.
 
Right now all the exhibitions are scheduled to run through November 27, 2022, but I will not be surprised if that deadline is extended. Go to Palazzo Grimani for more information if you can read Italian.

In English, Venetian Heritage has detailed information about each exhibition and more about the great work they do to to increase awareness of the immense legacy of Venetian art in Italy and other parts of what was once the Republic of Venice.
 

 
 
Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer

Saturday, September 11, 2021

Becoming Led Zeppelin - Three Mighty Documentaries at the Venice Film Festival


Jimmy Page on the Red Carpet for Becoming Led Zeppelin
Photo: La Biennale di Venezia - ASAC by A. Avezzù

(Venice, Italy) The Sala Grande on the Lido is one of my favorite cinemas in which to screen a film, even better than the Director's Guild Theater in Hollywood. The original Sala Grande theater was inaugurated on August 10, 1937 for the fifth edition of the Venice Film Festival. Over the years it has been expanded and improved until in 2011 it was completely overhauled and reconstructed, inspired by the original 1937 design by Luigi Quagliata. Normally it seats 1031, but because of COVID restrictions this year it only seats 518.

It is a magnificent theater, even with half the audience. The thrill of watching a movie on a big screen and going on a mind journey with fellow human beings in the same physical space and time is a treasured experience. 

I screened three documentaries — Becoming Led Zeppelin, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song and Life of Crime 1984-2020 — in the Sala Grande in the 2:00 PM slot, a time where members of the film delegation watch the movie together with the audience after they appear on the red carpet. The audience is a mix of accredited guests and the general public — not just industry people like other screenings — so it is a distinct way to screen a film. 

The people who create the movie are eager to see how their labor of love will be received. The journalists who will write about the film watch it with a critical eye. The general public is something other — they have bought tickets to an adventure, arriving from everyday life to the bustling village of the film festival, where there are lights, cameras, and lots of action — a real red carpet complete with movie stars, silent Lexus electric cars, digital billboards, squirting water fountains and the magic of the movies wafting through the air. Putting these different audiences together in one theater can create interesting reactions to a film.

Initially, I was going to combine my impressions of all three documentaries into one post, but have since decided to write three separate pieces. Here is Part One - Becoming Led Zeppelin.

Becoming Led Zeppelin

Jimmy Page with director Bernard MacMahon 
Photo: Cat Bauer

The public audience for Becoming Led Zeppelin was a surprising mix of old and young, from little kids with their parents to hip Gen Zs to grannies out for a day at the movies. I morphed straight into a groupie when I realized that Jimmy Page was at the screening in the flesh.

Booking tickets this year even with accreditation has been a real challenge, so you take what you can get as fast as you can get it — it wasn’t until I was walking into the theater and caught a glimpse of Jimmy Page out on the red carpet that I knew he was there — it was a grand surprise. When he appeared up in the gallery, radiating Rock Star energy, the audience roared to their feet and gave him a standing ovation that seemed to go on forever.

They made us bag our devices so I doubt anyone has footage except for Jimmy Page, who whipped out his phone and documented the emotional moment — we just could not stop clapping. Why? I think because his music was such an integral part of our lives and we wanted to thank him. 

After growing up in New Jersey with Led Zeppelin playing in the background of my teenage life, to arrive at the point where I was watching a film about Led Zeppelin with the founder of Led Zeppelin sitting in the audience at the Venice Film Festival 50 years later was a surreal experience. I kept thinking, I can’t believe that Jimmy Page is sitting right there!

Unlike most bands, Led Zeppelin was not a group composed of a bunch of friends who grew up together. Each member was a solid musician in his own right, respected amongst fellow musicians, but unknown to the public. Jimmy Page did have some public presence as a guitarist with the Yardbirds through his friendship with Jeff Beck, who had left the band, which broke up completely in 1968 while still committed to a Scandinavian tour.

Page put a new group together composed of singer Robert Plant, drummer John Bonham, and John Paul Jones on bass and keyboards — they were all master musicians, but working for a paycheck. From the moment they played their first song at Page's home studio, they had electric chemistry and a new sense of freedom — it was a life-changing experience. They went on tour as the New Yardbirds before transforming into Led Zeppelin. 

By that time, Jimmy Page was not only a guitar god, he was smart and had been around long enough (at age 24) to know that for the band to control their own music it would be better to record it first and then present it to a record label. Because he had toured in the States with the Yardbirds, Page knew that underground FM radio in the USA was playing entire sides of albums, not singles, and constructed the first Led Zeppelin album with that concept in mind, paying the costs of recording himself. 

