1 mars 2010 : Tous les messages - Eloge de l'Art par Alain Truong

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01 mars 2010

Mattia Bonetti @ Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York

Paul Kasmin Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by the Swiss-born, Paris-based artist Mattia Bonetti. Held at the gallery's 293 Tenth Avenue space, the exhibition will be his largest to-date in the United States and his first with Paul Kasmin.

Since the beginning of his pioneering career in the early 1970s, Bonetti has approached the distinction between contemporary art and design not as a barrier but as a wellspring of creative dialogue. As Carol Vogel writes, "Bonetti's work captures a particularly imaginative moment at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st Centuries when historical forms are freshly translated and familiar materials are pushed to new limits. Every design, whether it be a sofa or a simple box, combines a sense of whimsy and glamour with a distinctive intelligence and originality."

This exhibition showcases the balance of exuberance and rigor that has become the definitive signature of Bonetti's transformative hand. In it, a gracefully draped pearl necklace becomes a table, a broken vase is reborn as a lamp, and a house of cards is reconfigured into a gleaming chest of drawers. Bonetti juxtaposes traditional bronze, gold leaf, wrought iron, and blown glass techniques with resin, acrylic, and mirrored stainless steel technologies to form expertly crafted objects that are a pleasure to use and behold.

Mattia Bonetti was born in Lugano, Switzerland in 1952. A comprehensive monograph of his work will be published on the occasion of the exhibition by Skira/Rizzoli, featuring photography and text by Reed Krakoff with essays by Adrian Dannatt, Jacques Grange, Marie-Laure Jousset and Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis. His work is included in numerous public collections, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. www.paulkasmingallery.com

Mattia Bonetti, "George" side table/lamp, 2009, patinated bronze and blown glass, 58 3/4 x 24 1/2 x 13 7/8 inches, 149.1 x 62.4 x 35.2 cm. Edition of 8. PKE 12692 © Paul Kasmin Gallery

Mattia Bonetti, "Quasimodo" cabinet, 2009, patinated resin, tinted wood, patinated wrought-iron, 80.5 x 35 x 28 inches, 204.5 x 88.9 x 71.1 cm. Edition of 8. PKE 12693 © Paul Kasmin Gallery

Mattia Bonetti, "Cards" commode, 2009, polished stainless steel, colored acrylic, wood, 47 7/8 x 66 1/4 x 30 3/4 inches, 121.6 x 168.3 x 78.1 cm. Edition of 8. PKE 12882 © Paul Kasmin Gallery

Mattia Bonetti, "Meander" coffee table, 2009, patinated bronze and clear acrylic top, 23 x 57 x 57 inches, 58.4 x 144.8 x 144.8 cm. Edition of 20. PKE 12883 © Paul Kasmin Gallery

Mattia Bonetti, "Frequency" cabinet, 2009, clear acrylic and gold-plated brass, 79 x 35.5 x 21 inches, 200.7 x 90.2 x 53.3 cm. Edition of 8 © Paul Kasmin Gallery

Mattia Bonetti, "Bazaar" mirror, 2009, gold-plated and black patina bronze with gold and nickel-plated brass and mirror. 70 7/8 x 47 1/4 inches, 180 x 120 cm. Edition of 16. PKE 13779 © Paul Kasmin Gallery

Mattia Bonetti, "Garden" lamp, 2010. bronze lamp, 15.75 x 3.94 x 3.94 inches, 40 x 10 x 10 cm. Edition of 16. PKE 13518 © Paul Kasmin Gallery

Mattia Bonetti, "Debris" Lamp, 2010, bronze lamp, 15.75 x 3.94 x 3.94 inches, 40 x 10 x 10 cm. Edition of 16. PKE 13943 © Paul Kasmin Gallery

Mattia Bonetti, "Baron" armchair, 2009, patinated bronze, wood, hide, 33 1/8 x 19 3/4 x 27 1/8 inches, 84.1 x 50.2 x 68.9 cm. Edition of 40. PKE 13153 © Paul Kasmin Gallery

Mattia Bonetti, "Vortex" dining table, 2009, polished aluminum and clear acrylic, 29 3/8 x 51 1/4 x 51 1/4 inches, 74.6 x 130 x 130 cm. Edition of 12. PKE 12694 © Paul Kasmin Gallery

Mattia Bonetti, Vase Pans Coupes Epargne, 2010, silver with gold-plated silver, 9 7/8 x 6 x 6 inches, 25.1 x 15.2 x 15.2 cm. PKE 14046 © Paul Kasmin Gallery

Mattia Bonetti, Vase Eclat Epargne, 2010, silver with gold-plated silver, 13 3/4 x 14 1/2 x 10 inches, 34.9 x 36.8 x 25.4 cm. PKE 14047 © Paul Kasmin Gallery

