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ARTS AND CULTURE NEWS
Museums. Art Galleries. Exhibitions. Events. Artists.
The
British government and all its predecessors were denounced for "undiminished
philistinism" yesterday by the curator of an exhibition celebrating a century
of works of art acquired with the help of the charity Art Fund.
Photo: Antonio
Canova's Three Graces, one of the works of art saved by the Art Fund. Photo:
Sarah Lee
Professor Richard Verdi challenged the government to "stump up" the £35m
needed to keep Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks at the National Gallery in
London, to stop it being sold to the Getty museum in California. He said:
"Can anyone seriously suggest that the country would not be much much poorer
without the great works of art in this exhibition? The National Gallery is
the greatest place in the world for the study of early works by Raphael, and
that's where the picture should be. That's where it would be of the greatest
value to members of the public and indeed to scholars." Prof. Verdi
dismissed suggestions by art scholars that the picture might be a fake or
studio copy, saying: "For God's sake! If it's not Raphael then it must be
the work of some even greater artist whose name is currently unknown to us.
Of course it's a Raphael." The exhibition at the Hayward Gallery on the
South Bank celebrates a century of works that did not get away. The interior
of the gallery, formerly a building with all the charm of a concrete breeze
block, has been transformed by architect Piers Gough into a shimmering
golden cave heaped with treasure.
The
400 exhibits, chosen from 500,000 which the Art Fund has bought or helped buy
since 1903, include ancient Greek gold and a Roman bust of Augustus that was
once buried under temple steps so that his enemies could trample him underfoot
every time they passed. There is also Velazquez's Rokeby Venus, which competes
with Canova's Three Graces for the title of sexiest bottom in art. The Becket
casket, which may once have held the bones of the murdered bishop; a golden
lizard salvaged from a shipwrecked Armada galleon and Mary Queen of Scots's
last letter, written to the King of France hours before her death begging him
to pay her servants, are also on display. Prof. Verdi, director of the Barber
Institute in Birmingham, toured Britain to choose the works. In the case of
the shimmering John Martin landscape of Adam and Eve settling down for a chat
in paradise with the angel Raphael, he made his decision after a flashlight
inspection in an unlit museum store on a wet Saturday afternoon in Kirkcaldy,
Fife.
Manet at the Prado, Madrid.
This season sees the opening at the Museo del Prado of the first exhibition in
Spain devoted to the work of Édouard Manet (1832-1883). The exhibition,
entitled Manet at the Prado, has been made possible through the sponsorship of
the Fundacion Winterthur, and will feature 110 of the greatest works by this
French painter (58 paintings, 30 prints and 22 drawings). This is the most
significant retrospective to be devoted to Manet’s work since the one held in
Paris and New York in 1983. The exhibition is part of a far-ranging
collaboration between the Museo del Prado, the Musee d’Orsay (Paris) and the
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York).
Continues on the following pages.