When one thinks of contemporary art and architecture, Oslo and Copenhagen may not immediately come to mind—but that is changing.
 

Oslo

The dazzling private contemporary art venue, the Astrup Fearnley Museum, designed by Renzo Piano, opened in Oslo last year.
 
This glass- and wood–designed contemporary art complex situated on the waterfront consists of three structures. Two of the buildings are dramatically linked by a bridge over water. One building houses Han’s Rasmus Astrup’s private collection of contemporary art. On view during our visit were galleries devoted to works by Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Matthew Barney, and Francis Bacon. With more than 2,000 pieces in Astrup’s collection, these galleries will change and highlight different artists throughout the year.
 
Another building, which is primarily devoted to traveling exhibitions, featured Cindy Sherman’s grotesque photographs during our visit. The third building is reserved for office use. Find Astrup Fearnley Museum in our Directory.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Architecturally stunning, the Oslo Opera House is situated on the waterfront with dramatic views of the city. This well-used facility designed by famed architecture firm Snøhetta, encourages the public to enjoy its features with activities such as skateboarding, picnicking on the roof, or experiencing “avant-garde” opera productions.
 
 
 

Be prepared to be amazed by the spectacular stage curtain in the theatre, which looks at first to be made of crumpled metal or aluminum but is actually made of fabric, created with a computer-assisted loom by artist Pae White. In this building, there is something for everyone.
 
 
 
 
 
Copenhagen
 
The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is a private art museum, approximately a 45-minute drive outside of the city of Copenhagen. In a park-like setting overlooking the sound, Louisiana is renowned for its sculpture collection of Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, Richard Serra, and Alberto Giacometti.
 
 
 
 
Tara Donovan’s elegant constructions and a large Yoko Ono retrospective were on view when we were visiting. Plan to spend hours enjoying the art, eating delicious food in their restaurant, and shopping at Louisiana’s vast museum shop that carries the famed Denmark designs. Find Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in our Directory.
 
 
 
 
 
The Danish Jewish Museum is an architectural jewel designed by Daniel Libeskind. This museum celebrates how the Danish people saved 7,000 jews by transporting them across the water to neutral Sweden during the Second World War.
 
 
The Copenhagen Opera House is an architectural masterpiece by leading Danish architect Henning Larsen. Privately financed, one can only be in awe of how magnificently it represents a new concept as a twenty-first century cultural center. The three large illuminated chandeliers by Olafur Eliasson in the foyer are a visual focal point. These creations reflect light while remaining transparent—fascinating works of art. Because it is such a large, complex, and beautiful structure be sure to book a tour of the Opera House.
 
 
Besides all the new architecture, museums, libraries, and historical points of interest, one must mention the spectacular food and restaurants in both cities. Noma, in Copenhagen, might be the world’s most famous restaurant but be aware there are many delicious eating opportunities. Even the bread with homemade jam that we had for breakfast in our hotel, The Thief in Oslo, was memorable.
 
 

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We can all be very proud of Sarah Sze, who represents the US at the 55th International Art Exhibition—la Biennale in Venice. Sze’s spectacular, elegant and lyrical works take over the entire US Pavillion, inside and out. Using everyday objects, she creates installations that feel organic and alive. It took Sze more than three months to create this on-site work. Sze says that it was very special working in the garden as other artists were also creating their  works for the Biennale.
 
 
One well known contemporary art collector who had purchased a large work said it eventually took over five rooms of his apartment. When Sze was asked what was planned and what was spontaneous in her work, she responded that there is a central view or core that is in place and then the rest of the work happens.
 
 
 
 
Follow Art Privée on Twitter and Instagram for more from the Venice Biennale and the art world year-round.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Renown sculptor Ron Mueck is showing at the Cartier Foundation through September 29.  
 
The exhibition opens with Mueck’s sculpture of two giant elderly people, “Couple Under an Umbrella,” which takes over the entire first gallery space. His meticulously crafted human forms are so realistic down to the smallest details—the toenails, the hair on their legs, their haunting facial expressions—they are mesmerizing.
 