The gamble paid off and thus began the supernova composed of the 20th century pagan gods that would become Led Zeppelin — they started a UK tour in September 1968, signed with Atlantic Records in November, and began a US tour before the end of the year. While on tour, on January 12, 1969 (three days after Page’s 25th birthday) the first Led Zeppelin album was released in America and reached number 10. In their first whirlwind year, they played four US and four UK concert tours and recorded their second album. And the rest is history.

Led Zeppelin.com

This is the first documentary ever approved by the band, who all appear in it except for John Bonham, who died on September 25, 1980 at the age of 32 after a day and night of uber-heavy drinking. The filmmakers, director Bernard MacMahon and writer/producer Allison McGourty managed to dig up a forgotten interview that Bonham did in 1971 in Australia, so he, too, is poignantly present. 

The filmmakers said they wanted to make a musical documentary, which is what this is — they have included live versions of entire songs recorded when the band was on tour, so you feel like you are actually at a Led Zeppelin concert. At the end of each song the audience in the theater whooped and applauded together with the audience in the movie, who are preserved forever in celluloid from the 1970s.

The simultaneous clapping in past and present created a kind of time warp — like attending a virtual 50-year-old Led Zeppelin concert but in real present-day life with other human beings thinking in the same key, one of whom was Jimmy Page. (The documentary focuses on a very specific period from 1968 to 1970, so “Stairway to Heaven” is not in the movie.)

Bernard MacMahon said that they “saw the film as a series of life-lessons from four very different people on how to achieve your dreams through dedication to your craft, hard work and perseverance.”

Unlike standard documentaries, there is no behind-the-scenes dirt of the band’s notorious antics, nor any commentary by anyone other than the band members themselves. Since there would be no Led Zeppelin if Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were not control freaks, it is not surprising they continue to control their legacy. I’m just grateful that the stars aligned and I got to watch Led Zeppelin become Led Zeppelin together with Jimmy Page.

BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN TRAILER

For some reason, I cannot embed the trailer, so you are going to have to click over to watch it on YouTube. As of this writing, a release date for Becoming Led Zeppelin has not been announced.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer

Monday, September 6, 2021

Venice Is Alive: Venice Film Festival, Accademia Galleries, Venice Glass Week & Variety Party at Hotel Danieli + More

The Adriatic Sea seen from the roof terrace of Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido - Photo: Cat Bauer
 
(Venice, Italy) It seems like every cultural organization in Venice schedules events and openings around the same time that the Venice Film Festival kicks off. There is a slew of international press in town, and the hope is that the press will attend and shine a headline or two their way — so we’ve got major openings at the Gallerie dell’Accademia and Palazzo Grassi (Hypervenezia) and Palazzo Ducale (Venetia 1600 - Births and Rebirthswhich will have their own posts in the future, as well as the Venice Glass Week scattered in venues and galleries all over the city. Venice can careen from ancient Renaissance to glam Hollywood to glitzy haute couture without missing a beat. The Queen of the Adriatic is exploding out of lockdown in a town brimming with celebrities and dignitaries, as well as ordinary folk.
 
This year a new element was added to the mix when Dolce & Gabbana electrified the city with fashion shows, dinners and parties in Piazza San Marco, the Rialto and Arsenale just before the film festival opened, ushering in a bevy of celebrities and ritzy clientele who got very wet. You can read about it in Vogue: Dolce & Gabbana’s Stunning Alta Moda Show in Venice Boasted Both a Lightning Strike and a Rainbow and Inside Dolce & Gabbana’s Lavish Three Days in Venice—See J.Lo, Helen Mirren, and More.

Final Day of August, 2021

Power Circle
Roberto Cicutto, President of La Biennale di Venezia
Toto Bergamo Rossi, Director of Venetian Heritage
Simone Venturini, Venice Councilor of Tourism & Economic Dev.
Dario Franceschini, Italian Minister of Culture
Luca Zaia, President of the Veneto Region
Photo: Cat Bauer

Gallerie dell'Accademia
 
On Tuesday, August 31, the day began with the opening of two new salons of the Gallerie dell’Accademia in the company of Dario Franceschini, the Italian Minister of Culture, and Luca Zaia, the President of the Veneto Region, among other dignitaries.

I like the headline from the press release of the Gallerie dell’Accademia:

THE MOST IMPORTANT VENETIAN ART COLLECTION IN THE WORLD IS EXPANDED WITH TWO MONUMENTAL SALONS COMPLETELY RE-ESTABLISHED AND DEDICATED TO PAINTING FROM THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

Scourge of the Serpents by Giambattista Tiepolo (c.1732-34) Photo: Matteo De Fina

The most riveting painting in the new salons is the Scourge of the Serpents by Giambattista Tiepolo (1696-1770) an enormous work of art more than 42 and a half feet long (13 meters) depicting a horrific attack of snakes on what seems to be innocent children, women and men — an infant appears to be suckling at the breast of his dead mother. 

