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Why are art exhibitions held?
Exhibitions are held because artists are there. This could easily be a response, albeit directly and somewhat bluntly. There are producers of artefacts (belonging to a very particular species of artefacts) who need to identify a place (which may be suitable to host them, but not necessarily) where they can display them. Why on earth do they want to show these particular artifacts? At best, because they are thought to captivate the imagination of an observer; in the vast majority, to sell. It is an "exchange value", commonly a commodity, albeit of a particular type, which, as happens with every commodity, has a value if it allows its producer to obtain a compensation that satisfies him. But this artifact also has, under certain conditions, historical and cultural value. And who defines this value, which cannot be measured simply in the hours of labor required to transform material components into an artistic artifact? Where, that is, does the performer's creativity, his instinct or his "gift," that is, his talent combined with his skill, acquire that unique, ineradicable, and inimitable aura that transforms him into a work of art? Here, we are quite close to the core problem underlying the initial question. Marcel Duchamp , questioned by Pierre Cabanne about the duration of a work of art, responded in a curious way: "A work of art lasts roughly as long as an artist's creative life—30, 40 years. Afterward, it either fades away, dies, disappears from view, or enters the history of art." In the latter case, it undergoes a kind of transmutation; if "the work of art is created by the one who looks at it," now that gaze is mediated by other historical subjects, critics, curators, who to some extent decree its centrality: a centrality that is attested by the texts and, in the case in which "technical reproducibility" is not a sufficient vehicle, by the display through exhibitions. As early as the seventeenth century, the Bolognese nobles began to display the masterpieces of their collections under the city's porticoes on the occasion of the decennial anniversaries of the parishes, against the backdrop of richly draped panels; the Romans did the same (living artists came to organize exhibitions in the Pantheon), especially on the annual celebrations of San Salvatore in Lauro, and the Neapolitans did the same on the occasion of particular religious festivals. The first Salon burst into Paris in 1667 , when for the first time a real exhibition of "modern" works opened its doors, accepted by a jury under the patronage of the King. The people of spectators were born, bourgeois collectors, the feared family of critics, the hostility between official and "rejected", the interest of travellers. England values these immense exhibitions even more highly for the part they play in educating the public and forming taste, not to mention their remarkable sales, as the enormous success of the London exhibitions of Reynolds, Hogarth, Gainsborough, Rembrandt, and Italian and Spanish artists testifies. Exhibitions, from the very beginning, create problems, both because those singular historical ready-mades temporarily deprive a collection of the cultural hinges that attest to the quality of a historically established path, and because moving works of art can be very dangerous. In 1930, a group of absolute masterpieces of Italian art, en route to London, nearly sank in the Bay of Biscay due to a storm. In 1936, when Alfred Barr was preparing to organize one of the first major exhibitions at the recently inaugurated MoMA, "Cubism and Abstract Art", customs seized a series of works from Europe (Arp, Boccioni, Picasso, Delaunay, Mondrian), which for some time remained unattended and without any protection in a warehouse. We thus enter the twentieth century where , right from the start, the exhibition takes on a different character, which paradoxically is still a legacy of the previous century. One of the first scandals to accompany an art exhibition is Gustave Courbet's "Pavillon du Realisme" (1855): a silent protest against judges who rejected the two vast canvases of The Painter's Studio and Burial at Ornans. Inside an old shack the author sets up an exhibition, prints a small catalogue, adds forty paintings "for sale" and the dissident exhibition is open. And it is from here that an art exhibition, as will be seen for decades, also acquires a political value. In the immediate post-war period, the theme of art exhibitions was the order of the day. If Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti is convinced of the need to activate a relationship that allows for the comparison of the most relevant results