CONTENTS April 2012
EDITORIAL
From the archives
Like the work of Damien Hirst today, Jacob Epstein’s Genesis was the subject of a media furore in Britain in the 1930s. Writing in March 1931, Thomas Leman Hare mounted a defence of what now appears to be a rather innocuous sculpture.
CONTEMPORARY ART
Around the galleries
Art en Vieille-Ville returns this spring to Geneva’s historic Old Town, with local galleries showcasing their best work in an array of exhibitions. Elsewhere in the Swiss city, a plethora of superb satellite shows can be found.
CONTEMPORARY ART
Collectors’ focus
Swiss painting has traditionally appealed to Swiss collectors, but in recent years the market has expanded to attract international buyers. Although prices are increasing, many works produced by Swiss artists are still arguably undervalued.
ARCHITECTURE
Architecture
Despite its vulnerability to fire, damp and rot, wood is a durable material that, over time, can become almost as hard as steel. From medieval barns to 17th-century log churches, timber structures have survived across Northern Europe over centuries.
Art market: Market preview
Islamic Week in London sees a wealth of Eastern and Oriental work offered, while an outstanding piece of Chelsea porcelain comes to the block at Bonhams. March saw epic Impressionist and modern sales, and a blossoming ARCOmadrid.
Art to Adorn
The proponents of the Studio Jewellery Movement were inspired by the modernist belief in the power of transformation. Their avant-garde designs – a blend of abstract shapes and bold materials – were often nothing less than one-off pieces of sculpture
An Eye for the Avant-Garde
Giancarlo Olgiati and his wife Danna have together built a remarkable collection that effortlessly reveals the role of the avant-garde in 20th-century art, from the dynamism of Italian Futurism to the conceptualism of Pistoletto
Spring in the Alps
Active in Switzerland for most of his life, the Italian painter Giovanni Segantini drew inspiration from the Alpine landscape. His most famous depiction of the Swiss countryside – a joyous nod to the onset of spring – fuses the artist’s divisionist technique with a symbolist composition
A Unique Heritage
The Swiss National Museum’s extensive archaeology holdings cover the whole of Switzerland, and are unique in a country where cantons maintain regional collections. A new exhibition at the Château de Prangins in Nyon enables a selection of these outstanding pieces to be seen in French-speaking Switzerland for the first time
The Nation’s Art Revealed
Launched in 2003, the Public Catalogue Foundation is devoted to publishing every oil painting in a UK public collection. The Foundation is the brainchild of Fred Hohler, and its work over the last decade is yielding some intriguing revelations
A Taste for Blue
The Wallace Collection in London holds a small yet very fine collection of Dutch art. The galleries for these works have undergone a dramatic refurbishment, resulting in vibrant, well-lit spaces that cleverly refer to the history of collecting in this area
The House of Cards
By reuniting a small group of Chardin’s paintings and associated prints, an exhibition at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, explores the artist’s subtle variations on the themes of childhood, play and adolescence within his figure scenes
Perfection and pastiche
Corinna Lotz reports on an exploration of Picasso’s influence on 20th-century British art
A disciplined diet of colour
Alexander Adams savours an exhibition that reveals Josef Albers’ ambition and virtuosity
Rubens in detail
David Howarth savours a display of Rubens’ sketch for Whitehall’s Banqueting House ceiling – one of the UK’s finest acquisitions in recent years
Cabinetmaker extraordinaire
Martin P. Levy applauds an exhibition that highlights the virtuosity of Duncan Phyfe’s furniture and his contribution to 19th-century American design
A preference for the shadows
Ian Collins salutes a long-awaited biography of the 20th-century British painter Prunella Clough
Halcyon days remembered
Timothy Mowl welcomes a book devoted to the Edwardian architect, garden designer and Country Life writer Henry Avray Tipping
The art of a connoisseur
These meticulously researched volumes, dedicated to the collection of French drawings owned by Pierre-Jean Mariette, are a remarkable achievement, writes Humphrey Wine
Off the shelf
Apollo’s selection of recently published books on art, architecture and the history of collecting