Scorge of the Serpents (detail) Tiepolo - Photo: Cat Bauer

Apparently the Lord had sent venomous serpents to punish the Israelites for criticizing him and Moses. Moses is at the center, raising a bronze serpent on a rod. The painting was restored by Venetian Heritage in memory of its founder, Lawrence D. Lovett.

I had never heard of this dramatic story before, so I did a little research. Here is the Biblical passage from Numbers 21:4-5 that the painting portrays:

The Bronze Snake

They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.  The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

It seems that Tiepolo caught the moment just as Moses was raising the bronze serpent because there were a lot of Israelites already dead with snakes coiled around their bodies. I will confess that after having been raised on a benevolent Jesus Christ it is difficult to wrap my mind around Christ having such a cruel father -- and that is supposed to be the universal image of the one god? It is a magnificently disturbing work of art.

Revelers at Benedetto Marcello Conservatory for Venice Glass Week - Photo: Casadorofungher

The Venice Glass Week
 
Next we segued over to Palazzo Franchetti for the Venice Glass Week press conference, an international festival dedicated to the art of glass. From September 4 through September 12, there are hundreds of events that celebrate glass — installations, exhibitions, conferences, lectures, demonstrations, workshops, film screenings, performance, guided tours and parties. The Venice Glass Week has a website where you will find everything that is scheduled, both physically in town and virtually, so even if you are not in Venice you can participate. There are conversations in English with international glass maestros such as Lino Tagliapietra and Dale Chihuly on the YouTube channel Conversations on Glass by Apice
 
Academy Award-winning film-maker Bong Joon Ho at Variety bash at Hotel Danieli - Photo: Cat Bauer
 
Variety Bash at Hotel Danieli

A change of clothes, then over to the Variety party co-hosted by Hotel Danieli, a Luxury Collection Hotel on their magnificent rooftop terrace on the eve of the grand opening of the Venice Biennale International Film Festival. It is a beloved tradition that combines the provincial with the international, and Hollywood with Venice. It was not held last year due to the global pandemic, so it was wonderful to be able to celebrate again. 

The bash honors the President of the Jury of the Venice Film Festival with whimsical food and creative drinks based on his or her body of work set against a backdrop of the lagoon with the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore omnipresent in the background. This year the party celebrated the work of the Academy Award winning film director Bong Joon Ho, who won four Oscars in 2020 for his masterpiece Parasite -- Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film. 

The Venice Lagoon from Terrazza Danieli - Photo: Cat Bauer

Alberto Fol, the Executive Chef of Hotel Danieli's Terrazza Danieli Restaurant, paid tribute to Bong with an evening entitled The Stairway to Paradise, inspired by the class struggle in the film. The menu combined the proletarian with the aristocratic, and featured delicacies that I am taking straight off the press release:

  • La Roccia della Ricchezza - Scampi prawn tartar with gold leaf and Gochugaru (Korean chili powder) 
  • Parasite Pizza - Steamed pizza with oriental vegetables and burrata
  • Parasite Jiapaguri - Ramen and udon mix with premium beef sirloin
  • Chicken - with prune syrup and honey
  • Birthday Skewer - Sausages and prawns with bulgogi sauce
  • Peach and Tofu - with Chopinamu berry
  • Da-Song Chocolate Cak
The mixology was by Hotel Danieli's Lorenzo Ricci, pairing the chef's creations with the refreshing "Core Evolution" cocktail -- gin, mint syrup and champagne. 
 
Cat Bauer at Variety party Hotel Danieli
Century after century, Venice has hitched up her skirts and lowered her décolletage after overcoming impossible challenges. Venice is 1600 years old this year, born March 25, 421 at noon at Rialto. The Grand Lady may have some wrinkles, but she is still a dynamo, going strong.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer

Sunday, August 29, 2021

The Swiss Artist with the Very Cool Name: Not Vital in Venice - House to Watch the Sunset and snow & water & ice