of international artistic studies, and at the same time also bring this action abroad, influencing an active exchange, and also contributing to the knowledge of Italian culture and art there", Roberto Longhi is annoyed to say the least: "The exhibitions" , he wrote in 1949, "had clearly reached their saturation point; the paintings that were requested (from museums, of course) were almost always the same ones". But the foreign ministries and embassies put pressure on the education ministries, who immediately gave in, in homage to the motto 'politique d'abord. Exhibitions and Museums, published in "Paragone" , adds: "Italy has become, willingly or unwillingly, the most 'showy' nation in Europe, and perhaps in the world [...]" After the great upheaval of the war, with empty pockets and the material impossibility of quickly getting the museums back on their feet, it was only natural that the most unfortunate nations, the most deprived of means, would try to obtain some hard currency through some exhibition abroad". Italy had immediately opened grandiose exhibitions, which had no other meaning than to reaffirm the intact supremacy, at least artistic, of the nation: the Tuscans in 1922, the Ferrarese in 1933, the Rimini people in 1935, and then Correggio, Titian, Giotto, the Romagna. Catalogue introductions often clearly express the intent to bring attention back to the "old masters," as Francis Haskell says, just as the greatest initiatives of modern Italy, the Biennale and the Quadriennale, were beginning to flourish. Of course, all this happens if you're dealing with works that "have entered the history of art"; but between the 1950s and 1960s, the so-called "art system" was defined in completely unpredictable terms, and became more complicated with impressive vehemence. The subjects keep the same names, or almost: artist, critic, gallery owner, collector, museum. But the functions change, they twist, they integrate. How then to answer the initial question? Why is art "displayed"? Why do we organize its exhibition? Let's say there are some rules that justify exhibitions, and they start from a seemingly very limiting assumption: they are held because they are inevitable, because they are necessary—that is, because they produce knowledge, are tools that enable the advancement of research, both historical and contemporary, and cannot be replaced by a magazine article or a book. The exhibitions are therefore the result of prior research, not improvisation ; they reconstruct the complexity of a historical period or explore the intricacies of contemporary "feelings," highlighting its suggestions and critical issues. An exhibition's authority is only as great as that of its curators, provided they are able to avoid the influence of the works' owners (be they artists, museums, or collectors) and the organizations that sponsor it. [caption id="attachment_65803" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Palazzo dei Capitani Exhibition - Selling Paintings[/caption] Once these conditions are met, then an exposition is welcome and can avoid the risk of falling back into the aphorism that hovers in the Treatise of Human Knowledge , published by the philosopher and theologian George Berkeley in 1710: "Esse est percipi." This means that extended matter, objects (in our case, art), appear real to us because we perceive them through the senses; but perceptions do not certify the existence of anything; they are the worldly reflection of divine ideas. The inevitable, necessary exhibitions, those that "shock the world," are those that challenge the radical nominalism of the Irish theologian.
How to pack a painting
Packing a painting is a simple but very delicate operation. It's necessary to follow a few simple rules. Materials needed: Bubble wrap PVC adhesive tape Paper tape Sheets of cardboard Wrapping paper Phase 1: Protection Protect the delicate parts of the painting; the corners and the front of the work. Make corner protectors out of cardboard If the painting has glass, make an X with the masking tape, otherwise protect the painted part with a sheet of paper Step 2: Wrap the painting with bubble wrap Place a layer of bubble wrap on a flat surface and place the front of the painting, the most delicate part, on top. Wrap the painting with at least two layers of bubble wrap . It's important to provide plenty of protection, especially on the most fragile front part, so it can absorb any shock. Seal with several turns of tape . It's not necessary to use paper tape; plain, neutral PVC packing tape will work just fine. Phase 3: Finishing the packaging Wrap everything in brown paper to protect the confidentiality of the shipment and write FRAGILE / WARNING CONTAINS GLASS on all sides.
