Watch the Future Generation Art Prize conference live

By The Art Newspaper. From In The Frame
Published online: 05 February 2012

Future Generation Art Prize

Monday afternoon, readers of The Art Newspaper can watch a live stream from Kiev of the press conference launching the 2012 Future Generation Art Prize.

Speakers include Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate, the artists Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, and the Ukrainian collector Victor Pinchuk, who is the chairman of the board for the prize.

The press conference, which will be streamed live on www.theartnewspaper.com at 15.30 GMT, will be chaired by Anna Somers Cocks, the founder editor of The Art Newspaper.

The prize is in its second year and is worth $100,000 to the winner. It was established by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and is organised by the Pinchuk Art Centre. Entry is open to artists up to the age of 35, and applications open today (until 6 May).

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Baryshnikov tiptoes into photographer’s shoes

By The Art Newspaper. From In The Frame
Published online: 03 February 2012

Untitled from the series “Dance This Way” by Mikhail Baryshnikov

Mikhail Baryshnikov, the ballet dancer-turned-actor, is adding another noun to his artistic resume—photographer. In February, the Gary Nader Art Centre in Miami will host the multi-talented Russian’s first solo show of dance photography, “Dance This Way”. Perhaps channeling his role on “Sex and the City”, where he played light installation artist Aleksandr Petrovsky, Baryshnikov will show works that capture various dance genres, including hip-hop and ballet. Both Nader and Baryshnikov will donate a percentage of sales from the show to Women of Tomorrow Mentor Scholarship, a programme that pairs professional women with groups of at-risk teenage girls in public high schools.

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Curator (British Art 1750 – 1830) Reference: TG0158
Curator (British Art 1850 – 1915) Reference: TG0159

Tate Britain

By The Art Newspaper. [UNDEFINED]

Tateb

The aim of Tate Britain is to increase public awareness, understanding and enjoyment of British art from the 16th century to the present day, and of international modern and contemporary art. Tate supports this ambition by facilitating extraordinary experiences between people and art.

In the last 12 months Tate Britain has started to embed a strategy for 2013 and beyond. This strategy sets out our ambition to raise the profile of the collection alongside the exhibition programme, and to improve the research culture within period specialisms.

To support both aim and strategy, Tate Britain is recruiting for two Curators in British Art 1750 – 1830 and British Art 1850 – 1915. The Curators are responsible for the care and presentation of the collection and contributes to the development of the Collection by means of research, managing displays and exhibitions, and maintaining and developing a scholarly profile in the field.

You’ll have a PhD and a record of publication on relevant topics, or an equivalent body of published work at post-doctoral level.

With significant relevant work experience in an art gallery, museum, or with a collection, you’ll be a specialist in one or more areas of British art from 1850 – 1915.

Besides having a track record of devising and delivering exhibitions with imagination and distinction, you’ll also possess the ability to manage and develop a team and the ability to coach and work with others to achieve results.

This is a position that requires commitment to and awareness of issues of equality and cultural diversity as they affect the work of a major museum.

Contact details/How to apply

If you’re unable to access our website, please email jobs@tate.org.uk quoting ref: TG0158/TG0159

Our jobs are like our galleries, open to all.

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Earliest copy of Mona Lisa found in Prado

Experts say the painting was completed at the same time as Leonardo’s original

By Martin Bailey. Conservation, Issue 232, February 2012
Published online: 01 February 2012

A detail of the nearly-conserved Prado copy of the Mona Lisa (Photo: © Museum Nacional del Prado)

A copy of the Mona Lisa has been discovered in the Prado which was painted in Leonardo’s studio—created side by side with the original that now hangs in the Louvre. This sensational find will transform our understanding of the world’s most famous picture.

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Conservators at the Prado in Madrid recently made an astonishing discovery, hidden beneath black overpaint. What was assumed to be a replica of the Mona Lisa made after Leonardo’s death had actually been painted by one of his key pupils, working alongside the master. The picture is more than just a studio copy—it changed as Leonardo developed his original composition.

