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Hokusai & Hiroshige. On a Journey to Edo

This exhibition presents coloured woodcuts by Hokusai (1760–1849) and Hiroshige (1797–1858), two of the best known landscape artists of Japan's Edo period from the 1830s to 1850s. The prints in this exhibition curated by chief curator Heikki Malme are on loan from the Yasusaburo Hara Collection in Tokyo, and now seen outside Japan for the very first time.

Faces of Power and Piety: Medieval Portraiture

This exhibition explores portraits in illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages (about A.D. 500–1500).

In contrast to modern portraiture, which strives to capture the accurate likeness of a specific person, medieval portraiture was primarily valued for its ability to express an individual's social status, religious convictions, or political position. Medieval portrait painters, rather than reproducing the precise facial features of their subjects, often identified individuals by depicting their clothing, heraldry, or other objects related to them. The goal of medieval portraiture was to present a subject not at a particular moment in time, but as the person wished to be remembered through the ages.

Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night

Throughout his career, Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890) attempted the paradoxical task of representing night by light. His procedure followed the trend set by the Impressionists of "translating" visual light effects with various color combinations. At the same time, this concern was grafted onto Van Gogh's desire to interweave the visual and the metaphorical in order to produce fresh and deeply original works of art. These different artistic concerns found themselves powerfully bound together in Van Gogh's nocturnal and twilight paintings and drawings. This exhibition will present new insight into Van Gogh's depictions of night landscapes, interior scenes, and the effects of both gaslight and natural light on their surroundings. Representing all periods of the artist's career, the exhibition will comprise over two dozen works of superlative quality-several of which have never been seen together, even though they were very clearly conceived with each other in mind. This exhibition will be shown at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, February 13-June 7, 2009. It will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.

Caspar David Friedrich and the German romantic landscape

For the first time ever all the works by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) from the collection of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg will be loaned for a special exhibition about this renowned German artist curated by guest curator Prof. Henk van Os. Friedrich’s paintings and drawings are at the centre of the exhibition, but they are surrounded by works by contemporaries, predecessors and followers. They all present aspects of the Romantic landscape and illustrate the special ties between these painters, with Friedrich at the fore, and Tsar Nicholas I and his family. Particularly noteworthy are the watercolours by Carl Fohr, which have not been shown or published before. They were discovered during the preparations for this exhibition, the tenth and last to be held in the Neerlandia building. Afterwards the Hermitage Amsterdam will move to the adjacent Amstelhof and become ten times as big. This second phase will open before the summer of 2009. The present premises will be converted into the Hermitage for Children.

Until about 1960 for most art lovers in the Netherlands Friedrich’s paintings represented a suspect world associated with a fatal nationalism fuelled by notions about Blut und Boden. Much has changed since then. Friedrich has been ‘in’ for years. For many he has become a cult figure. This has to do with the fact that in recent decades the experience of nature expressed in his paintings has been shared by many. His recent retrospective in Germany was a resounding success.

Caspar David Friedrich and his friend Philipp Otto Runge unwittingly brought about a renewal of art. The landscapes by the deeply devout Protestant Friedrich are full of religious symbolism alluding to a divine presence in the landscape.

His paintings are now much loved but rare. The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg has the largest collection of works by Friedrich outside Germany. The museum will be loaning all of them for the first time: nine paintings and six drawings. The idea of holding an exhibition in Amsterdam of all Friedrich’s works from the Hermitage was prompted in part by the fact that the history of their acquisition is so interesting. Moreover, they form a representative group and include many of his finest paintings and drawings, marking very different moments in Friedrich’s oeuvre. Thanks to this diversity, they give a wide-ranging picture of the painter’s imaginative world, and make it possible to get to know the artist Caspar David Friedrich.

When guest curator (and former director of the Rijksmuseum) Henk van Os looked more closely at the Hermitage’s collection of German paintings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for this exhibition, it became clear that the prominent position of artists from the German-speaking countries in St Petersburg around 1800 had resulted in there being a surprisingly rich collection of German paintings from that period in the storerooms. It included important paintings and drawings by landscapists who are hardly if at all known in the Netherlands. As a result of this discovery, the idea was born of devoting an exhibition at the Hermitage Amsterdam to showing what a revolution Friedrich had brought about in German landscape painting. More traditional painters such as Hackert, Reinhart and Mechau, contemporaries like the unknown young artists Carl Fohr (1795-1817) and Carl von Kügelgen (1772-1832), and followers such as Hagens, Carus and Von Klenze place Friedrich in a historical context. It is only when his works are juxtaposed with traditional landscapes that it becomes clear why at the time so many critics could not or would not understand Friedrich’s work. It is unique, and that is all the more evident when his paintings are shown in the context of work by other artists.

‘For our art critics our German sun, moon, lakes and rivers are not enough. If the aim is elevated art and beauty, it must all be Italian.’ With these words the painter again makes it clear that the historical importance of his art lies not only in how he depicts nature, but also in the fact that he decided not to journey to Italy to learn about art, but found inspiration in the landscapes of his surroundings: Rügen, Rostock, the country around Dresden and the Giant Mountains.

