JAN FABRE The Years of the Hour Blue Kunsthistorisches Museum May 4 August 28, 2011 An exhibition organized by the Kunsthistorisches Museum, with a concept by The exhibition The Years of the Hour Blue in the Kunsthistorisches Museum can be read as the third part of a trilogy by the Belgian artist,. The first part took place in 2006 in Antwerp, the artist s hometown, at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. For the exhibition Homo Faber, Fabre exhibited sculptures, installations and films alongside works by Old Masters who had influenced and inspired him since the beginning of his career. The next chapter was written in 2008 at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, whose Flemish, Dutch and German galleries formed the setting for L Ange de la métamorphose, the first monographic exhibition dedicated to a contemporary artist in the museum s history. Three years later, the Kunsthistorisches Museum has the privilege to continue the story. In the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Fabre is showing a group of about thirty works from the series The Hour Blue, most of them executed between 1986 and 1992. In addition, two sculptures by the artist will be displayed in the Entrance Hall and visible from Maria Theresien-Platz on the roof of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Among the works are loans from important private collections and international museums including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, S.M.A.K. Ghent, and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki. They are displayed above, below and sometimes even instead of masterpieces of the Picture Gallery to initiate a fascinating dialogue between the present and the past, the transitory and the eternal. I am happy to welcome one of the most important living artists into our museum, said Director-General Sabine Haag. The collaboration with the artist and his studio was marked by enthusiasm and important discoveries. The Hour Blue The title of the series is derived from the writings of Fabre s great-grandfather, the celebrated French entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre, who studied the mystical moment of transition between night and day when nocturnal creatures return to sleep and diurnal creatures awake. These themes of metamorphosis and rebirth inspired the Hour Blue
drawings which are made using a blue ballpoint pen, mainly on paper but sometimes on large silk sheets or three-dimensional architectural objects. Several of the works are delicately collaged with the preserved remains of insect bodies or wings. The drawings - and several small sculptural objects whose surfaces are also covered in ballpoint pen - will be carefully placed at various points throughout the Kunsthistorisches Museum's Picture Gallery, entering into a dialogue with masterpieces from its permanent collection including Titian s Pope Paul III, Caravaggio's Dornenkrönung Christi and Rubens' Gewitterlandschaft. The gallery housing paintings by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Fabre s compatriot, will also feature in the installation. Other locations in the building will also become part of the exhibition: the Entrance Hall becomes the setting for the large wooden sculptures House of Flames I and II, and Fabre's monumental sculpture Man Measuring The Clouds (1998), a life-size bronze cast of the artist's own body, is displayed on the museum's roof. Combined guided tours in collaboration with the Natural History Museum One of the highlights of the programme organised to coincide with the exhibition is the gallery talk The Hour Blue of Insects. between Nature and Art (in German) that explores the subjects transformation and rebirth in both the Kunsthistorisches and the Natural History Museum. Insects and their metamorphosis symbolize and live this theme like no other class of living creature. The gallery talk will begin in the Picture Gallery of the KHM and end in the galleries of the NHM. For more information see below.
Biography of the Artist was born in Antwerp on December 14, 1958. Following his studies at the city s Stedelijk Instituut voor Sierkunsten en Ambachten (Institute of Decorative Arts) and at Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten (Royal Academy of Fine Arts), Fabre wrote his first works for the theater, produced his first series of insect drawings and early sculptures, and was active as a performance artist. In 1982 he directed the widely-acclaimed eighthour spectacle This Is Theatre As It Was To Be Expected and Foreseen. Following successful participations at the 41 st Venice Biennale in 1984, and Documenta 8 in 1987 (where he presented his earliest choreography), Fabre was awarded the Flemish Community Prize for Visual Art in 1992. During the 1990s the artist devoted himself to the exploration of the human body and its transfiguration, while his fascination with insects led him in 2002 to a commission from Queen Paola of Belgium to cover the entire ceiling of the Mirror Hall in the Royal Palace in Brussels with jewel beetle shells. In 2004 Fabre was named Grand Officer in the Order of the Crown of Belgium, and in 2007 Commander of the Order of Leopold II. In 2008 the Musée du Louvre in Paris presented a solo exhibition of his work. He continues to live and work in Antwerp. For more information on s work go to his official website www.angelos.be (Visual Arts) and www.troubleyn.be (Performing Arts).