The final traces of overpaint are now being removed by Prado conservators, revealing the fine details of the delicate Tuscan landscape, which mirrors the background of Leonardo’s masterpiece. Darkened varnish is also being painstakingly stripped away from the face of the Mona Lisa, giving a much more vivid impression of her enticing eyes and enigmatic smile.

In the Louvre’s original, which will not be cleaned in the foreseeable future, Lisa’s face is obscured by old, cracked varnish, making her appear almost middle aged. In the Prado copy we see her as she would have looked at the time—as a radiant young woman in her early 20s.

Leonardo da Vinci, and particularly his masterpiece the Mona Lisa, attracts endless sensationalist theories. However, the discovery of the contemporary copy has been accepted by the two key authorities, the Prado and the Louvre.

Uncovering the truth

Until recently, curators at the Prado had no idea of the significance of their copy of the Mona Lisa. There are dozens of surviving replicas from the 16th and 17th centuries. The Madrid version was believed by some specialist to have been painted fairly early, but the absence of the landscape background meant that it aroused little interest (there is no substantive entry on it in the Prado’s collection catalogues).

Although the portrait is finely painted, the dull, black background had a deadening visual effect on the image of the young woman. The sitter is generally believed to represent Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the Florentine cloth merchant Francesco del Giocondo.

The Prado’s painting was until recently assumed to be on oak (rarely used in Italy at the time) and therefore a work by a northern European artist. José Ruiz Manero, the author of a study of Italian art in Spanish collections, concluded that the picture was Flemish.

Last year, the panel was examined and found to be walnut, which was used in Italy (as is poplar, used for the original of the Mona Lisa). In size, it is close to that of the original: the Louvre’s painting is 77cm x 53cm and the Prado’s copy 76cm x 57cm.

In a paper presented two weeks ago at a technical conference at London’s National Gallery, coinciding with its exhibition “Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan” (until 5 February), conservators revealed that they had discovered that the black background was a later addition. This conference was not covered in the media (for a report, see our February print edition).

A striking photograph was presented at the conference, showing the picture’s condition after 90% of the black overpaint had been removed, leaving just a small section in the upper right. Visually, the landscape transforms the work, bringing the picture to life.

There was an even greater surprise: infrared reflectography images of the Prado replica were compared with those obtained in 2004 from the original of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. This process enables conservators to peer beneath the surface of the paint, to see underdrawing and changes which evolved in the composition.

The underdrawing of the Madrid replica was similar to that of the Mona Lisa before it was finished. This suggests that the original and the copy were begun at the same time and painted next to each other, as the work evolved.

Identifying the painter

It is quite possible that Leonardo’s assistant met Lisa and may even have been present when she sat for the master. Although no drawings survive, Leonardo probably began by sketching her face and pose. She may also have come to the studio when finishing touches were being applied to the face in the painting.

The Prado’s technical specialist Ana González Mozo describes the Madrid replica as “a high quality work”, and in the paper she presented at the London conference, she provided evidence that the picture was done in Leonardo’s studio. The precise date of the original is uncertain, although the Louvre states it was between 1503 and 1506.

Bruno Mottin, the head conservator at the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France, believes that the most likely painter of the Prado copy was one of Leonardo’s two favourite pupils.

Mottin proposes that it was either Andrea Salai, who originally joined Leonardo’s studio in 1490 and probably became his lover, or Francesco Melzi, who joined around 1506. If the Prado replica is eventually attributed to Melzi, it suggests a late date for the original.

What the copy reveals

The Madrid copy of the Mona Lisa is important for what it tells us about Leonardo’s studio practice. The production of a second version, painted alongside the original, is intriguing. It adds credence to Martin Kemp’s theory that Leonardo may also have had a hand in both versions of The Madonna of the Yarnwinder, 1501-07, one owned by the Duke of Buccleuch and the other by a New York private owner (formerly in the Lansdowne collection).

