European Art, Museums and Exhibitions
 

It’s been a while since I started an annual thread and my recent travels have inspired me to do this one. I hope those who enjoyed previous threads will come back and share on this.

Met Museum NYC — Manet/Degas….holy cow. This exhibition is EPIC. It is enormous, exhaustive and exhausting! I don’t think I’ve been to a show this big and complete since the Monet exhibition in Paris in 2010. I feel like an expert on both artists now. There are some truly special loans here and a whole lot that I had never seen before or will likely see again. I’m glad we made the trip. We were there midday on a Tuesday. They do the electronic queueing (scan it down in the lobby, there are no scanners up on the second floor where the show is) and we had to wait 1/2 hour. It was moderately crowded, but we really only noticed that at the smaller etchings. Overall this is incredibly well done and makes a good case for them being frenemies despite there being very little historical documentation proving that they were. On until Jan 2024. As a bonus, Leighton’s Flaming June is just outside the entrance to the Manet/Degas show while it is on long term loan while its home museum is under renovations. She is simply gorgeous.

On my to do list:
MFA Boston — Fashioned by Sargent on until Jan 15, 2024, and Strong Women in Renaissance Italy on until January 7, 2024. I’m more excited by the latter but will of course go to anything Sargent.

Any other museum news/ideas/exhibitions???

Thanks, amyb, for this thread once again. And your comments on Manet/Degas are timely for me as I and two friends plan to see the exhibit on a Monday in November. We were planning to arrive at the Met at, or just before, 10 am to be among the first to enter. Would you agree with this approach or do you have other suggestions?

iIn August my husband and I went to Western New York to see the recently opened addition to the Albright Knox, now named the AKG. While I don’t like the juxtaposition of the new structure next to the classical building and the sleek minimalist black box wing from the early ‘60s, the interior is wonderful space for the Still acquisition and other work. Old favorites are in the original building and the Common Sky area will be versatile for restaurant seating and other uses.


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The new addition
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One of the Still pieces
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In the original building
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The Common Sky space

Thanks for this, amyb. I'm happily jealous of your Met trip! The upcoming MFA JSS also.

I have nothing to tell you about so I'll brag about Annapolis. Its Maryland Hall is an arts and music center. Symphony, Opera, Galleries, classes, open studios, and artist residencies.
https://www.marylandhall.org/

In the spring, DC's Phillip's Collection will host a major Pierre Bonnard exhibition.

https://www.phillipscollection.org/e...onnards-worlds

Wow. Thank you for this new thread Amy!

I’m intrigued by the Manet/Degas AND the Bonnard and will try to get to both.

We saw the Manet/Degas at Musee d'Orsay in May. As amyb said, it was EPIC. And I also have the MFA exhibits on my list.

Yes, I probably would do that. You can actually scan into the virtual queue before you even buy your admission tickets or while one of you is buying tickets. The scanner is just to the right of the main staircase, to the left of the self-purchase ticket kiosks. It wasn’t clearly marked when we were there.

Loved to see the Albright Knox. I haven’t been there. Interesting when an institution combines the old and new architecture like that!

obx, thanks for the heads up on Bonnard at the Phillips, I didn’t know that!

Last month I saw Edvard Munch Trembling Earth at the Clark Institute in Williamstown, MA. It focused on Munch’s landscapes and how he used those to channel human emotions. Much of it was from the Munch Museum in Oslo (almost made me wonder if that was closed for renovation!). It was good sized with a lot of Munch oeuvre I don’t normally get to see. It is off to Potsdam in November (Museum Barberini) and then the Munch Museum next spring/summer, if anyone is nearby and interested in seeing it in their travels. It was really interesting.

hi amy - I’ve been to the Munch museum in Oslo. Enjoyed it very much. It was in a kind of low level, older building. Wouldn’t surprise me if it were undergoing renovations. Wishing you good travels!

Thanks for starting this thread.

We haven't been to many art museums this year but have visited a lot of historic houses including Frank Lloyd Wright's Kentuck Knob.

I hope to get to the MFA exhibits before they close.

Looks like the Munch exhibit at the Clark Institute ended 10/15. But nice to have that museum (and town) on my radar. I always enjoy museums in college towns. Williams College has its own museum. Looks like there is a rail trail gor walking in the area too. It’s about 2.5 hours from me, so perfect for a day trip.

Definitely plan to go to the Clark. It has a good permanent collection, too, and its own walking trails

Thanks for the endorsement VT!!

