Viewing modern and contemporary art would not top a tourist’s to-do list for a trip to the south of France.  The breathtaking natural beauty of Marseilles’ jagged coastline, and the earthy charm of its city streets provide enough sustenance for one’s senses. However, Marseilles has been named the European City of Culture for 2013, so I thought I’d attempt to scope out its visual arts scene as I explored its sights.

Unfortunately, I arrived several days too late for Art-O-Rama, the city’s three-year old art fair. I also could not get any gallery listings in the tourist guidebooks. Per the New York Times, Marc and Josee Gensollen, respected French collectors based in the city, open up their home, La Fabrique, for visitors to view their pieces.  But I couldn’t find directions, and neither could the hotel’s concierge.  I had to content myself with Georg Baselitz at the charming Musee Cantini in the city’s commercial center.  A la pointe du trait is an extensive view of his prints and drawings spread out over three spaces.  Sadly, they would not permit photographs.

I spent a few hours at Cours Julien, home of Marseilles’ bo-bo (bourgeois bohemians), an enclave where street artists have free reign over storefronts and doorways.  I arrived late in the morning, just as the district woke up.  Proprietors began to unlock their premises, and café tables started sprouting on the streets.  The area obviously comes alive at night.  Still, there was enough to see and to savor before rushing off to keep to schedules.

 

 

Surprising for September, the weather in London mirrored that of sunny Marseilles.  Here, for the second half of the trip, I scrambled to fit in as much art as I could in five days.  Luckily, this is a city I know quite well, so navigating my favorite haunts felt like revisiting old friends.  No matter how I tried, and how fast I moved,though, I could not make time for all the exhibits I wanted to catch. I had to carefully plan my days.

Highlights:

Mike Nelson, The Coral Reef:  We saw this on our last day in London, but I thought it the best of all I had time to see.  Originally exhibited in 2000, the Tate acquired the piece in 2008, and it is currently exhibited at Tate Britain.  The artist created a labyrinth of dingy rooms and dimly lit corridors.  Doors open up to reveal spaces that look as if they had just been abandoned.  You find yourself slightly panicking at the eeriness of moving from one deserted space to the next.  Truly a fantastic interactive piece by the artist who currently represents Britain at the Venice Biennale!

Phyllida Barlow, Rig:  Another exhibit that plays with the space it occupies, this one features the artist’s rough sculpture scattered all over the elegant premises of Hauser and Wirth’s Piccadilly branch.  You enter the gallery’s wood paneled double height lobby to find it filled with wooden posts supported by mounds of concrete.  Her materials of choice include plastic tubing, unpolished steel, poles of wood wrapped in colored electric tape— construction materials that contrast with the genteel finish of the gallery.  They overwhelm and take over the rooms, from the staircase landing to the basement.  Barlow fills up every space.  As a finale, viewers have to climb steel rungs to peep under the rafters.  There, a wonderful installation of flannel pompoms awaits.

The Museum of Everything:  Held at a different venue every year, the Museum of Everything is “dedicated to the untrained, unintentional, and undiscovered artists of the modern world.”  This year, Exhibtion #4 spreads out over a section of Selfridges, a department store in Oxford St, including several of its windows.  Drawings, paintings, and objects by 50 artists, several of them handicapped who use art as therapy, have been arranged in a whimsical manner, each display leading off to the next.  This show leaves you feeling good.

 

 

Degas and The Ballet:  Picturing Movement, Royal Academy:  I’ve never been a fan of Degas and his ballet paintings.  But this exhibit explains his prolific production of this genre.  His paintings and drawings serve as explorations of movement, influenced by among others, the series of photographs by Eadweard Muybridge.

The Shape of Things To Come: New Sculpture, Saatchi Gallery:  An interesting selection, although the original exhibit had been pared down to make way for an exhibit on Indian art.  Works by John Baldessari and Thomes Houseago, the two artists whose pieces I most wanted to see, had been packed up and returned to storage.  Among the ones left on view, I loved Folkert de Jong’s, The Dance,  ghoulish cavaliers that seemed to be put together from tar and pink styrofoam and David Altmejd’s  mound of figures, The Healers.  This second piece felt like a lowbrow, three-dimensional version of Picasso’s Guernica. I also liked Roger Hiorns crystallized diptych, and untitled pair from polyurethane, polyester, and brain matter. Ooh!

Also on permanent display, Richard Wilson’s 20:50, a vast site-specific installation that utilized tons of used oil.  One looks over a still, inky surface, an infinite expanse that mirrors the ceilings and posts around the gallery space.

On view as well:  Indonesian Eye, contemporary Indonesian art from names familiar to those of us who follow the Southeast Asian art circuit (Rudi Mantofani, Jompet Kuswidananto, Aytjoe Christine, Mella Jaarsma, et al.).  When will we see Philippine art at the Saatchi?

Ryan Gander, The Locked Room Scenario:  an interactive exhibit along the lines of Mike Nelson, one that I didn’t enjoy as much, in spite of the hype surrounding it.  I had to sign up for tickets to view the piece, and traveled north of the city to trendy Hoxton.  Viewers enter an abandoned warehouse, all set to view a group show, only to discover that one can not access it as the only door to the exhibit is locked.  The viewer then has to contend with clues scattered about different rooms and corridors to solve the mystery.

 

 

Aside from the wonderful permanent collections of the two Tates (Modern and Britain), I also found time to see Roni Horn’s new pieces at Hauser and Wirth Savile Row branch, Michaelangelo Pistolleto’s mirror paintings (literally paintings on a mirror surface) at Simon Lee Gallery, Mike Kelley’s miniature pieces of Kandor, Superman’s home planet, at Gagosian Gallery, for his show Exploded Fortress of Solitude (slick, sleek, and suitably weird, with a film starring Russel Brand as the head of a perverted medieval troupe), Georg Herold’s new sculptures and caviar paintings at Sadie Coles HQ, Raqib Shaw’s shiny lacquer paintings (not my type) at White Cube Mason’s Yard, along with his mythological sculptures (these I liked), and Conrad Shawcross’ kinetic light sculpture at Victoria Miro.

Some useful links: In Marseilles, for Art-O-Rama  http://art-o-rama.fr/en , for Cours Julien http://coursjulien.marsnet.org/, for museums and other cultural events http://www.marseille.fr/siteculture/jsp/site/Portal.jsp

In London, for the Tate Museums www.tate.org.uk, Royal Academy www.royalacademy.org.uk, Museum of Everything www.museumofeverything.com, Ryan Gander and other projects www.artangel.com, Saatchi Gallery www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk, Hauser and Wirth www.hauserandwirth.com