The Unforgettables: Felice Casorati's "Portrait of Silvana Cenni"

Suspended between Piero della Francesca's spatial geometries and De Chirico's metaphysics, Casorati paints a portrait that looks like a secular altarpiece. The beauty of this picture lies in its supremely balanced form and subtly ambiguous subject matter. Silvana is portrayed as an idealised figure caught in a moment of silence and reflection, somewhere between hieratic ecstasy and more mundane tiredness. The sculptural draping of her dress is reminiscent of Michelangelo's marble wonders and the rigorous palette conveys a sense of apparent serenity. For such an intimate painting, a woman seated in her room, there is a dintinct sense of solemn monumentality.

In Casorati's restrained decorative linearity and harmony of shapes we see his allegiance to a movement called Ritorno all'Ordine (Return to Order). Born as a reponse to the avant-gardes, it rejected their extreme disruptiveness in favour of the adoption of a traditional painting style and approach to art.

Casorati was also a master of Magic Realism, a rather effective oxymoron that describes a style that is representational, but at the same time far removed from reality. Many of these works, including Silvana's portrait, depict a seemingly peaceful atmosphere while oozing a subtle anxiety.

As it's often the case, we should look no further than primary sources in order to understand the true nature and ambition of an artist's work. In a letter to a friend, Casorati spoke of the sense of unreality that drove his practice: " I have become a visionary, a dreamer, I only paint what I see in my dreams: starry nights, invisible creatures, pure souls, hallucinations ... anything but real and material things ... a whisper, a smile, light and darkness'.

#felicecasorati #pierodellafrancesca #figurativepainting #portraiture #novecento #quattrocento #italianart #artblog #artblogger #beyondthecanvasblog

Felice Casorati (1883-1963)

“Ritratto di Silvana Cenni”,1922

Private Collection, Turin.

Piero della Francesca (c.1415 -1492)

"Polittico della Madonna della Misericordia" (detail), 1445-1462

Museo Civico di Sansepolcro

In Memoriam: Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935-2020)

Christo left us earlier this week, he died in his New York home at the age of 84. Together with his life and work partner Jeanne-Claude (d. 2009) he created some of the most visually arresting temporary large-scale installations ever seen. Their work was visionary and unique, it truly stretched the boundaries of what we understand as art. Through their signature wrapping and draping technique, they used monuments, landmarks, bridges, islands, buildings, and nature itself as their canvas and transformed them into iconic artistic interventions.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were free artists whose practice succeeded in marrying socialism with capitalism. The duo managed to fund their multi-million projects through the sale of the preparatory drawings and made them accessible to the public at no cost. And although each dauntingly complex project took years to design and realise, it would only exist for a few days before it was gone forever. It is perhaps this ephemeral element that is so poignant, the transience of these installations is painfully reminiscent of the brevity of human life. With any of their projects there is a distinct awareness that we are in front of something extraordinary in all its fleeting majesty. To quote Jeanne-Claude, 'The never-to-hap­pen-again dimension is something people can connect with.'

In a 1958 letter Christo wrote, 'Beauty, science and art will always triumph.' I like to believe he was right and hope that his unfinished project for the Arc de Triomphe in Paris (scheduled for late 2021) will see the light.

#christo #inmemoriam #contemporaryart #conceptualart #installationart #artblog #artblogger #beyondthecanvasblog

Le Pont Neuf Wrapped

Paris, France (1975-85)

Wrapped Reichstag

Berlin, Germany (1971-95)

Wrapped Trees

Fondation Beyeler and Berower Park, Riehen, Switzerland (1997-98)

Christo at The Floating Piers

Lake Iseo, Italy (2014-16)

Little Coast

Sydney, Australia (1968-69)

All images © 2020 Christo https://christojeanneclaude.net

Museums are neutral. Or are they?

Defining what a museum is and does is no mean feat. We know museums do a lot more than just preserve and display valuable objects that the public can enjoy and learn from. Through their collections, museums trace the history of humanity and teach millions of people about who they are. As such, museums aren't just containers of heritage, they are creators of visual, social and cultural identity. I simplify, but it's all much more complicated than this.

The roots of many museums are entwined with those of colonialism. And to this day, this means that these institutions carry the heavy and unresolved burden of provenance and restitution, the largely overlooked issue of imperial violence and a consolidated history of gender and racial bias. These are places that were built to celebrate the great imperialist project, but why are these myths still perpetuated in 2020? Shouldn't museums focus on addressing these dangerously obsolete narratives in order to facilitate the understanding of the enduring impact of colonialism to allow people to reconcile with the past, make sense of the present and try and build a fairer future?

Social media and technology have allowed museums to reach much broader audiences across the world. Their power to become active agents of social change is now bigger than ever and they should leverage their status to educate, connect and unite communities.

#museums #colonialism #decolonisation #artblog #beyondthecanvasblog