Unwary purchase of art objects
What is the reckless purchase of art and collectibles? This is the misdemeanor crime of "purchasing items of suspicious origin" if the object is art and/or collectibles. The penal code establishes that the following are liable for this crime: anyone who purchases or receives items that, for various reasons, may be suspected of being derived from a crime, without first having ascertained their legitimate provenance. anyone who arranges for the purchase or receipt of such things, without first verifying their origin. Before proceeding with the purchase, a buyer must check whether the art objects in question are equipped with all the necessary documentation. To be charged, the perpetrator must engage in negligent conduct: recklessness, negligence, or failure to take all necessary precautions can be punished with imprisonment for up to six months, plus a possible fine. Article 712 of the Criminal Code. Art. 712 - Purchase of things of suspicious origin which states: "Whoever, without first ascertaining their legitimate origin, purchases or receives, for any reason, items that, due to their quality, the status of the person offering them, or the amount of the price, give reason to suspect that they are the result of a crime, shall be punished by imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of not less than ten euros. Anyone who arranges to purchase or receive, for any reason, any of the above-mentioned items without first ascertaining their legitimate origin shall be subject to the same penalty." Imprudent purchase or receiving stolen goods (art. 648) are the crimes that antique dealers, and not only them, fear most. The number of stolen works still in circulation, as provided by the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Artistic Heritage, exceeds 300,000. A huge number! The underground market changes shape and moves very quickly, but above all it causes works to move rapidly, often from one part of the globe to another. We can't stress this enough: you always need to check your documentation carefully. Happy shopping!
Certificate of free circulation for art objects and collectibles
What is the free movement certificate? This is an authorization, granted by the competent export office, which allows the permanent exit of certain works of art from our country and their circulation within the Community, for commercial reasons, without thereby causing damage to the integrity of Italy's national cultural heritage. However, issuing the certificate alone does not permit the work to leave the European Union: in this case, an export license is also required. Artworks for which a certificate of free circulation is required may belong to anyone, be of cultural interest, are by a deceased artist, and were created more than 70 years ago. What is the practical process for obtaining a free movement certificate? Anyone interested in permanently exporting a work of art from Italy must report it to the relevant export office. The report must contain the following information: market value of each work, name, surname, and address of the owner, destination of the work, name, surname, and address of the recipient. Within 3 days of the report, the export office, after examining the work, notifies several ministerial offices (Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage), which must carry out the appropriate investigations and communicate any useful information collected to the export office within 10 days. In most cases, the procedure is concluded within 40 days of filing the complaint and the interested party is notified of the outcome. If within the same forty days the export office proposes to the Ministry to purchase the work (at a price corresponding to the declared market value), the deadline for issuing the certificate is extended by a further sixty days. The owner of the artwork can always avoid forced purchase by the State by renouncing export. The consequences of a denial of the certificate are easily explained: the work's inability to leave our country and its exposure to various restrictions.
Counterfeiting, alteration and reproduction of works of art
Counterfeiting, alteration, and reproduction of works of art: let's make a distinction and understand them better. With these terms we speak of the various hypotheses of crime that can be grouped under the common name of counterfeiting of works of art or, more generally, art forgeries. Let's examine in detail the three different criminal offences covered by the Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code: counterfeiting, alteration, and reproduction of works of art. The first term refers in particular to the activity that leads to the production of a totally false work of art. The term alteration, on the other hand, refers to an intervention capable of modifying an original work of art in a way that is not compliant with or in any case alien to the author's will. Finally, reproduction refers to the activity aimed at obtaining a copy of an original work of art, in order to place it on the market as authentic. Let's see when the three behaviors just described are taken into consideration: In the event that, for the purpose of making a profit, someone materially proceeds to the counterfeiting, alteration or reproduction of a work of art. In the event that, even without directly participating in the activities described in point 1, someone places on the market, or in any case puts into circulation, the works derived therefrom, passing them off as authentic, with the aim of making a profit. In all these cases, knowing of the falsity, a person works to authenticate counterfeit, altered, or reproduced works of art, or in any case accredits them or contributes to accrediting them as authentic through declarations, appraisals, publications, or the affixing of stamps. For all conduct covered by this law, the penalty is imprisonment from three months to four years and a fine from 103 to 3,099 euros, which may be increased if the acts are committed in the exercise of a commercial activity. In this last case, the conviction is also accompanied by the accessory penalty of professional disqualification. Finally, all the criminal hypotheses just seen can concur with both the crime of fraud and that of receiving stolen goods. Our heartfelt advice is to never get involved in these shady deals!
