Rory McEwen

Rory McEwen

Illustration
I have so many reasons to visit a museum, any museum indeed but inevitably all visits end in the bookstore. I am so an unapologetic seeker of rarity, fond of very simple books or catalogues (not really expensive but wonderfully illustrated) that have sometimes showed me the works of unexpected and unknown artists.  Among so many great books devoted to Pollock or Warhol it is feasible to find real gems. This happened to me one time in the astonishing bookshop of the Centro Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia. I found a small book about the British artist Rory McEwen (1932-1982); this is a catalogue published by the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh on the occasion of the exhibition of the works by McEwen that took place in 1988. I found…
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Paris “Malgré tout”

Paris “Malgré tout”

Painting
This great exhibition is a tour of the last years in Paris, the centre of the avant-garde, a city emptied of artists after the German occupation but, from 1944 (when the town is freed) until May 1968 of this town enjoying a creative period with so many artists and scholars travelling to Paris attracted by some cultural effervescence and a sort of freedom.  Nevertheless, there is also a sense of disenchantment as these were also the years of the Cold War, a period when thousands of immigrants and political refugees got to Paris. On the other hand, the world of the Art became little by little the Market of the Art. Too many theories related to Art so everything seemed to become complex and way too conceptual: “The Art had…
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Russian Dada 1914-1924

Russian Dada 1914-1924

Painting
From an aesthetical point of view, I have been never much attracted to Dadaism although, at the same time, it has succeeded in drawing my attention to this artistic movement, mainly due to its irreverent and combative character and to its willingness to experiment. I need to point out that even the world’s leading experts cannot agree in either defining Dadaism or giving the clues to know what is Dada or not. It is clear that an anti-war and rebellious movement should have arisen during Great War (WWI) and that it had to be accepted in Russia as the official avant-garde movement of the Revolution. The national Museum of Art “Reina Sofia” (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia) is showing, once again, a great exhibition, so really didactical, with…
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