The Landscape Oil Sketch At The National Gallery

By the early 19th century, the practice of painting oil sketches in the open air was widespread across Europe. Oil sketching was seen primarily as training for the hand and eye, with artists exhorted to paint quickly to capture fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. In the space of just two hours, some artists were able to make works of tremendous freshness and beauty. Artists from Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Scandinavia were particularly attracted to the Roman Campagna but also found inspiration in their native lands.

These sketches were rarely intended for public exhibition. Painted on small-scale wooden panels or paper, they were piled in the corner of the artist’s studio, little valued and largely ignored until generations later. This National Gallery Room 1 exhibition celebrates the rediscovery and re-evaluation of these remarkable works of art, drawing on one of the finest collections of oil sketches in the world.

Since 1999, when the renowned Gere collection was entrusted to the National Gallery on long-term loan, the Gallery has become one of the most important destinations for the study of this now unusual art form.The challenge of attributing individual sketches has been a key concern for art historians at the Gallery. Sketches were almost never signed and close-knit circles of artists frequently painted in a remarkably similar manner.

When the Gere collection was first displayed at the National Gallery in the summer of 1999, the curators received several letters from members of the public disputing the subject and authorship given for several important works. Experts had speculated that Lord Frederic Leighton’s Coastal Landscape was inspired by a site in Cornwall. That was until resident Mark Collins realised that Leighton’s stretch of coastline precisely matched a photograph he had taken near Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.

Even more remarkable was the discovery by American painter, Susan Bull Riley, who recognised that a Landscape with Cumulus Clouds – confidently attributed by experts to Gilles-François-Joseph Closson – in fact bore a striking resemblance to a painting in the V&A, Landscape near Haarlem, 1839, by the Dutch painter Andreas Schelfhout (1787–1870). Thanks to the expert eyes of these visitors, both works will now go on display with their amended attributions for the first time.

Featuring around 50 small-scale works, the exhibition will include Théodore Rousseau’s The Valley of St-Vincent, one of two landscape oil sketches purchased by the National Gallery in 1918 at the Paris sale of Edgar Degas’s private collection. Also on display will be scenes by such admired figures as Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, Simon Denis, Giovanni-Battista Camuccini and eight works by Lord Leighton (1830–1896), who was President of the Royal Academy for eighteen years and the first artist to be raised to the peerage in Great Britain.

In the latter part of the 19th century the immediacy and spontaneity of oil-sketching was adopted by the Impressionists, including Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, who exhibited their own sketch-like paintings as finished pictures. Meanwhile the importance of oil-sketching in academic artistic practice declined.

The Landscape Oil Sketch
15 December 2007 – 6 April 2008
The National Gallery, London
Room 1
Admission Free

Public Art Through The Lens

ArtOutside, which takes place on Thursday, 28th November, is an initiative aimed at celebrating all aspects of public art in Wales and coincides with the launch of the name and identity for the new public art organisation in Wales.

The naming of the new organisation marks the completion of merger formalities between two of Wales' leading public arts organisations, CBAT, the Arts & Regeneration Agency and Cywaith Cymru - Artworks Wales, which have up to now been operating under the temporary name of Public Art Wales. This merger was funded with a Lottery grant by the Arts Council of Wales which also facilitated the project.

As part of the ArtOutside celebrations, an online photographic forum has been launched in association with the award-winning Big Art Mob initiative - part of Channel 4's Big Art Project. Budding amateur photographers from across Wales and beyond are asked to add their own photographic images of their favourite public artworks in Wales to the ArtOutside forum on the Big Art Mob website - www.bigartmob.com/blog/artoutside.

The best images, selected by a panel of distinguished public art and photographic experts, will be announced on Thursday, 28th November, and featured on the new organisation's website when it is launched in December.

Wiard Sterk, chief executive of the new organisation, said, "In launching this photographic forum, in association with Big Art Mob and Channel 4, we hope it will inspire people from all over Wales to think about the public art around them and to creatively capture their favourite piece for all to see.

"ArtOutside aims to encourage people from across Wales to think about public art and to debate and engage with us and help formulate public art strategies to meet the needs of communities across Wales.

We are currently working with Channel 4 on the Big Art Project in Cardigan to deliver an exciting public art work for the town and the interest in the project to date has been highly encouraging.

I cannot yet reveal the name of the new organisation to replace Public Art Wales but one of its core aims will be to engage with people from across Wales to make public art mainstream in our society. Public art is much more than a physical statement and has a pivotal role to play in delivering successful economic regeneration in Wales. Without it developments and open spaces are devoid of character and inspiration and we would be a much poorer nation culturally and economically as a result."

