The Shape of Time

Sofonisba Anguissola – Sofonisba Anguissola was born in Cremona c.1531–35; she and her five sisters were trained as painters and encouraged by their father to develop their careers. A highly perceptive and sensitive portrait painter, she quickly became one of the period’s most famous female artists. She was court painter to King Philip II of Spain, and hosted artists, scholars and men-of-letters at her house in Genoa. She spent her final years at Palermo, where van Dyck drew a portrait of her shortly before she died in 1623.

Claude Cahun – Claude Cahun was born in Nantes in 1894 as Lucy Schwob. Active as a writer and photographer, she and her stepsister and partner, Suzanne Malherbe, hosted artists’ salons in Paris and befriended André Breton and the Surrealists. Throughout her life she fought for freedom of thought and the emancipation of women. Her resistance to the German occupation led to a ten-month incarceration by the Gestapo and the destruction of much of her work. In 1937, she settled in Jersey. Following the Nazi occupation of the island, Cahun became an active member of the resistance movement. She died in 1954

Agnolo Bronzino – Born in Monticelli near Florence in 1502, Angelo Bronzino trained in the workshop of Jacopo Pontormo; the two artists became life-long friends, and collaborated on what would be Bronzino’s earliest commissions for the Medici. In 1540, he became court painter to Cosimo de Medici. His idiosyncratic mannerist idiom was informed by the works of Raphael and Michelangelo, and his cool palette and distorted figures were ­meant to express internal tensions. In his portraits, Bronzino achieved a succinct individualization that reflects contemporary court etiquette. He died in Monticelli in 1563.

Lucian Freud – Lucian Freud, the grandson of Sigmund Freud, was born in Berlin in 1922. In 1933, his family emigrated to England and he trained as an artist in London. At the onset of his career Freud focused more on graphic media but then turned increasingly to painting. His authentic, unadorned and intimate nudes feature a novel rough handling that combines impasto brushwork and a sombre earthy palette. During a career that spanned more than seven decades, Freud produced a body of work that continues to reverberate today. Freud died in London in 2011.

Pieter Bruegel d. Ä. – Pieter Bruegel the Elder was born in the village of Brueghel near Breda in 1525/30. Only around forty paintings by him have survived, twelve of which are now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum – by far the largest collection of his work in the world. Pieter Bruegel’s earliest undisputed works are landscapes; at the beginning of his career he also produced miniature-like paintings that focus on the topos of the looking-glass world. His oeuvre comprises both rustic scenes and depictions of boundary experiences of human exis­tence. All his compositions feature a moralizing message. Pieter Bruegel’s idiosyncratic and ­fearless manner continued to fascinate posterity long after he died in 1569.

Peter Doig – Peter Doig was born in Edinburgh in 1959. His family moved many times while he was growing up and he lived, among other places, in Trinidad and Canada. In 1979, he ­settled in London where he trained as an artist. His landscapes feature unusual colour combinations and viewpoints. His compositions are marked by a sense of magical realism, which he uses to capture timeless moments and mysterious utopias on canvas. Today ­Peter Doig lives and works in Trinidad; he has been teaching at the Academy of Fine Art in Dusseldorf since 2005.

Jan Brueghel d. Ä. – Jan Brueghel the Elder was born in Brussels in 1568; he first trained with his grandmother, Marie Bessemers. An accomplished miniaturist herself, she laid the foundations for his sumptuous and fastidious flower still-lifes. But Jan Brueghel also adopted subjects from the works of his father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder: landscapes with mythological or biblical stories, as well as peasant scenes in rural settings. After an Italian sojourn lasting several years, he became – like Peter Paul Rubens a few years later – court ­painter to Arch­duke Albert VII of Austria, regent of the Spanish Netherlands. Jan Brueghel died in Antwerp in 1625 from complications of cholera.

Steve McQueen – Born in London in 1969, Steve McQueen is regarded as one of Britain’s most successful contemporary artists and film directors. He initially studied art and design in London but began to focus on films after moving to New York University’s Tisch School of Art. He was soon known for his video works and silent films shot in black and white. In 1999, McQueen received the prestigious Turner Prize for his photographs and installations. In his powerful and expressive films he tackles socio-critical topics. In 2014, he won an Oscar for the historical drama 12 Years a Slave.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio  – Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was born near Milan in 1573. His early works – which include the first still-life in Western art – are already marked by strong colours, dramatic effects of light and shadow, and a systematic reduction of figures to focus on the main protagonists. After completing his training, Caravaggio moved to Rome in 1590, where he continued to sharpen the realism already inherent in his early works. Accused of ­having killed an opponent in a brawl, Caravaggio spent the years between 1606 and his death in 1610 restlessly moving around Italy. The remarkable drama of his compositions and his use of lighting influenced seventeenth-century European painters as well as numerous photographers, painters and film directors in the twentieth and twenty-first century.

