CONTENTS May 2012
EDITORIAL
From the archives
The Barnes Foundation is relocating to new premises in central Philadelphia – in violation of its founding principles. Writing in September 1991, Patricia Corbett insisted that this monument to an earlier age should be left intact.
CONTEMPORARY ART
Around the galleries
Carré Rive Gauche returns to Paris’s Left Bank in early June, with an array of fine art, sculpture and furniture. In Brussels, a trio of fairs presents outstanding antiquities and Oriental works.
CONTEMPORARY ART
Collectors’ focus
Wood carving flourished in Southern Germany in the late 15th century onwards, resulting in exquisitely crafted devotional sculptures. Today, these figures and reliefs may be found for as little as £5,000, though the best examples command high prices.
Art market: Market review
Munch’s iconic Expressionist masterpiece comes to the block in New York, while outstanding works by Warhol, Lichtenstein and Klein go under the hammer in New York and London. In March, a bustling TEFAF saw strong sales.
Art market: Market preview
Munch’s iconic Expressionist masterpiece comes to the block in New York, while outstanding works by Warhol, Lichtenstein and Klein go under the hammer in New York and London. In March, a bustling TEFAF saw strong sales. Munch’s iconic Expressionist masterpiece comes to the block in New York, while outstanding works by Warhol, Lichtenstein and Klein go under the hammer in New York and London. In March, a bustling TEFAF saw strong sales.
A Devoted Medievalist
Sir Paul Ruddock, chairman of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and a passionate collector of medieval art, talks to Apollo about the onus on museums to celebrate our often overlooked medieval heritage
An Olympiad’s Portrait
During excavations at Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli the archaeologist Gavin Hamilton unearthed a classical statue of Hermes. Hamilton’s conservation of the sculpture transformed its identity to create an 18th-century image of an Olympic victor inspired by the ideals of ancient Greece
Power and Taboo
The Musée du Quai Branly in Paris is home to a superb collection of non-Western art. The museum’s director, Stéphane Martin, spoke to Apollo about the challenges inherent in the display of ethnographic material and why it is directly relevant to the political life of the country
Visions of the Afterlife
Ideas pertaining to hell and the afterlife were frequently depicted during the Middle Ages. These images conceptualise hell in a number of intriguing ways, as an exhibition opening at the J. Paul Getty Museum reveals
A New Horizon
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney reopened in March following an 18-month redevelopment. Its transformation further enlivens the cultural landscape of Australia, and is the latest development in the increasingly international profile of Australian art
The Progress of Juno
A large, 2nd-century sculpture of a goddess, believed to be Juno, was acquired last year by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, following its discovery in a Boston suburb. Unveiled last month, the statue is on display while conservators work around it, enabling visitors to view the process of restoration
Tuscan light
Mary Anne Goley reports on the mixed successes of an exhibition devoted to the role of Florence within American Impressionism
The play of light and shade
Eric Shanes savours an exhibition that reveals the very different handling of light in the works of Turner and Claude
Nature depicted
Despite ommissions, the sheer diversity of Venetian approaches to landscape painting is illuminated in this show, writes Peter Humfrey
Thinking in metal form
David Carrier reports on a retrospective of the late John Chamberlain, in which the artist’s majestic, abstract sculptures remain as elusive as ever
Painting silence
Desmond Shawe-Taylor welcomes a catalogue that offers plenty of fresh insight to the study of Vermeer and his contemporaries
Early pioneers
Lesley Jackson applauds a book that explores the early proponents of modernist graphic design
Off the shelf
Apollo’s selection of recently published books on art, architecture and the history of collecting
Genius redefined
Alexander Adams savours a biography of Van Gogh that meets the challenge of offering a fresh perspective on the artist