Michelangelo and "The Night Before"

The 2025 edition of the “Salone del Mobile.Milano” is partnering with the international lighting exhibition “Euroluce.” Robert Wilson will not only curate and design the opening gala at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan - entitled The Night Before—Objects, Chairs, Opera - but also create a vision of Michelangelo’s sculpture “Pietà Rondanini” in its own dedicated space: the “Spanish Hospital” at Sforzesco Castle. This work, entitled MOTHER, will be accompanied by the sounds of Arvo Pärt’s masterful “Stabat Mater.” - We will publish dates, opening hours and links to the venues on our Calendar as soon as they are released.

https://www.salonemilano.it/en/articles/preview-salone-del-mobile-2025-robert-wilson-lights-michelangelos-pieta-rondanini

Robert Wilson visiting the Pietà Rondanini in Milan.

Gao Xingjian and Robert Wilson at Barcelona's #LoopFestival2024

For the 2024 edition of LOOP Festival Barcelona, Robert Wilson’s Video Portrait of Gao Xingjian (HF Video, 2005), writer and 2000 Nobel Laureate in Literature, enters a visual dialogue with a work by Xingjian himself, “Lumière” (Ink on canvas, 2015). Complemented by Wilson’s “Messiah” drawings (Charcoal on paper, 2020), the exhibition at galeria SENDA invites the viewer to an experience of slow and reflective contemplation. In a world of rapid stimuli and fleeting images, it forces us to stop, to feel each small gesture, to observe and to appreciate the power of subtlety in art.

This Weekend: The Auction is Back at the Watermill Center Summer Benefit

Come and celebrate and support the arts at The Watermill Center’s Annual Summer Benefit and Auction this Saturday July 27! Discover a unique collection of artworks from celebrated artists Vija Celmins, Roni Horn, Jacqueline Humphries, Shirin Neshat, Robert Longo, Kikuo Saito, and Robert Wilson. All auction proceeds directly support The Watermill Center's Artist-in-Residence program. Since 2006, this initiative has provided artists from around the globe with the resources to innovate and excel. Your participation helps sustain an environment where artists can thrive and interact with the community, enriching their work and fostering professional growth.

Please note that attendance at the gala, where the live auction will take place during dinner, requires the purchase of tickets. Secure your spot now to join us for this remarkable evening: Click Here For Summer Benefit Tickets.

KIKUO SAITO

Spanish Chair II, 2008; Oil on canvas; 40 1/4 x 59 3/4 inches (102.2 x 151.8 cm)

Kikuo Saito (1939-2016) was a Japanese-American painter, sculptor, and theater designer known for his vibrant abstract canvases and lyrical use of color. Saito's works often combine elements of painting and performance, reflecting his background in theater. His art is characterized by bold brushstrokes, dynamic compositions, and a vibrant palette, evoking a sense of movement and emotion. Saito was also a close collaborator of Robert Wilson, contributing his artistic vision to several of Wilson's avant-garde theater productions, including "Deafman Glance" and "A Letter for Queen Victoria." Their collaboration melded visual art and theater, creating immersive and innovative stage environments. (Image courtesy of Kikuo Saito)

ROBERT WILSON

Vessel, 1994-2005; 15 H x 14 dia inches (38.1 H x 35.6 dia cm)

Born in Waco, Texas, Robert Wilson (b. 1941) is among the world’s foremost theater and visual artists. His works for the stage unconventionally integrate a wide variety of artistic media, including dance, movement, lighting, sculpture, music and text. His images are aesthetically striking and emotionally charged, and his productions have earned the acclaim of audiences and critics worldwide. Works made at CIRVA, International Centre for Glass and Plastic Arts Research, in Marseille, France.

ROBERT LONGO

Untitled (After Velazquez, Mars 1640-1642), 2008; Graphite and charcoal on paper; 7 1/2 x 4 inches (19.1 x 10.2 cm); 25 x 20 5/8 x 13/16 inches framed (63.5 x 52.4 x 2.1 cm)

Robert Longo (b. 1953) is an American artist and filmmaker recognized for his large-scale, hyper realistic charcoal drawings. Longo gained prominence in the 1980s with his "Men in the Cities" series, depicting sharply dressed figures in dynamic, almost convulsive poses. His work often addresses themes of power, violence, and media influence, exploring the impact of contemporary culture and politics on society. (Image courtesy of Robert Longo's Studio)

VIJA CELMINS

Saturn Stamps, 1995; Offset lithograph; 12 3/16 x 9 3/8 inches (30.9 x 23.8 cm); Printed and published by Richard Anderson Fine Art, New York

Vija Celmins (b. 1938) is a Latvian-American artist celebrated for her meticulous drawings and paintings of natural phenomena such as ocean waves, starry skies, and desert floors. Celmins' work is characterized by its photorealistic detail and meditative quality, capturing the vastness and intricacy of the natural world. Her art reflects a deep fascination with texture, light, and space. Celmins, along with Robert Wilson, won the prestigious Japanese Praemium Imperiale award, highlighting her significant contribution to the arts. (Image courtesy of Vija Celmins Studio)

