George Minne – { feuilleton }

Ver Sacrum, 1901

Continuing the series of posts about Ver Sacrum, the art journal of the Viennese Secession. After a somewhat lacklustre collection for 1900 the journal finds its vitality again, the painters of happy Teutonic peasants having been dropped in favour of more remarkable prints and graphics from Vienna’s finest. The contents for this year parallel some of the works being featured in Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration for the same period. Gustav Klimt is given a great deal of attention, beginning with the calendar piece below. There’s also work from the Symbolist sculptor George Minne and a feature on the Glasgow School artists Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald. Throughout the year each issue tends to concentrate on a single artist or exhibition. There’s so much good stuff in this year it’s not possible to present more than a small sample. Those interested are encouraged to browse all 432 pages or download the entire volume here.

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Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration #25

A design by Emanuel Margold.

This post concludes the delve into back numbers of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, the German periodical of art and decoration. Volume 25 covers the period from October 1909 to March 1909, and while the Internet Archive has further editions available they make a big jump after this number to 1923. The later editions are still interesting, of course, but in presentation and content they’re very different to what went before. Despite the text of these magazines being entirely German it’s been an education going through them not only for the detailed attention given to artists often passed over in books, but also for the articles reporting notable events in European art history as they happened. We have the Robarts Library of the University of Toronto to thank for having made these publications available.

An illustration from a series by Carl Otto Czeschka for Die Nibelungen by Franz Keim.

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Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration #24

Continuing the delve into back numbers of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, the German periodical of art and decoration. Volume 24 covers the period from April 1909 to September 1909, and this is the penultimate edition that I’ll be posting samples from. The checkerboard designs of the Wiener Werkstätte are still being featured in this number but the focus here is on pictorial works rather than interior design. As before, anyone wishing to see these samples in greater detail is advised to download the entire number at the Internet Archive. There’ll be a final volume of DK&D next week.

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Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration #20

More sculptual work by Franz Metzner for a building whose interiors are in that ponderous Teutonic style which resembles designs for a fantasy film.

Continuing the delve into back numbers of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, the German periodical of art and decoration. Volume 20 covers the period from April 1907 to September 1907, and this is where this fascinating publication starts to run out of steam. A few more editions are worth looking at but after volume 25 the content collapses into the same welter of excessively dull genre painting and academic work that was plaguing Jugend magazine at this time. More about that later.

As usual, anyone wishing to see these samples in greater detail is advised to download the entire number at the Internet Archive. There’ll be more DK&D next week.

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The art of Agostino Arrivabene

Lo psiconauta (2006).

Capriccio con ruderi di città ideale (2003).

Vanitas su zolla di viole (2006).

I’ve tagged this as “gay” since the first painting is featured in the controversial Arte E Omosessualita’. Da von Gloeden a Pierre et Gilles at the Palazzo della Ragione, Milan. That exhibition has caused as stir with Catholics who demanded that Paolo Schmidlin’s Miss Kitty, which shows the current Pope in drag, be removed.

Whatever Agostino Arrivabene‘s sexuality he’s no slouch with a paintbrush, and all the sections on his site are worth looking at. The “Paesaggi” section features some architectural caprices, there’s a section of vanitas works and a fair amount of artistic quotation; I spotted references to Piranesi, Boulée and George Minne, among others.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The fantastic art archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Vanitas paintings
• Giant Skeleton and the Chocolate Jesus