Gruezi, the Clark is within walking distance of Williams College. It also has a lot of walking trails on the museum campus. It’s worth spending time there beyond the museum itself, imo especially in nice weather. As VT says they do have an excellent permanent collection (some stunning Sargents!) and I find that they always do an excellent job with exhibitions.

Amy, we just enjoyed the 'Toulouse-Lautrec et les Maitres de L'Affiche' exhibit at the newly-renovated Muse des Beaux Artes in Quimper, Brittany. It was interesting and well-presented. Many original prints and posters, including those of his fellow artists. The absinthe ads were amusing. There were also others of note found elsewhere (Picasso, Whistler, Modigliani, Cocteau) plus some quality sculpture.

Pont-Aven's similar Gaugin museum was also just renovated and a wide range of excellent imagery was on its walls. Its special exhibit was of Female Travelers, with numerous compelling examples of exotica. Unfortunately, somebody in attendance (a visitor? a guard? a guide?) did not prioritize personal hygiene that day and the olfactory results were brutal--we literally fled one crowded room to save our nostrils.

The equivalent museum in Vannes seemed instead to be all about modern art installations--so corny that one quick glance through the entry was enough.
Our itinerary actually included a number of Basse Bretagne locations that were major inspirations for noted artists: the Bois d'Amour in Pont-Aven (the exact site of Gaugin's 'bathing boys'); Douarnenez (Renoir, Boudin), the Crozon peninsula and the Breton Riviera.

I am done. the art

Recently viewed the contemporary Native American art exhibit at the National Gallery, "The Land Carries Our Ancestors." https://wapo.st/3sdUCAx
It's a small exhibit but with unusual range. Not all the work was to my taste, but I found much of it stimulating and revealing, not to mention witty.

@Moderators, I think this is best in the Lounge. The past several of these annual threads I've started stayed there because many of us travel for exhibitions outside the US, and we do have non-US posters here who participate as well. Putting it in the US forum is exclusionary of our non-US art friends.

Thank you so much for this topic! So many ideas where to go for the weekend.

Mods--wot Amy said.

Be careful, or we'll end up in Travel Tips . . .

I will agree that the Manet/Degas exhibit is outstanding. As a Met member, I saw the member preview and it was on a Friday at around noon - super crowded. Tomorrow night I have a virtual opening tour for the new exhibit, Matisse, Derain and the Origins of Fauvism. As a Jewish Museum member I did just see a curator's tour virtually for the new Chloe exhibt.

Just back from England and Scotland where I was able to visit the National Gallery in Edinburgh, the Kelvingrove in Glasgow as well as the small Museum of Contemporary Art and in London, the Courtauld, the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern with the new El Anastsui exhibit just set to open. I also got to visit the newly reopened National Portrait Gallery, always one of my favorites. Not quite the same thing as a museum exhibit but the art on display permanently in Windsor Castle is of course second to none.

Madam, I think you’re the first person I know to have been to the National Portrait Gallery in London since it reopened. How did you find it? What’s different from before? Very jealous of your seeing the El Anatsoui exhibition, I’d love to see that!!

We just got back from a week in New York and hit a lot of museums: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (including the Manet/Degas exhibit), The Whitney Museum of American Art, the 911 Memorial museum, the American National History Museum, The Brooklyn Museum and the Cooper-Hewitt.

We have visited the Met several times before and always find it amazing. Even though we had timed tickets for the Manet/Degas exhibit (on Monday morning) it was too crowded for me to thoroughly enjoy although the art was lovely. I was glad to escape and preferred viewing some of the other galleries. We had also visited the ANHM many years ago and had a great time this time but felt we barely scratched the surface of all that is available.

We had been to the 911 Memorial site previously but this was our first time inside the museum. It was very well done and very moving.

The Whitney, Brooklyn and Cooper-Hewitt museums were all new to us. I found the Whitney a bit disappointing although we had a nice time visiting the surrounding areas. We had a great docent tour of one of the exhibits at the Cooper-Hewitt which was very helpful as design is something I know little about. We loved the architecture of the Cooper-Hewitt building and were delighted it wasn't too crowded despite being there on a weekend. The Brooklyn Museum was a very nice surprise and we enjoyed both the Spike Lee exhibit and Monet to Morisot. Unfortunately, the museum closed at 2 pm with no prior announcement because of the protest that was expected to start later that day.

We now need a vacation to rest up from our vacation!

