Press Release - Guggenheim
Transcript
Press Release - Guggenheim
Press Release Rita Kernn-Larsen. Surrealist Paintings 25 February – 26 June 2017 Project Rooms Peggy Guggenheim Collection #KernnLarsen The Surrealist period was splendid... it truly was the best time for me as an artist Rita Kernn-Larsen Venice, February 24, 2017 - From 25 February to 26 June 2017, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents the exhibition Rita Kernn-Larsen. Surrealist Paintings, curated by Gražina Subelytė, Curatorial Assistant of the Collection. Rita Kernn-Larsen (Hillerød, 1904–Copenhagen, 1998), a prominent Danish Surrealist artist, whom Peggy Guggenheim met in Paris in 1937, was invited by Peggy the following year to exhibit her paintings at Guggenheim Jeune, Peggy’s London gallery a show which inaugurated Peggy’s career with Surrealist art. This new exhibition brings together exquisite Surrealist paintings by Kernn-Larsen, to this day too little known outside Denmark, inaugurating two new exhibition rooms at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. This will be the first important presentation of Kernn-Larsen’s Surrealist period outside of her native Scandinavia since her one-woman exhibition at Guggenheim Jeune. More than half of the paintings selected for the show were also exhibited in Peggy’s 1938 exhibition. The exhibition will highlight how Kernn-Larsen was one of several women who played a noteworthy part in the Surrealist movement, both in Denmark and internationally. She trained with Fernand Léger in Paris in the early 1930s, distinguishing herself as a star pupil. In 1934 a critic referred to her as a “female Danish Picasso”. That year she made contact with the Danish Surrealist group, with which she began exhibiting the following year. She immediately established her prominence within the group and participated in the 1930s in key exhibitions in Europe, in cities such as Copenhagen, Oslo, Lund, London and Paris. These included the renowned Exposition Internationale du Surrealisme at the Galerie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1938, soon after which she held her one-woman exhibition in Peggy’s gallery. On the latter occasion, Peggy Guggenheim’s friend, the art historian Herbert Read, wrote of KernnLarsen’s Surrealist work: “The imagination is a focus introduced into the vague field of the unconscious. . . . These images are trolls, ghosts from the dark northern fastnesses which exist in our minds. . . . They reveal some of the terror and all the fascination of their mythical ancestors.” (London Palazzo Venier dei Leoni Dorsoduro 701 30123 Venezia (39) 041 2405 415 guggenheim-venice.it Bulletin, June 1938). That same year, Kernn-Larsen’s works were included in two other group exhibitions at Guggenheim Jeune: Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture and Exhibition of Collages, Papiers-collés, and Photo-montages. The Venice exhibition will shed light on how, in the Surrealist vein, Kernn-Larsen’s works combined memory and dream, as she employed an automatic painting method, aiming to generate a flow of images arising from within the unconscious. As the artist herself explained, “I start with some realistic thing and its continuation is taken care of by the unconscious. Often the result surprises me. . . there is as such a certain connection to the ‘psychoanalytic’.” The exhibition will include her masterpiece Dance and Counter-dance (1936), in which pulsating automatist rhythms play against each other. In KernnLarsen’s words, “I consider it to be one of my most successful pictures.” The exhibition will also highlight how she was inspired by the work of Paul Delvaux, one of whose paintings, The Break of Day (1937, Peggy Guggenheim Collection) portrays femme-arbres, women as arboreal figures. The identification of the Surrealist female artist with the fertile natural world will be presented through several works, among them Kernn-Larsen’s unique Self-Portrait (Know Thyself) (1937), acquired by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 2013. Even if in her later years, KernnLarsen moved away from Surrealism toward an art based on abstraction and nature, she reminisced in 1967: “The Surrealist period was splendid... it truly was the best time for me as an artist.” Three of Kernn-Larsen’s paintings, including the Guggenheim self-portrait, were selected by the art historian and curator Arturo Schwarz for the 1986 Venice Biennale. This exhibition marks her return to the city after more than thirty years. The exhibition brings together Surrealist paintings by Kernn-Larsen from public and private collections in