Franz West – Born in Vienna in 1947, Franz West studied with Bruno Gironcoli at the Academy of ­Fine Arts, Vienna. His multifaceted oeuvre includes sculptures made of a variety of different materials such as plaster or metal, as well as graphic works and performances. In 1987, he began to produce works intended for sitting and lying down that focus on the boundary between artefact and quotidian object, thus forming a bridge between art and reality. From 1992 until 1994 West taught at the Städelschule in Frankfurt/Main. In 2001, he ­received the Golden Lion for his life’s work at the Venice Biennale. Franz West died in Vienna in 2012.

Antonio Allegri, gen. Il Correggio – Born in Correggio around 1489 – and later named after his hometown –, Antonio Allegri was initially influenced by Northern Italian painting and the works of Andrea Man­tegna. Soon, however, he evolved his own idiom marked by a delicate palette and an atmos­pheric softness. His religious compositions radiate a sublime intimacy and grace, while his mythological scenes are distinguished by a subtle sensuality. Correggio produced not ­only paintings but also church frescoes in which dramatic foreshortenings and the sophisti­cated organization of light create a perfect illusion of space and depth. He died in 1534.

Birgit Jürgenssen – Birgit Jürgenssen was born in Vienna in 1949 and studied graphics with Franz Herberth at the Academy of Applied Arts. After graduating she began to focus on photography. In her work, she questioned clichés of femininity, contrasting them with new concepts. She critiqued the dominance of men in the art world and campaigned for the recognition of female artists. She was the first to teach photography at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna, a position she held for over two decades until her death in 2003.

Giorgio da Castelfranco, gen. Giorgione  – Giorgione was born in Castelfranco, Veneto around 1477. A lack of signatures and the frequent involvement of other artists mean we can only attribute a small number of paint­ings to him. His early works are informed by both Italian and Northern painting; he ­soon evolved his own manner which is characterized by a warm palette and a poetic depic­tion of light, and his compositions depict man in harmony with nature. He died young in 1510, but as the teacher of Titian he and his work helped cement the leading position of Venetian painting in European art.

Nusra Latif Qureshi – Nusra Latif Qureshi was born in Lahore in Pakistan in 1973. She studied at the city’s ­National College of Arts and trained in the traditional art of Mogul miniature painting. In 2001, she emigrated to Melbourne to continue her studies and refine traditional paint­ing techniques. In her work, which comprises paintings as well as installations and multi-­media works, she focuses not only on the history of Southeast Asia but also on questions of how history and identity are constituted. She lives and works in Melbourne.

Tullio Lombardo  – Tullio Lombardo, the Italian architect and sculptor, was born in Venice in 1455. Both he and his brother, Antonio, were employed in the workshop of their father, Pietro Lombardo, who as one of the architects responsible for the Doge’s Palace made important contributions to Early Renaissance art in Venice. Tullio Lombardo developed his very own, unique manner, producing classically infused sculptures marked by idealized and delicate proportions. He died in 1532.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres – Felix Gonzalez-Torres was born in Cuba in 1957; in 1979, he moved to New York to study at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. His first solo exhibition, held at the Andrea Rosen ­Gallery in New York in 1990, was followed by some notable early successes outside the United States. He is best known for installations comprising everyday objects like sweets, light bulbs, or clocks, some of which invite visitors to interact with them. His often ­minimalist compositions focus on subjects such as love, loss and sexuality, and are ­informed by his experience of HIV/AIDS, from which he died in 1996.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn – Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn was born in Leiden in 1606. After training for a few months with the history painter Pieter Lastman, he opened his first studio in his hometown in 1625. His early history paintings quickly brought him success and he moved to Amsterdam, where he mainly worked as a portrait painter. Both his humane, authentic likenesses of individual sitters and his narrative group portraits proved highly innovate contributions to the genre. His oeuvre comprises numerous self-portraits that chronicle his physical and emotional state until shortly before his death in 1669.

Mark Rothko  – Mark Rothko was born in Latvia in 1903; in 1913, his family moved to the United States. He eventually settled in New York, where he produced his first representational-­expressionist compositions, many of which were informed by Surrealism. Around 1949 a transition in his work led him to his mature style: paintings composed of carefully ­differentiated chromatic forms, objects of contemplation that demanded the viewers ­complete absorption. Rothko died in 1970.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn – Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn was born in Leiden in 1606. After training for a few months with the history painter Pieter Lastman, he opened his first studio in his hometown in 1625. His early history paintings quickly brought him success and he moved to Amsterdam, where he mainly worked as a portrait painter. Both his humane, authentic likenesses of individual sitters and his narrative group portraits proved highly innovate contributions to the genre. His oeuvre comprises numerous self-portraits that chronicle his physical and emotional state until shortly before his death in 1669.