Olafur Eliasson. The New York City Waterfalls

The New York City Waterfalls, a major new work of public art by internationally acclaimed artist Olafur Eliasson, will be on view in New York's East River from June 26th through October 13th 2008. Commissioned by Public Art Fund, the project consists of four monumental, man-made waterfalls temporarily installed at sites along the waterfront in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Governors Island: one on the Brooklyn anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge, one between Piers 4 and 5 below the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, one in Lower Manhattan at Pier 35 north of the Manhattan Bridge, and one on the north shore of Governors Island. The 90- to 120-foot-tall Waterfalls are erected on the shoreline and have been designed to protect water quality and aquatic life. They will operate from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, and will be lit after sunset.

"Large scale public art is a part of what makes New York City the cultural center of the world. It excites New Yorkers and encourages visitors from around the world to experience a once in a lifetime moment,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “The Waterfalls exhibition is the next chapter in the City’s great cultural legacy – and we are exceptionally thrilled that internationally-renowned artist Olafur Eliasson has chosen New York City as his latest canvas.”

Public Art Fund is a non-profit art organization that has been presenting contemporary art in New York since 1977, and The New York City Waterfalls is the organization’s most ambitious project to date. “For 30 years, the Public Art Fund has been bringing artists and New York City together by presenting innovative art projects for all to see,” said Susan K. Freedman, President of Public Art Fund. “The New York City Waterfalls takes this tradition to a new level and exemplifies our commitment to working with artists who stretch the limits of public art and the forms it might take.”

The New York City Waterfalls, sited in the historic New York Harbor, a gateway to America for nearly four centuries, will showcase New York’s natural environment alongside the City’s industrial and commercial landscape. “In developing The New York City Waterfalls, I have tried to work with today’s complex notion of public spaces,” said Eliasson. “The Waterfalls appear in the midst of the dense social, environmental, and political tissue that makes up the heart of New York City. They will give people the possibility to reconsider their relationships to these spectacular surroundings, and I hope they will evoke experiences that are both individual and enhance a sense of collectivity.” Image Caption: Olafur Eliasson, New York City Waterfalls (artist’s rendering): Brooklyn Bridge (Brooklyn), 2008; courtesy of the artist/Public Art Fund.

Born in Copenhagen in 1967, Eliasson is considered one of his generation’s most influential artists. Throughout his career, he has sought to evoke immersive environments with decidedly man-made tools. He takes inspiration from natural phenomena such as light, wind, fog, and water, as well as science, architecture, and the built environment. He is perhaps best known for The weather project (2003) at Tate Modern in London, a giant sun made of 200 yellow lamps, mirrors, and mist that transformed the museum’s massive Turbine Hall and drew over 2 million visitors during its five-month installation. While his works are informed by the earthwork and land art movements of the 1970s with their monumental scales and eco-politics, Eliasson pushes his work a step further, into the often paradoxical place where man’s ingenuity strives to mimic nature’s unique power. With their sensuous appeal, Eliasson’s installations invite viewers into private moments of discovery and place them into the public realm. Through his interventions, Eliasson brings mindfulness into public encounters, returning us, ultimately, to the mind itself.

The New York City Waterfalls is being constructed with building elements that are ubiquitous throughout New York. Actual construction scaffolding forms the backbone of the Waterfalls, and pumps will cycle water from the East River to the top of each structure before it falls back into the River. “Eliasson's waterfalls emerge from his consideration of the specific conditions, particularly historic and architectural, of the physical environments surrounding them. He has found a way to integrate the spectacular beauty of nature into the urban landscape on a dramatic scale,” said Rochelle Steiner, Director of Public Art Fund and curator of The New York City Waterfalls. Many artists have likened the height, power, and reflectivity of New York City’s skyscrapers to massive urban waterfalls; Lucio Fontana wrote that “The skyscrapers of glass look like great cascades of water / That fall from the sky” upon first visiting the city in the 1970s.

Public Art Fund has joined with government agencies and environmental organizations to develop resources for young people and adults to enjoy the Waterfalls. Partners include the City’s Department of Education, Department of Environmental Protection and the US National Park Service, and environmental groups including Riverkeeper, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance (MWA), New York Restoration Project (NYRP), as well as Urban Assembly’s New York Harbor School, a public school that engages students through the study of the marine culture, history, and environment of New York City and its surrounding waters. Programming will include guides for enjoying and learning about the Waterfalls and New York City’s riverfront, as well as classroom lessons for students and activities for summer camp groups. These materials will examine the waterfront through the topics of art, history, environmental responsibility, aquatic life, ecology, water conservation, and other related subjects, and can be downloaded from www.nycwaterfalls.org in June.

