REVEALED ?


This morning I visited the Hermitage. Oh, you don’t think I did? How right you are, but I did go to see a documentary called « The Hermitage Revealed ». Pierrette had talked about this coming event and then Marielle had seen it. In Paris, the communication has been more than secretive. I saw extracts in a cinema and that’s about all apart from Pierrette and Marielle talking about it. I booked and off I went. 

The average age of the audience was « old » . Not a young person in sight. I find it difficult to believe that young people are not interested in such a museum with 250 years of history and built by Catherine ll. War or not, she went on collecting pictures from all over Europe. Her Palace had to be on the same level as the rest of Europe. Her son, Nicholas followed in her footsteps, just as the curator today follows in his father’s footsteps.

There are over 3 million pieces in 2000 rooms. I’ve just got to get there. I saw the Hermitage and the different palaces when St Petersburg was still Leningrad.Today I have a vision of dark rooms or gild fulling off columns and walls. Despite this, the « grandeur » was overwhelming.

And that I think is what I found frustrating about this documentary. As marvelous as it was, it is still based on propaganda and apart from halls, bands, a few very select Masters with people speeding through the different galleries - for me, I would like to have been able to « wander » more. 

Contemporary art is not their force - and even one of the curators says so. At least now there are temporary exhibitions. 

The one piece I really found lovely (and I’m sure all visitors do) was the golden peacock  clock. Totally Kitch and a clock that even Marielle would refuse to have in her flat.
He moved his head - but it was Marielle who told me he is a clock!


 Here is a link though _ Australian oriented - which will give you more details about the film.  Also a more European link too…..

http://hermitagerevealed.com/

http://www.sharmillfilms.com.au/?p=3940

Commentaires

Enregistrer un commentaire

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

CONFLICTS AND ENCOUNTERS OF MULTIPLE HISTORIES

Image
Over the years, I have gone on discovering Wifredo Lam. He has been mentioned in different Blog chapters but always within permanent collections. I have to admit today that in the early years, I took one of his paintings for a Picasso….and seeing certain paintings of his today, it didn’t really surprise me. Especially as I learnt that he knew Picasso…This though was a retrospective of his work at the Beaubourg. Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) was a precursor of a cross-cultural style of painting, infusing Western modernism with African and Caribbean symbolism. He must have been one of the very rare artists who was in contact with all the movements of his time …and all those that I follow. Cubism, surrealism, CoBrA…but he never lost sight of the world around him and took on the struggle to paint the drama of his own country, Cuba. The above photo plunges us at once into the exhibition. Was he an attractive man? I think there are later photos which make him look less brutal….but in my book,
Lire la suite

MY BELOVED PICASSO -I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS -

Image
After 25 years as a museum, it was time to renovate the Picasso site. The « Hotel » as we call it, has quite a history. It is probably, as Bruno Foucart wrote in 1985,  (he is an art historian of 19th century architecture) “the grandest, most extraordinary, if not the most extravagant, of the Parisian houses of the 17th century”. Hotel Salé The Main stair case Another coming down "Picasso" would have liked these lights The building has seen many occupants come and go over the centuries. However, paradoxically, before the place was entrusted to the museum, it was rarely “inhabited”, but instead leased out to various private individuals, prestigious hosts and institutions. And so it became the Picasso museum. The renovations began in 2009 and quite obviously went well over budget and should have opened before the holidays started this year. The political arguments too had to be contended with not to mention the changes in Directors and the big question bei
Lire la suite

THE CHOICE OF ONE OF THE RICHEST WOMEN IN THE WORLD

Image
The exhibition season is very full between January and the French holiday period. I make less and less effort to go and see the « block-busters » and there are some museums which are not easy to get around. The Jacquemart André is one of them. The rooms are so small and when a couple of groups move in, it is virtually impossible to see a picture or move at all. Still I was interested to go and see the Alicia Koplowitz collection. Now I come to think of it, there have been quite a few private collections shown to the public since the end of last year.  Naturally I knew nothing about this woman.  Alicia Koplowitz is very well known in her home country, Spain. Thanks to her company, the Capital Omega Group  a comprehensive financial services company , she has become an important collect er Alicia is is a Spanish business magnate. When her father died, she and her sister inherited Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. (CYCSA), a company founded by her father. She  sold her part of the comp
Lire la suite