Denmark, including the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen, Kunstmuseet i Tønder, and the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg. Photographs and other ephemeral material related to Kernn-Larsen’s exhibition at the Guggenheim Jeune gallery will also be on display. Last but not least, a film-interview with Kernn-Larsen recorded on the occasion of her participation in the 1986 Venice Biennale will be on view in the museum’s veranda. Rita Kernn-Larsen. Surrealist Paintings will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, in English and Italian, with essays by Gražina Subelytė and the Danish art historian Johan Zimsen. Rita Kernn-Larsen. Surrealist Paintings is supported by Guggenheim Intrapresae and by the museum’s Institutional Patrons, BSI, Lavazza, and the Regione del Veneto. With the support of Corriere della Sera, Hangar Design Group has coordinated the communications image. Education programs surrounding the exhibition are funded by the Fondazione Araldi Guinetti, Vaduz.The exhibition is under the auspices of the Embassy of Denmark to Italy. Funding for the exhibition was generously provided also by the following Danish foundations: Ny Carlsbergfondet, Konsul George Jorck og Hustru Emma Jorck’s Fond, Beckett Fonden and Drost Fonden. Daily 3 pm free presentations of the exhibition. Palazzo Venier dei Leoni Dorsoduro 701 30123 Venezia (39) 041 2405 415 guggenheim-venice.it Peggy Guggenheim Collection Palazzo Venier dei Leoni Dorsoduro 701, 30123 Venezia www.guggenheim-venice.it l [email protected] l +39.041.2405411 Opening hours: Daily 10 am - 6 pm l Closed Tuesdays and December 25 Admission: Adults: €15 l Senior visitors over 65 yrs.: €13 l Students under 26 yrs.: €9 (with current student ID) l Children under 10 yrs., members: free For additional press information: Maria Rita Cerilli Officer for Press and Social Media [email protected] / +39.041.2405415 The exhibition program is made possible thanks to the support of the Advisory Board of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and by Palazzo Venier dei Leoni Dorsoduro 701 30123 Venezia (39) 041 2405 415 guggenheim-venice.it TITLE Rita Kernn-Larsen. Surrealist Paintings VENUE AND DATE Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Project Rooms CURATOR Gražina Subelytė, Curatorial Assistant Peggy Guggenheim Collection. WORKS 12, including paintings, photographs and memorabilia. OVERVIEW This focused exhibition brings together exquisite Surrealist paintings by the Danish artist Rita Kernn-Larsen and is the first important presentation of her Surrealist period outside of the native Scandinavia since her one-woman exhibition organized by Peggy Guggenheim in her gallery at Guggenheim Jeune, in 1938. With this show the museum inaugurates its “Project Rooms”: two new exhibition rooms dedicated to focused exhibition like this one. CATALOGUE Illustrated catalogue, in English and Italian, with essays by Gražina Subelytė and the Danish art historian Johan Zimsen. Price in the museum bookshops 14 € ADMISSION TICKET TO THE Regular euro 15; seniors euro 13 (over 65); students euro 9 (under 26 or with a student ID card); children 0-10 yrs and members free entrance (further information on membership: [email protected]). Admission tickets allow the public to visit the temporary exhibition, the permanent collection, the Hannelore B. and Rudolph B. Schulhof Collection and the Nasher Sculpture Garden. Free guided tours of the temporary exhibitions are daily at 3 pm. Reservations are not required. COLLECTION HOURS Daily from 10am to 6pm, closed on Tuesday and December 25 INFORMATION [email protected] / www.guggenheim-venice.it BOOKINGS AND GUIDED TOURS tel. +39.041.2405440/419 EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES tel. +30.041.2405401/444 HOW TO ARRIVE Vaporetto n. 1/2 Accademia stop COMMUNICATION AND PRESS Alexia Boro, Maria Rita Cerilli / tel. +39.041.2405404/415 Please, once published, send the article to: [email protected] OFFICE CHECKLIST Rita Kernn-Larsen. Dipinti surrealisti / Rita Kernn-Larsen. Surrealist Paintings A cura di / Curated by Gražina Subelytė 25.02 – 26.06.2017 Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venezia / Venice 1. 2. 3. 