The Waterfalls will be visible by land and boat, and because of their proximity to one another, viewers will be able to see multiple Waterfalls from various vantage points in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Governors Island. Dedicated boat journeys to view the Waterfalls, organized by the Public Art Fund in partnership with Circle Line Downtown (www.circlelinedowntown.com), will leave from Pier 16 in Manhattan and will provide up-close views of the Waterfalls. Circle Line Downtown will provide free and discounted 30-minute trips daily for the public. The Governors Island Ferry, which will run every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the duration of the project, and the Staten Island Ferry, both of which are always free, will also provide views of the Waterfalls at Governors Island and beneath the Brooklyn Promenade. Recommended viewing sites and bike routes along the waterfront will be made available on free maps provided on the Waterfalls website, www.nywaterfalls.org, and distributed throughout the City.

The Waterfalls have been designed to be sensitive to the environment, protecting fish and aquatic life by filtering the water through intake pools suspended in the river beneath each structure. The Waterfalls will also run on “green power”– electricity generated from renewable resources – an initiative organized through partnership with Consolidated Edison and Con Ed Solutions and will be lit with LED lights. “The Waterfalls will help a new generation of New Yorkers discover our great waterfront and encourage us all to become stewards for its continued revitalization and lasting protection,” said Riverkeeper President Alex Matthiessen. “The project itself is a model of green design and, importantly, is protective of key aquatic habitat.”

Project Support

The New York City Waterfalls by Olafur Eliasson is presented by the Public Art Fund, in collaboration with the City of New York. This project is presented in partnership with Tishman Construction Corporation, with Water Tours provided by Circle Line Downtown, and assistance from Consolidated Edison and Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP. Major supporters include Bloomberg LP, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro, Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Wachovia Foundation, Carson Family Charitable Trust, Charina Endowment Fund, CIT, Forest City Ratner Companies, The Leonard and Evelyn Lauder Foundation, The Silverweed Foundation and Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee. Generous support has been provided by Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, Danish Ministry of Culture, Kathy and Richard S. Fuld, Jr., Danielle and David Ganek, Jennifer and Matthew Harris, Jill and Peter Kraus, Peter Norton Family Foundation, David Rockefeller and Tishman Speyer. Additional funds were also contributed by the Donald B. Marron Charitable Trust, Marshall Rose, Steve Ross/The Related Companies, David Teiger, The ABNY Foundation, Elise and Andrew Brownstein, The Durst Organization, Anna Marie and Robert F. Shapiro, The Jonathan M. Tisch Foundation, Laurie M. Tisch Illuminations Fund, Steve Tisch, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Vital Projects Fund, Inc., Barbara J. Fife, Daniel and Estrellita Brodsky Family Foundation, Melva Bucksbaum, Fifth Floor Foundation, Ann and Gilbert Kinney, Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen, Jonathan Sobel and Marcia Dunn, Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, Charles Short, and Jeanette Sarkisian Wagner. (List in formation)

About the Artist

Olafur Eliasson was born in Copenhagen in 1967, and grew up in both Iceland and Denmark. He attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and currently divides his time between his family home in Copenhagen and his studio in Berlin. Studio Olafur Eliasson is a laboratory for spatial research that employs a team of 30 architects, engineers, craftsmen, and assistants who work together to conceptualize, test, engineer, and construct installations, sculptures, large-scale projects and commissions. Recent works reflect Eliasson’s increased interest in architecture and the built environment. Since the mid-1990s, he has presented his work in numerous exhibitions and outdoor venues, and his work was recently the subject of a major midcareer retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which is currently being presented in an expanded exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art and PS 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, on view through June 30, 2008.

About the Public Art Fund

Since 1977, the Public Art Fund (www.publicartfund.org) has worked with over 500 emerging and established artists to produce innovative temporary exhibitions of contemporary art throughout New York City. By bringing artworks outside the traditional context of museums and galleries, Public Art Fund provides a unique platform for an unparalleled encounter with the art of our time. Current and recent critically acclaimed exhibitions and presentations include Rodney Graham’s The Rodney Graham Band live, featuring the amazing Rotary Psycho-Opticon at the Abrons Arts Center (2008); Sarah Lucas’s Perceval at Doris C. Freedman Plaza at 60th Street and Fifth Avenue (through April 2008); Everyday Eden at the Metrotech Center in Brooklyn (through September 2008); Dara Friedman's Musical at multiple midtown Manhattan locations (2007); Alexander Calder in New York at City Hall Park (2006-7); Martin Creed’s Variety Show at the Abrons Arts Center (2007); Sarah Morris’s Robert Towne at Lever House (2006-7); Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror at Rockefeller Center (2006); Sarah Sze’s Corner Plot at Doris C. Freedman Plaza (2006); Nancy Rubins’s Big Pleasure Point at Lincoln Center (2006); William Kentridge’s 9 Drawings for Projection at the Central Park and Prospect Park Bandshells (2005); and Alejandro Diaz’s A Can for All Seasons on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx (2005). Upcoming projects include Chris Burden’s What my Dad Gave Me at Rockefeller Center (opening June 2008) and James Yamada’s Our Starry Night at Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park (opening May 2008).

Public Art Fund is a non-profit art organization supported by generous contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations, and with funds from National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.