Displaying items by tag: outpost

On the lunar landscape that is Saadiyat Island, the shape of the Louvre Abu Dhabi is gradually emerging from the sand. On the gigantic shorefront site, work continues around the clock. The 5,000-strong workforce is expected to swell to 7,500 over the coming months. “We shall deliver the building at the end of 2015,” its architect Jean Nouvel tells "The Art Newspaper." “Then a few months will be needed to set up the inner structures and hang the works,” he says. The museum’s official opening date, which has not yet been set, will be in 2016.

The building first has to meet the criteria of “excellence” shared by the architect, the Louvre and the emirate, meaning that the safety of the collections is ensured under extreme climatic conditions.

In Spring 2015, Paris’ Centre Pompidou plans to open a temporary outpost in Malága, Spain, the birthplace of Pablo Picasso. “Pop-Up Pompidou” will present rotating exhibitions pulled from the Centre Pompidou’s permanent collection -- the largest modern and contemporary art collection in Europe. So far, Max Ernst’s “The Imbecile,” Francis Bacon’s “Self-Portrait,” and Picasso’s “The Flowered Hat 10/04/1940” are among the pieces expected to go on view at the pop-up museum.

The Malága City Hall will provide the institution with the iconic building “El Cubo,” or The Cube, a large glass-and-steel structure located on the city’s port, which is among the oldest ports in the world

The Louvre’s new outpost in Abu Dhabi, which is slated to open in 2015, has assembled the 130 paintings, miniatures, sculptures, and other artworks that will form its permanent collection. Museum officials allowed reporters a sneak peek of the works including paintings by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Rene Magritte (1898-1967), Édouard Manet (1832-1883), and Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). The entire collection will be on view from April 22 to July 20, 2013 as part of the exhibition The Birth of a Museum at a gallery on the island of Saadiyat, close to where construction for the new museum is currently underway.

Louvre Abu Dhabi’s collection is comprised of numerous works from private collections, many of which have never been on public view before. Highlights from the museum’s holdings include Picasso’s gouache, ink, and collage work on paper Portrait of a Lady (1928); Gauguin’s Children Wrestling (1888); and Paul Klee’s (1879-1940) Oriental Bliss (1938).

The Louvre’s new venue, which was designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel, is the museum’s first branch outside of France. The venture is expected to bring the Louvre and its French partner museums approximately $1.31 million over 30 years. The Louvre also has an offshoot location in the northern city of Lens.

The Louvre has been on the hunt for a director since the current chief, Henry Loyrette, announced his resignation in December 2012. Today, April 3, 2013, French President Francois Hollande announced his decision to appoint Jean-Luc Martinez, a French specialist in Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities, as the museum’s new director.

Martinez, who has worked with the Louvre since 2007, is currently helming the restoration of the museum’s famed sculpture Winged Victory of Samothrace. He has participated in a number of other projects at the museum including the creation of the Louvre’s outpost in the French city of Lens as well as the museum’s expansion in Abu Dhabi.

Martinez, 49, has signed on for a three-year term and will take over operations in mid-April. Loyrette, who has been the Louvre’s director for 12 years, leaves behind a lasting legacy. During his time at the museum Loyrette nearly doubled the Louvre’s annual attendance. By the end of 2012, approximately 10 million people were visiting the museum each year, making it the busiest museum in the world. Loyrette also implemented the museum’s contemporary art program, employed a policy that relied on crowed-sourced fundraising, and launched a number of successful public campaigns.

The search for a new chief was extensive; for the first time in the museum’s 220-year history the Louvre considered hiring non-French candidates for the role of director.

Abu Dhabi has finally awarded a $653 million contract to build a branch of the Louvre Museum to Arabtec Holding Co., a Dubai-based construction company, which is partly owned by Abu Dhabi. The Louvre has been planning the outpost since March 2007, but was sidetracked by a number of delays prompted by a public spending review of Abu Dhabi’s government.

The Louvre’s new 688,890-square-foot location, which will be designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel, is expected to open in 2015. The museum’s inauguration will be followed by the opening of the Zayed National Museum, which is being built in association with the British Museum in 2016 as well as a franchise of New York’s Guggenheim Museum in 2017. All three of the museums will be part of a development located off the coast of Abu Dhabi City on Saadiyat Island.

The Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi is part of the country’s effort to establish itself as a cultural hub as well as a noteworthy tourist destination. Arabtec, which won the project after a competitive bidding process, is expected to begin construction on the museum immediately.

After twelve years at the helm of the world’s busiest museum, Henri Loyrette announced that he will leave his post at the Musée du Louvre in April of 2013. Before becoming the president and director of the Louvre, Loyrette served as the first curator and then the director of Paris’ Musée d’Orsay from 1994 to 2001 and has served as France’s chief curator of heritage since 1975. Loyrette has already informed the president of France, François Hollande, and the country’s minister of culture of his departure.

The Louvre attracts more visitors each year than any other institution in the world and Loyrette has managed to keep that number on the rise. In fact, the number of visitors has almost doubled under Loyrette’s leadership; 5.1 million patrons were reported in 2001 and by the end of 2012, almost 10 million people will have visited the Louvre this year.

However, Loyrette did much more than increase attendance during his time at the Louvre. He is responsible for implementing the museum’s contemporary art program and has organized exhibitions by Cy Twombly (1928-2011), Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945), and many other renowned modern artists. Loyrette employed a new policy that relied on crowd-sourced fundraising and launched a number of successful public campaigns that asked art enthusiasts to help the museum make important acquisitions. Loyrette also oversaw the opening of the Louvre’s outpost in the northern city of Lens as well as the expansion of the museum’s Islamic art galleries, which opened earlier this year.

Loyrette will no longer be in charge when the Louvre’s outpost in Abu Dhabi opens. The controversial project stirred debate in the French art world as Abu Dhabi has paid nearly $1.3 billion to use the Louvre name for thirty years and to gain access to the museum’s collection during that time. Designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, the Abu Dhabi location is slated to open in 2015.