Originality and a Radical Desire to Experiment
Visions of Modernity at the Deutsche Guggenheim
The
Deutsche Guggenheim first opened in 1997 with “Visions of Paris: Robert
Delaunay’s Series.” Now, the exhibition space is once again showing
Delaunay – together with contemporaries such as Cézanne, Kandinsky, and
Picasso. To conclude the 15-year partnership with Deutsche Bank, the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation present masterpieces from its
collections in the show “Visions of Modernity”.
Robert Delaunay, Simultaneous Windows (2nd Motif, 1st Part), 1912. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection
|
Juan Gris, Newspaper and Fruit Dish, March 1916. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Gift, Estate of Katherine S. Dreier
|
Amedeo Modigliani, Nude, 1917. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection
|
Franz Marc, Stables, 1913. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection
|
Alexander Calder, Untitled, 1942. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Hilla Rebay Collection. © Calder Foundation, New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012
|
Pablo Picasso, Carafe, Jug and Fruit Bowl (Carafon, pot et compotier), Horta de Ebro, summer 1909. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection
|
|
|
Claude Monet,
one of Impressionism’s seminal figures, revolutionized painting, yet
even when he became an established artist he continued to take risks on
new ideas. This can be seen in the three-dozen paintings that he
created in 1908 in Venice—paintings like The Palazzo Ducale, Seen from San Giorgio Maggiore, one of the highlights of Visions of Modernity. When Monet’s Venice series was shown for the first time, even the most progressive art critics were deeply impressed. Guillaume Apollinaire,
one of the ground breakers of Cubism, praised its “truthfulness.” The
paintings departed from every convention in traditional ways of
representing the city of lagoons. Never before had Venice been so
radically demystified, reduced to an interplay between rock, light,
water, and fog, between color and atmosphere.
The other artists in Visions of Modernity also stand for “originality and a radical desire to experiment,” as curator Megan Fontanella describes. Ranging from the Cubist paintings of Picasso and Gris and abstractions by Kandinsky, Schwitters, and Mondrian to Modigliani’s nudes and Calder’s
mobiles, the exhibition’s works document the unremitting creative power
of these masterpieces. At the same time, the show also relates the
history behind the collection of the Guggenheim Foundation.
Ever since it was founded in 1937, it has continuously expanded through
numerous gifts and acquisitions. And it was these works that helped
make the Guggenheim Museum and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection into flagships for modern art.
Museum founders Solomon R. Guggenheim and Hilla Rebay, the visionary art collectors Katherine S. Dreier and Peggy Guggenheim, and the influential gallery dealers Karl Nierendorf and Justin K. Thannhauser
were all pioneers; they collected the avant-garde of the late 19th and
early 20th centuries with great prescience. For the concluding
exhibition at the Deutsche Guggenheim, Visions of Modernity –
Impressionism and Classical Modernism in the Collections of the
Guggenheim Foundation, highlights from the collections of these six art
lovers are brought together to tell the story of pioneering artistic
innovations.
Visions of Modernity:
Impressionism and Classical Modernism in the Collections of the Guggenheim Foundation
11/15/2012 — 2/17/2013
Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin
|
|