Authentication and Archives - Law in the Art World
What is it about? An authentication is a written certificate of attribution of a work of art, available for sale on the market. Typically, in addition to a precise description of the work, it also contains a photograph or some representation of it. The signature of the person issuing it is mandatory. In this regard, it should be noted that the authentication may come, depending on the chosen interpretative option, from the artist, his heirs, archives, foundations, committees of experts and associations dedicated to the artist, or from any other agent appointed by the author's heirs to catalog the entire corpus of his works. Archives are private law entities that pursue the purpose of registering, upon request by interested parties, the authentic works of a (deceased) artist, rejecting false works, and denouncing forgeries. Their existence is therefore one with the problem of authenticity. There is often some confusion in this area, which can be partly dispelled by starting by distinguishing between classical works of art and contemporary works of art; and, again, between contemporary works of art by living artists and contemporary works of art by deceased artists. For classical works of art, we are partly outside the scope of the issue that concerns us here: in the case of ancient art and antiques, in fact, and especially for those pieces dating back to before the first decades of the 19th century (given that until the end of the 18th century, authors did not normally sign their works), the term expertis is correctly used. This means a detailed description of the work, accompanied by an expert's reasoned opinion regarding its originality and provenance (without indicating its value), to which a photo is attached. The person who is interested in authentication is generally the seller, in order to fulfill the obligation to issue and deliver to the buyer a certificate of authenticity and provenance (imposed by Article 64 of the Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape). Therefore, in these cases, the seller will turn to university professors, art historians, or other experts, chosen based on their experience accumulated over the years, academic recognition, and studies conducted on this or that artistic movement in a specific historical period. The activity of these "consultants" is in fact free, it is not regulated by any law, and their competence and reliability lies entirely in their CVs. For contemporary works of art, the term "authenticated" is more frequently used. As already mentioned, the entities (potentially) authorized to issue them are extremely diverse: from the artist to archives, through various committees, foundations, and so on. Further distinguishing, it should be noted that anyone buying or selling contemporary works of art by living artists must request or issue a certificate of authentication from the artist. Who in this case is certainly the most suitable person to judge the authenticity of the works. Anyone who buys or sells contemporary works of art by deceased artists must always obtain or issue a certificate of authentication (even when the work is signed). In this case, the range of possibilities permitted by the regulations, and by the case law interpretation thereof, regarding the person in some way "authorized" to issue the authentication tends to be infinite: practically anyone, or almost anyone, can claim certification authority. With all the consequences, complications, disputes, even in court, and above all, the bizarre situations this inevitably creates. However, it is sufficient to point out that in the case of the sale of contemporary works of art (by living or deceased artists), the seller is obliged, as established by Article 64 of the Cultural Heritage Code, to provide the buyer with documentation certifying the authenticity or at least the probable attribution and provenance of the work. Or, failing that, a self-certification containing all the information available to you regarding the authenticity or probable attribution and provenance. This must be duly signed and, if possible, affixed to the back of a photographic copy of the work. The consequences of non-compliance are multiple. On a civil level, the implications are mainly on the interpretation of the contract of sale of the work of art and its validity. From a criminal perspective, failure to issue or issuing false authenticity documentation will undoubtedly have consequences for the detection of certain crimes such as counterfeiting, alteration, etc.
