From Monet to Kandinsky continues in tandem with the Italian Renaissance Exhibition that features works by Leonardo, Michelangelo, Botticelli and Raphael. So you see two for the price of one. Entrance is Bt. 350 or Bt. 250 for students and seniors. This is on the Second Floor. The Michelangelo Exhibition “Leonardo Opera Omnia” organized by the Italian Embassy features 17 of his roughly 30 paintings in several rooms on the Third Floor. Entrance to this Exhibition is free.
I went today with a good friend who enjoys art and we expected something along the lines of the Caravaggio Exhibition at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre last year. These large painting were displayed in a large Gallery filled with daylight. The first thing to point out is that they are not at all similar.
The "Leonardo Opera Omnia" Exhibition covers several rooms with between 1 and 4 small paintings per room. The rooms themselves are pitch black and the back high-resolution illumination of the paintings very gentle. It is easy to think you are viewing them in a major Gallery elsewhere in the world. The reproduction is superb. There is also a video introduction to the paintings on display and a lengthy background at the entrance to each room. This exhibition will close on October 7.
The other two Exhibitions are in a special Gallery. As you enter you are in a large room with some photos of a few of the paintings along with quite a lot of general and historical explanation. The main Exhibition takes place in Galleries behind black curtains to the left and right of this main room.
Frankly, I have never seen any Exhibition anything like the two on display here. We went to the Gallery on the left and are glad we did. It is larger and more impressive that the smaller one of the right. Effectively you sit on benches in the middle of a moving display. Or you can walk around at your leisure. There are screens all around the room, on the pillars and on the floor. As each artist is featured, his main works are projected on to the screens, but not as static images. Movement has been incorporated into some of the mages. For example, on one of Monet's famous cliff paintings, the sea actually moves. Images from different paintings appear together, although most appear as they do in the actual paintings. The point of the Exhibitions seems to be more of a multimedia sound and light show with a lot of movement, dissolves and fading in and out. The work of each artist is accompanied by specially chosen music relayed through high definition digital surround sound.
The only slightly jarring issue we felt was the selection of the music. It seemed rather odd to have, for example, 18th, 19th and 20th century works by Mozart, Beethoven and Elgar accompanying Renaissance paintings. But that is a very minor quibble.
The two Exhibitions are projected without a break. If you wish to see both and also take in the Leonardo Exhibition on the Third Floor, you should allow a minimum of two and a half hours.
Photos by River City