What's On? Summer 2015 Issue - by IdeelArt
Jul 1, 2015
A quarterly calendar of the best abstract art events around the world.
Some great exhibitions of abstract art are taking place this summer. Here is IdeelArt’s selection of the best ones:
Barbara Hepworth - Sculpture for a Modern World
Present – 25 October 2015
Tate Britain London, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG, United Kingdom
The Tate Britain in London is presenting a retrospective entitled “Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World”, offering an exceptional insight into the work of one of Britain’s most significant 20th century figures.
The exhibition is featuring Hepworth’s notable spiral and oval sculptures made of wood, stone and bronze inspired by waves and wind, alongside rarely seen works, such as textiles, photographs, collages, and film. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth became a leading figure in the artistic community of St. Ives during the Second World War and an internationally celebrated artist of modern art. This unique retrospective traces her artistic career, from her earliest carvings to her large-scale bronze sculptures of the 1960s.
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Ed Moses - Drawings from the 1960S and 1970S
Present – 2 August
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036, USA
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is displaying Ed Moses’ drawings from the 1960s and 1970s. Ed Moses (born in 1926) is an innovative and central figure of the Angelino contemporary art scene.
Being an abstract painter, from the very beginning of his career, drawing has been central to Moses’ practice. And gaining more and more international attention, Moses has always remained attached to graphic experimentation, from his large-scale graphite drawings of roses of the 1960s to his diagonal grids of the 1970s. “Ed Moses: Drawings from the 1960s and 70s” is displaying 100 works from LACMA’s collection, the artist’s own drawings and some of other public and private collections.
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The Oasis of Matisse
Present – 16 August 2015
Stedelijk Museum, Museumplein 10, 1071 DJ Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam is presenting, until 16 August 2015, the largest exhibition of French draughtsman, printmaker, sculptor and painter Henri Matisse (1869-1954), entitled “The Oasis of Matisse”. Matisse is considered, along with Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, to be one of the three artists who revolutionised the plastic arts in the first decades of the 20th century.
Although initially labelled as a Fauve during the war years, and stimulated by a journey to North Africa, Matisse’s art grew more and more abstract. “The Oasis of Matisse” is assembling Matisse’s classic pieces uniting shape and colour and depicting Eastern nudes, colourful fabrics, carpets and bucolic landscapes. The highlight of the exhibition, a monumental The Parakeet and the Mermaid (1952-1953) offers a glimpse into Matisse’s cut-out paper work.
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Meet Motherwell at the Met - Lyric Suite
Present – 26 July 2015
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue - 82nd Street, New York, USA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is featuring, until 26 July 2015, the work of American painter Robert Motherwell (1915-1991). As the youngest member of the “New York School” of Abstract Expressionists, which also encompassed a range of contemporaries including Philip Guston, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko, Motherwell played a significant role in laying the foundations for the new movement. Stylistically, the artist was very variable, and was attracted to cubism, collage, primitivism surrealism, and minimalism, remaining highly attached to the abstract art form and taking his inspiration from his many intellectual interests, from French symbolist poetry to philosophy, music and painting.
To showcase Motherwell’s broad range of artistic activity, and to mark the centenary of his birth, gallery 920 of the Metropolitan Museum is bringing together the artist’s monumental paintings, collages, prints, and illustrated books.
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Sonia Delaunay at the Tate
Present – 9 August 2015
Tate Modern London, Bankside, London SE1 9TG, United Kingdom
London's Tate Modern is hosting a retrospective of the Ukrainian painter Sonia Delaunay, entitled “The EY exhibition: Sonia Delaunay”. Sonia Delaunay was a key figure of the Parisian avant-garde movement and is considered to be the European pioneer of the abstract art. Moving to Paris in 1906, she worked, with her husband Robert Delaunay, on the search of pure colour and the movement of simultaneous colours, juxtaposing different patches of colour using a limited palette. During her very rich career, Delaunay moved from figurative painting to abstract twirls and colourful zigzags.
The artist's first-ever retrospective in the United Kingdom, this exhibition gives an overview of her large volume of work comprising various different mediums. Tate Modern is featuring paintings, textiles, and haute couture garments that the artist made during her 60-year-long career. The retrospective will also display her creations realised in collaboration with poets, choreographers, and fashion specialists, such as Serge de Diaghilev and Liberty.
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