Exhibitions before September 1998.

September 1998, in Paris, France.

From Sep 17, " Millet / Van Gogh " an exhibition highlighting the stylistic links between Van Gogh and his 19 century mentor, Jean Francois Millet.

Christian Boltanski, Musee d'Art Moderne, till Oct 04, Paris, France.

" La Reserve du Musee des Enfants ", is a work that the artist chose to show in a part of the museum that is usually closed to the public during the exhibition. " Histoires de Musee, 1989 ". Since that date, "La Reserve" has belonged to the Museum's permanent collections. Clothes are folded and tidied away on shelves. The fact that they are piled up redoubles the efect of melancoly of disappearence and death, since the clothes recall the absent human body.

Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, 17 June to 30 September, at the Fondation Dina Vierny - Musee Maillol, Paris, France.

Frida Kahlo,s famouse painting with Diego Rivera as her theird eye.

An extensive collection of the works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, all the famous and not so famous paintings of Frida Kahlo, all known from the books about her, Diego Rivera's paintings from early to the late ones, some beautiful cubist paintings from 1913 and works that were painted after Cezanne, to the paintings and drawings studies for his famous murals.

" Madame Butterfly ", opera by Giacomo Puccini, mise en scene - Robert Wilson, at the Opera Bastille, Paris, France, September, 1998.

Robert Wilson " la chaise de attente ", black wood and bamboo.

1998 Toronto Film Festival, Canada, September 10 - 19.

For three days I've been to the Toronto Film Festival, I've seen three films a day from lunchtime to midnight, I've picked only from the films that were available.

I've made two discoveries, the first one an Israeli film - a documentary, FRAGMENTS * JERUSALEM, a 1996 film by Ron Havilio who is the director, the narrator, his wife did the sound and his family, the main actors. the film runs for 6 !!! hours, with two or three short intermissions, it's beautifully done, I didn't feel the time, suddenly it finished.

This is what Ron says about his film - " I chose the personal path in film making, filming like a painter, recording my environment, it was like filming back oblivion - fixing images, faces, stories and fragments of life that would otherwise have been erased from memory. "

Ron Havilio, born in Israel, 1950, first interest was painting, he learned Art history at the university and than turned to photography, he showed his work in the Israel Museum, in 1984 start to work on cinema, he is teaching at the Jerusalem Film school, " Jerusalem * Fragments " is his first feature.

This is an exert from the Festival pamphlet - " As writer, director and cinematographer, Ron Havilio's imprint on his work is total. His sensitive camera work and intelligent narration help construct a beautiful reflection on his place of birth. Awarded the Grand Prize at the Yamagara International Film Festival, where the film received it's world premiere. FRAGMENTS * JERUSALEM receives here a special Toronto screening as a central work of contemporary Israeli cinema ". " To create such a work of art about Jerusalem is to give the world a great gift " (Hans-Jorg Rother, Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung).

It was a great pleasure to attend the screening, I felt nostalgic and affected by this talent but it made me sad, I've seen my old country, my own people that does not exist any more. Professor J. Leibowitch said in one of his prophecies, after the Six Days War that in the future people like him will be kept in concentration camps, I hope that in his future film Ron will show us Israel after Rabin's assassination and the right wing government in power.

My second discovery at the festival - The contemporary Japanese films and specially Shinya Tsukamoto the director and actor, he makes beautiful, violent and contemporary art films in the tradition of the French Film Noir. Tsukamoto's film are so violent, so exaggerated that you forget the violence and can enjoy it.

At the screening of his new film, BULLET BALLET Shinya Tsukamoto said that when deciding to create this film he decided that he'll put no violence and after finishing the editing and seeing it he realized that it's his most violent film.

August in London, England

In London it's like the high season, a lot of tourists and a lot of art to see:

ANDRES SERRANO at Photology, 24 Lichfield st, Till August 28.