Massimo Fagioli has left us
Massimo Fagioli, the psychiatrist of Collective Analysis, who passed away this morning at the age of 85, dedicated his entire life to researching the birth and origins of human thought. Human life has a beginning and an end, he said. Massimo Fagioli, the psychiatrist of Collective Analysis, who passed away this morning at the age of 85 in Rome, dedicated his entire life to researching the birth and origins of human thought. Fagioli was born in Monte Giberto in 1931, in the province of Ascoli Piceno. The author of 23 books, he is best known for "Death Instinct and Knowledge," his theoretical masterpiece, written in 1970. Tens of thousands of copies of his work have been published and translated into many languages. It encompasses the fundamental discoveries of the Theory of Birth, with which the psychiatrist fundamentally revolutionized knowledge of the human mind, beginning with the discovery of the biological origin of the unconscious. On Saturday, February 18, starting at 10:00 a.m., a tribute to Massimo Fagioli will be held at Via Roma Libera 23 in Trastevere, where for forty-one years he held his Analisi collettiva seminars, highly original, one-of-a-kind group psychotherapy sessions, offered free of charge and without distinction to thousands of people. The Left website, the magazine for which the psychiatrist has edited the "Transformation" column since 2006, also dedicates a lengthy tribute to Fagioli. A physician specializing in neuropsychiatry in Modena, Fagioli graduated from the University of Rome with a degree in Medicine and Surgery. He pursued this study out of a need to understand the human psyche, a pursuit he began in his teens, after serving as a boy in the Marche region alongside partisans in the Resistance War, and his father, a field doctor. He arrives in Venice, at the ancient asylum on the island of San Clemente, where he has his first contact with the chronically ill, the white wards, and the electroshock treatments. In the library's old medical records, he discovers that two words prevail in descriptions of the mentally ill: "stulid, emotionless." From the anguished practices of nineteenth-century psychiatry, which sought answers in slides of brain sections, Fagioli then moved to the psychiatric hospital in Padua. Here, the practice of a sophisticated clinic and the approach to serious illnesses using methods that were cutting-edge for the time, including insulin therapy, provided the opportunity to conduct his first experiences of active psychiatry with groups of patients, whom the young doctor was able to take out for walks in the city, "breaking down" the walls of the asylum. In the early 1960s, Fagioli's research into the causes of mental illness shifted to the unconscious, taking him to Binswanger's Bellevue Clinic in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, where he ran the Italian-speaking therapeutic community, living day and night with the patients without mediation. Only after a long personal analysis and about ten years as an analyst with a medical practice of individual therapy, in 1971 he proposed to scientific circles the results of his experiences and his training in the book Death Instinct and Knowledge, written in 1970, published in a new edition by L'asino d'oro in 2010 and subsequently also in German, forty years later, in 2011, by the publisher Stroemfeld (Todestrieb und Erkenntnis). The book contains the foundations of the Theory of Birth, according to which human thought begins at birth with the reaction to light, through the retina, of the newborn's body: discoveries later developed in The Marionette and the Burattino and Theory of Birth and Human Castration, of 1974, published between the end of the same year and 1975. Since 1975 Fagioli has responded to the demand for psychotherapy from hundreds of people and has trained, first at the Institute of Psychiatry of the University of Rome La Sapienza and then in a very large private practice in Trastevere (1980), the seminars of Collective Analysis, a treatment practice for the healing of mental illness, based on the interpretation of dreams, which continues as research on human reality and its evolution. His fourth volume of interviews, Bambino donna e trasformazione dell'uomo, was published in 1979. Fagioli continued to develop and deepen the theoretical foundations of 1970-74 in a series of other writings on psychiatry and through free expressions in the artistic field. In 1997 he directed Il cielo della luna (The Moonlight), followed by Me'lange (1999) and La psichiatria, esiste? (Does Psychiatry Exist?) (2002). The psychiatry and psychotherapy journal Il sogno della farfalla (The Butterfly's Dream), which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2012, refers to his theoretical work and practice. In addition to the fundamental volumes on the Theory of Birth (Death Instinct and Knowledge, The Marionette and the Puppet, The Theory of Birth and Human Castration, Child, Woman and the Transformation of Man), his other titles are: Storia di una ricerca (Lezioni 2002), Una vita irrazionale (Lezioni 2006), Das Unbewusste. The Unknowable (Lectures 2003), Disappearance Fantasy (Lectures 2007), Left 2006, Left 2007, New Thought (Lectures 2004), Left 2008, The Man in the Courtyard (Lectures 2005), Left 2009, Seventh Year (Lectures 2008), Left 2010, Religion, Reason and Freedom (Lectures 2009), Left 2011, The Idea of Human Birth (Lectures 2010) and Left 2012
