Venice Biennale

The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that is held every two years in as its name suggests, Venice, Italy. It began in 1895 and in the early years decorative arts played an important role. By 1910 the event had attained international significance and several countries had begun to install there own national pavilions. By 1920 the Biennale began to display ground-breaking ideas in what was then classed as modern art. In the 1930’s, several new areas were introduced such as the Music Festival in 1930, the International Film Festival in 1932 and the Theatre Festival in 1934. A dance section, known as the "International Festival of Contemporary Dance", was established in 1999. From 1938, Grand Prix (Grand Prizes) were awarded in the art exhibition section. The advent of World War II closed the festival until 1948 and on resumption it focused attention on the post-war avant-garde movements in European, and later worldwide contemporary art. Abstract Expressionism was introduced in the 1950’s followed by Pop Art in the next decade.

The formal Biennale is based at the Giardini a Venetian park that houses 30 permanent national pavilions. Countries who have pavilions include, Great Britain (run by the British Council) the United States, Italy, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Hungary, Israel, Russia and many more. World renowned international exhibitors include Edward Hopper, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha, Kenneth Noland, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Helen Frankenthaler, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Leonard Baskin and Richard Diebenkorn. Equally famous British exhibitors include Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, John Tunnard, Matthew Smith, Barbara Hepworth, David Hockney, Graham Sutherland, Edward Wadsworth, Kenneth Armitage, Reg Butler, Lynn Chadwick, Eduardo Paolozzi, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, William Scott and many more. Lesser-known but no less worthy exhibitors include lithographer Allin Braund, Henry Cliffe, Gwyther Irwin, F. H. K. Henrion and Rose Garrard.