sunday, february 2, 2020 . the washington post EZ EE E5 spring arts preview | exhibitions Musei di Strada Nuova, Palazzo Bianco, Genoa “The Prodigal Son Expelled From the Tavern” (1630/1635), by Cornelis de Wael, a Flemish artist whose series based on the story of the prodigal son will be on view at the exhibition. Baroque gems of Genoa National Gallery show spotlights works of artists attracted to the wealthy city in its golden age BY PHILIP KENNICOTT in Genoa, 1600-1750” will survey the golden “My elevator pitch for this was: This is the rugged-looking David will be on view along age of its banking wealth, when all the most spectacular early European art you don’t with Orazio Gentileschi’s erotically charged ander through the world, especial- conditions were right for it to become an know,” he says. It is as rich and exuberant as “Danae and the Shower of Gold.” ly the world of art and architec- artistic power as well as a financial one. other baroque styles, but it was driven by Genoa produced its own artists, some of ture, and Genoa keeps cropping “They are the sole bankers of the Holy reticent oligarchs competing among them- whom, like Bernardo Strozzi, worked outside up. Roman Empire,” says Jonathan Bober, senior selves. the city and became internationally re- WAt a 2016 exhibition of Anthony van Dyck’s curator of prints and drawings at the gallery. “Genoese baroque is as extravagant and nowned. But the exhibition promises an intro- portraits at the Frick Collection in New York Genoa, like Venice, was also a republic, and an spectacular as the Roman, but it is private,” he duction to local artists who remain relatively City, some of the most sumptuous work on oligarchy. The city’s leading families, he says, says. And that remains true, somewhat, even little known. Among them, Bober says, are view was made during the artist’s time in the expressed their wealth “in a very contempo- today, with much of the art still held privately Domenico Piola (“at his best a remarkably Italian city. Stroll through Istanbul and one of rary way,” through display, competition and and not regularly on public view. synthetic painter and a superb draughtsman”) the famous landmarks is the Galata Tower, a emulation, and that made Genoa fertile Among the great painters attracted to and Gregorio De Ferrari. 14th-century Romanesque pile with panoram- ground not just for its homegrown artists, but Genoa was Peter Paul Rubens, who visited “He is my absolute favorite, a fascinating ic views of the city. Like fortresses built in for major artistic figures throughout Europe. several times in the early 1600s, painting altar character who was studying law and didn’t North Africa and the Crimea, the Galata Tower The National Gallery of Art’s exhibition pieces and portraits, including a large eques- even turn to art until about 18,” Bober says. His was built by the Genoese as part of their promises to be a sumptuous show, with about trian portrait of Giovanni Carlo Doria (a virtuosic figures anticipate those of the French far-flung network of colonies and commercial 130 works borrowed from public and private member of the vastly rich and powerful Doria artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard a century later. hubs. Christopher Columbus, who made the collections around the world, including paint- family, which is famous today for lending its “A Superb Baroque” is billed as the first world immeasurably smaller, was a sailor ings, sculptures, silver and works on paper. It name to an ill-fated ship) that will be on view. comprehensive survey of this material in from Genoa. also promises to be full of surprises, charting a Van Dyck arrived there in 1623 and made three decades, and the largest of its kind in the It’s an old lesson, essential to understand- history of interaction and cross fertilization about 100 portraits. Other Flemish artists United States. ing the arts: Follow the money. Genoa had a lot between artists from Genoa and artists from worked there, too, including Jan Wildens and [email protected] of it, especially after it transitioned from a the rest of Italy, and the Low Countries. Lucas and Cornelis de Wael (whose series mercantile power to a banking one in the 16th Genoa, Bober says, was a curious mix, both based on the story of the prodigal son will be A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600-1750 century. Beginning in May, a National Gallery insular socially and, as a maritime power, on view). The French artist Simon Vouet also May 3-Aug. 16 at the National Gallery of Art. of Art exhibition titled “A Superb Baroque: Art connected to the wider world. had a Genoa chapter, and his painting of a nga.gov. Paradise found — again A Janet Echelman work returns to the Renwick, offering a chance to step away from city life into a space of beauty BY SEBASTIAN SMEE Echelman says she loves “the wisdom in craft.” But she takes on daunting logistical he Renwick Gallery — just steps from challenges and eagerly embraces technology. the White House — reopened in 2015 A crucial component of her work is the with an exhibit of nine large-scale colored light she projects onto it. The projec- artworks all aiming to induce oohs tion is always changing, which means that a Tand aahs. The show was called, in fact, work like “1.8 Renwick” is “okay for a quick- “Wonder,” and by the yardstick proclaimed in see,” she says, “but [it’s] best to come with time the title, its biggest success was Janet Echel- . to take in the gradual changes of colored man’s “1.8 Renwick,” a sculpture made from shadow drawing murals which slide across undulating colored fabric suspended from the walls.” ceiling. Expect audiences to do that exactly that. “1.8 Renwick,” which is now in the Smithso- Echelman says she feels “a need to find nian American Art Museum’s permanent col- moments of contemplation in the midst of lection, will be taking up residence again in daily city life.” She expects others feel similar- the Renwick’s second-floor Grand Salon, ly: “I love that the Renwick is free to everyone, starting in April. and even if you have just a few minutes during Echelman says she’s excited about the your lunch break, you can come in and lie work’s reinstallation. “Maybe it’s like a chance down on the soft carpet and look up at the to spend time with a beloved friend who rarely intricate layers of knotted fiber and the visits,” she wrote in an email. “Or for people projected shadow drawings. If my art can who haven’t experienced the work before, create an oasis to contemplate the larger [it’s] a chance to meet her.” cycles of time and remind us to listen to our The piece is part of Echelman’s “Earthtime” inner selves, that’s all I could ask.” Photo by tony Powell/Janet echelman/Smithsonian American Art Museum/ series, which she started in 2010. “1.8 Ren- Museum purchase made possible by the American Art Forum So: Bring your kids. Bring your loved ones. wick” was named for the number of microsec- Make it a hot date. Or (maybe the best option?) onds by which the day was shortened when a Janet Echelman’s “1.8 Renwick,” which uses about 50 miles of string and half a come solo. Echelman says it takes 30 minutes single physical event — the 2011 Tohoku million knots, will be reinstalled in the Renwick’s Grand Salon this spring. to watch the entire cycle. The effects she earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which led achieves — not just at the Renwick, but also to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster — with sculptures that have appeared around shifted the Earth’s mass. the world, suspended between skyscrapers, “We think of a day as a fixed quantity,” Rauschenberg in Asia in the late 1980s. But it cal maquettes in string, wire, foam and wood over world-famous city squares, storied hotels Echelman says, “but the speed of Earth’s wasn’t until 1997 — inspired by the artful into sophisticated digital models developed in and busy intersections — are captivating, rotation is constantly shifting in response to bundling of fishing nets in a seaside village in collaboration with architects and engineers. calming and joyous. physical phenomena.” India — that Echelman abandoned painting Those are then fabricated in looming and [email protected] Echelman is an ambitious — and inspiring and more conventional forms of sculpture and braiding factories in Puget Sound, near Seat- — artist. (Her popular 2011 TED talk, “Taking began working with nets and woven fabric. tle. Janet Echelman’s “1.8 Renwick” April 3-Aug. 14 Imagination Seriously,” is worth watching.) These days her sculptures are worked up “1.8 Renwick” uses about 50 miles of string at the Renwick Gallery. americanart.si.edu/visit/ She was discovered and encouraged by Robert from pen and watercolor sketches and physi- and half a million knots. renwick..