Women and Art - Tracey Emin
1963 in London, England: lives and works in London. More legends have probably sprung up around Tracey Emin than around any other artist who emerged on the scene in the 1990s under the Young British Art label. Stories of her school dropout, precarious jobs, wild sex life, and all the attendant traumas—such as losing her virginity at 13 in what was effectively a rape—appeared everywhere, not just in art magazines. Readers and viewers were informed of stillbirths, alcohol abuse, and scandalous television appearances. These tales of lust and pain were fueled by Tracey Emin's own art, a merciless exploitation of her own biography, whose seemingly exhibitionistic immediacy can be shocking. The viewer becomes an unwitting voyeur who can satisfy their desire for the sensational in a way otherwise only afforded by the mass media; But Tracey Emin can also provide something that the mass media cannot, as a closer examination of her art reveals a poetic and precisely defined world, evidently authentic, capable of projecting a person into their own life and problems. The individual and the universal, the intimate and the public, are continually intertwined in Tracey Emin's work. Within this force field, the artist manages to engage in a compelling discourse on emotions and desires that encourages the viewer and their aspirations to return to the otherwise arid, academic, and "reified" world of art. It is precisely here that the political aspect of Tracey Emin's art lies. The way in which certain events in her biography are connected to the experience, memory, and current concerns of the community is revealed in Everyone I Have Ever Slept With From 1963-1995. Tracey Emin covered the inside walls of a small igloo tent with colorful cut-out letters that spelled out the names of those who had shared her bed over the years.
Women and art - Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo 1907 - 1954 in Coyocán, Mexico Frida Kahlo succeeded in creating a universally understandable visual language that combines naive art, realism, and surrealism. The oeuvre of this internationally renowned Mexican artist, born in 1907, includes over 200 paintings, mostly small-format self-portraits. These, like her still lifes and animal portraits, reveal remarkable expressive power and scrupulous attention to detail. Her works are often a harrowing testimony to her physical and mental suffering and reveal a disconcerting immediacy that makes them unforgettable. As a child, Frida Kahlo was bedridden for nine months due to polio, which left her with a severe foot deformity. At 18, she was involved in a car accident. The bus she was riding on collided with a tram, and Kahlo was impaled by a metal pole, fracturing her spine, pelvis, and legs. She remained hospitalized for a month and was then forced to wear a cast for another nine months. During her time in the hospital, Kahlo began to draw and paint—first the accident, then herself. Her first self-portrait, dating back to 1926, depicts her in a heroic pose. Many others followed, of which she later said she painted herself because, spending so much time alone, it was the subject she knew best. Her life was a constant struggle against death, a cruel fate to which she never resigned herself, but which was a hard test for her. Although Frida Kahlo was in contact with the Parisian surrealists (especially André Breton ) and although many critics considered her a surrealist, she stated, "I didn't know I was a surrealist until André Breton came to Mexico and told me." However, she never accepted this definition. "I never painted dreams. What I portrayed was my reality." Her paintings are internal images of external reality. Although her art is based on elements of her biography, the viewer can understand and interpret its themes, forms, patterns, and symbols. The irreducible candor and immediacy with which she faces her destiny in works that manage to make her anguish tangible move the viewer. And, despite the difference she speaks of, her images are always linked to broader, more universal motifs. (Ulrike Lehmann)