Displaying items by tag: Cinema

Fondazione Prada, an Italian institution dedicated to contemporary art and culture, will unveil its expanded headquarters in Milan in May 2015. Established by the fashion power couple Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli in 1993, Fondazione Prada focuses on art, cinema, design, architecture, and philosophy. Instead of exhibiting studio work, the foundation helps artists produce site-specific projects that they have always dreamed of constructing. Fondazione Prada has organized exhibitions with a swath of celebrated artists, including Anish Kapoor, Dan Flavin, Louise Bourgeois, John Baldessari, and Walter de Maria.

Fondazione Prada has selected OMA, the firm co-founded by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, to helm the expansion project, which will turn a former industrial complex from the early twentieth-century into Milan’s largest contemporary art gallery.

As part of a yearlong celebration of Italian culture hosted by Italy’s foreign minister, Michelangelo’s (1475-1564) iconic work, David-Apollo, will be go on view today at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata unveiled the sculpture yesterday, December 12. David-Apollo will be on view in the West Building’s Italian galleries through March 3, 2013.

Michelangelo carved David-Apollo in 1530 for Baccio Valori, who served as the interim governor of Florence per the Medici pope Clement VII’s appointment. Michelangelo and the pope were at political odds, but the artist wished to make peace with the Medici through his work. Michelangelo never finished David-Apollo as he left Italy and never returned after Clement VII’s death.

Part of the Museo Nazionale del Barello’s collection in Florence, David-Apollo traveled to the National Gallery once before in 1949. The masterpiece’s installation in Washington over sixty years ago coincided with former president Harry Truman’s inaugural reception and attracted more than 791,000 visitors. In 2013, David-Apollo’s presentation will coincide with President Barack Obama’s inauguration.

The Year of Italian Culture, launched by Sant’Agata under the auspices of the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, will bring a range of Italian masterpieces to nearly 70 cultural institutions across the United States. Works range from classical and Renaissance to baroque and contemporary and cover the realms of art, music, theater, cinema, literature, science, design, fashion, and cuisine.    

From his very early years as Davie Jones and the King Bees, through his glam-rock transformation into Ziggy Stardust, his coke-fueled exploits as The Thin White Duke, and even the disastrous Tin Machine period, David Bowie has long held a deep fascination with and appreciation for the visual and performing arts. And this summer, The Museum of Arts and Design will be highlighting Bowie's cinematic achievements with a new audio-visual retrospective: David Bowie, Artist.

The exhibit, which opens on May 9, will showcase the "too-often overlooked diversity and multifaceted nature of Bowie’s total artistic output," with a particular focus on his acting career. Eight of his major films will be shown throughout the two-month event, showcasing roles that span a humanoid alien in The Man Who Fell To Earth, a goblin king in Labyrinth, a vampire in The Hunger, a British officer in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ, and Andy Warhol in Basquiat. Rounding out the movies will also be screenings of The Linguini Incident, a "lost" rom-com starring him and Rosanna Arquette, as well as his seminal 1973 tour film Ziggy Stardust.