The naming of the new organisation marks the completion of merger formalities between two of Wales' leading public arts organisations, CBAT, the Arts & Regeneration Agency and Cywaith Cymru - Artworks Wales, which have up to now been operating under the temporary name of Public Art Wales. This merger was funded with a Lottery grant by the Arts Council of Wales which also facilitated the project.

Nick Pearson, Project manager, Big Art Project website, added, "ArtOutside is an exciting initiative and we hope people across Wales will join the ArtOutside group on the Channel 4 Big Art Mob, making it whatever they want it to be - with not just images, but also information on the artwork and a link to a Google map. Registered Big Art Mobloggers can add their own comments to the photographs - this all helps promote interest in, and involvement with, public art. Some interesting conversations and networks between members have grown quite organically in this way across the Big Art Mob website."

www.channel4.com/bigart

20th Year For London Art Fair

London Art Fair is preparing to launch its third decade as the largest Modern British and Contemporary art showcase in the UK. Unmatched in reputation both for quality and accessibility, the Fair celebrates its 20th year in 2008, bringing together one hundred leading British galleries, twenty unique projects and a curated photography exhibition at Islington’s Business Design Centre. Galleries have been chosen following a rigorous selection process, and represent a broad span of artists from early 20th century British Art to the most recent contemporary practice.

Exhibiting galleries at the Fair play host to early influential figures such as Elizabeth Frink, Mary Feddon, Terry Frost and LS Lowry juxtaposed with the work of living artists – emerging and established – including Marilène Oliver, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Gavin Turk and Banksy. The galleries represented demonstrate this variety, and include Alan Cristea, Flowers, Ben Brown/Louisa Guinness, Michael Hoppen and Richard Green.

London Art Fair is delighted to again be working with Terrence Higgins Trust as Charity Partner following their successful collaboration in 2006. The Fair’s Preview Evening (15 January 2008) will host a fundraising auction of work marking the 25th anniversary of the Trust’s foundation by prominent contemporary artists including Tracey Emin, Stella Vine, Mario Testino and Wolfgang Tillmans who have all donated work in support of the charity.

Art Projects returns for its fourth year with 20 galleries from the UK, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands, presenting curated displays that encompass contemporary painting and drawing, large scale sculpture and installation, photography and video. Art Projects gives dealers a chance to experiment, show less commercial work and demonstrate the personality of their gallery with profiles of emerging artists in both solo shows and group presentations.

Photography has grown in profile at the Fair in recent years and Photo50, successfully launched in 2007, draws together recent developments in the medium within a permanent curated section of the Fair. This exhibition of 50 works – all of which are for sale – will again be organised and selected by the Curating Programme at Goldsmiths, University of London.

London Art Fair aims to uphold a unique and supportive approach to collecting, and takes pride in accommodating every level of collector and presenting opportunities to buy across the spectrum of the art market. Visitors can expect museum quality pieces in excess of £500,000, while novice collectors should find works for investment from as little as £50.

Visit www.londonartfair.co.uk for further details.

Was Mona Lisa a Real Person?

The Mona Lisa was originally identified as Lisa Gherardini as early as the mid 16th century when Vasari put together his biography of Leonardo Da Vinci and described the Mona Lisa. Everyone was intrigued to know "who was the model" for the Mona Lisa and in Gherardini, she was believed to be found.

Born in 1479, Lisa Gherardini was raised in the Villa Vignamaggio in Tuscany, where she lived until she was eventually married at the age of 16. Her new husband, Francesco del Giocondo took her as his third wife in 1495 and very soon the two started their family. Giocondo was a silk merchant in Florence and it was there that the two most likely met Leonardo and the inklings of the Mona Lisa were first concocted.

Who Was Mona Lisa?

Little is known about the woman known as Lisa Gherardini and until recently, it was not even verifiable that she ever existed outside of Vasari's biography. In a recent book published by Guseppe Pallanti titled Mona Lisa: Real Woman, the Italian historian outlined and gathered evidence that supported much of what Vasari wrote almost 500 years ago. His research suggests that the origins of the working relationship were born when Leonardo's father likely commissioned the painting. Pallanti suggests that he was great friends with del Giocondo and that it was highly likely that he might have done such a thing as he had done in the past with Adoration of the Magi.

Gherardini herself would have been 24 years old in 1503 when Leonardo started work on the painting, coinciding with the birth of her second son. The evidence in the painting itself suggests that the model was possibly pregnant. Pallanti went on to gather evidence that reveals the actual burial place and death certificate for Gherardini in Sant'Orsola, a convent in Florence. Deceased on July 15, 1542 she was 63 years old and had raised five children with del Giocondo in her lifetime, whom she outlived.

