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The Maharaja Press Preview
November 17th, 2010
Look, it’s a scrum, and it’s not even Parliament Hill! At the AGO’s press preview on Tuesday morning, the guest of honour His Highness Yuvraj Saheb Mandhatasinhji of Rajkot did get surrounded in front of his Star of India Rolls Royce, on loan for the Maharaja exhibition (something the Victoria & Albert Museum didn’t even have).
Of course, this is not how the Press Preview began. We began with a showcase of the Indian classical dance form Bharat Natyam, which will be performed throughout the run of the exhibition in the gallery space along with other kinds of South Asian performances (including virtuoso sitar player Anwar Khurshid).
Of course, no gathering that involved coffee, tea, and mango-pineapple skewers could take place without the obligatory speeches. AGO CEO Matthew Teitelbaum pointed out that he could see this exhibition as the kind that would encourage the younger generation to bring the elders and ask the question, ‘What does this mean to you?’
Also there were the Honourable Minister Michael Chan for Tourism and Culture, as well as other sponsors including Prem Watsa (Fairfax Financial), Philip Crawley (Globe and Mail), Phil Lind (Rogers Communications) and Sabi Marwah (Scotiabank Inc.). Anna Jackson had (in my opinion) the best title of all the attendees: Deputy Keeper of the Victorian and Albert Museum’s Asia Department. She spent two years working on the original Maharaja exhibition that ran at the V&A from October 2009 until January 2010.
The real fun began when we were officially given the go-ahead to disperse and finally see the exhibition on the second floor. Sure, I’m the blogger-in-residence and may have bias from just listening in on all the hard work done by the AGO team to re-create and re-imagine the original V&A exhibition, but I found the show to be a wonderfully immersive experience with a soundscape that changed from room to room, black and white video footage of actual maharaja processions projected onto walls and, of course, the objects themselves.
I could go on, but isn’t is always better to leave readers wanting more?
- The Toronto Star’s Martin Knelman already has his review out: Glittering Maharaja exhibit reigns as jewel in AGO’s crown
- Livewithculture.ca has a story too: Maharaja Broadens AGO’s appeal.
Piali Roy is a Toronto writer with a long-held interest in South Asian culture and history. You can contact her at yourvoice@ago.net.
Sunday Concerts – Vistas Quartet
November 17th, 2010
Vistas Quartet
1:30 – 2:15pm, Sunday November 21, 2010
Sculpture Atrium, Art Gallery of Ontario
Vistas String Quartet is currently under the guidance of coaches Tim Ying and Paul Kantor at The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School. It is comprised of violinists Melissa Wilmot and Greta Mutlu, violist Keith Hamm, and cellist Jayden Leung. The group brings together a wealth of chamber experience, its members having worked with the likes of the Tokyo, Emmerson, Cleveland, and Kronos Quartets. The Vistas Quartet are quickly becoming one of Toronto’s most exciting new quartets.
Violinist Melissa Wilmot is currently a student of Paul Kantor at The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School, where she has been featured as concertmaster of the Royal Conservatory Orchestra under maestros Johannes Debus, Uri Mayer, Zubin Mehta, and Peter Oundjian. Melissa recently made her Carnegie Hall debut as a selected participant in the Kronos Quartet’s professional training workshop. She also recently debuted with the National Ballet of Canada performing the Ysaÿe Solo Violin Sonata No. 2. Born and raised in Kelowna BC, she was a member of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra from 2001-2008.
Violinist Greta Mutlu, a native of Bulgaria, has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in her native country, as well as Germany, France, and the US. She is a founding member Ensemble Secundum Silentium, with whom she has performed to critical acclaim in the US. Ms. Mutlu has attended a wide variety of music festivals such as Spoleto Music Festival, Varna Summer, Sofia Music Weeks, and, most recently, the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Violist Keith Hamm, a native of Rosebud Alberta, is rapidly gaining recognition as a dynamic and exciting young presence in the Canadian music scene. A musician of diverse interest, Keith began performing in a variety folk and bluegrass genres at the age of six. He is an alumna of the Sarasota Music Festival, Domain Forget Chamber Music Festival, the National Arts Centre’s Summer Music Institute, Morningside Music Bridge, the Banff Centre, and the Mount Royal Conservatory’s Academy for Gifted Youth.
Cellist Jayden Leung, from Vancouver BC, is currently studying with Bryan Epperson at The Glenn Gould School. He has received his Professional Studies Diploma from The Cleveland Institute of Music under Richard Weiss, and completed his Bachelors of Music with distinction from The University of Victoria. He was a recipient of the Peninsula Arts Scholarship for 5 years and of the Galaxie Rising Star program. Recently Jayden participated in the 2010 Banff Music Festival and was a finalist for the New World Symphony 2010-2011 season.
