Painting the Stage Limited edition: Jan Fabre, Helm van Tannhauser

Description

A luxury book embodied into a wood sculpture by archistar Mario Botta, enriched by a numbered and signed print by Jan Fabre. Denise Poray-Wendel takes us into the uncharted territory of the intertwining of visual and musical arts. Painting the Stage first examines more than 200 years of opera stage design, unravelling this rich historical tale through more than 300 illustrations, interviews, and accurate reconstructions. The most complete resource book yet on the subject, it will be of great interest to those in the fields of art as well as opera. The exquisite wooden sculpture created and signed by archistar Mario Botta, functions like a proscenium theatre framing the numbered print created exclusively for this publication by the artist Jan Fabre. A luxury cloth-covered copy of Denise Wendel-Poray's Painting the Stage is hidden in a sliding drawer in the back. There are four separate and distinct versions of this limited edition, with special woods for each: an ash wood sculpture for the two William Kentridge sugar lift aquatints, walnut for the print by the Kabakovs, and durmast for that of Jan Fabre. Mario Botta designed the box exclusively for the project, and Riva1920 made them. All the prints have been numbered and signed by the artists. Each print is related to an opera production that was designed by the artist and that is discussed in detail in a chapter of Painting the Stage.

Denise Wendel-Poray is a Canadian writer, journalist and curator holding degrees from the Universities of Yale and McGill. She is the author of books and essays concerning the relationship between art, theatre and music. (Frauen-liebe und Leben, Hatje-Cantz, 2013; Painting the Stage, Skira, 2019). She has been guest curator Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg Germany (2010-2012); at the Rupertinum Museum in Salzburg (William Kentridge Works for Theatre 2017); Sammlung Friedrichshof Zurndorf, Austria (Wahlverwandtschaften 2018); RX Galerie Marais Paris (Hermann Nitsch Paintings Only 2018); Galerie Eric Dupont Paris (Howard Hodgkin 2015, Sandro Kopp Take Time 2016, Otto Muehl 2018). As a journalist she writes for Opera Canada Magazine, ArtPress, Quotidien de l'art, and the Wiener Kurier.