 
 
 
 
“Woman with Sticks,” a small nude bending backward grimaces under the weight of a bundle of sticks, a burden she can barely carry—a metaphor for life. It’s almost primeval in that we all have our burdens to bear.
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Woman with Shopping” is an emotional portrait of a young street woman with a baby strapped to her chest, carrying two plastic shopping bags full of stuff. As horrifying it is to see the woman’s tired blank stare, the baby’s upward gaze toward his mother shows its longing for a human connection. The artist himself saw the scene in the street and was inspired to create the piece.
 
 
A departure from Mueck’s typical style, “Drift” is presented on the wall, it’s smaller than human scale, and the figure’s sunglasses create a barrier between the viewer and the subject. With his arms extended and its placement above eye-level, one could reference Christ on the cross—an unexpected association for a piece depicting a man floating on a raft in a blue pool.
 
 
 
Downstairs, the 55-minute Gautier Deblonde video showing Ron Mueck at work is fascinating—it shows how complex and how time-consuming each sculpture is to create.This small nine-piece show is one you’ll always remember and if you’re in Paris, it is a must-see art experience.
 
 
Find more information about the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in our Directory: https://www.artprivee.org/private-museums-and-foundations/europe/france/paris/cartier-foundation-for-contemporary-art/
 
 

A recent decision by the Louvre signalled a growing art trend—collecting and exhibiting Latin American art. The Louvre kicked off a Latin American initiative with an exhibit of Mexican masterpieces from the 17th and 18th century.

 
Zurich-based collector Ruth Schmidheiny has just opened Casa Daros in Rio de Janeiro boasting 1,200 pieces by 117 Latin American artists, most of them still alive and working. Its current exhibition, Cantos Cuentos Colombianos, features contemporary Colombian artists.
(https://www.artprivee.org/private-museums-and-foundations/south-america/brazil/rio-de-janeiro/casa-daros/)

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The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) and the Cisneros Foundation are taking Latin American art into the digital realm with recently launched bilingual e-books based on their Conversaciones/Conversations series. The e-books feature videos, slideshows, etc, to showcase interviews between Latin American artists (such as Jesús Soto and Tomás Maldonado), and art historians and critics.
(http://www.coleccioncisneros.org/the-digital-editions/ )
 

Conversaciones/Conversations: The Digital Editions from Colección Cisneros on Vimeo.

If you are visiting the St. Petersburg area in Florida, you will want to see the Dali Museum. Created by A. Reynolds and Eleanor R. Morse over a 40 year period, 96 of Dali’s oil paintings are the basis for this outstanding collection. The Morses were friends with Gala and Salvador Dali from the early 1940s through the 1970s and their collection has examples of work from every period of Dali’s career. Today, the collection has more than 2,100 pieces and an archival library devoted to Dali’s works.
 

The Morses wanted to donate their entire collection to an art museum but because of the restrictions of their gift, museums shied away from their collection.  Community leaders of the city of St Petersburg offered to build a museum and care for the collection. The museum was opened in 1982. The collection found a new home in 2011, in a museum designed by Yann Weymouth. The museum’s architectural staircase is the focal point and center of the museum, and references Dali’s obsession with spirals and the double helix shape of the DNA code.
 

In 1943, the Morses purchased their very first Dali painting in New York: “Daddy Longlegs of the Evening-Hope!” (1943). It was also the first painting Dali completed in New York after fleeing Europe. Melting oozing figures–the artist playing a defunct cello, a plane on the ground and a child retracting to the horrors of war, are the many images and symbols to be analyzed in this iconic work. No wonder the Morses felt Dali’s work was remarkable.
 

A very large, extraordinary painting that takes one’s breath away is titled, “Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln (Homage to Rothko).” At first glance, this painting is an abstract work focusing on Gala’s back, the  sun in the sky with boxes of colors in the background. Approached from different angles, one sees a large image of Abraham Lincoln looking out from the painting. Bearing Dali’s trademark wit, it is brilliant and kitschy at the same time.
 

This premiere collections features many wonderful, large paintings and historically important works. The gift shop is terrific, you can find something for everyone. Don’t miss the Dali designed jewerly and the perfume bottles (https://www.artprivee.org/private-museums-and-foundations/north-america/united-states/st-petersburg/dali-museum/).