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMME Fri May 27 at 10.15 am Thurs, July 28 and Thurs, Aug 25 6.30 pm Gallery talk by the curator of the exhibition Jasper Sharp Fri, June 17 at 10.15 am Guided tour Andreas Zimmermann Thurs, June 30.6., 6.30 pm Evening guided tour Andreas Zimmermann Tues, June 28 3.30 pm Lecture, lecture room 2nd floor Andreas Zimmermann Attendance is free with valid entrance ticket Public guided tours Every Thurs at 6 pm tickets 3, The Hour Blue of Insects: between Art and Nature Gallery talks in collaboration with the Natural History Museum Wed, May, 25 and June, 8 and 22 and August, 10 2011 at 5 pm Meeting point: Entrance Hall of the KHM Tickets: 15 p.p. (incl. entrance tickets to both museums) Metamorphosis and rebirth in connection with this subject s drawings comprise three-dimensional objects such as butterflies and phasmatodea. Insects in various stages of metamorphosis symbolize and live the subject of transformation like no other class of living creatures. The KHM and the NHM invite you on an intellectual peregrination between art and Nature. The gallery talk begins in the Picture Gallery of the KHM and ends in the galleries of the NHM. Please note: For the duration of the exhibition The Years of the Hour Blue, (May 4 August 28, 2011) your entrance ticket to the KHM offers you a 50% discount on your entrance ticket to the NHM, and vice versa.
PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS Materialisatie van de taal / Materialisation of Language 1987 1500 x 2000 mm Private Collection Courtesy Deweer Gallery, Otegem VBK, Vienna 2010; Photo: Angelos Drie Klauwen / Three Claws 1987 1500 x 2000 mm Private Collection Axel Enthoven, Antwerp VBK, Vienna 2010; Photo: Angelos Detail of: De roos van het toezien (triptiek)/ The Watcher s rose (Triptych) 1987 2 x (1500 x 2000 mm) und 1 x (1500 x 1500 mm) Private Collection Courtesy Deweer Gallery, Otegem VBK, Vienna 2010; Photo: Deweer Gallery Dancing the Hour Blue 1989, insects 2250 x 1500 mm (unframed)/ 2350 x 1640 x 50 mm (framed) Collection of the artist, Antwerp VBK, Vienna 2010; Photo Pat Verbruggen
Het Medium / The Medium 1979 Bic ballpoint pen on metal bed, mattress, sheets, pillow 125 x 120 x 192 cm Private Collection Courtesy Deweer Gallery, Otegem VBK, Vienna 2010; Photo Deweer Gallery De Lijmstokman / The Lime Twig Man 1990 220 x 160 x 10 cm Collection C. Keirsmaerkers, Mechelen VBK, Vienna 2010; Photo: Angelos Kasteel Tivoli / Tivoli Castle 1991 Bic ballpoint pen on cibachrom and wood 1720 x 1250 mm Private Collection VBK, Vienna 2011; Photo Angelos Arm met Slang / Arm with Snake 1987 2100 x 1500 mm Collection FRAC Nord Pas de Calais, Dunkerque VBK, Vienna 2010; Photo: Angelos
Schoendozen / Shoeboxes 1977 Bic ballpoint pen on shoe box Privat Collection Courtesy Deweer Gallery, Otegem VBK, Wien 2010; Photo Fabien de Cugnac Zonder Titel (Waterplas op Straatsteentjes) / Untitled (Puddle on Paving Stones) 1988 2120 x 1580 mm Private Collection VBK, Wien 2010; Photo: Angelos Installation view:. The Years of the Hour Blue at the Kunsthistorischen Museum Picture Gallery, Room XV Photo: KHM Installation view:. The Years of the Hour Blue at the Kunsthistorischen Museum Picture Gallery, Room XIV Photo: KHM
Installation view:. The Years of the Hour Blue at the Kunsthistorischen Museum Picture Gallery, Room X Photo: KHM Portrait of Photo: Stephan Vanfleteren Angelos
OPENING HOURS AND ENTRANCE FEES Kunsthistorisches Museum Maria Theresien-Platz 1010 Vienna Tuesdays Sundays 10 a.m. 6 p.m. Thursdays 10 a.m. 9 p.m. (The Coin Collection closes at 6 p.m.) June through August open every day! adults concessions Vienna Card Groups of 10 or over guided tour, p.p. children under 19 annual ticket 12, 9, 11, 8, 3, free 29, EXHIBITION CATALOGUE A catalogue is published in conjunction with the exhibition. Expected date of publication: end of May PRESS OFFICE Nina Auinger-Sutterlüty Director of the department of communication and marketing Kunsthistorisches Museum mit MVK und ÖTM 1010 Vienna, Burgring 5 Tel.: + 43 1 525 24 4021 Fax: + 43 1 525 24 4098 e-mail: info.pr@khm.at www.khm.at