SHIRIN NESHAT

Women Without Men (Untitled #2), 2004; C-print; 46 1/4 x 61 5/8 inches (117.5 x 156.5 cm); 49 1/2 x 64 3/4 inches framed (125.7 x 164.5 cm); Edition of 5 + 1 AP

Shirin Neshat (b. 1957) is an Iranian-born artist and filmmaker renowned for her evocative photographs and video installations that explore themes of gender, identity, and power. Neshat's work often focuses on the experiences of women in Islamic societies, blending personal narratives with broader socio-political commentary. Her visually striking and emotionally powerful pieces challenge viewers to confront cultural stereotypes and injustices. In 2011, Neshat was an Artist in Residence at The Watermill Center, a laboratory for the arts and humanities that annually hosts a new community of international artists, where she further developed her distinctive artistic voice. (Image courtesy of Shirin Neshat Studio)

Please note that attendance at the gala, where the live auction will take place during dinner, requires the purchase of tickets. Secure your spot now to join us for this remarkable evening: Click Here For Summer Benefit Tickets.

Cathedral of Light: "Shining a Light in Dark Times"

Robert Wilson’s installation Star and Stone: a kind of love … some say opened on May 24 in Rouen, on the cathedral Notre-Dame de Rouen, which was famously painted many times by Claude Monet. The installation can be viewed Fridays and Saturdays at 11PM until June 29, then each night in July at 11PM, each night in August at 10:30PM (10PM starting Aug. 16), and again Fridays and Saturdays at 9:30PM until September 28.

The Financial Times wrote an in-depth article about the work: “Robert Wilson in Rouen: shining a light in dark times” by Anna Sansom (May 27, 2024)

The French-German TV programme “arte” aired this piece on the Normandy Impressionist Festival on June 9, 2024.

A closer look at Star and Stone starts around 17’25”:

Here is a link to the arte web site.

More photos from the opening in Rouen can be found in our smugmug photo album.

MARY's visit to the UK: "A Rare Chance," and a "Collector's Item"

Mary Said What She Said played 4 shows at London’s Barbican Theater last week to sold-out houses and to wide acclaim. Many thanks to everyone who helped make this tour such a success!

“This is a complex meditation on divine right, betrayal and mortality ... Huppert ... holds herself like a young ballerina. ... Wilson and Pinckney sift and intensify her experience, reinforcing it through strangeness and repetition. It’s a demanding but rewarding watch: a tour de force performance by Huppert, and a rare chance to catch Wilson’s work in the UK.”
— Nick Curtis, The Standard (05/11/2024)
“Huppert is astounding: her delivery mesmerising, her movement precise, her gaze unblinking, her presence riveting. A tough, unique piece of work.”
— Sarah Hemming, Financial Times (05/13/2024)
“The paradox of a queen who was also a political pawn is captured with breathtaking ferocity by ... Isabelle Huppert [in a] 90-minute tour de force ... The text, by Darryl Pinckney, is directed by Robert Wilson more like a libretto than a play, its tempi slowing and accelerating to tongue-twisting speed, in counterpoint with a lush orchestral score from Ludovico Einaudi. ... This show will not be to everyone’s taste, but for fans of Wilson and the magnificent Huppert, it is a collector’s item.”
— Claire Armitstead, The Guardian (05/12/2024)
“This production ... resembles an act of defiance in keeping with the embattled fortitude of its benighted subject. ... Here is history in all its peculiar horror, lifted free of text-books and turned into a spectacle of existential suffering.”
— Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph (05/11/2024)
“Robert Wilson’s production has a curious power to bridge gaps between opposites. It is dense, Huppert fires words like a majestic barrage of bullets, but also light: Darryl Pinckney’s lyrical language is inflected with Tudor verse, flashes of Shakespeare, and cloaked in Beckettian existential angst.”
— Alexander Cohen, Broadway World (05/11/2024)
“On a mostly empty stage – except for one part where she is amidst the clouds; the ascension of Mary, perhaps – Huppert captivates as the frenzied queen, rushing towards the front of the stage, chopping the air with her hands, ... shouting out her words in a way that still remains elegant, bending to the music that continues throughout. Composer Ludovico Einaudi’s sweeping strings at the start give way to an orchestral version of house music where the drop never arrives. It makes for a thrilling, breathless conclusion for both Huppert and audience alike. In the opening 20 minutes or so, it seems as if Wilson’s show will drag on forever, but by the end one hopes it will never end.”
— Richard Maguire, The Reviews Hub London (05/11/2024)
“One of the most galvanising, mesmerising, virtuoso performances I have ever been privileged to witness.”
— BBC Radio 3 Presenter Donald Macleod on "X" @DonaldMacleod01 (05/11/2024)

Isabelle Huppert (Photograph © Lucie Jansch)