Isabelle Langlois is a whimsical jeweler near place Vendôme

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Isabelle Langlois showing off her Peridot rings

It was a fun occasion, the cocktail party at Isabelle Langlois‘ jewelry shop next to Place Vendôme. The theme was Peridot, the green semi precious stone, and she was dressed in a perfect combination of purple and spring green. The hors d’oeuvre were all pale green and the drinks were mojitos and champagne with a green touch. We met some years ago while both working for Condé Nast in Paris, and reunited recently through golfing friends. She is a great designer and her rings, earrings, and pins made in Thailand by her brother, are more ravishing one than the other. Read More

The Jeu de Paume is closing from May 12 to September 28, and announces a brilliant season for the end of the year

parisdiaArt, Movies, Photography1 Comment

Bertille Bak, La Brigada, 12 mn video of shoe shiners demonstrating on the streets of la Paz

Due to the Olympics, which will bar access to place de la Concorde and part of the Tuileries gardens all summer, the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume has to close down on May 12. So if you have not been yet, make sure to see the fabulous Tina Modotti exhibition and Bertille Bak (b.1983) “Out of Breath” who plays on the representation of marginalized “invisible” communities with her films and photographs set in Bolivia, Saint Nazaire, India, Thailand and Madagascar for “Minor Miner” and Morocco for “Entertainment Factory”. I particularly liked “La Brigada”, her shelves covered with colorful shoe-shine boxes from La Paz, which become true works of art as they are transformed by their owners, and the video where the shoe shiners walk on metallic noisy buckets to demonstrate on the streets. Read More

Back to New York after six years and full of new discoveries

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The botanical gardens in Brooklyn were a pure enchantment with their cherry trees in bloom

I had not returned to the city since the pandemic and went to attend the Memorial for writer and Pulitzer Prize winner, Ted Morganwho died last December. It took place at the Century Club and was mostly a family affair, with his daughter Amber de Gramont (who recently retrieved her family name) and his son Gabriel Morgan, both speaking in a very sensitive and literary way of him as a father. His wife Eileen Bresnahan read a beautiful poem and his grandchildren and nephews, the artist George and his twin, film director Michel Negroponte, added to the glamour. Another niece, the author Nina de Gramont was there with her husband, David Gessner, also a writer, and Clement Wood son of the Paris Review International editor, brought some of the literary French past with him. The cultural event of the week was “the Harlem Renaissance” exhibition at the Metropolitan museum which I saw just after learning of Faith Ringgold‘s death at 93. The extraordinary artist, who was exhibited at Musée Picasso exactly a year ago, was born in Harlem in 1930, just at the time of the Renaissance… The show is a mix of fabulous portraits by Winold Reiss, Laura Wheeler Waring, Archibald J. Motley. Jr and Jacob Lawrence or William H. Johnson. But there were also very mediocre ones mixed among the excellent photos by James Van Der Zee. I would call the exhibition unedited or wanting to show too much?Read More

Departement stores are revived at MAD

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“A la Place Clichy”, opened in 1877 by Gailllard & Cie, was managed by Paul Argand, a great traveler. It specialised in oriental style carpets and furniture, 1880-1890

“The birth of Department stores” is a new show at Musée des Arts Décoratifs, devoted to the huge social revolution which they represented in 1852, when these “new temples of modernity” emerged under Napoleon III’s Second Empire. 80% of the seven hundred objects and posters exhibitied here belong to the rich collections of MAD. This emergence of popular spending, the child as new object of marketing, but also mail order and the invention of sales are all illustrated with superb posters, accessories and fashion as well as decors. And you can read Emile Zola’s social novel “Au Bonheur des Dames” to find out even more about this new commercial world. Read More

At Musée Rodin, children can touch everything and even make art in their studio

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The space is fun an you can touch everything

How do you get French people, and Parisians in particular, to come back to Musée Rodin while foreign tourists usually list it first or second on their agenda? You organize a free modeling and drawing studio for children. And they love it! Amélie Simier had created these workshops at Musée Bourdelle where she used to work and for the third year, her teams have reorganized the chapel into a children’s paradise. I had to borrow some nieces and nephew to test the operation and it was a great success. They even said thank you when their parents promised them an ice cream in the gardens…

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Here and there people you should know about…

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Simone Pheulpin shows her new landscapes made of cotton threads at Maison Parisienne

PAD, the design fair in Jardins des Tuileries, was celebrating its 24 th edition since 1998, and it was a beautiful and refined occasion to discover new galleries of ceramics, lamps and furniture. Everyone was under 40 years old on the stands and in the aisles and very glamorous. I discovered Aurélie Galois’s works at Mouvements Modernes, a gallery set in the Palais Royal (11 bis rue de Beaujolais). They will show the glass creations “Eternae” by Sam Baron next June 10-22 in their charming space. She paints with carbon pencils on gum. At Galerie Italienne, rebaptised Raphaella Riboud-Seydoux, ceramics are always amazing and at Maison Parisienne, who is celebrating its 15 years, with 15 artists, Simone Pheulpin the sculptress with cotton threads, showed new landscapes along Pierre Renart’s amazing folded furniture and Lison de Caunes and Julien Vermeulen. Read More

Collection Pinault has never been so fun at Bourse du Commerce

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Kimsooja’s installation under the cupola is very exciting visually

Bourse du Commerce  where the Pinault collection is housed is one of the most exciting buildings in Paris, across the street from Saint Eustache and it has an exciting group exhibition ” The World as it goes” on its three levels with a special focus on Korean artist Kimsooja in tis rotunda and ground floor display cases as well as in the basement. I particularly liked the Chinese artists Liu Wei‘s “Library”, 2012,  in wood and Sun Yuan & Peng Yu‘s display of old men on their wheel chairs on the ground floor and Peter Doig upstairs. All works come from the Pinault collection. Read More

XVII th century luxury in your pocket! It’s at Musée Cognacq-Jay

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Marguerite Gérard, “The Bad news”, 1804, Paris Musée du Louvre

“Luxe de Poche” or luxury in your pocket at the Age of Enlightment,  is a good title for this precious little exhibition at Musée Cognacq-Jay, founded by the creators of the Samaritaine stores… Beautifully curated by Sixtine de Saint Léger and Vincent Bastien  from Versailles, it offers a sociological study of these intimate snuff boxes, smelling bottles or sewing kits, used by courtiers in the 18 th centuries. Lent by the Louvre, Versailles and the V&A.., the pieces are real jewels, developed by famous artisans and often illustrated in paintings of time, where they show the sophistication and wealth of their owners. The three hundred pieces are well described in cartels (including some for children which I loved) are often adorned with diamonds an other semi precious stones and represent real mosaics.Read More