“L’Envol” takes us flying at la Maison rouge

Frédéric Prado, “Bouddha invisible”, 1968-69, collection Antoine de Galbert

What a wonderful title, “L’Envol” (The flight) for a last exhibition at La Maison Rouge! Antoine de Galbert, who started this contemporary art foundation 14 years ago, has decided, after 131 exhibitions, and 100 000 visitors a year, to devote his energy and love to artists and institutions without the daily worries of running his own house. The occasion of the evening was the award of a decoration of Chevalier des Arts et des lettres to Pauline de Laboulaye, first President of the Friends of la Maison Rouge, who is also an art writer. The whole evening was a tribute to artistic talent,  family values and generosity without fuss.Read More

The “Ryokan collection” or 39 small Japanese hotels to dream of!

Ritsuko Nakamura, Akemi Nishimura and Sachiko Nakamichi in Paris

Japan exudes poetry and mystery (largely due to the language) like no other country I know and when I received the invitation to discover the Ryokan Collection a sort of Japanese Small luxury hotels group, I rushed to a funny little house on avenue George Mandel where four Ryokan owners had gathered. There are 39 members of this very exclusive group and it is very tempting to disappear on a tour all around Japan.

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Be the first one to buy Jove-Paris shirts!

Joséphine von Klitzing just started Jove-Paris with Uzbek shirts

It’s always fun to see your friends’ daughters become adventurers or fashion moguls and when Joséphine von Klitzing invited me to see her new collection of Uzbek shirts, Jove-Paris, I ran. She had a presentation at la Folie Saint Martin, a unique little house near Porte Saint Martin, where you can entertain, organise concerts or lectures and discover a new side of trendy Paris. Her colorful shirts made of Ikat, a coton/silk fabric, are out of this world and reminiscent of the Silk Road refinements.Read More

Hubert Le Gall plays with animals and Pinocchio

Hubert Le Gall with one of his new mirrors at Galerie Pierre Alain Challier

Designer and set director Hubert Le Gall has been exhibiting with Pierre Alain Challier since 2002 at Artcurial. His new show at the gallery on rue Debelleyme is devoted to “Eternal Spring” and golden branches grow out of red velvet armchairs, wooden cabinets show nature through their shelves and rabbits become cozy seats. It’s all very whimsical.Read More

James Nachtwey, photographer of the world’s drama

Afghanistan, Kabul, 1996 © James Nachtwey Archive, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth

James Nachtwey is a photographer who witnesses drama. Drama everywhere and the retrospective of his work as a photo reporter at Maison Européenne de la photographie, “Memoria” is so tragic that I would recommend that you go on a sunny day and with a good friend. I can’t even imagine what opening night was like with trendy ladies on their Louboutin heels being confronted to children dying of hunger in Somalia. It is the most important photo show of the moment, so don’t miss it.Read More

Ghosts and hells in Asian art at Quai Branly

The lady cat, Yoko Igashi, 2017, Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac

It is a collection of spirits wandering through forests, of hungry ghosts and vengeful cat-women which have been haunting the Asian imagination for centuries that is the topic of a new exhibition “Ghosts and Hells in Asian art” at Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac. From buddhism to video games, from religion to popular art, curators have found the most amazing documents and costumes in Chinese, Thai and Japanese collections. Read More

Polychrome sculpture at Orsay

Jean Désiré Ringel d’Illzach, Young prince Medici, ca 1890 © Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg. Photo A. Plisson

It is always a delight and a special emotion to enter the large hall of Musée d’Orsay, formerly a train station, where the clock remains and hundreds of sculptures are shown with the Statue of Liberty in the foreground. A short (100 pieces), but fun exhibition of polychrome sculptures, has just opened and I found out that the 19 th century fashion of coloring statues came from the Antiquity and was revived by recent archaeological finds. Some of them are very kitsch but others, like Camille Claudel‘s “the Wave”, are truly revolutionary. Read More

Galerie Lelong settles on avenue Matignon

David Hockney, “Self Portrait III, 20 March 2012” iPad drawing printed on paper, Edition of 25, © David Hockney / Photo Credit : Richard Schmidt / Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. Paris 

The first time I saw a David Hockney iPad drawing was at Musée Yves Saint Laurent in October 2011. The show was revolutionary and everyone wondered if “real” art was over? For the opening of their new gallery on avenue Matignon in the former Jérôme de Noirmont space, Galerie Lelong is showing “Portraits”, a series of four new self portraits and many others produced on iPad. If, like me, you revere David Hockney, you will be happy to discover this new space at the corner of Matignon and Penthièvre.Read More