There was no opulence in all the world to surpass that of the Russian czars, as two dazzling exhibitions on view this month lavishly attest.
In New Orleans, the city’s Museum of Art is hosting in singular fashion “Faberge in America”–more than 400 of the creations of the fabled court jeweler to the Romanovs, Peter Carl Faberge.
In Washington, the Corcoran Gallery of Art is the inaugural venue for “Jewels of the Romanovs: Treasures From the Russian Imperial Court”–250 of some of the czars’ most prized possessions, dating from the 18th Century to the ill-fated last czar and czarina, Nicholas and Alexandra.
– The Faberge show, on view through Feb. 9, was shown last year in New York and San Francisco, but neither place went quite so nuts about it as New Orleans has.
The fabled street cars that run along St. Charles Street through the Garden District were decorated in Faberge-like frills and trim for the occasion, a downtown office building installed a Faberge-like mural in its lobby and a number of department stores chose Faberge themes for their display windows.
In keeping with the city’s gustatory spirit, many of the city’s best and most popular restaurants have whipped up a variety of egg dishes to honor the show.
They include Antoine’s, Arnaud’s, Bella Luna, Brennan’s, Cafe Degas, Charley G’s, Christian’s, Crescent City Brewhouse, the museum’s Courtyard Cafe, Dooky Chase, Galatoire’s, Mr. B’s, the Royal Orleans Hotel Rib Room, Sazerac, Semolina and the Tavern on the Park.
Jeweled eggs, of course, are Faberge’s best known work, and the New Orleans show has 15 of the most elaborate. Extravagantly costly but totally useless, for they could not even be worn, these “Imperial Easter eggs” were treasured as perhaps the ultimate status symbol–this in a country where millions lived in poverty so wretched that an actual hen’s egg could be considered a luxury.
Faberge, who employed 500 artisans, had wealthy clients throughout Europe and produced some 150,000 works. He is credited as a father of the modernist Art Deco movement of the 1920s and 1930s.
The New Orleans Museum of Art is in City Park (504-483-2300). The show–but not the streetcars or egg dishes–moves to the Cleveland Museum of Art on March 12.
– On view Jan. 29 through April 13, the Corcoran’s “Jewels of the Romanovs” is the first major American showing of objects from the five principal Russian state jewel collections. There are 250 pieces in all–115 of them either jewels or uncut gems.
Normally kept in a subterranean, limited-access, vaulted chamber beneath the Kremlin, these treasures include three of the “seven wonders of the State Diamond Fund.” One is a Gothic bracelet that incorporates the largest table-cut diamond in the world. The other two, actually, are not diamonds: the fabled “Caesar’s Ruby” and the 260-carat Ceylon sapphire.
Ironically, these jewels are being loaned to the U.S. in honor of the 125th anniversary of the visit by Russian Grand Duke Alexis to America at the invitation of then President Ulysses S. Grant. That visit was in honor of Russia’s support of Abraham Lincoln and the Union during the American Civil War, which was fought against slavery–a practice then thriving in Russia under the name of serfdom.
The Corcoran is at 500 17th St., N.W., Washington (202-639-1700), about a block west of the White House.
MOMA shows
In New York, the Museum of Modern Art’s exhaustive “Jasper Johns: A Retrospective” show–which among other things illustrates how much his ideas were inspired by other artists, including Robert Rauschenberg and Edvard Munch–closes Jan. 21 (212-708-9400, 53rd Street between 6th and 5th Avenues).
On Jan. 26, MOMA opens an elaborate exhibition of works by another legendary name in post-World War II American art: “Willem De Kooning: the Late Paintings, the 1980s.”
Debilitating afflictions have caused the 92-year-old artist to cease work, and these 40 pictures represent his last decade of paintings. MOMA observes that “a significant number count among the most remarkable paintings by anyone active in the 1980s and among the most distinctive, graceful and mysterious de Kooning himself ever made.”
For those taken with abstract art, this is a most obligatory exhibition.
John Brown’s photos
The Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, 9th and F Streets, N.W. (202-357-2866), has acquired an extremely rare and important daguerreotype photograph of abolitionist John Brown that was taken in 1820 or 1821. The work of pioneering African-American photographer Augustus Washington, it shows in Brown’s burning eyes the fires of spirit and fanaticism that would help bring on the American Civil War.
It’s on view indefinitely on the Gallery’s first floor.
John Biggers’ art
John Biggers (born 1924), a multi-faceted artist whose themes dwelt on the dignity and spirit of African-American families and communities, has deserved more fame than he’s received, but now he’s getting a share of it in a new exhibition of his paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, murals and sketches at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave. (617-369-3000), Jan. 24 through April 20., It’s called “The Art of John Biggers: View from the Upper Room.”
Other news
The J. Paul Getty Museum, 17985 Pacific Coast Hwy., Malibu, Calif. (310-458-2003), is closing for a major renovation in April. Until April 6, visitors to the Los Angeles area can take in three splendid Getty exhibitions: “Figure Drawings,” the human figure, rendered classically and otherwise; “The Eye of Sam Wagstaff,” the collection of unusual and unique photographs amassed by one of the most discerning collectors in the medium there ever was; and some of the finest most elaborate book painting ever in “Manuscript Illumination of the Thirteenth Century.”
(The last doesn’t open until Jan. 21.)
– Some 10,000 children are expected to crowd New York’s Great White Way on Jan. 28 for “Kids Night on Broadway.” That evening, youth 6 to 18 will be given free tickets to a number of hot Broadway shows if accompanied by an adult paying a full-price ticket.
The participating shows are: “Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Cats,” “Chicago,” “Cowgirls,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Grease,” “I Love You,” “You’re Perfect, Now Change,” “The King and I,” “Les Miserables,” “Master Class,” “Miss Saigon,” “Neat,” “Once Upon a Mattress,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Present Laughter,” “Rent,” “Scapin,” “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” “Stomp,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “Three Sisters” and “Victor/Victoria.”
Tickets are available (for Jan. 28 only) through Ticketmaster (212-307-4100) and Telecharge (212-239-6200). For more information, call the League of American Theaters at 212-563-BWAY.