But what is most exciting about the Prado replica is what it reveals about Leonardo’s original. In the Madrid copy there are areas that are better preserved than in the Louvre painting. The replica gives us more detail of the spindles of the chair, the frill on the edge of the fabric on Lisa’s chest and the semi-transparent veil around her left shoulder, arm and elbow.

The Prado’s curator Miguel Falomir believes the replica can probably be identified as a portrait listed in the 1666 inventory of Madrid’s Alcazar Palace, although it remains unclear when it first reached the Spanish royal collection.

Coming into the light

Falomir suspects the black overpaint was probably added in the mid-18th century. The reason for this addition is obscure, since the background landscape remained in good condition and Leonardo’s original painting was already very highly regarded. The overpaint may have been added to integrate the copy into an interior with other portraits set against dark backgrounds.

During the past few months, this black covering has been painstakingly stripped away at the Madrid conservation studio, with the final area of dark overpaint due to be removed in the next few days. Later varnish has also been taken away from the rest of the picture, most importantly the face.

The fully conserved replica is expected to be unveiled at the Prado in Madrid in mid-February. It is then due to be loaned to the Louvre in Paris, as a late addition to its exhibition on “Leonardo’s Last Masterpiece: The Sainte Anne” (29 March-25 June). There it will be seen in the same galleries as the original, giving specialists and visitors the first chance to compare the two works. After 500 years, the two versions of the Mona Lisa from Leonardo’s studio will be reunited again.

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The King in Germany

By The Art Newspaper. From In The Frame
Published online: 31 January 2012

Elvis in front of the castle gate in Bad Nauheim, Germany, in June 1959

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Contemporary art show in Saudi Arabia could herald a new movement

But young artists like those included in “We Need to Talk” still face obstacles and government bureaucracy

By Henry Hemming. Web only
Published online: 30 January 2012

Visitors to the opening of “We Need to Talk”

jeddah. Usually it is the job of an art historian to pinpoint when an art movement begins. But last month, on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, the overwhelming feeling among visitors to a ground-breaking exhibition of Saudi contemporary art was that they had witnessed the birth of something new. They may well be right.

Organised by Edge of Arabia, an independent arts initiative, “We Need to Talk” (until 18 February) features more than 40 pieces by 22 young Saudi artists, almost half of them women, and includes videos, sculpture and photography from the likes of Abdulnasser Gharem, Ahmed Mater and Manal Al-Dowayan. Most of these artists have shown together over the past three-and-a-half years in London, Venice, Berlin, Istanbul and Dubai, but never before in Saudi Arabia. Could an exhibition like this have been staged in Jeddah ten years ago? “Of course not,” said the show’s curator Mohammed Hafiz, “because we didn’t have the artists, we didn’t have the works of art… there are many elements.”

One of these elements was a degree of indifference or suspicion displayed back then towards contemporary art. Now, members of the Saudi royal family, including the participating artist, Princess Jowhara Al Saud, as well as legions of young art fans packed the opening. A smattering of non-Saudis were also there, including photographer Wolf­gang Tillmans, Jack Persekian, the former director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, Antonia Carver, the director of Art Dubai, and the following day Chris Dercon, the director of Tate Modern, took a spin round the show, later describing the artists involved as “true intellectuals with a great eye for form and immanence”.

“It feels like a movement,” said London dealer James Lindon, visiting Saudi Arabia for the first time. “There’s extraordinary solidarity between the artists and a desire to push things forward in an interesting way. I’m incredibly impressed by the quality of the work.” While some pieces explored shared Islamic heritage, such as Ayman Yossri Daydban’s pieces on the Hajj, most focused on elements of contemporary Saudi society, and did so in a way that was immediate, considered, and at times gently provocative.

