The Venice Biennale

So my topic of choice was biennales and in particular the Venice Biennale, I’m going to give you a run down of it’s history and evolution, and highlight some stories surrounding it that I find interesting.

The first Biennale was in Venice in 1895, it was called the "Esposizione Biennale Artistica Nazionale", and it’s creation was inspired mostly by the ideals of the French Enlightenment . As the the Mayor of Venice at the time said: 

“The City Council of Venice has taken on the initiative of this (the exhibition), since it is convinced that art as one of the most valuable elements of civilization offers both an unbiased development of the intellect and the fraternal association of all peoples.” 

                                                    

Basically Venice wanted it’s people to come together and expand their horizons through art. The Mayor (who was also the original president of the biennale) and the Vencian City council spent two years planning and constructing the event. Originally it was mostly Italian Art, with around 224,000 attendees! To this day, the Venice Biennale is the biggest in the world and many of the structures created for the event are permanent fixtures in the city. 

In 1907, the Biennale had its first National Pavilion, which was from Belgium. 

In 1910, solo exhibitions were introduced this time by German and French painters Klimt and Renoir. Interestingly, this was also the year that futurist poet Marinetti, who’s manifestos had a distinctly fascist flair and who would ally himself with Mussolini in the coming years orchestrated a mass “drop” distribution of anti-Biennale flyers in St Mark's Square. Futurism perceives history as a burden, so any art from the past would be perceived as bad, marinetti probably was also not a fan of it being international. This was followed by pavilions from Hungary and Germany and Great Britain in 1909 France in (1912), and Russia in (1914)

In 1920 Instead of the Mayor of Venice being the President of the event, an art critic named Vittorio Pica was nominated for the position. With it came the introduction of impressionists, post impressionists and the german expressionists collectively called Die Bruke. In 1922 Pica introduced an exhibit of African sculpture to the event. In 1933 a film festival was introduced, and 1937 a permanent film pavilion was built. 

1949 The Golden Lion is created,which is an award for film/ theater, and is highly coveted

1950 This is also when American art starts to take over, Pollock GOrky, etc. are exhibited internationally on their own merits. As a side note this is also the year of the first Sao Paolo Biennale which is the 2nd biggest one in the world. 

The highlights of Biennales in the rest of the decade seem to mostly be films? Kurosawa and Federico Fellini (he’s an italian filmmaker so of course they’re going to highlight him)

Then in 1964 America really took over the event. I think many people involved were a bit offended by it? Just because It represents a total overthrow of high art. Then in 1968 there were massive student protests that shut the whole Biennale down. The weren't happy with with the exhibitions doubling as as an art market. The Biennale came back two years later with several major policy changes. 1972 marked the first Biennale with a theme, and also prohibited art to be sold during the events. Finally in 1998, the Venice biennale became a private entity with private backers, and the Venetian government is no longer involved in running it.

Now I’m going to talk about some Biennale events and controversies I found interesting:

In 1948 Greece pulled out of the Biennale, so the curators asked Peggy Guggenheim to bring her private collection form New York to showcase in the Greek pavilion. It was the first time several American artists would be exhibited internationally, and would find great success at future biennales as well. "It was the explosion of modern art after the Nazis had tried to kill it.”

Cubism, Futurism, Abstraction and Surrealism all found a home."

   

In 1990, Gran Fury, an activist art collective did a piece on AIDS that stirred up controversy with the catholic church. 

"According to the New York Times, one of the posters featured a photo of the Pope alongside a text implying that the Church’s hard-line position on contraception was exacerbating the AIDS crisis. The collective also included a poster depicting an erect penis, which was considered blasphemous due to its close proximity to the image of the Pope.

The Biennale’s director of visual arts Giovanni Carandente reportedly considered omitting the poster before changing his mind at the 11th hour, which in turn caused the Vatican to deliberate whether it should write to the Italian government to have the offending image removed—a request that ultimately wasn’t submitted."

Sources:

Editorial, Artsy, and Casey Lesser. “Inside the Indoor Beach Opera That's the Talk of the Venice Biennale.” Artsy, May 14, 2019. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-inside-indoor-beach-opera-talk-venice-biennale.

Gorky, Arshile. “Arshile Gorky. Agony. 1947: MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art. Accessed November 12, 2020. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78740.

“GRAN FURY - Tom KalinTOM KALIN.” Tom Kalin. Accessed November 12, 2020. http://www.tomkalin.com/gran-fury.

Hawlin, Thea. “How Peggy Guggenheim's Biennale Pavilion Changed the Art World Forever.” AnOther. AnOther Magazine, May 25, 2018. https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/10882/how-peggy-guggenheims-biennale-pavilion-changed-the-art-world-forever.

“History.” La Biennale di Venezia, January 29, 2020. https://www.labiennale.org/en/history.

“Jackson Pollock.” 121 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy. Accessed November 12, 2020. https://www.artsy.net/artist/jackson-pollock.

“Jackson Pollock's Forgotten Bleak Masterpieces: The 30-Year Wait for 'Black Pourings' Exhibition.” BBC Arts. BBC. Accessed November 12, 2020. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5BNv7H97g3SpczrK56dHngF/jackson-pollocks-forgotten-bleak-masterpieces-the-30-year-wait-for-black-pourings-exhibition.

Jasmine Tay Senior Writer, Jasmine Tay, Senior Writer, Jasmine Tay Senior Writer Jasmine Tay is the dining, Jasmine Tay is the dining, and Dining Culture Jewellery. “Venice Art Biennale 2019: All the Pavilions and Works Worth Checking Out.” Lifestyle Asia Singapore, May 13, 2019. https://www.lifestyleasia.com/sg/culture/art-design/venice-art-biennale-2019-all-the-pavilions-and-works-worth-checking-out/.

“The Kiss by Gustav Klimt.” New Zealand Fine Prints. Accessed November 12, 2020. https://www.prints.co.nz/page/fine-art/PROD/7285.

Neuendorf, Henri. “The 5 Biggest Controversies in Venice Biennale History.” artnet News, May 13, 2017. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/top-venice-biennale-controversies-952733.

Russeth, Andrew. “The Venice Biennale: Everything You Could Ever Want to Know.” ARTnews.com. ARTnews.com, November 18, 2019. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/the-venice-biennale-everything-you-could-ever-want-to-know-12373/.

Vogel, Sabine B. Biennials: Art on a Global Scale. Wien: Springer Verlag, 2010.