Venice Biennale 2019: Top Collections & National Exhibitions
Luogo E Segni
Punta Della Dogana: 24 March – 15 December 2019
The exhibition takes its title from a painting by Carol Rama included in the exhibition. The show brings together over one hundred works, by thirty artists, that establish a particular relationship with their urban, social, political, historical, intellectual setting. Highlights include a signature beaded curtain installation by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and an array of Roni Horn’s iconic frosted blue glass lozenges.
PITTURA/PANORAMA: Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, 1952–1992
Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Venice: 7 May – 17 November 2019
Abstract Expressonist Helen Frankenthaler’s famed colour-stained canvases have not been shown in Venice since 1966, when they held pride of place at the U.S. Pavilion of the Venice Biennale. The current exhibition at Palazzo Grimani, an art institution that dates back to the 16th century, is particularly fitting given the inspiration Frankenthaler gleaned from Venetian artists of that same era. The exhibition, curated by John Elderfield, includes work from four stages of the artist’s career, organized to illustrate the evolution of her career. The show focusses on the relationship in the artist’s development of the pittura (painting) and the panorama: the interplay of works like easel painting, although made on the floor, and large, horizontal paintings that open onto shallow but expansive spaces.
Sean Scully: HUMAN
Church of San Giorgio Maggiore: 8 May – 13 October 2019
HUMAN is a solo exhibition of recent and new works by Sean Scully, presented in collaboration with the Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore. Curated by Javier Molins, the exhibition invites viewers to contemplate the link between the contemporary artist and the historic church. Scully presents his largest sculpture to date beneath the church’s central dome. Constructed from stacked frames, each wrapped in vibrant and varying colours of felt, the sculpture rises ten metres into the air like an elaborate Jacob’s ladder, leading the eye and spirit heavenwards through the Basilica’s dome. In the remaining spaces, the artist’s acclaimed Landline series are displayed alongside three new figurative portraits from a series entitled Madonna.
Baselitz – Academy
Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia: 8 May – 8 September 2019
Baselitz is the first living artist to have an exhibition at the Galleria dell’Accademia. The German artist is showing his feverish paintings and drawings, as well as deftly hewn figurative sculptures, ranging from across his more than 60-year career and including new work created specifically for the show. Baselitz’s oeuvre has always been about destabilising the image, most notoriously by turning it upside down. The Accademia exhibition aims to deepen our understanding of a familiar artist, Baselitz emerges nuanced, playful, wide-ranging. The show celebrates the infinite possibilities by which tradition, including that of Raphael & Giorgione, becomes inspiration for the acclaimed artist.
Edmund De Waal: Psalm
Canton Scuola Synagogue / Ateneo Veneto: 7 May – 29 September 2019
dmund De Waal’s Biennale collateral exhibition is in two parts. Collectively entitled psalm, they take place at the Canton Scuola, a 16th-century synagogue in the Ghetto Nuovo, and at the nearby Ateneo Veneto. The former is based around literature and the latter featuring his trademark porcelain vessels. One of five synagogues in the Venetian Ghetto, the Canton Scuola is part of the Jewish Museum and for the first time is allowing art in its Women’s Gallery. Twelve of de Waal’s vitrines holding white porcelain, marble and gold line its walls.
At Ateneo Veneto the installation consists of a library housing 2,000 books by exiled writers. Visitors are encouraged to read and write in the books, most of which are in translation. De Waal has inscribed the names of lost libraries on the exterior of the specially built structure, which will be presented in Dresden from November to February 2020, followed by the British Museum.
Jannis Kounellis
Fondazione Prada: 11 May – 24 November 2019
The first major survey of Jannis Kounellis since his death in 2017 is on view at the Fondazione Prada at Ca’ Corner della Regina in Venice. Kounellis was one of the leading figures of Arte Povera, the term coined in 1967 by the curator Germano Celant to describe a group of young Italian artists who rejected traditional processes and materials. Celant organised the exhibition bringing together 70 works dating from 1958 to 2016, across the three floors of the 18th century palazzo.