In Sarah Abu Abdullah’s video, Anees 9999, the artist, dressed in an abaya (a long cloak women in Saudi Arabia must wear in public), covers a wrecked car with pink paint before stepping gingerly into the passenger seat. “I was about to go back to Saudi,” she says of the piece, “so I started to count the things I wouldn’t be able to do… I wouldn’t be able to choose who I would marry, there are few working opportunities, I can’t drive myself to work, I can’t have my own little apartment. I granted myself a simple wish, by pretending to have my own car.”

Nor did she think she could ever display a video like this in Saudi Arabia. Clearly, the times are changing.

Maha Malluh, whose work is currently on show in the British Museum’s “Hajj” exhibition (until 15 April), refers to the religious tapes that appeared in Saudi Arabia during the late 1970s in her piece Food for Thought 7200. The cassettes are laid out in 1970s bread-baking trays and have been positioned to spell words that resonate from the tapes such as “un-religious”, “shame” and “lies”.

What makes the inclusion of pieces like these unusual is that every piece in the show was inspected by a committee of senior artists at the Ministry of Culture and Information and all but one work was approved. Financial support for the exhibition largely came from the private equity company, Abraaj Capital, and Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives, the social responsibility wing of the automobile and customer financing corporation. This allowed the show’s organisers to take more risks, not just in terms of the work but the staging. “We Need to Talk” is held in an unfinished, neon-lit wing of Jeddah’s Al Furisiya Marina Mall—a highly unusual choice for a Saudi exhibition. “I think it’s just right for the work. It was a risk, but one that we felt was worth taking,” said Stephen Stapleton, the founder of Edge of Arabia and the co-curator of “We Need to Talk”.

Like the mall, the Saudi art movement looks set to receive considerable investment in event sponsorship and patronage in the coming years. As well as supporting the exhibition, Christie’s had eight representatives in Jeddah for the opening. Sotheby’s had four. By the end of the year both auction houses will have members of staff based in Saudi Arabia.

“Collectors [here] have the means and the interest,” said Paul Hewitt, the managing director of growth markets, Christie’s, who compared the emerging market in Saudi Arabia to that of Russia and India, adding that patience was key. For Lina Lazaar, a deputy director and international specialist for contemporary art at Sotheby’s, “every single Saudi that I know from my generation has or is about to start collecting contemporary art”.

Nonetheless this fledgling art movement faces some obstacles. There is no fine art college, no contemporary art museum, no dedicated art publication and no surplus of innovative art spaces in Saudi Arabia, with the notable exception of Jeddah’s Athr Gallery.

Saudi bureaucracy is another problem, a theme addressed in the show by several pieces. The Postman, a photograph by Sami Al-Turki, refers to the growing number of young Saudis who prefer to communicate by email rather than risk the state-run postal service, a situation he sees as analogous to what is happening in many Saudi creative fields as young men and women choose to feature their work and communicate by YouTube, Facebook and Twitter rather than through traditional channels. “We Need to Talk” belongs very much to this new tradition.

The fact that this exhibition happened, the extensive coverage it received in the Saudi media, and the prospect of a museum of contemporary art opening in Jeddah within the decade: all of this suggests an underlying shift. In Saudi Arabia today there is a new enthusiasm for art. It is being driven on by an indigenous movement of contemporary art that made its long-awaited arrival on a balmy night in Jeddah.

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Shedding light on an obscure pre-Raphaelite

Decades of accumulated grime kept historians from appreciating the skill and ambition of the artist Francis Ashton Jackson

By Andrea Watson. Web only
Published online: 26 January 2012

Francis Ashton Jackson’s Nativity in the chapel at the College of St Barnabas near the village of Lingfield in Surrey

The restoration of a series of panels by Francis Ashton Jackson (1868-1946) at an English chapel for retired clergy is likely to boost the reputation of this obscure painter associated with the pre-Raphaelite movement. While the paintings were believed to be by Jackson, it was not until the completion of the project to stabilise and clean the works that experts were able to fully appreciate the skill of the works and the artist.

The paintings, including the depiction of the Transfiguration on a reredos (an ornamental screen), an altar frontal and a Nativity scene, decorate the chapel at the College of St Barnabas near the village of Lingfield in Surrey. The treatment of the paintings is part of the chapel’s £25,000 restoration project.

