Biennale

Biennale (or Bienal or Biennial). An art exhibition held every two years, particularly a large and prestigious exhibition of international scope. The first to be founded and still the most famous is the Venice Biennale, instituted in 1895 as the ‘International Exhibition of Art of the City of Venice', and claiming to represent ‘the most noble activities of the modern spirit without distinction of country'. It was organized to celebrate the 25th wedding anniversary of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy, but in fact took place two years after the event. At this first Biennale, artists from sixteen different nations were represented, 516 works were exhibited, and there were more than 200,000 visitors. The committee included some of the most famous artists of the time, including Sir Edward Burne-Jones (see PRE-RAPHAELITISM), the Dutch painter Jozef Israëls (1824–1911), Max Liebermann, and the French Symbolist painters Gustave Moreau (1826–98) and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824–98). The exhibition soon acquired world-wide prestige, and after it resumed in 1948 following the Second World War it became the leading showplace for the established international avant-garde. Henry Moore, for example, set the seal on his reputation when he won the International Sculpture Prize in 1948.

The Biennale is centred in the Giardini Pubblici (Public Gardens), where a number of pavilions have been built by the countries that exhibit at the exhibition. These structures are permanent (although there has been much rebuilding over the years) and their styles provide an interesting array of national self-images. There is often controversy over the selection of artists to represent each country (entrusted to or sponsored by bodies such as the British Council in Britain and the Smithsonian Institution in the USA) and the press frequently carries rumours of intrigue or corruption surrounding the awarding of prizes (the jurors are usually distinguished figures in the art world, more likely to be susceptible to flattery than bribery). Lawrence Alloway (who resigned from the Guggenheim Museum, New York, because of a disagreement over the choosing of American artists for the 1966 Biennale) published a history of the exhibition in 1968 (The Venice Biennale: 1895–1968). He writes that ‘here are more artists, dealers, collectors, and writers in one place at one time than can be found anywhere else in the world … The 1966 Biennale showed 2,785 works by artists from thirty-seven countries, with eight hundred art critics, journalists, and free-wheelers in addition.’ Since then the Biennale has grown still further in size and now spills over from the Giardini Pubblici into numerous other sites in the city. From 1895 to 1909 the Biennale was held in odd-numbered years, but the 9th Biennale was advanced a year and held in 1910. Thereafter it was held in even years (with gaps in 1916, 1918, 1944, and 1946 because of the two world wars) until 1990. The Biennale was not held in 1992 and from 1993 has been in odd years (this change was made so that the exhibition could be held in the centenary year of the original event).

Several other biennales have been instituted on the Venice model, some of them general and others devoted to a specific category of art, such as naive painting or printmaking. The one with the highest prestige next to Venice is the São Paulo Bienal, founded in 1951. Also well known is the Paris Biennale, inaugurated in 1959 on the initiative of the critic Raymond Cogniat. It is confined to artists under 30 years of age and has become a major forum for experimental art. There are also triennial exhibitions, held every three years.