Julian Schnabel: Mickey Rourke and Christopher Walken Polaroids
November 17th, 2010
Julian Schnabel’s Untitled (Mickey Rourke) and Untitled (Christopher Walken) are on display for a limited time as part of the exhibition Julian Schnabel: Art and Film.
Although Schnabel considers himself first and foremost a painter, his filmmaking efforts have been acclaimed by the film world. Once Schnabel began to make his first feature, it became clear to him that the film world was comprised of people with whom he had an immediate rapport. These portraits are of the personalities who inform Schnabel’s creative universe: actors and friends such as Mickey Rourke and Christopher Walken among others. Schnabel’s large-format Polaroid photographs capture intimate moments with his friends and colleagues.
You can hear the artist discuss his work by downloading the Julian Schnabel: Art and Film Audio Tour, FREE from iTunes.
Julian Schnabel
Untitled (Mickey Rourke), 2008
Polaroid photograph
20″ x 24″ Polaroid Camera
Courtesy of the artist
Julian Schnabel
Untitled (Christopher Walken, 2006
Polaroid photograph
20″ x 24″ Polaroid Camera
Courtesy of the artist
Performing in Maharaja: inDANCE
November 16th, 2010
Members of inDANCE will be performing dance demonstrations in the upcoming AGO exhibition Maharaja: the Splendour of India’s Royal Courts. For the full schedule of all the dance and music demos, click here. The inDANCE company will also be performing their acclaimed essemble work “The King’s Salon” at the AGO at the end of January so stay tuned!
inDANCE is a Toronto-based South Asian dance company established in 1999 as a vehicle to encompass the entire range of artistic director Hari Krishnan’s creative output: choreography, performance, touring, and teaching. The primary mandate of inDANCE is to form creative partnerships with Canadian and international collaborators, including choreographers, dancers, musicians, designers, scholars and presenters.
In the summer, 2005 issue of Dance International, Michael Crabb wrote: “inDANCE is an irrestibly spirited ensemble…rarely has Bharatanatyam inspired dance seemed so much fun, for performers and audience alike.”
For a glimpse of their work, check out their channel on YouTube and visit there website at www.indance.ca.
ArtSpeak: Paralleling the Permanent Collection (Audio)
November 15th, 2010
Click to play:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Recorded: Saturday, October 16, 2010 @ AGO Art Rental + Sales Gallery
Duration: 41:31
A conversation with AGO insiders about how the Contemporary Collection came to be, this discussion is connected to the AGO Art Rental + Sales Gallery’s Paralleling the Permanent Collection, an eye-opening new series of exhibitions that reveals how you can own art by the same artists whose works grace the walls of the Art Gallery of Ontario. Starting with the Contemporary Collection, AR+SG illustrates how the Canadian art icons are not unattainable. Featuring:
Shiralee Hudson, Interpretive Planner,
Maureen Boles, Acquisitions Assistant, Curatorial Affairs
Yael Dunkelman, former AGO Contemporary Curatorial Committee member
About the Saturday ArtSpeak Series
AR+SG host a series of FREE intimate discussions on the 3rd Saturday of the month. Prominent figures in the arts community discuss an issue related to the exhibition on view. Everyone is welcome.
Maharaja: The final meeting of the Community Advisory Board
November 15th, 2010
The corks were popped, the bubbly poured (well, prosecco) and who pops by at the very end of the last week’s final meeting of the Community Advisory Board but Mr. AGO himself, Matthew Teitelbaum.
What was talked about in the final meeting? We couldn’t ignore the fact that the curatorial team was bubbling over in excitement. They had just seen some of the jewels be installed. Couriers from the V&A and The British Museum have come to make sure their precious items have arrived safely.
The AGO marketing department also presented, showing mock-ups of the ad campaign, as well plans for where they will pop up. Not quite planes, trains and automobiles. Instead, Pearson Airport, TTC streetcars, Brampton buses, billboards in the suburbs, and even in elevators throughout the GTA. There were also ad dollars being spent beyond the usual AGO media suspects, with a foray into South Asian media.
What has been particularly interesting about this committee is the kind of debates that have come up. Most have underlined that the difficulty of trying to label a community or even the committee as united under the term ‘South Asian’ or ‘Indian’. Everyone seems to have a different sense of identification with their ethnic background, whether it is as specific as Punjabi or Tamil, or its influence on their artistic sensibility.
For example, one of the pictures for the ad campaign is a black and white photo of the Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. It’s a gorgeous photo of what regal looks like and was admired for its sense of style, its classic look. But there was an objection. A few of the ads had a black backdrop (like this one), which is not an auspicious colour for Hindus. In fact, it reminded one committee member of death.
