As every year Art comes back to the Principality in all its aspects. The 2022 edition was particularly impressive for the variety of works of art on display and the link with the natural element, clearly expressed by the artists. The Monaco Art Week – MAW, from July the 12th until July the 17th 2022, under the High Patronage of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, at its fourth edition, acted as a real marathon of art through main galleries and auction houses on the Monegasque territory. A unique opportunity to discover the link between artistic creation and inspiration from Mother Nature.
Three of the most important districts of the city, Monte-Carlo, Larvotto and Condamine/Port Hercule were involved by a series of initiatives, guided tours, vernissage, meeting of art and new trends (NFTs). The mission is to build a stronger bond among the actors operating in the art world in Monaco, as reaffirmed by the Sovereign Prince who attended an exclusive rendezvous with MAW’s participants at Villa Sauber to launch the initiative.
Artcurial, in partnership with the Société des Bains de Mer (SBM), displayed on urban territory a set of relevant modern and contemporary sculptures ready to be auctioned by the end of July 2022. Bel'Air Fine Art, attending MAW for the 1st time, introduced some emblematic photographs by the French ecologist Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The iconic Hôtel de Paris introduced to amazing gem-stone creations by Boghossian Jewellery to celebrate the intercultural dialogue within a unique environment designed by KufStudios and Nada Debs. Christie’s, the most popular British auction house, unveiled its latest exhibition ‘The Great Indoors’ exploring how indoors intertwines with outdoors through modern artists like Picasso and contemporaries like Hilary Pecis and Shara Hughes.
The Comité National Monégasque de l’A.I.A.P. at UNESCO, gave visibility to a series of Polish contemporary artists like Michał Zaborowski and Bartosz Frączek, presented by Art-Box.Store. G&M Design devoted its art collection to the British artist, Adam Bricusse, naturalized in South of France, showing his exquisite fascination for Nature. Kamil Art Gallery, in partnership with SmartVerum, presented an unpublished parade of paintings, part of ‘Apocalypse’, collection by Eric Massholder, French-German artist, where he expresses an acid vision of the future between sense of humor and innovation. In the iconic framework of Villa Nuvola by Jean Pierre Lott, LenzWerk Monaco presented a perfect combination of architecture, interior designer and art, trhough pieces of art by Günther Förg and Jean Dubuffet from Galerie Bastian.
Moretti Fine Art paid tribute to a masterpiece to the Italian romantic classicism with naturalistic influence, the wonderful Ninfa by Santo Varni from the nineteenth century Genoese School. NM Contemporary put in light a monographic exhibit devoted to Paolo Masi, skilled contemporary artist and main exponent of the Analytical Painting in 1970’s, reinventing simple materials in transforming them into artistic expressions. The paramount British American auction house Sotheby’s is being offering until the 1st September 2022 a selling exhibition focused on Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne production clearly inspired by nature with some humoristic, poetic and aesthetic hints.
Galerie Adriano Ribolzi offered a nice overview on Pablo Atchugarry’s wooden sculptures, ‘engraved’ in plants of centenary olive trees. M.F. Toninelli Art Moderne presented a pageant of art masters including Hans Arp and Constantin Brâncuși. The ‘red carpet’ continued with Marc Chagall, Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Yayoi Kusama, Fernando Botero and Manolo Valdés at the Opera Gallery.
The 2022 edition of the Monaco Art Week was another great success in terms of public and of artistic installations capable to make Art a unifying, international and forward-looking element. Within MAW, a targeted workshop ‘The Web 3.0: Art Talks’, organized by the Musée Collection des Arts, Cadaf, Magdalena M. Gabriel and MetaVRse, explored the new bounderies of digital art and the NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
The conference took place in the framework of 'Episode 1: Golden Snuffboxes', a one-of- a-kind art show to grasp the most private art celebating the Emperor Napoleon and his wife Joséphine, and 'ReMix3D', a virtual 3D exhibit to enhance the beauty of the Musée Collection Des Arts, a paramount private collection including David & Mikhail Iakobachvili's selection of masterpieces. ***
FOCUS: What about the most ‘sustainable’ side of MAW? MONACŒCOART® went to the discovery of the greenest artistic creations revealing interesting aspects of MAW. A series of focus will soon analyze in a few featured articles. Stay Tuned.
Photo >> Left: 'Summer Time' by Bartosz Frączek © Art.Box Store Right: Artwork by Michał Zaborowski © Art.Box Store
Photo >> Left: Villa Nuvola by Jean-Pierre Lott © MAW 2022 - Right: 'Cosmic' by Eric Massholder © MAW 2022
Photo >> Left: International Press preview tour guide at Opera Gallery © Alice Bessi MAW 2021 Right: No Title by Paolo Masi - NM Contemporary © MAW 2022
By Maurice Abbati
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