4. Rita Kernn-Larsen (1904 – 1998) La mela della Normandia / La mela The Apple from Normandy / The Apple 1934 Olio su tela / Oil on canvas 97 x 74 cm Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg Rita Kernn-Larsen (1904 – 1998) Fantasmi / Phantoms 1934 Olio su tela / Oil on canvas 120 x 75.5 cm Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen Rita Kernn-Larsen (1904 – 1998) Danza e contraddanza / Dance and Counter-dance 1936 Olio su tela / Oil on canvas 89 x 66.8 cm Private Collection, Denmark Rita Kernn-Larsen (1904 – 1998) In cerca della luna (Vers l’inconnu) / Searching for the Moon (Vers l’inconnu) 1936-1937 Olio su tela / Oil on canvas 80.4 x 65 cm Private Collection, Denmark CHECKLIST Rita Kernn-Larsen. Dipinti surrealisti / Rita Kernn-Larsen. Surrealist Paintings A cura di / Curated by Gražina Subelytė 25.02 – 26.06.2017 Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venezia / Venice 5. 6. 7. 8. Rita Kernn-Larsen (1904 – 1998) Oltre lo specchio / Behind the Mirror 1937 Olio su tela / Oil on canvas 120 x 84 cm Kunstmuseet i Tonder, Denmark Rita Kernn-Larsen (1904 – 1998) Autoritratto (Conosci te stesso) / Self-Portrait (Know Thyself) 1937 Olio su tela / Oil on canvas 40 x 45 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Venice. Purchased with funds contributed by Penny Borda, Lewis and Laura Kruger, and the Guggenheim Circle, 2013 Rita Kernn-Larsen La rivolta delle donne / The Women’s Uprising (Kvindernes oprør) 1940 Olio su tela / Oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm Kunstmuseet i Tonder, Denmark Catalogo della Mostra di dipinti surrealisti di Rita KernnLarsen alla Galleria Guggenheim Jeune, Londra, 31 maggio – 18 giugno 1938, stampato sul London Bulletin, 3 giugno 1938 / Catalogue of the Exhibition of Surrealist Paintings by Rita Kernn-Larsen at the Guggenheim Jeune Gallery, London, 31 May-18 June 1938, printed in the London Bulletin, 3, June 1938. Peggy Guggenheim Collection Archives, Venice. CHECKLIST Rita Kernn-Larsen. Dipinti surrealisti / Rita Kernn-Larsen. Surrealist Paintings A cura di / Curated by Gražina Subelytė 25.02 – 26.06.2017 Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venezia / Venice 9. Invito alla Mostra di dipinti surrealisti di Rita KernnLarsen alla Galleria Guggenheim Jeune, Londra, 31 maggio – 18 giugno 1938 / Announcement of the Exhibition of Surrealist Paintings by Rita Kernn-Larsen, Guggenheim Jeune Gallery, London, 31 May-18 June 1938. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, New York. 10. Rita Kernn-Larsen nel suo studio / in her studio, ca. 1930s. Collection of Danielle Grünberg. 11. Rita Kernn-Larsen all'inaugurazione della Exhibition of Surrealist Paintings by Rita Kernn-Larsen, Guggenheim Jeune, Londra, 1938 / Rita Kernn-Larsen at the opening of her Exhibition of Surrealist Paintings by Rita Kernn-Larsen, Guggenheim Jeune, London, 1938. Collection of Danielle Grünberg. 12. Rita Kernn-Larsen vicino a una scultura “spazzatura” di Henry Heerup alla International Exhibition Kubisme=Surrealisme, Den Frie, Copenaghen, gennaio 1935 / Rita Kernn-Larsen standing next to Henry Heerup’s ‘junk’ sculpture at the International Exhibition Kubisme = Surrealisme, Den Frie, Copenhagen, January 1935. Collection of Danielle Grünberg. GRAŽINA SUBELYTĖ Gražina Subelytė is Curatorial Assistant at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. She contributes research and text to exhibition catalogues, museum guidebooks and academic publications. In particular, she has contributed to the catalogues of exhibitions organized in Australia (2010) and Chile (2012) centered on Peggy Guggenheim’s collection of Surrealist and abstract art, as well as the shows Cycling, Cubo-Futurism and the Fourth Dimension. Jean Metzinger’s “At the Cycle-Race Track” (2012) and The Avant-gardes of Fin-de-Siècle Paris: Signac, Bonnard, Redon, and their Contemporaries (2013). In 2015, she provided art historical research for the International Research and Conservation project on Jackson Pollock’s masterpiece Alchemy (1947). Most recently, she researched Peggy Guggenheim’s donations of Tancredi Parmeggiani’s works for the exhibition My Weapon against the Atom Bomb is a Blade of Grass. Tancredi: A Retrospective. Gražina has authored the forthcoming catalogue of the Hannelore B. and Rudolph B. Schulhof Collection of art after 1945, bequeathed to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 2012. Gražina is a PhD Candidate at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Her dissertation examines the themes related to magic and the occult that underlie the visual and literary production of Swiss-American Surrealist artist and scholar Kurt L. Seligmann (1900-1962), and to renegotiate his wider status within Surrealism and its relation to the occult. In 2016, she was awarded the Terra Foundation for American Art Research Travel Grant to the U.S. that enabled her to research Seligmann’s archive and library on magic. Palazzo Venier dei Leoni Dorsoduro 701 30123 Venezia (39) 041 2405 415 guggenheim-venice.it