Neumann´s Contrapposto Studies.
Max Ernst, La Toilette de la mariée. (Attirement of the bride), 1940.
Venezia,
Italia
First time I arrived in Venice was by train and this is such a a great way for first meet La Serenissima. After a 10 minutes wait for the local train at Venezia Mestre, I walked through the exit door of the Stazione de Venezia Santa Lucia and it was a love at first sight.
The day and the weather were just perfect, made me sigh.
We didnt took a race directly to Piazza San Marco, we had to stop for quit running with the crowd. We stopped on the first terrace we found. A family bar, a local terrace in a Campo. The tempeture was perfect. And two capuccinos before 11 am. After this relaxing cup of coffee we undertook our way through Campos and narrow streets. After crossing again the Grand Canal by the big bridge of Ponte di Rialto, we arrived to the magnificent Piazza San Marco.
What a lucky sunny day. But, I have an appoitment with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
Venice is the cradle of Art
these days,
Aside from the idea of spending a day in the famous biennale, and beside from the longing for meeting your favorite actor or director in la Mostra de cinema, there are plenty of great and interesting exhibitions, located in magnificent places.
So, this is what i did last time in Venice. Instead of going to la grande Biennale and spent your day in the fair, i’ve choosed 3 different exhibitions in beautiful places.
First, The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a trip to the other earlier past. Entering to Peggy’s Venecian home, at the Palazzo Vernier dei Leoni, bought by her in 1948, is going back to the 50’s. I enjoyed her great collection, while fusing the art pieces with open and straight views on the Grand Canal. You can walk through her house with furniture, dinner table and decoration objects, while meeting paintures, sculptures and small sculptures. And enjoy her venecian terrace on the banks of the Grand Canal. Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock, Dalí, Roberto Matta, Calder, Picasso, Picabia. Delightful. And I was lucky twice, because of the temporary exhibition, a jewrly of a crown:
Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity.
This exhibition it was about a group of magicians making painture. A very fly experience, between paintings of enchantments in a surreal era. Max Ernst, Leonora carrigton, Magritte, etc. Many surrealists becoming together as a ritual. And in the center of the rituals, the enchantments.
https://www.guggenheim-venice.it/en/whats-on/exhibitions/surrealism-and-magic-enchanted-modernity/
Then, after having lunch in the Museum Cafe at the interior garden we lined up to Punta della Godana. This is a great place to have a spectacular view of the city and its surround. It´s the entrance to the Grand Canal. The Pinault Collection at the Dogana da Mar was the second exhibition I visited. The building was an old warehouse and customs office built in 1670.
This is a favorite place. You arrive from a great open space, the big open terrace of the Basilica Santa Maria della Salute. And then the huge building of Dogana dell Mar welcomes inside a top exhibition. Bruce Neumann Contrapposto Studies. The moment was to be in a glimpse of the 21st century. A glimpse of these modern times; being in a very old SXV building very well preserved, renovated, and with cutting-edge technology; exposing modern ideas of conceptual art. Blowing your thoughts and prejudices. Even if some of the videos and performances of Bruce Neuman were done on the 60´s and 70´s, the mix with his late works give a view of what modernity is.
At the end of the evening, after walking through the streets, the Campos and crossing a lot of bridges, we arrived to Palazzo Grassi, another building choosed by Henry Pinault to exhibited his collection. The Pinault Collection offers one exhibition a year in a Palazzo built in 1748 – 1772. It is the last monumental building commissioned before the extinction of the Republic of Venice. And inside there are four huge levels for one exhibition. I enjoyed Marlene Dumas paintings. Oils that seem watercolors. Figures and concepts. Both things exposed at the same time.