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Bucerius Kunst Forum’s New Exhibit: Venice. City of Artists
Press Release
Venice. City of Artists
October 1, 2016 to January 15, 2017
Like no other place, the Floating City has presented a challenge to artists throughout the centuries, and as the host of the Venice Biennale it retains its power of inspiration to the present day. Artists’ views of Venice from the sixteenth century to the present will be explored for the first time in this exhibition. The show at the Bucerius Kunst Forum focuses on the intense experiences triggered by the city and their transformation into art and not on the paintings by the Venetian School. From October 1, 2016 to January 15, 2017, Venice. City of Artists brings together works by artists such as Carpaccio, Canaletto, Guardi, Tiepolo, Turner, Ruskin, Monet, Kandinsky, Gerhard Richter and Candida Höfer. Around 110 loans come from international collections such as the Museo Correr, Venice, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, the Tate, London, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and the Städel Museum, Frankfurt.
Venice is a place of longing; like no other city it has been the source of temptation to both visitors and artists alike down through the centuries. Its location near the sea and its magnificent architectural backdrop along the Grand Canal convey the impression of a theatrical production that virtually demands an artistic response. From 1500 until the beginning of the twentieth century, Venice was celebrated by painters as the city of vision: Water, ships and processions provided a large audience with spectacles. Their view of the city has shaped our image of Venice. With paintings of Venice by such artists as Vittore Carpaccio, Canaletto, Francesco Guardi, Giambattista Tiepolo, William Turner, John Ruskin, Claude Monet, Wassily Kandinsky, Gerhard Richter and Candida Höfer the exhibition Venice. City of Artists not only focus on paintings by the Venetian School but is dedicated to the pan- European dimension of Venice’s unique artistic reception from the sixteenth century to the present day.
Unlike in other cities, Venetian painters had begun depicting processions and government ceremonies in front of realistic urban backdrops as early as 1500. The recognition value of the city also played a representational role as can be seen in portraits of the doges, such as Carpaccio’s depiction of Leonardo Loredan and Tintoretto’s portrait of Alvise Mocenigo.
In the eighteenth century, painted vistas of the city flowered despite Venice’s economic decline. Giovanni Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto, and his workshop established the veduta genre and Venice became its center. Views of the Grand Canal, the Piazza San Marco, the Basilica and the Doge’s Palace with ships at anchor document and glorify the city’s architectural magnificence. Francesco Guardi was among the last painters of representative vedute. The melancholic mood found in his works foretells later responses to the decline of a society and an era. These can also be found in Pietro Longhi and Gabriel Bella’s observations of contemporary life and the culture of pleasure.
In 1815, following the reign of Napoleon, economic and social life in Venice and local art production was in a sorry state. However, the city remained a stop along the Grand Tour for English artists. J.M.W. Turner was one of the first painters to visit Venice in the nineteenth century. In his paintings, traditional vedute melted into perceptive experiences dependent on light, air and water. Decaying Venice provided artists such as John Ruskin with new subjects. At the end of the century, Americans such as John Singer Sargent and James Whistler discovered motifs far from the Piazza San Marco and made secluded backstreets and narrow side canals worthy images to be captured on canvas.
After the mid-nineteenth century, French painters brought their subjective gaze to fleeting moments in time. The southern light and the vast sky over the lagoon and reflections of the facades in water ideally lent themselves to Impressionist painting techniques. Artists such as Eugène Boudin and Claude Monet captured the scintillating atmosphere of the city in their works. The centuries-long allure that Venice had on artists from many European countries and America was institutionalized at the end of the nineteenth century when the Biennale, the first international art exhibition, was held in Venice in 1895. Artists from around the world continue to gather in Venice at the Biennale even though the city itself is and was rarely the subject of their works.
Curated by Inés Richter-Musso, the exhibition Venice. City of Artists documents the doges’ visual identification with the city and the development of vedute as a Venetian genre. It analyzes the various motifs that engaged European artists in Venice in the nineteenth century after the end of the Republic, and enables viewers to understand why Venice has remained a source of inspiration to this day. Loans come from international collections such as the Museo Correr, Venice, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, the Tate, London, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and the Städel Museum, Frankfurt.
The exhibition catalogue with essays by Kathrin Baumstark, Tiziana Bottecchia, Barbara Dayer Gallati, Laura de Rossi, Daria Dittmeyer-Hössl, Martin Gaier and Inés Richter-Musso is published by Hirmer Verlag (Munich, ca. 216 pages with color illustrations of all works on display, € 29 at the exhibition).
The exhibition is under the patronage of the Embassy of the Italian Republic.
To read more about the exhibit or Bucerius Kunst Forum’s activities, you can visit their website here.