01/06/2011
Venice gets real
Nan Goldin's "Leonardo with his Grandfather,
Palazzo Papadopoli", from the series "Hold Together with Water, Venice", 2010
©Nan Goldin
By Charlotte Burns, The Art Newspaper, 1 June 2011
Venice. Art world luminaries flocked to the opening of "Real Venice" in the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore last night, an exhibition in aid of Venice in Peril. Artists including Conrad Shawcross, Mimmo Jodice and Grayson Perry mingled with Giorgio Orsoni, the Mayor of Venice, Vittorio Sgarbi, the Italian Pavilion curator, as well as Sharjah Biennial president HH Sheikha Hoor al-Qasimi and Sharjah Museums president Manal Ataya. Art Basel fair co-director Marc Spiegler rubbed shoulders with Sir John and Lady Ritblat and museum directors including Tate Modern's Chris Dercon and Olga Sviblova from the Moscow House of Photography. Spotted in the crowd was Washington lobbyist and art collector Tony Podesta, who bought and donated Shepard Fairey Hope portrait of Barack Obama to the National Portrait Gallery, while Lord Foster received presidential treatment-arriving in a vintage gondola rowed by eight Venetian architects who had volunteered specially for the privilege.
The exhibition serves as a reminder of the grim fate awaiting a sinking Venice unless serious investment helps fund scientific advances to stem the rising tides. The project has been organised by the Venice in Peril Fund and is an official part of the biennale's Padiglione Italia.
Fourteen artists, including Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Candida Höfer, were invited to take portraits of Venice and present their unique interpretations of the picture-postcard islands. Each artist has donated seven different works, which will be sold to raise funds for Venice in Peril. After the exhibition closes on 30 September, a selection of images will travel to London for display at Phillips de Pury for two weeks in November, and sold in the auction house's contemporary photography sales. The other works will be sold privately.
Nan Goldin offers dreamy visions of faded palazzos, ornate ceilings and portraits of the proud offspring of wealthy Venetians: "The last royalty of what feels like the last kingdom," according to the artist whose works are priced from E18,000-E25,000. Höfer focuses on the empty, gilded spaces of La Fenice, with prices ranging from E30,000-E40,000, while Robert Walker felt he "couldn't contribute anything new to the traditional subjects of gondoliers and old ladies feeding pigeons," and so instead presents a lurid vision of Venice's artifice through its glossy Coco-cola advertisements and the kitsch kitchen aprons hawked by street vendors, each priced at E2,500, or E21,500 for the set.
The Barbican Centre in London is arranging a travelling exhibition of the works, the details of which will be announced later this year.
The exhibition was devised by Anna Somers Cocks, chairman of Venice in Peril and founding editor of The Art Newspaper, Elena Foster, founder of Ivorypress, and businessman, collector and scholar David Landau. The Venice in Peril fund was established after the great flood in 1966 when the city's waters rose almost two metres above the mean level, and has since raised millions of pounds for the restoration of Venetian monuments, buildings and works of art.
Palazzo Papadopoli", from the series "Hold Together with Water, Venice", 2010
©Nan Goldin
By Charlotte Burns, The Art Newspaper, 1 June 2011
Venice. Art world luminaries flocked to the opening of "Real Venice" in the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore last night, an exhibition in aid of Venice in Peril. Artists including Conrad Shawcross, Mimmo Jodice and Grayson Perry mingled with Giorgio Orsoni, the Mayor of Venice, Vittorio Sgarbi, the Italian Pavilion curator, as well as Sharjah Biennial president HH Sheikha Hoor al-Qasimi and Sharjah Museums president Manal Ataya. Art Basel fair co-director Marc Spiegler rubbed shoulders with Sir John and Lady Ritblat and museum directors including Tate Modern's Chris Dercon and Olga Sviblova from the Moscow House of Photography. Spotted in the crowd was Washington lobbyist and art collector Tony Podesta, who bought and donated Shepard Fairey Hope portrait of Barack Obama to the National Portrait Gallery, while Lord Foster received presidential treatment-arriving in a vintage gondola rowed by eight Venetian architects who had volunteered specially for the privilege.
The exhibition serves as a reminder of the grim fate awaiting a sinking Venice unless serious investment helps fund scientific advances to stem the rising tides. The project has been organised by the Venice in Peril Fund and is an official part of the biennale's Padiglione Italia.
Fourteen artists, including Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Candida Höfer, were invited to take portraits of Venice and present their unique interpretations of the picture-postcard islands. Each artist has donated seven different works, which will be sold to raise funds for Venice in Peril. After the exhibition closes on 30 September, a selection of images will travel to London for display at Phillips de Pury for two weeks in November, and sold in the auction house's contemporary photography sales. The other works will be sold privately.
Nan Goldin offers dreamy visions of faded palazzos, ornate ceilings and portraits of the proud offspring of wealthy Venetians: "The last royalty of what feels like the last kingdom," according to the artist whose works are priced from E18,000-E25,000. Höfer focuses on the empty, gilded spaces of La Fenice, with prices ranging from E30,000-E40,000, while Robert Walker felt he "couldn't contribute anything new to the traditional subjects of gondoliers and old ladies feeding pigeons," and so instead presents a lurid vision of Venice's artifice through its glossy Coco-cola advertisements and the kitsch kitchen aprons hawked by street vendors, each priced at E2,500, or E21,500 for the set.
The Barbican Centre in London is arranging a travelling exhibition of the works, the details of which will be announced later this year.
The exhibition was devised by Anna Somers Cocks, chairman of Venice in Peril and founding editor of The Art Newspaper, Elena Foster, founder of Ivorypress, and businessman, collector and scholar David Landau. The Venice in Peril fund was established after the great flood in 1966 when the city's waters rose almost two metres above the mean level, and has since raised millions of pounds for the restoration of Venetian monuments, buildings and works of art.
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