So the National Portrait Gallery. It was actually 50 years ago that I first visited this museum in my 5 month, $5.00 a day trip (and yes back then you could live well on $5.00 a day). Last time I was in London was about 20 years ago and my husband and I didn't get there as it was his first time, part of a business trip and I met him and we added on another week or so and so that time the priority museums were the British Museum, National Gallery and the Tate Modern. We did so many things on that trip including the Tower, boat trip down the Thames to Greenwich, day trip tour to Stonehenge and Bath, matinee at Shakespeare's Globe of Taming of the Shrew, discount tickets that I had bought in Leicester Square to see Anything Goes, day trip to Hampton Court Palace and so on and so on. So I only really remembered the collection as being outstanding, not really the building itself. With the renovation you take an escalator to the top and begin there. We lucked out picking up a guided Highlights of the Museum tour by a staff educator after we were there for about 20 minutes, and then we went back to explore more on our own.

Tate Modern always a pleasure and we didn't get to spend much time there this time around. We did once see an outstanding El Anatsui exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum in which we watched a film and learned so much about his work and his process. The current exhibit at the Tate Modern includes commissioned work specific to the site so not sure about the potential for the exhibit to travel.

Madam397, thank you for the details about the National Portrait Gallery. I think I would love a tour there, so will remember to do so when I return to London. Ooooh, and I think I saw the same El Anatsui exhibit at Brooklyn Museum. I posted photos of his work on Instagram and tagged him, and he wrote a nice reply!

KTTravel, I wasn't thrilled with the Cooper Hewitt when we went when it re-opened. I wonder if I'd appreciate it more with a docent who could offer up some context?

For Frans Hals fans, there is a large exhibition at the National Gallery London on through January, and it looks quite exhaustive. I've yet to figure out if this is the same show that will be at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam Feb-June next year. Anyone know? With JetBlue now flying Boston to Amsterdam, that's a very tempting long weekend!

One of the features I especially like about galleries are the furniture, not because they are necessarily comfortable or well designed but because they are often interestingly designed with little focus on utility or cost. Once such bench is the band-benches of the Dutch National Glass museum which i had the opportunity to crawl all over in 2022. Wonderfully designed they were too long and in the wrong wood for serious benches but modelled (plus kids kept undoing them so they fell apart in the museum) some time-worn oak now adorn my sitting room. Photos are available on request, or else go visit the Glass museum.

That sounds fascinating -- would love to see a photo.

I also really enjoy furniture design galleries. One reason the V&A is such a favorite of mine. Everything from Tudor up through Charles Rennie Mackintosh to Moderne/Art Deco to modern 3D printed furniture.

I’m probably the last person on this thread to visit London’s Courtauld gallery, but did so last week and loved it.
From Manet’s ‘A Bar at the Folies-Bergère’ to that iconic blue staircase, it was all superb and easy to see.


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If anyone is interested, there is the BRAFA Art Fair in Brussels in late January - early February, not just for admiring European art but for taking some home as well ...

https://www.facebook.com/brafaartfair/

Lavandula

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My oak bow bench

That joinery looks interesting. What (if any) purpose does the twisted rope/cord/whatever serve?

janisj, to start with I struggle to explain physical stuff without waving my hands, so you'll have to imagine that.

None of the joints are "made" they are free to move, though out of habit they are tightish fits. The twisted rope imparts a tension in the leg stretchers which pull in the tenons and so lock up all the joints. On the original bench, which was three times as long and made of a weaker wood this imparts a slight upwards bow to the seat, while my oak just stays flat. Without the rope the bench would sway and the legs splay. I left the tenons slightly proud as it helps dissassembly with a mallet.

I assume, in the museum small children loosen the cords to great amusement and gales of laughter. Something I feel art galleries often lack. I used to carry a BS button on my phone, Mrs Bilbo asked me to take it off after the Bilbao incident, to entertain small kids when I found a piece of pretentious "art".

Just to be clear I love art galleries I just see them as potential sources of interesting design, comedy, flim-flam and of course to quote the Greatest American "We cannot all see alike, but we can all do good"

Eco-protestors apparently just targeted Botticelli's 'Venus' @ the Uffizi.
I am done. the artistic

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/a...-b2495920.html

not a lot of attack, I've seen worse on monty python
eg

Not in Europe but just back from a Florida trip in which I enjoyed two exhibits at the Nova SE University Art Museum. The first is the Color Field artists and that will be on until June. The second is an exhibit featuring the life work of Waltesse Ting. Outstanding and such an interesting and varied life and career. There is also a small Glackens drawing exhibit as the predecessor museum to this institution was given the bulk of the Glackens estate by his widow. Her work and some of their daughter's work is included. This museum is in downtown Ft Lauderdale, right by Las Olas and the Riverwalk.