The work, undertaken by the firm Howell Bellion, included some regilding as well as the addition of an insulating panel to the back of the reredos. “The gilding and textured ground of the three panels of the reredos were decaying and flaking because [of their proximity to] the south window,” says warden Father Howard Such, adding: “the continual temperature fluctuations caused the backboard to expand and contract constantly which cracked the gesso and gilding.”

Identification of the St Barnabas panels to Jackson comes from an old guidebook written by a previous warden, which simply refers to “paintings by Mr. Jackson of Bodley Co.” Historian Michael Hall says that Jackson was the British architect G.F. Bodley’s ecclesiastical decorator of choice from about 1900 onwards.

Jackson was also a key member of the atelier of the prominent Victorian stained glass artist Charles Eamer Kempe, according to the late Kempe scholar Margaret Stavridi. She noted in her 1988 book on Kempe that Jackson was involved in the redecoration of the Church of St Mary Magdalene located on the Sandringham Estate, the Queen’s private country retreat in Norfolk. The church is regularly used by the British Royal Family.

Father Such believes that the Nativity could prove to be Jackson’s “masterpiece” although, due to decades of accumulated grime, many people were unaware of the works.

The conservator Kevin Howell, who oversaw the work, says that while many paintings of this quality could be seen in English churches, the majority of the workaday artists and craftsmen of the Gothic Revival, were “at best obscure or entirely anonymous” figures.

“The Nativity is typical of Jackson’s style, although better preserved than most of his work for Bodley. It is very attractive, and reveals Jackson to have been a more ambitious artist than I had realised,” says Hall.

An expert from the Courtauld is set to examine the paintings shortly.

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Swiss museum settles Malevich claim

Most works to remain at the Kunstmuseum Basel, while one gouache is transferred to the artist’s heirs

By Martha Lufkin. Web only
Published online: 26 January 2012

Malevich’s Landscape with Red Houses was returned to the artist’s heirs

A settlement has found common ground between a Swiss museum and claimants to art, allowing some of the art to remain on public display. In an agreement announced on 20 January, the Kunstmuseum Basel transferred a work in gouache by Kazimir Malevich to the artist’s heirs, in a settlement that leaves a second gouache and about 60 drawings by Malevich at the museum. The agreement settles all questions as to title to the Malevich works in question.

In June 1927, the Russian abstract artist Malevich, then living in Berlin, was unexpectedly called back by Stalin to Soviet Leningrad, now St Petersburg. He left more than 100 of his art works in Berlin with acquaintances, but never returned.

In 2010, the artist’s heirs registered a claim with the museum for the two gouaches and the drawings. The claim never reached the courts. The museum maintains that it acquired the Malevich works “honorably and acquired good title pursuant to Swiss law”, a statement issued by both parties after the settlement says. The settlement will keep Malevich’s works on public display, acknowledge the historical circumstances that prevented his return to Germany, respect the heirs’ legacy, and allow the museum to comply with the code of ethics of the International Council of Museums, the statement says.

The museum is transferring the gouache Landscape with Red Houses, which it bought from Marlborough Fine Art in London in 1964, to the heirs. The work was among those left in Berlin. The items that will stay at the museum include a 1969 donation by Marguerite Arp-Hagenbach of original illustrations for Malevich’s 1927 book Die gegenstandslose Welt and the gouache The Washing Woman, donated in 1995 by Franz Meyer, the former director of the museum, who bought it at auction in 1964.

The heirs, who claim that Melevich’s acquaintances in Berlin had no right to transfer or sell the art, have claimed other works left in Berlin by Malevich, from institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University. All claims have ended in settlements.

Larry Kaye, the heirs’ lawyer, says: “the heirs are committed to recovering Malevich’s legacy. Wherever they find works by the artist which they believe they are entitled to recover, they will assert their rights and try to resolve the claim.”

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