House to Watch the Sunset by Not Vital (2021) - Photo: Cat Bauer

(Venice, Italy) House to Watch the Sunset by Not Vital, the Swiss artist with the very cool name, shimmers inside the 16th-century Benedictine Church of San Giorgio Maggiore designed by Andrea Palladio. The majestic contemporary aluminum tower was constructed by Italian craftspeople and is the fifth iteration of Vital's ambitious global project, which is to produce a House to Watch the Sunset on every continent on the planet, each structure built with different local materials, but each with the same very specific mathematical form and dimensions -- which are:

tower 13 X 3.40 X 3.40 m
3 outside stairs
1 with 13
1 with 26
1 with 39 steps
each 1 is 25 X 25 cm +
45 degrees
the 1st floor has 1 door
the 2nd 1 door + 1 window
the 3rd 1 door + 2 windows
the 4th 1 door + 3 windows
4 rooms 3 X 3 X 3 m
+ 1 bed + 1 table + 1 chair
no water or electricity
just enough
to make the sun set

Vital was born on February 15, 1948 in Sent, a village in the Engadin Valley in the Swiss Alps, and has lead a nomadic life, living also in the U.S., Niger, Italy, Brazil and China while maintaining his Swiss base. He is a sculptor and a painter and practices the art of SCARCH -- an acronym for sculpture-architecture -- which is also the name of the exhibition and includes seven other works displayed inside the sacristy and abbey. 
 
Tintoretto 2020, 2 silver boxes, 27 X 29 X 29 cm by Not Vital 
Photo: Nally Bellati of Contessanally
 
Four of the works are silver "portraits" in the form of two silver boxes made by silver smiths in Agadez, Niger, "the result of a strict mathematical model that converts a date of birth into abstract form."  The silver box portraits are of Andrea Palladio, who designed the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Tintoretto, whose paintings adorn the church, Pope Pius VII, who was elected Pope in the Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio (in Venice, not Rome!) and crowned in the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore on March 21, 1800. The fourth 2 silver boxes portrait is of Pope Francis.
 
SCARCH is a collateral event of the Biennale International Architecture Exhibition, and runs through November 21, 2021.

Not Vital, 700 Snowballs, 2001, installation view
 
Vital had previously had an exhibition with a mathematical theme at the Abbazia of San Giorgio Maggiore in 2013 entitled 700 Snowballs, curated by Alma Zevi, which consisted of 700 glass balls individually blown by the Vetreria Pino Signoretto glass makers on the island of Murano.
 
Val Sinestra (2019) by Not Vital at ALMA ZEVI Venice - Photo: Cat Bauer
 
Now, ALMA ZEVI presents snow & water & ice, Not Vital's first solo exhibition at her Venice gallery. Part of the exhibition is Val Sinestra (2019), an installation that originally consisted of 80 transparent glass bottles blown by Finnish glass makers and was exhibited in 2018. Val Sinesta refers to a location in the mineral-rich springs of the Grisons region in Switzerland, famous for their healing  properties. Vital put water from the Val Sinesta springs into the glass bottles. During the exhibition, over time, the mineral-rich sediment split from the water and sank to the bottom of each vessel.
 
For the Venice exhibit, Vital has recreated the Finnish exhibit. However, instead of 80 bottles, there are 42, and he has substituted the water from the Grisons region with the water from the Venice lagoon to see if any changes in the water take place during the exhibition. 

Since Not Vidal is so keen on numbers and plotting exhibitions with mathematical equations, I was curious as to why there were 42 bottles in the Venice exhibit. It is a very specific number. I asked Alma Zevi's assistant. She said, "I don't think there is a particular reason." I said, "That makes no sense. Forty-two is a weird number." She paused. "He does seem to have a thing for numbers."

I then asked Alma Zevi. She paused, and then confirmed that there was no particular reason, which I again found difficult to believe. I wondered: Had the people surrounding Not Vital become so jaded that the monumental significance of the numbers lurking beneath the surface, hidden in plain sight, was commonplace to them?

Not Vital in Venice, August 27, 2021 - Photo: Cat Bauer

Then Not Vital himself arrived and bounded into Alma Zevi's gallery, which is a small space -- certainly nothing like the soaring ceilings of the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore. He was sort of like an electrical storm in human form. I lifted my iPad to take his photo, and he charged into a closeup. 
 
I asked him why there were 42 bottles. I expected to hear something like a Divine Mathematical Equation written on tablets from the heavens. He paused, then motioned to another fellow outside the gallery: "Ask him."

I went out the door and up to the guy, who turned out to be a clever fellow named Eric, an expat from Pennsylvania by way of Beijing, who was Not Vidal's assistant. I said, "Not Vital told me to ask you why there are 42 bottles in this exhibition." I waited to hear the Answer to Life.

"Because that is how many bottles could fit in the car," said Eric. "We drove to Venice from Switzerland."
 
snow & water & ice is at the Alma Zevi Venice Gallery at Salizzada Malipeiro until November 6, 2021.  

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer