Helen Lucas
Dance (4-1/2' x 8')
Florence Biennale 2003
The Florence Biennale is a large art
exhibit featuring over 600 artists from around
the world. These artists are selected and invited by an international panel
of judges to attend.
Helen was invited to attend the Biennale, December 6 - 14, 2003, and
she
presented her painting 'Dance' to the Florentine art world.
"This Bienanale is a cultural, not a marketing event. It is intended to provide
an opportunity
for a forum where professional artists from around the world can meet and
exchange ideas
..... there has never been an international event with such a direct link
between the artists
studio and the walls of the exhibition"
This is an exerpt from Tapestry Magazine, April 2004,
written by Helen about her experience in Florence:
The Florence Biennale
By Helen Lucas
The Letter which came a year before the exhibition began : After viewing your art works on you web site. The International Scientific committee has expressed favorable opinion for your participation in the Biennale Internazionale Dell’Arte Contemporanea
Which takes place at the Forteza da Basso 6-14 December 2003.
This, the 4th Florence Biennale was the world’s most comprehensive exhibition of contemporary art, representing 891 artists from 72 countries. Truly an offering of contemporary art on a global scale!
Inside of the Fortezza Da Basso (named after John the Baptist in 1594) is a huge pavilion spanning three stories. So large is this pavilion, that the whole of the Biennale was housed on the first floor. Each artist was allotted a space 2 metres high and 3 metres long.
I sent a large painting, an acrylic canvas 4 ˝ X 8 ft called DANCE which shows red poppies on an orange background (I was throughout the show I was identified as the Poppy Artist). Fellow King Township artist Ernestine Tahedl was also invited, Ernestine sent a free standing screen of 5 panels, acrylic on wood, with landscapes on both sides of the screens called SHIFTING CURRENTS.
In addition to the almost 900 artists, the Biennale offered many extra programs, musical concerts, lectures and demonstrations. For example, the English Painter David Hockney
gave a talk on the use of optical instruments by artists ( a practice that goes back as far as
1420). I thought, My, he’s getting old that is until I looked at his resume and realized that I was a year old than he was!
With us traveled Shelagh Wilkinson, a retired professor from York University who was on a grant to write up the experiences of the Canadian Women Participants and Hope Rogers a professional photographer who came to record the event.
On arriving at the exhibition hall, we were given identification cards, maps showing where the work was hung (or standing) and programs of daily events. Later we were given beautifully reproduced hard cover catalogues, the size of phone books. My painting had been crated and shipped 3 months prior and Ernestine’s arrived from an exhibition in
Vienna.
There were, what I thought were some beautiful works. I saw works that were bold and daring in their use of colour, line, space and composition. I also saw works that somehow missed the mark. But, the mandate of the Biennale was to show what artists (all over the world) were doing, working quietly in their studios. With so many artists from all over the world, displaying their work, it quickly became apparent to all that what we had a veritable smorgasbord. And that we could not use North American Standards to judge any of it. We were seeing art from Croatia, Equador, Georgia, Puerto Rico,
Macedonia, India, Slovenia, etc. etc. And we were seeing it all at one, hanging together in the same pavilion.
But, I am glad to say that in the midst of it all, the Canadians did us proud. Beside each painting, we placed a label of the Canadian Flag. That first day we were asked many questions about our techniques and materials. Many were from artists interested in how Ernestine assembled her panels, and just how typically Canadian her landscapes were. We even had students doing water colours in front of our works!
Some artists asked for their works to be critiqued. For us, we had other art to see - FLORENCE BECKONED!!!!!!! And (even better) being just before Christmas, we had few tourists to contend with!
Firenze - the city of Giotto, Botticelle, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Galileo,
Machievelli, etc. etc.
We were staying at a small hotel in the centre of Florence on the via del Corso, within a block of The Duomo Florence’s famous Cathedral and the city’s main landmark.
The sound of its bell, repeated and repeated which woke me up at 7:00 am that first morning had me in tears. One low note, unlike any other sound heard throughout the city. I thought of all of the other artists, through time, who had heard this same bell.
In Florence you walk everywhere and every time we saw the large poster advertising the Biennale, we felt connected to the city. In every street, on every corner, in every square, you are confronted with greatness. Turn a corner and there is Dante’s home - - or Michelangelo’s.
Florence’s other landmark, is Michelangelo’s David. One can not help but marvel that a man created such a masterpiece. Is there a greater work of art anywhere?
Then one day, standing outside the Basilica of Santa Croce, 3 of us saw an exceptionally handsome young Soldier in Dress uniform. He’ll never know that on that day, 3 Canadian grandmothers agreed. God was still the consummate creator.