AN ARTISTIC TOUR AROUND THE WORLD

THE YEAR 2019 BEARS SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE

ART SCENE ON ACCOUNT OF BEING THE 350TH ANNIVERSARY OF REMBRANDT’S DEATH AND

THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF CHINESE MODERN PAINTER WU GUANZHONG. MOREOVER, THIS YEAR IS ALSO THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MOON LANDING. IN SHORT, 2019 IS CELEBRATED WITH SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS IN AMSTERDAM, SINGAPORE, AND NEW YORK. ON THE OTHER HAND, MASTER ARTISTS SUCH AS EDGAR DEGAS AND VAN GOGH ARE HONORED IN PARIS AND LONDON, RESPECTIVELY. YILDIZ MORAN, THE FIRST FEMALE ARTIST IN TURKEY WITH AN ACADEMIC BACKGROUND, IS PRESENTED TO THE YOUNGER GENERATIONS BY ISTANBUL MODERN. HELD BY PRESTIGIOUS AND INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED ORGANIZATIONS, THESE EXHIBITIONS MAY COME IN HANDY WHILE MAKING ART-ORIENTED TRAVEL PLANS FOR 2019.

Rembrandt’s Unforgettable Heritage

Rijksmuseum, the national museum of the Netherlands, focuses on the legendary painter Rembrandt on the 350th anniversary of his death. Held between February 15 and June 10, the exhibition All the Rembrandts presents a selection of the groundbreaking artist’s rarely displayed works. Home to the world’s largest Rembrandt collection, including the painting The Night Watch (1642), the museum brings together 22 paintings, 60 sketches, and 300 prints, the last of which were chosen from among the rarely displayed collection

1,300 prints in the museum’s collection. While the paintings enable the visitors to examine Rembrandt’s innovative genius, the extensive collection of sketches provide a chance to witness his artistic periods and the transformations of his style. Divided into a number of themes, the exhibition scrutinizes Rembrandt’s artistic career, relationship with his social surroundings, and storytelling. Dated between 1628 and 1661, his self-portraits allow guests to observe his artistic development and personal transformation.

Britain as Imagined by Van Gogh

Tate Britain Gallery, a part of the Tate network of galleries, hosts the world’s most extensive British art collection.

The organization is home to many halls -some reserved in their entirety for a single artist in their entirety- that display artworks dating back to the 1500s in their historical context. The museum will display 45 works by the legendary artist Van Gogh between March 27 and August 11, 2019.

The EY Exhibition: Van Gogh and Britain scrutinizes the artist’s relationship with British art, literature, and culture. Van Gogh was influenced by the works of artists such as John Constable and John Everett Millais in London, where he lived between 1873 and 1876. Charles Dickens has a special importance for Van Gogh who was an avid reader of many British authors from Shakespeare to George Eliot. The great novelist’s A Christmas Carol is one of the two books featured in the painting L’arlésienne (1890) in the exhibition, which gathers works from many public and private collections from all around the world. Van Gogh has influenced a number of British artists with his works such as Self-portrait (1889), and Sunflowers, on loan from the National Gallery in London. British painters Matthew Smith, Christopher Wood, and David Bomberg are only a few of the names inspired by Van Gogh’s vision. The exhibition reveals his personal struggle and achievements as an artist who suffered during his lifetime and suffered from poverty.

A Journey to the Moon in New York

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (aka the MET) goes back in history more than 140 years. The museum brings together prominent artworks, with a lifespan of nearly 5,000 years, without any cultural limitations and aims to create a connection between people through these works. Open between July 2 and September 22, the exhibition Apollo’s Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography focuses on one of humankind’s biggest achievements on a universal scale. Neil Armstrong went on a journey into space aboard Apollo 11 and landed on the Moon, witnessed by 600 million people watching him on TV. Everybody remembers the photograph from July 20, 1969, depicting Armstrong with the American flag he fixed into the surface of the Moon. Immortalized by the quote “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” this historical moment is rekindled on account of its 50th anniversary. The exhibition comprises the visual representations of the Moon from the birth of photography to the present along with sketches, paintings, films, and astronomical devices.

Degas, A Fan of the Opera

Musée d’orsay, housed in an old and magnificent train station in Paris, has been focusing on Western artworks from between 1848 and 1914 since its foundation. Open between September 24, 2019 and January 19, 2020, the exhibition Degas à l’opéra brings together the great painter’s works with a focus on the opera. While opera houses offer various spatial opportunities in terms of painting with diverse, multifunctional elements and structures such as stages, halls, foyers, and loggias; singers, dancers, orchestra members, and the audience become the artists’ models as they are brought together by the actual venue. The plastic possibilities of this world, which resembles a microcosm in itself, were a topic of interest for Edgar Degas throughout his career. His oil painting The Orchestra at the Opera (1870), included in the exhibition, enables guests to examine the artist’s approach to music. Situated outside the audience’s field of vision, the orchestra pit is the painting’s focal point. Degas also portrayed his real-life friends among the musicians depicted in this painting. Revealing the artist’s passionate interest in the opera, the exhibition also sheds light on the Paris opera in the 19th century.

Blending the East Asian ink and brush painting technique and Western oil painting, Wu Guanzhong is regarded as the pioneer of Chinese modern painting and is renowned especially for his landscape paintings. Held at the National Gallery Singapore until September 29, 2019, the exhibition Wu Guanzhong: Expressions of Pen & Palette celebrates the artist’s centennial birthday. In addition to having been a prominent 20th-century painter, Guanzhong is also known for his writings on the criticism of art and creativity. The exhibition examines the relationship between his artistic creation and literary personality, borrowing works from the National Collection of Singapore and a prominent East Asian private collection. The exhibition reveals the artist’s mastery in terms of the aesthetics of ink and offers a wide perspective of his art.