If you like glass, be sure to check out the Chihuly Collection at the Morean Arts Center not far from the Dali Musem (www.moreanartscenter.org/content.php?id=90).
 

Visiting Rob Pruitt in his large studio in Brooklyn was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning.
 
Pruitt was warm and articulate explaining to us his own “art history” and how he started using Panda imagery in his works. As a boy, Pruitt would often visit the Washington, D.C. Zoo with his father and look at the Pandas—that sweet image has stayed with him and appears frequently in his work.
 
In one of my photographs, Pruitt is standing in front of a compilation of smaller versions of every picture that he has painted of Pandas.
 
As for the colored background with happy faces, it is a 2 step process. Pruitt sprays the background of the canvas in glowing colors. He uses plain “Staples” paper and draws many, many faces, and when he likes an image that he has drawn, he then transfers it onto the canvas.
 
As we were leaving, we walked in front of a multicolored dinosaur on our way out… a lovely ending to a morning with art.

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San Francisco is a beautiful city and it is expanding culturally in many exciting ways. The SFJAZZ Center just opened in a $64 million performance space—the first stand-alone building designed for jazz in this country. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art will be closed for two years beginning in June in order to add 235,000 square feet of space to house the Fisher Collection.

Private Collections at SFMOMA

For more than 35 years, Donald and Doris Fisher, the founders of Gap, amassed a collection of over 1,000 works by contemporary artists. The Fisher family has arranged a long-term loan of their extraordinary collection to the museum for the next 100 years. The collection, previously housed at the Gap headquarters, includes prominent artists such as Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra, and Andy Warhol. While the museum is closed, SFMOMA will be showing their collection at other Bay Area venues.

On view now, the spectacular exhibition “Don’t Be Shy, Don’t Hold Back: The Logan Collection at SFMOMA” features works by Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Ed Ruscha. This exhibition of nearly 40 works from the 1960s to the 1990s celebrates the 15th anniversary of Vickie and Kent Logan’s gift of some 330 works of art from their collection.

The Fraenkel Gallery: “Unphotographable”

The Fraenkel Gallery is presenting a glorious show titled “Unphotographable.” It features artists such as Hiroshi Sugimoto, Alfred Stieglitz, Sophie Calle, and Tom Friedman. The standout artist for me was Idris Khan. His large photograph referencing CyTwombly’s blackboard circular painting is memorable. The concept of the show is that there are some things that one can never capture in a photograph. It is a remarkable show.

Berggruen Gallery: “The Picture Collection”

Taryn Simon’s show at the Bergguen Gallery is worth a visit. There are two floors filled with her photographs. The show’s title, “The Picture Collection” is based on the images she sourced from the New York Public Library’s picture clipping files. As a former librarian who worked at the New York Public Library, I was very much drawn to these works.

More San Francisco Adventures

The Paris-based collective’s exhibition, “Claire Fontaine: Redemptions,” at Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco—a small gallery with a big wallop—takes over the gallery in a HUGE way.

When we visited the Asian Art Museum it was between shows, waiting for the “China’s Terracotta Warriors” show to open (February 22 to May 27th). There were enough works from their collection on view to be amazed at how the Asian Art Museum enhances the city and how well the museum is curated.

The newly opened SFJAZZ Center is the place to go to listen to jazz. The building was only opened a month ago and it was a great experience listening to Dave Holland and Kenny Barron together in this incredible venue. There was no bad seat in the house. After the concert, I would recommend The Hayes Street Grill for a delicious dinner.

Nothing is nicer on a beautiful Saturday morning than to walk to the Ferry Building to see all the fabulous food products from the surrounding Bay Area. From pork sandwiches to sprouted beans and seeds, there is something for everyone. Another fun activity in the city is taking a stroll on Fillmore Street and walking in and out of the many boutiques. A favorite for lunch is Via Veneto for a lovely pasta and a glass of wine.

San Francisco offers so much to its visitors—endless vistas, delicious food, fascinating art, and great music. Search our Directory for more private art collections and museums in California and around the world!

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