If Not Gherardini, Then Who is the Model for the Mona Lisa?

The original source of Vasari has long been disputed as he lived and wrote after Leonardo's death and after the painting had been removed from Italy. For that reason, numerous other theories have been postulated to explain who the model might be.

One such theory is that Leonardo himself is the subject of the painting. This theory has been presented using existing self-portraits of the artist as supporting evidence. Unfortunately, the supporting evidence is still rather thin as others still will argue that Leonardo often used the same facial structures in his painting and a few scholars have even argued that the purported self-portrait might actually be a portrait of Leonardo's mother.

An interesting idea is that although the painting is of Lisa Gherardini, the inspiration for the face comes from Leonardo's assistant, Gian Giacomo Caprotti, also known as Salai.

In a portrait of Da Vinci's famous assistant, Salai, possibly painted by Da Vinci himself, Salai's features are portrayed as being very feminine and childish. Da Vinci was not alone in his view that men who should be considered beautiful and youthful should lack the usual characteristics that we would associate with maturity and masculinity, this view was held almost universally by the Renaissance painters, and is much in evidence in the numerous paintings and drawings of angels that were produced during this time. A charcoal sketch of an angel by Da Vinci, probably done as a preliminary sketch for portrait of St. John Baptist, is believed to have been modelled by Leonardo's "Little Devil" Salai. The title of the drawing "Angel Incarnate" would appeal to Da Vinci's sense of irony. Indeed the illusion of the angel appearing sexless is only broken by the addition of an erect penis. In this view the Mona Lisa represents, through his assistant's appearance, Da Vinci's idea of beauty; a blurring of the masculine and feminine.

It should be also noted that because of the likeness between the portrait of St. John the Baptist and the Mona Lisa, it is often hailed as proof that either the model for the Mona Lisa is a man, or that Leonardo wanted to promote the sacred feminine through St. John being painted as a woman.

Other theories include the possibility of different models altogether, including Isabella of Aragon or Constanza d'Avalos. Both women were at one time acquaintances of Leonardo and had commissions with him. Isabella in particular was very persistent to have Leonardo complete her commission, and of the two sketches he did of her, Da Vinci kept one copy to himself, refusing to return it despite her pleas. Additionally, a painting of Isabella by Raphael greatly resembles the Mona Lisa. While theories abound though, it is still largely believed that the true face of the Mona Lisa is Lisa Gherardini.

Colin Andrews is the Director of Aspect Art Ltd, an on-line exporter of the highest quality reproduction oil paintings, http://www.aspectart.com To view all of Leonardo's paintings on-line please visit http://www.aspectart.com/shp/Da-Vinci-Leonardo/

John Foxx Cinemascope Exhibition

ArtHertz presents Cinemascope – A solo exhibition of new print and photographic works by John Foxx

The Coningsby Gallery
30 Tottenham Street W1T 4RJ
3rd December – 8th December 2007

PRIVATE VIEW

3RD DECEMBER 2007
6PM – 9PM (by invitation only)

John Foxx has made an idiosyncratic journey through popular music since the mid 1970s having earlier experimented with tape recorders and synthesizers as a student at the Royal College of Art.

In 1979, he used synthesizers and drum machines to record Metamatic, the first electronic album by a British solo artist.

The album is now credited as providing a blueprint for the evolution of popular music to the present day.

Foxx’s work has been acknowledged by fellow musicians from Klaxons, Ladytron, Gary Numan and Duran Duran to Harold Budd, film makers such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Vincent Gallo and architect Antonino Cardillo.

His work was recently showcased to a sell out audience at London’s Institute of Contemporary Art. There are also current plans for another major Foxx event in London, involving large-scale projections onto the exterior of Battersea Power Station in September 2008.

In parallel to his work as a musician, Foxx has also pursued a career as a film maker and graphic artist.

As well as his work appearing in gallery exhibitions, film festivals and installations in major international cities, over the past 10 years many of his photographic images have been chosen to accompany the published works of authors such as Anthony Burgess, Salman Rushdie, Doris Lessing, Jeanette Winterson and Marina Warner.

The Coningsby Show is a unique opportunity to view his new and recent work – Grey Suit Music and Tiny Colour Movies stills, together with images from the critically acclaimed Cathedral Oceans III.

Sculpture On Show With Hirst Skull Develops Cancer

Maverick, experimental sculptor Jamie McCartney has produced a sculpture to be auctioned for Macmillan Cancer Support, which is developing ‘skin cancer’ whilst on view in the window at Peter Jones, London. Alongside a skull by Damien Hirst and a decapitated cherubic head by Nicola Hicks, the sculpture could not be in better company.