"St' Michel's blood"

Controversial large scale photos dealing with religion, bizarre sex, blood and other body fluids. this is a part from Serrano last exhibition in Holland, " The History of sex ".

CHAGALL at the Tate Royal Academy, Piccadilly.

SOPHY CALE at The Tate Gallery, Milbank, till August 6.

BRUCE NAUMAN at The Hayward Gallery, South bank.

The photography of Lewis Carroll at the National Portrait Gallery, St. Martin's Place.

Lewis Carroll or by his real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, best known as the writer of " The adventures of Alice in Wonderland", was a Mathematician and a pioneer photographer.

"Charles Lutwidge Dodgson with a camera lens", 1863

Carroll best known photograph is of Alice Lidell ( the real "Alice"), dressed as a beggar girl.

"Alice Lidell as a beggar girl"

Carrol loved taking photos of young girls, some of the photos are of nude girls, he said that he loved youth and innocence but it seems that the photos are not so innocent.

Lari Pittman at ICA, The Mall, till 6 September.

"Untitled ", 1992.

Pittman's large scale kaleidoscopic mix of sexual imagery, S&M, roses, lavatory bowls while signs and slogans call upon the audience to " Go Girl! Grab it by the tail".

Conques, an enchanted place in Aveyron, France.

The tympanon of the "Eglise Ste Foy"

A small town / village built on a top of a hill in Aveyron, the houses built with the local brown red stones, the roofs with slates taken from the same hill, a beautiful church that was built around the 11th century, was on the pilgrime's way to Santiago de Compostela. The tympan a Roman sculpture of the 12th century (look at the photo), on the tympan a lot of scenes from revelation to the apocalypse, the explanation to each of the scenes is in the site - http://www.allia-com.fr/conques/visite.tympan.uk.html

Art & Commerce, 15 July - 15 August, Villefranche De Rouergue, Aveyron, south of France.

This is the second year this project takes place, 20 contemporary artists who live and work in this region participate in this exhibition that was arranged by "Art & Commerce", the exposition include installations in some shop windows and at the exhibition hall. At the opening there was a parade in town, two musicians with a violin and a guitar, dressed with medieval costumes, playing country music and stop at each window, there from a window above the shop an actor dressed as in "Comedia Del Arte", reads poetry concerning the installation. After all the stops the parade arrived to the exposition hall, there the mayor and distinguished guests waited for all the crowd and the mayor opened the exhibition. This kind of opening connected the small picturesque Medieval town to the contemporary exhibition.

Here are some paintings:

Summer in Manhattan, July, 1998.

This is the beginning of the "Cucumber season" (I don't know if that's the right expression in English), a lot of galleries are closed, still there is a lot to see, August is going to be worst.

Brooklyn Museum: "Masters of color and light, Hommer, Sargent and the American water color movement".

Whitney Museum: " Unknown terrain,- The Landscape of Andrew Wyete", till August 30.

Charles Rey, installation, till October 11.

"Giacometti to Judd - Prints by sculptors", till Oct 13, at the MOMA.

Jewish Museum: "George Segal - Retrospective", till Oct 4.

Metropolitan Museum: Edvard Burne Jones, 200 works by this Pre Rafaelite Artist, including colossal paintings of Medieval legends, till Sep 6.

Guggenheim Museum Uptown "The Art of Motor cycles", till Sep 20.

Guggenheim Museum Soho: "The Hugo Boss Prize 1998", six artists dealing with Video and Photography installations, one of them An animator, William Kentridge from South Africa, I've seen some of his funny and bizarre animation in the last Documenta in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition runs till Sep 20.

On the ground floor of the museum a beautiful exhibition of large video installations of the Italian artist Fabrizio Plessi, (born Italy 1940). I thought there is nothing to see after Nam Jun Pike but I was wrong, I think this is the best show in New York this season.

One of the most interesting installations: "Roma - 1988":

A round of travertine slates forming a piazza around 5 meters in diameter, around it TV monitors showing running water of the Tiber, from time to time you see and hear a rock falling to the water, you look up and there is nothing, this create a strange atmosphere.

