Tina Modotti attracts the crowds at Jeu de Paume

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“Hands holding the handle of a shovel”, circa 1926-1927, Collection and archives of Fundación Televisa, Mexico

Tina Modotti is mostly known as a Mexican photographer today and yet she was born in Udine, near Venice in 1896, lived in Klagenfurt, Austria, as a child, and immigrated with her family to San Francisco at 16. There, she was a seamstress, became a model and acted in a mute film in Hollywood. This is where she met Edward Weston, whose fame eclipsed hers until recently. The Musée du Jeu de Paume gives her back her role as a leading  artist in a beautiful exhibit “The Eye of the Revolution” where both her political activism and her artistic eye are united in 240 photographies. It took 6 years to curator Isabel Tejeda Martin, a professor at Universitad de Murcia in Spain, to collect all the precious documents. Read More

Julio Le Parc, Salon du Dessin, Print art fair…. there is too much going on!

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Julio le Parc still paints at 96, and lives in Cachan near Paris

Julio le Parc was the unexpected moment of happiness of this week’s drawings activity, at Maison de l’Amérique Latine. The Argentinian kinetic artist, born in 1928, lives in Cachan and shows hundreds of drawings in the boulevard  Saint Germain elegant center where Latin Americans like to congregate. Sheila Hicks, the extraordinary wool artist and sculptor Bernar Venet arrived early to congratulate him and his pretty Japanese companion. One of his sons Yamil Le Parc, a dancer and a singer, was welcoming everyone while the film of drawings by his father accompanied by Astor Piazzola’s music, was being  screened on the ground floor. Baudoin Janninck who published an artist’s book “Art in writing”, with Le Parc in 2013 was also there. It can be acquired for 950€ with a special art work. Do not miss this show which is free and very enlightening on the artist’s career.

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Jean Hélion, is a great inspirer at MAM Paris

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“Figure bleue”, 1935-1936. Paris, musée d’Art moderne. photo ADAGP

It was very exciting to hear Fabrice Hergott, the director of MAM and Henry-Claude Cousseau, the guest curator, discuss their vision of Jean Hélion, 1904-1987,  a multifaceted but slightly forgotten artist, who has not been shown in Paris since 2004. This son of peasants, was a great writer and a great charmer and for having met him when he was “a shy young man”, Cousseau declared that he had been fascinated by his magnetism and eloquence. Self taught and made a prisoner in Germany during WWII, he escaped from prison and from himself and tried out various styles, moving from abstraction in France and in the US, where he introduced this new style with art historian Meyer Shapiro, to figuration and realism which Francis Ponge found  “gênant”, disturbing. Read More

Drawing now is stronger than ever!

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David Nash, Hawthorn-May 2023, pigment on paper at Galerie Lelong & Cie

Drawing now, the contemporary drawing art fair which takes place every year at the same time as Salon du Dessin can be very varied in quality. This year, I particularly liked the very strong Templon stand with Abdelkader Benchamma, Chiharu Shiota, Daniel Dezeuze, Prune Nourry and François Rouan. All these painters, who regularly exhibit at the Paris gallery, showed extraordinary drawings which are more affordable. My other “coup de coeur” went for Lelong & Cie where David Nash had three amazing “Hawthorn”, pigments on paper, in greens. At 7 000€ one can start dreaming… Bienvenu Steinberg & J from New York,  showed paintings on paper by Peter Kim and Papillon had everyone stare at Raphaëlle Peria, “L’Equilibre de l’absence”, a “grattage” (scraping) on photography. Read More

Imperial silks for Versailles at the Grand Trianon

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Jean-François Bony and Bissardon, Cousin & Bony, fabric for the resting cabinet of the Empress’ little apartments, 1811-1812, Mobilier National

This morning at Versailles, I discovered that we owe one important historical moment to the Brits: in sending Napoleon to Elba in April 1814, they prevented Versailles from being turned into a Napoleonic castle with a new façade and new apartments for all his family and military aides. All the plans for the elevation and the decors were recently acquired and the 80 kms of silk manufactured in Lyon for this project, were for most part kept at Mobilier National which is better known for its precious furniture and Gobelins tapestries. The new exhibition “Imperial silks for Versailles” takes place at the Grand Trianon and is the result of a successful collaboration between Muriel Barbier, formerly at Mobilier National and now director of the collections of Château de Fontainebleau (another Napoleonic castle) and Noémie Wansart, scientific advisor at Château de Versailles. With the daffodils in bloom outside and the glittering silks inside, our spirits were at their highest during the visit. Read More

Henry Cros is surprising at MAD and the gala was so cheerful!

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Vase with pastoral topic, cir 1895-1900, pâte de verre, Musée du Louvre

It is a small show on sculptor and drawer Henry Cros that MAD has organized in its second floor galleries, but it is worth seeing especially since curator Jean- Luc Olivié, in charge of glass at the museum, has studied this artist’s work since he was a student.  If you have not been to “Fashion and Sport” (until April 7) in the Grande Nef or to the exceptional show devoted to Iris Van Herpern, this makes it even more mandatory. Admired by Rodin and Bourdelle, Cros belonged to a talented family: the poet and inventor Charles Cros and doctor Antoine Cros were his brothers. In the salon rue Chaptal of Nina de Vilars de Callias, Charles’s lover, who was painted by Manet, they met Paul Verlaine and publisher André Gill as well as actors of the literary world of the 1860-1870. What I particularly liked is the mix of techniques that he uses. Glazed earthenware, polychrome terracotta, “pâte de verre” (glass paste) as well as bronze and marble are all documented by watercolor projects from his personal diaries, which entered the collections of Musée des Arts Décoratifs,  in 1993.Read More

The Al Thani collection is (again) amazing at Hôtel de la Marine!

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Arundel Ziodac, Italy cir 1540, cornaline, enamel gold, diamonds, ruby designed on a model by Raphaël

For its second exhibition curated with Emma Edwards from the V&A museum in London, Amin Jaffer, curator of the Al Thani collection, has again created a “Wunderkammer” of treasures, as the Germans called their precious rooms in the Renaissance, 1400-1600. They jointly unveiled numerous jewels, crystal cups, paintings and royal presents which glitter in the dark rooms of Hotel de la Marine. You first enter the corridor where seven pendants from Prague, Germany and Italy, made of cornaline, enamel, ruby and diamonds, appear in full light. Each piece is a miniature sculpture which illustrates the extraordinary creativity of Renaissance goldsmiths. The precious stones were brought back by the first maritime expeditions from Asia and America. Read More

In Senlis, Papua New Guinea artists are beautiful at Fondation Frances

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Robin Chiphowka KOWSPI, Hop-Marek-imaginary, 2007, Acrylic on paper, 1 000 €

Estelle and Hervé Frances are true adventurers of the art. They have established a fantastic collection over the years in Clichy and in Senlis where they have the most exquisite little house with a view of the cathedral. In 2018, they travelled with their family to Papua new Guinea and in the Haut Sepik region, they encountered by chance tree artists from the same family, the father Raymond Kowspi Marek, and his sons Agatoak Ronny Kowspi and Robin Chiphowka Koswpi. They are in France until the 4 th of April and their works are visible until March 24.Read More