Poignantly entitled “Wake Up (and smell the coffee)”, the experimental artist’s work is a lifesize figure of a beautiful woman, reclining on her side. Her richly tanned body basks in the sunshine in the South West facing window, seemingly oblivious to the damage being done to her skin. The sunlight is causing the surface of the sculpture to bubble and blister in a chilling parallel of the effect the sun can have on our bodies.

Sponsored by De’Longhi, leaders in premium coffee machines, the Macmillan De’Longhi Coffee Art Auction, has attracted donations by Britain’s leading artists. Together with Hirst and Hicks are works by Tracey Emin, Lord Richard Rogers, Sir Peter Blake, Gavin Turk and many others. These are now on view in the windows at Peter Jones on the Kings Road and John Lewis on Oxford Street. The auction, to be held on November 8th at the Arts Club in Mayfair, will raise thousands of pounds for the cancer charity.

Jamie has created this unique piece especially for the Macmillan auction, cast directly from a woman’s body in coffee beans and resin. Sensual, compelling and now excruciatingly poignant, it is typical of this artist whose star is rapidly rising.

An art critic in his own right, with his moniker of ‘Critical I’, Jamie also ruthlessly applies the same scrutiny to his own works. “I’m my harshest critic”, he says wearily, “If I don’t get it right you’ll never see it”. So the effect from the sun could have been fatal. Jamie is famous for chucking away his own work but not this time. “When I heard about the effect the sun was having on the sculpture I wasn’t at all surprised.” Jamie explains, “Although I did worry that the blemishes may deter cautious collectors until I saw them for myself.” Jamie quickly realized the power this blistering had. “It’s magnificent, I love it! What’s happening to her is almost biblical, like the sculptures of Jesus which bleed or the Madonnas, which weep, she has an important message for all of us.”

Crowds of passers-by are gathering to see this poignant piece, ominously displayed below a Hirst skull, before it is snapped up by a private collector at the auction on Thursday, 8th November. It may be viewed until Friday 2nd in the window at Peter Jones and next week in the pre auction viewing at the Arts Club in Mayfair.

For further information on the auction or to view all pieces please visit www.delonghi.co.uk

Artist Information and Statement

Jamie McCartney leaped to notoriety with his piece, “The Spice of Life”, a wall made up of eighty-four casts of male and female genitals in various states of arousal. The piece, now on permanent display at London’s Amora, won Jamie the international Erotic Signature sculpture prize and features in the book, The World’s Greatest Erotic Art of Today.

An accomplished artist, Jamie McCartney completed a degree in Experimental Art at the renowned Hartford Art School, the oldest art college in America. His degree and years working on feature films (his last was Casino Royale) have informed Jamie’s unique style of working. Never shy of controversy, he continues to explore the boundaries of what is possible and acceptable. His maverick approach is reflected in the range of sculptures he makes from his Brighton seafront studio.

In tandem with his outré body castings, Jamie’s latest works he describes as “a thrust into Neo Surrealism”. These new series, entitled ‘Sexidermy’ and ‘Objets d’Aft’, combine taxidermy, animal hides and objets trouvé with his unusual sculptural techniques. Using both verbal and visual puns to great effect his pieces are both whimsical and amusing but often have a sharp political or social comment embedded within. “It’s all about layers, you take from my work what you bring to it”, he enigmatically explains.

Other works this year include “Bug Art”, which involved strapping a canvas to the front of his car to collect insect splats, a series of messages and money in bottles thrown from a sailing boat into the mid Atlantic and “Lucky Strike”, a sculpture made from mousetraps and cigarettes, as a statement on addiction and the smoking ban.

Commenting on his ‘Wake up (and smell the coffee)’ Jamie says, “As an experimental sculptor, working in unusual media you have a dialogue with your materials, which you respond to. Chance actions caused by the combinations of materials inform the work as much as the intentions of the artist. It is working with weird stuff and the chance accidents like this which happen that keep my work exciting for me. I never know quite what will happen next”.

One never knows quite what Jamie will do next either. His latest prize was the Kyoto Award for the most eco friendly vehicle at the UK’s first Art Car Parade last month. His vehicle “Car-bon Miles” was an old East German Trabant converted, to pedal power. Using humour and wordplay to comment on important issues which affect us all, is one of Jamie’s trademarks.