Most of his installations deals with water.

"Bronks - 1986"

I just came to Paris, France to find out that there is an exhibition of Eugene Delacroix, "The last years, 1850-1863" , at the Galerie National du Grand Palais. The exhibition lasts till July 20 1998.

Izhar Patkin 'Judenporzellan' at the Holly Solomon Gallery (172 Mercer str. New York City) May 2 - June 13 1998.

Shadows of a hand: The drawings of Victor Hugo. April 16 -June 13 1998, at the Drawing Center Soho, NY.

Victor Hugo was also a great painter on top of being a great author of the 19th century.He left around 3000 watercolors behind. A show of his water colors and wash is now on at the Drawing Center in Soho, Ny.

Tony Cragg at Marian Goodman Gallery, 57th St. Till the 25th April.

It is a large two unit sculpture made of thousands of polished white dice. also few pieces of bronze and plastics. Cragg is one of the leading artists in the world today, he lives and works in Wuppertal, Germany.Few years ago Ariela Erez and me visited his huge studio/factory in Wuppertal and we took one sculpture of his to exhibit in the little forest in Raanana, Israel.

Anishe Capoor at Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Chelsee, April 9-May 22.

These are beautiful new works by Anishe Capoor (born Bombay, India, 1954). This exhibition presents works in pigment, stone and cast aluminum. Anishe Capoor lives in London, England. He has major exhibitions all over the world. The recent exhibition was in Santiago de Compostella, Spain.

Robert Capa at ICP mid town. 6th Ave &43rd st.

Robert Capa was born in Hungary at 1913, he fled to Germany in 1936 because he was a communist and went on the same year to Spain to photo the Spanish Civil War. From there his famous photo "A soldier at the time of his death". He photographed 5 wars. The 2'nd World War. Japan's invasion to China in 1938, Israeli Independence War at 1948 and the French war in Indochina in 1954 where he was killed in action.

In Moma Ny a comprehensive retrospective of the artist Chuck Close. I first saw his painting while visiting 1977 Documenta in Kassel, Germany. I've entered a room and in front of me a huge portrait (270cm x 200cm) painted in hyperrealism, only from a few centimeters you could see that it's a painting and not a photo.

In the current show, paintings from all periods. Last years the grains of the paintings grow, it is painted with finger tips or with pulp of paper.

In Walker Art Center Minneapolis, Minnesota, there is an exhibition by the artist Robert Collescott. He was the elected artist to represent the USA at the Venice Biennale. His paintings are huge, painted in a caricature manner and with expressionistic colors.The themes of all the pictures are against the oppression of African Americans. "When you look at the picture it gives you right away a punch in the stomach and if you look more you get more and more punches." As one of the critics described his pictures. After seeing the film about Robert Collescott I understood why he was chosen even though his style is not of the mainstream.

In Dia Art Center, Chelsee you can still see the colossal sculptures of Richard Serra. I think it is the best show in town. I hope it's going to be a permanent show as his previous Dia exhibitions: "The earth room" and "The broken Kilometer".

A lot of Galleries moved to Chelsee, this is going to be the new hip area. The rent at the Soho is too high, it's now full of expensive restaurants and boutiques. The gallery "Mary Boone" moved to the commercial 57th st, it may give this area a new contemporary wind.

Yesterday Apr 04 we took a stroll in Chelsee, the galleries are huge, clean, very contemporary, but the art was boring. It takes a very exiting or interesting art to compete with these beautiful spaces.

Nir Hod at Chelsee.

In LiebmanMagnan gallery in Chelsee on March 28 an exhibition of Nir Hod opened with the support of the Consulate General of Israel in New York. In Israel he is a cult figure. In NY he follows the tradition of Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman and Murimura. The gallery owner said that after the article in the Ny Times there is a lot of traffic in the gallery.

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