And that’s what this advisory board has been all about: diversity. It’s been about reminding the AGO of the South Asian communities’ diversity of experience, culture, background and yes, opinion.
- What do you think about the Advisory Board? We’d love to hear your opinions.
Piali Roy is a Toronto writer with a long-held interest in South Asian culture and history. You can contact her at yourvoice@ago.net.
AGO Book Club: Northern Light by Roy MacGregor
November 12th, 2010
The next book club selection is Northern Light by Roy MacGregor. The meeting will be held at the Art Rental + Sales Gallery, 481 University Avenue on December 1st, 2010 at 7pm. For more information, to register for the session or to receive the Book Club e-Newsletter call 416-979-6660 ext 5948.
Roy MacGregor’s lifelong fascination with Tom Thomson first led him to write Canoe Lake, a novel inspired by a distant relative’s affair with one of Canada’s greatest painters. Now, MacGregor breaks new ground, re-examining the mysteries of Thomson’s life, loves and violent death in the definitive non-fiction account. Why does a man who died almost a century ago and painted relatively little still have such a grip on our imagination?
The eccentric spinster Winnie Trainor was a fixture of Roy MacGregor’s childhood in Huntsville, Ontario. She was considered too odd to be a truly romantic figure in the eyes of the town, but the locals knew that Canada’s most famous painter had once been in love with her, and that she had never gotten over his untimely death. She kept some paintings he gave her in a six-quart basket she’d leave with the neighbours on her rare trips out of town, and in the summers she’d make the trip from her family cottage, where Thomson used to stay, on foot to the graveyard up the hill, where fans of the artist occasionally left bouquets. There she would clear away the flowers. After all, as far as anyone knew, he wasn’t there: she had arranged at his family’s request for him to be exhumed and moved to a cemetery near Owen Sound.
As Roy MacGregor’s richly detailed Northern Light reveals, not much is as it seems when it comes to Tom Thomson, the most iconic of Canadian painters. Philandering deadbeat or visionary artist and gentleman, victim of accidental drowning or deliberate murder, the man’s myth has grown to obscure the real view — and the answers to the mysteries are finally revealed in these pages.
(description courtesy randomhouse.ca)
Northern Light is available for purchase at shopAGO for $34.95
And the winner is…
November 12th, 2010
On November 3rd at a public announcement in the AGO’s Walker Court, we announced that Canadian Kristan Horton had won the Grange Prize 2010. Check back in the new year when will start announcing the details for the Grange Prize 2011!
Meet the Art Rental + Sales Gallery team at shopAGO
November 12th, 2010
Pamela Chang, Gallery Assistant; Jennifer Bhogal, Coordinator
Starting November 16th and continuing through the holiday season, look for the Art Rental + Sales Gallery desk in shopAGO.
AR+SG will be on-site with a select collection of art, all under $500.
Meet our energetic, vibrant team and see how easy it is to grow your collection with us!
Work with us on site at shopAGO or arrange your personal at-home or in-gallery consultation.
The Maharaja’s Rolls Royce
November 10th, 2010
The AGO held its first official photo op for the Maharaja exhibition Tuesday morning. Media were invited to check out the Star of India, a Rolls Royce Phantom II, custom-built in 1934 for His Highness Thakore Sahib Dharmendrasinhji Lakhajiraj of Rajkot (Gujarat).
If you’ve heard of the “Star of India”, it is also the name of 563-carat Star Sapphire. This Rolls Royce Phantom II is considered to be a particularly important. There is even a model kit so you can make your own piece of history!
It is rather beautiful with a unique ochre-saffron colour. The royal family’s motto and state crest is embossed on the doors and side windows. The inscription means “An impartial ruler of men of all faiths.”
Rolls Royce cars were popular with the wealthy set in India. Over 800 were exported to India in first half of the 20th century. In fact, India was the largest market for the Rolls during the interwar period. The BBC recently put together a documentary about the maharajas’ madness for the Rolls, titled The Maharaja’s Motor Car: The Story of Rolls-Royce.
Here is a longer clip from the documentary.
In the 1960s, the car became British-owned and later, was brought to Germany. This year the Rolls Royce Phantom II was on auction again in May and was purchased by the great-grandson of the original owner! This amazing vehicle was not in the original Maharaja exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Instead, after much sleuthing and negotiations, the AGO team was able to intercept it and get it as a loan before the Phantom II returns to India after a half-century abroad.
Neat fact: Mahatma Gandhi also has a connection to Rajkot. His father moved there when he was young to become the Diwan or Prime Minister for the Thakore of Rajkot.
Piali Roy is a Toronto writer with a long-held interest in South Asian culture and history. You can contact her at yourvoice@ago.net.
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