On Macmillan Cancer Support Jamie says, “Of course they are a magnificent organization and one close to my heart as an artist. Many artists, particularly sculptors, sadly die from illnesses, including cancers caused by the materials they use. They do genuinely suffer for their art. For me this is a chance to make small contribution to the fight. For that reason alone I’m happy to repair the sun damage if the buyer would so wish.”

http://www.jamiemccartney.com/latest.html

Conversations In The Front Room: Celebration, Screening And Website Launch

www.thefrontroom.org
Rivington Place
25 October 6:30–8:00pm

'I grew up learning that "cleanliness is next to godliness" and that no matter how poor we were, if the front room looked good, then we were decent people.' - Michael McMillan

Did you see Michael McMillan’s exhibition, The West Indian Front Room at the Geffrye Museum in 2006? You can now experience the project on a new interactive website www.thefronthefrontroom.org - created in collaboration with Iniva. The website provides access to photographs, audio interviews and learning resources as well as material from new exhibitions on living rooms of Moroccan, Turkish, Indonesian, Surinamese and Antillean migrants in Holland.

Join curator Michael McMillan on 25 October for Conversations in The Front Room a celebration of the project, website launch and screening of BBC 4 documentary Tales from the Front Room, which explores the memories of three generations of Caribbean Britons. A recreation of The West Indian Front Room exhibition, originally at the Geffrye Museum, is on display from 25–31 October at Iniva, Rivington Place.

At the event you can have your portrait postcard taken with an object dear to your heart in front of a digital front room backdrop of your choice with artist Leticia Valverdes. You can also submit photos of your own front room and send comments to Michael McMillan on a curator’s blog.

Admission: Free
Rivington Place, London, EC2A 3BA
Nearest tubes: Old Street & Liverpool Street
Rivington Place is fully accessible in all public areas

For parking & wheelchair facilities or further information about Rivington Place
+44 (0) 20 7749 1240, info@rivingtonplace.org, www.rivingtonplace.org

Opening Hours: Tuesday–Friday: 11am–6pm
Late night Thursday until 9pm, last admission 8.30pm
Saturday: 12noon–6pm

Turner Prize 2007 Exhibition: 19 October 2007 – 13 January 2008

The Turner Prize 2007 exhibition opens on 19 October at Tate Liverpool. It features work by the four shortlisted artists, Zarina Bhimji, Nathan Coley, Mike Nelson and Mark Wallinger. The winner of the prize will be announced during a live broadcast of the award ceremony on Channel 4 on the evening of Monday 3 December. The Turner Prize 2007 is supported by Arts Council England, Liverpool Culture Company, Northwest Regional Development Agency, Milligan and Tate Members. With the support of the sponsors, this year’s prize fund is £40,000 with £25,000 going to the winner and £5,000 each for the other shortlisted artists.

The winner will be decided by a jury whose members are: Michael Bracewell, writer and critic; Fiona Bradley, Director, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; Thelma Golden, Director & Chief Curator, Studio Museum, Harlem; Miranda Sawyer, freelance broadcaster and writer and Christoph Grunenberg, Director of Tate Liverpool and Chairman of the Jury.

The shortlisted artists for the Turner Prize 2007 are:

Zarina Bhimji who presents a new series of photographs and a new film, Waiting 2007, made following her recent travels in India, Zanzibar and East Africa. The works emerge from a lengthy period of research into the countries’ discrete yet intersecting histories. However facts and figures ultimately give way in her images to instinct and intuition, as her rigorous attention to composition, light, form and texture convey qualities of universal human emotion and existence.

Nathan Coley who presents a carefully orchestrated installation that brings together works in various media. Rooted in urban and social practice, and underpinned by detailed research, Coley’s art explores the ways in which systems of social and political value can be inferred through the built environment. Meaning and intent is revealed through our physical engagement with the work to open up a range of possible readings; religious, political, as well as purely aesthetic. In addition to There will be no Miracles Here 2006, Coley will be showing new works made especially for the exhibition.

Mike Nelson who presents a new, immersive Amnesiac Shrine. After a hiatus of nearly a decade the Amnesiacs, a mythical gang of bikers invented by the artist in the mid-1990s, have made a recent comeback. Here Nelson turns to them once again for their help in building Amnesiac Shrine or The Misplacement (a futurological fable): mirrored cubes - inverted - with the reflection of an inner psyche as represented by a metaphorical landscape 2007. The materials and references used to construct it, provided by ‘flashbacks’ from the Amnesiacs, are elevated by their devotional context yet remain largely indefinable.

Mark Wallinger ('State Britain', pictured) who presents Sleeper 2004/5. The work records a live performance in which the artist, dressed in a bear suit, occupied the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. The bear, symbol of the city of Berlin, was alone in the museum for ten consecutive nights. In this meditative yet disquieting work, notions of national memory and allegory converge to continue Wallinger’s examination of the themes of identity and representation.