Fiona Tan – Fiona Tan was born in Pekanbaru (Indonesia) in 1966. She grew up in Australia before moving with her family to Amsterdam, where she began to train as an artist in 1988. Tan’s oeuvre comprises photography and video works as well as complex spatial installations in which visual images, words and sounds are conflated to produce a coherent single whole. A seminal topic in all her work is the construction and fluidity of memory, time and identity. Tan’s sensual, tangible creations question established concepts of time and memory, reality and fiction.

Roman Antiquity – For this exhibition, Antin’s work has been placed alongside a classical sculpture of ­Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty.

Eleanor Antin – Eleanor Antin was born in New York City in 1935, and studied acting and creative writing there in the mid-1950s. Her oeuvre comprises video works and photography as well as installations and performances. In her works, she immerses herself in the past – from ancient Rome to her own Jewish heritage – in order to define it from a modern viewpoint;  they often deal with socio-critical, political and feminist subjects in a humorous way. In 1975, Antin was appointed (now emeritus) professor at the University of California San Diego (UCSD).

Roman Antiquity – Over the course of his life, from student to old age, Cézanne filled sketchbook after sketchbook with drawings made directly from the Louvre’s collection of classical Greek masterpieces and their Roman copies.

Paul Cézanne  – Paul Cézanne was born in Aix-en-Provence in 1839. He moved to Paris in 1861 and enrol­led at the Académie Suisse. He made regular visits to the Louvre to study Old Masters, and their works inspired his earliest paintings. He achieved a remarkable degree of autonomy in his colours and forms, which he charged with constructing and organizing his compositions. In 1870, he began to focus on landscapes, eventually evolving a modula­tion of hues in which clearly separated dabs of colours are placed next to each other. His ultimate manner – i.e., the works he produced in the years prior his death in 1906 – is characterized by a consolidation of the pictorial structure and a heightening of ­chromatic intensity.

Peter Paul Rubens – Peter Paul Rubens was born in Siegen in Westphalia in 1577. Following the death of his father, the family moved back to Antwerp in 1589. There, Rubens trained as a painter. After travelling and studying in Italy for several years, he returned to Antwerp; in 1609 he became court painter to Archduke Albert VII, who was much impressed by Rubens’ sensual and dramatic compositions. In 1622, Rubens undertook his first diplomatic missions to France, Spain and England; in 1630 he was knighted by King Charles I. That ­same year, Rubens married his second wife, Helena Fourment, who clearly represented his ideal of beauty and whom he frequently painted in his later works; he died in 1640.

Maria Lassnig – Maria Lassnig was born in Carinthia in 1919. Shortly after completing her training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, she produced the first of her paintings and drawings focusing on depicting the emotions of her body; her theory of »body awareness« would go on to inform her entire oeuvre. After sojourns in Paris and New York she returned
to Vienna in 1980 and was appointed professor of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1982, she founded Austria’s sole teaching studio for animated filmmaking. Late in her career, she was ­honoured with numerous international exhibitions and received countless prizes, among them a Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. Lassnig died in 2014.

Dirck Dircksz. Santvoort – Dirck Dircksz. Santvoort was born in Amsterdam in 1610. He presumably trained with his father, the painter Dirck Pietersz. Bonepaert. He was deeply influenced by the work of Rembrandt and may even have been his pupil. Sandvoort soon became known for his elegant and restrained portraits. Particularly popular were his portraits of children, in which he combined his power of observation with restrained handling to harmonious effect. Sandvoort died in his hometown in 1680.

Catherine Opie – Catherine Opie was born in Ohio in 1961. She completed her artistic training at the Ca­lifornia Institute of the Arts in 1988. Her photographic oeuvre comprises studio portraits, landscapes and urban spaces. She is best known for her provocative portraits in which she questions concepts of social, sexual and cultural identity. In her works, she never abandons a sense of formal rigidity, combining elements of historical portraiture with a determinedly contemporary atmosphere. Opie lives and works in Los Angeles, where she is Professor of Photography at UCLA.

Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto – Born in Venice in 1518, Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto, was raised in an environment dominated by harmony and colour. In his paintings he favoured dramatic compositions, sophisticated lighting and a strong illusion of depth. From 1565 onwards, Tintoretto produced his masterpiece, a large number of paintings for the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice that is today one of the most important extant religious pictorial cycles.
Produced shortly before his death in 1594, his final works are highly dramatic and feature chro­matic light reflexes; they were much admired in the nineteenth century by the Impressionists and their successors.

Kerry James Marshall – Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955, Kerry James Marshall is strongly influenced by both his childhood in the Deep South and his training at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, where he witnessed the Black Panther Movement. From painting to sculpture to photography and video installation, his oeuvre represents an intense exam­ination of the history of black identity in America and in Western art. In his paintings, which ­alternate between abstraction and the use of comic-book aesthetics, Marshall looks at subjects often excluded from the artistic canon. He lives and works in Chicago.

Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian – Born in the Veneto in 1488/90, Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian, trained with the leading masters of the Venetian Renaissance. This helped him to quickly develop his own chromatic manner, which continued to influence generations of later artists, especially portrait painters. His early works are marked by a strong sense of drama, but around 1530 his compositions become calmer. In his late works the elegance and beautiful palette of his earlier manner are replaced by an intense feeling for colour. Until his death in 1576, Titian worked for a number of important Italian princes and the House of Habsburg.

Pablo Picasso – Born in Málaga in 1881, Pablo Picasso first moved to Paris in 1900. The works he produced during his Blue and Rose Periods and his seminal role in the development of Cubism were but the beginning of an exceptional artistic career. His extensive oeuvre, which numbers around 50,000 artworks in total, comprises paintings, drawings, prints, collages, sculptures and pottery. The Picasso Museum in Barcelona was opened shortly before his death in 1973, and his work has been celebrated in countless important retrospective exhibitions.

Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian  – Born in the Veneto in 1488/90, Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian, trained with the leading masters of the Venetian Renaissance. This helped him to quickly develop his own chromatic manner, which continued to influence generations of later artists, especially portrait painters. His early works are marked by a strong sense of drama, but around 1530 his compositions become calmer. In his late works the elegance and beautiful palette of his earlier manner are replaced by an intense feeling for colour. Until his death in 1576, Titian worked for a number of important Italian princes and the House of Habsburg.

Joseph Mallord William Turner  – J.M.W. Turner was born in London in 1775, and the British landscape forms the central theme of his early works. His paintings are informed by his many Euro­pean journeys, which also introduced him to Venetian colourism, which deeply impacted his style. Turner’s compositions combine a lively colourfulness and an atmospheric overall effect in what appear to be spontaneous snap-shots, making him a precursor of the Impressionists and modern art in general. In addition to his paintings he also published theoretical treatises and served on the board of the Royal Academy. J.M.W Turner died in London in 1851.

Rogier van der Weyden  – Rogier van der Weyden was born in the Flemish city of Tournai around 1400. He trained with Robert Campin before moving to Brussels, where he lived and worked until his ­death in 1464. We know only very little about his early work, but it probably reflected the influence of a teacher such as Jan van Eyck. In 1540, van der Weyden travelled to ­Rome, where he developed a new pictorial concept. He overcame the planar compositions of his precursors and began to compose his figures in a more plastic manner, even if their spatial expansiveness remains somewhat limited. Today, he is regarded as the most important representative of fifteenth-century Netherlandish painting after Jan van Eyck.

Ron Mueck – Born in Melbourne in 1958 into a family of German doll-makers, Ron Mueck was familiar with different artistic techniques from an early age. In 1983, he moved to London where he produced models for film sets, TV productions and advertisements, including for Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. In the 1990s, Mueck began to work full-time as an artist. His hyper-realistic sculptures of people made of fibreglass and silicone seem to address the viewer directly, yet his play with scale results in a distortion that questions our perception.

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez – Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was born in Seville in 1599. Shortly after completing his apprenticeship, he opened his first workshop; in 1623, he entered the service of King Philip IV of Spain and moved to Madrid with his young family. Velázquez mainly produced portraits of members of the court and the royal family; in 1659, a year before he died, he was knighted by the king. In his works he evolved a radically novel way of depicting colour and light that would become a key influence on the art of Manet and the Impressionists.

Édouard Manet – Édouard Manet was born in Paris in 1832 and trained with the history painter Thomas Couture. As a young student, he began to visit the Louvre to study Old Master paintings, and despite his flat and realistic manner his art was always deeply informed by tradition. Hence even scandalous paintings like his Le Dejeuener sur l’Herbe or Olympia can be traced back to classical models. In their unconventional realism, Manet’s compositions often visualized conflicts or tensions, and he did not receive official recognition until the years before his death in 1883.