Mattia Bonetti, Vase / Champagne Bucket Billet Epargne, 2010, silver with gold-plated silver, 8 1/4 x 8 x 8 inches, 21 x 20.3 x 20.3 cm. PKE 14048 © Paul Kasmin Gallery

"Matisse to Malevich, Pioneers of Modern Art from the Hermitage" @ the Hermitage Amsterdam

Henri Matisse, The Red Room (Harmony in Red), 1908 © Succession H. Matisse c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2010

AMSTERDAM.- Outstanding works by Matisse, Picasso, Van Dongen, De Vlaminck, Derain and many other contemporaries of theirs will be seen in a magnificent display from 6 March 2010 to 17 September 2010 at the Hermitage Amsterdam in the exhibition Matisse to Malevich. Pioneers of modern art from the Hermitage. For this exhibition about 75 paintings have been selected from the Hermitage St.- Petersburg, which has one of the world’s finest collections of French painting of the early twentieth century. Apart from the world-famous French masters, such equally celebrated Russian contemporaries as Malevich and Kandinsky will be represented. These artists are seen as the pioneers of Modernism. Almost all the works exhibited are on permanent display in St.- Petersburg. Most come originally from the Moscow collections of Morozov and Shchukin. This is the first time that this extensive collection of avant-garde masterpieces has been seen in the Netherlands. The exhibition explores the origins of modern art as an art historical phenomenon, but also looks at the passion of the artists, when at a crucial moment in art history at the beginning of the last century they initiated a revolution in art.

Morozov and Shchukin
The Hermitage’s impressive collection originated with the famous Russian collectors Ivan Morozov (1871-1921) and Sergej Shchukin (1854-1936). Both were textile dealers, and they brought French art to Russia because they wanted to change the course of art in their homeland. They provided a tremendous stimulus. Shchukin was the most conspicuous collector of his time; no one else bought so many works by Picasso (51) and Matisse (37). Morozov and Shchukin dared to buy the revolutionary paintings – sometimes with the paint still wet – and during the turn of the century they dominated the art world in Moscow. What they bought was shown at regular intervals in their own house. This enabled the young Russian artists to see what was in vogue in France. With the outbreak of the First World War collecting came to an end. During the October Revolution of 1917 the two collections were confiscated, and in 1948 a large part of them was given to the Hermitage in St.- Petersburg.

A documentary presentation in one of the rooms of the Hermitage Amsterdam gives the visitor a picture of the lives of both collectors and an insight into their idiosyncratic and progressive collecting policy.

Artists like Matisse, Picasso, Derain, De Vlaminck and Van Dongen were searching for renewal, for liberation from nature and from the academic traditions in painting. They formed the first important avant-garde movement of the twentieth century, which arose in French painting around 1900 in reaction to Impressionism and Pointillism. Bright and contrasting colours, rough brushwork, simplified forms and bold distortions characterised the new art. Light and shadow were depicted without intermediate shades and without soft transitions. In traditional painting the artists still wanted to represent three-dimensional space. For the pioneers that was no longer important; that was what photography was for. Through their work they provoked emotional reactions. Matisse, the most gifted and influential of them, was the focus of a group of artists known as the Fauvists or ‘wild animals’. No less than 12 paintings and 4 sculptures by him will be in the exhibition (including The red room, photosheet 02.tif and Jeu-de-boules, photosheet 01.tif).

Picasso is represented by 12 paintings (including The absinthe drinker, photosheet 08.tif andTable in a café, photosheet 09.tif). Throughout his long and productive life he constantly experimented with new techniques, and from 1907 he laid the basis for Cubism: this new style developed from a harder and tighter manner of expression and the use of thick layers of paint.

Kandinsky (Winter landscape, photosheet 05.tif) met Picasso and Matisse in Paris and was deeply impressed by the colour effect in their work, but was also influenced by music (Schönberg). He wanted to represent his own feelings and expression yet more, he heard the colours of the music and his colours evoked music. Malevich went a step further, he had had experience of everything new in the twentieth century and finally brought everything – nature, life, ‘being’ – down to a geometrical plane (Black square, photosheet 12.tif).

Henri Matisse, Game of Bowls, 1908 © Succession H. Matisse c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2010

Henri Matisse, Dishes and Fruit on a Red and Black Carpet, 1906 © Succession H. Matisse c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2010

Albert Marquet, Port of Hamburg, 1908, 1908, © c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2009

Vasily Kandinsky, composition VI, 1913, © c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2010

Vasily Kandinsky, Winter, 1909, © c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2010

© Kees van Dongen, Lady in a Black Hat, 1908, c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2010

Pablo Picasso, The Absinthe Drinker, 1901 © c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2010

Pablo Picasso, Table in a Café (Bottle of Pernod), 1912 © Pablo Picasso, Tafeltje in een café (Fles pernod en glas), 1912, c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2010