David Hockney’s “Normandism” in Rouen and “Impressionism” at Giverny

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Giverny by DH, 2023

I am crazy about David Hockney, and his series of iPad drawings started just after COVID in the house he bought in Normandy, is riveting. They were shown at Galerie Lelong in Paris and at the Tate and Musée Granet in Aix last year. Some of them and other paintings are exhibited in Rouen at Musée des Beaux Arts, until September 22. This is a good excuse to visit the beautiful town, its Museum of Ceramics and cathedral (where Roberto Alagna sings on April 26)  and return to Giverny, an hour away,  where Musée des Impressionistes has a sweet exhibition “l‘Impressionisme et la mer“. Read More

“En Jeu”, artists and sports 1870-1930, at Musée Marmottan-Monet

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Marcelle Cahn, “The Three Raquettes,” 1926, Cholet, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire

Erik Desmazières, director of Musée Marmottan Monet, is right to start early with “En Jeu”, because so many cultural institutions have programmed special sports themes for the Paris Olympics (even TCE with L’Olimpiade by Vivaldi in June), that we will soon be fed up! And this whimsical exercise of associating artists and games is totally successful. It has to do with the two curators’ panache and curiosity for all arts. 1920’s posters are mixed with a very large Courbet of a woman surfing on the waves in Trouville and etchings are shown on the same level as paintings or sculptures. Benjamin Herring II and Thomas Eakins, Georges Desvallières and Monet, Renoir and Caillebotte, Jean Metzinger and Jacques Gruber, Frits Thaulow, Daumier and Van Dongen are all mixed and very entertaining. Many games/sports are portrayed here from English Hippodromes, to tennis, cricket and even “pelote Basque”. But alas! golf is nowhere to be seen! For lack of good paintings probably?Read More

Stéphanie des Horts, Daniel Cordier, Colin Thibert, Lesley Blanch, four books to discover

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Stéphanie des Horts signed two hundred books in two hours!

Stéphanie des Horts has accustomed us every year  to the publication of fun biographies about scandalous women. Her new book, “Carolyn et John” is the story of the glamorous Kennedy couple who died on their way to Martha’s Vineyard on July 16, 1999. We know everything about the dramatic event but Stéphanie has a unique way of telling their story with just enough scandalous details and true empathy to keep our interest going all the way. At the signature of the book, the crowd of friends and faithful fans invaded the tiny librairie Kogan on 17 rue du Bac and all the 200 copies were gone by 8 pm. She tells the story of wonderful New York before Nine Eleven, in her usual sexy way…Read More

Brancusi is overwhelmingly beautiful at Centre Pompidou

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“La Baronne”, cir 1920, Centre Pompidou, “Head of a woman”, before 1922, Centre Pompidou, “A Muse”, 1912, Solomon R.Guggenheim Museum, New York, “A Muse” after 1917, Centre Pompidou, “Head of a woman”, circa 1908, Centre Pompidou

What an incredible surprise to enter the white and black world of Constantin Brâncusi (1876-1957) at Centre Pompidou and to (re)discover the talent of this Romanian sculptor, who was the first to carve marble and stone before creating plaster moulds, and concentrated on simple shapes. His studio of Impasse Ronsin, near Hopital Necker in Montparnasse, was a place of fascination for his contemporaries and he bequeathed it to the French government. It was recreated next to the Pompidou Center in 1997 and designed by Renzo Piano. The series of abstract birds, children’s heads, muses, and erotic “Princesses” were scenographed with great talent by Pascal Rodriguez and Bertrand Stevenel. Read More

Virtual shopping at ArtParis

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Chilean artist Ricardo Maffei at AMS galeria Chile

Every year, ArtParis is better and 136 galleries (of which 60% are French) were selected this year with 42 new ones like Esther Schipper from Berlin, Peter Kilchmann from Zürich, Meessen and Michel Rein from Brussels, Richard Saltoun from London and Galerie Poggi from Paris. And I found some surprising works again this year. At Galerie Suzanne Tarasieve where Eva Jospin reigns unriveled, I loved the “fixé sous-verre” paintings by the Portuguese Gil Heitor Cortesao. He paints abandoned landscapes with oil on plexiglass and shows the unpainted side. Its effect is quite fantastic.Read More

Musée de Montmartre shows Auguste Herbin, a forgotten painter

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Selfportrait, study, 1910, The Netherlands, Otterlo, Kröller-Müller Museum

Musée de Montmartre is a little jewel on top of the Butte near the Basilica but not as invaded. It has a tea room and a very pretty garden. And all the exhibitions there help rediscover forgotten artists, who worked at the Bateau Lavoir and at 12 rue Cortot where it is located. This time (and until September 15), Auguste Herbin (1882-1960), a Fauve painter turned cubist and abstract. Curated by Céline Berchiche, who wrote her thesis on him, and Mario Choueiry the successful Lebanese curator of the show on etienne Dinet  at IMA. Referred to by Gilles Deleuze in a conference as “the artist who went the furthest in abstract painting with the color code he invented” Herbin was born near Cateau Cambrésis, Matisse’s birthplace, and at 16 he went to work in a newspaper, in Lille. His first painting dare influenced by the Flemish painters he saw in Bruges. In 1901, he moved to Paris where he is regularly exhibited in galleries and at the Salon des Indépendants in 1906. Read More

Théâtre des Champs Elysées moves at full steam!

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Jonah Hoskins and Sandra Hamaoui in les Pêcheurs de perles at TCE

On March 4, Bizet’s “Les Pêcheurs de perles” in concert version, created a surprise with the extraordinary performances of American tenor Jonah Hoskins as Nadir, baritone Joshua Hopkins as Zurga and the beauty of soprano Sandra Hamaoui as Leïla. She is engaged to be married to Benjamin Bernheim, the wonderful Franco Swiss tenor who will be singing “Werther” with her, conducted by François Xavier Roth, at TCE next March 2025. The evening’s 2000 seats were sold out and the public was clapping hysterically. It is time to plan your subscription for next season…Read More

Frédéric Mitterrand is now in heaven and his thousand best friends were there, at St Thomas d’Aquin

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Frédéric was much loved by thousands of friends, photo Eric Fougere

Frédéric Mitterrand, former Minister of Culture and Director of Villa Medicis in Rome, died on Thursday March 21 of cancer, in his apartment of rue de l’Université with his three sons at his bedside.

His public life started first as a 12 year old actor in “Fortunat” with Bourvil and Michèle Morgan. Already passionate about cinema, he had interviewed for the part under a pseudonym. He then studied at Sciences Po and refused to take the orals of l’ENA, and decided instead to go into the movie world. To support himself, he taught history at Ecole Bilingue Jeannine Manuel at the same time as Fabienne Servan Schreiber (who also went into producing movies). Then he founded l’Olympic in the 14 th arrondissement. There were two rooms: la Salle Marilyn and la Salle Pigozzi, named after Jean Pigozzi, who, with Jean Rémy Camus, was one of his benefactors. He acquired two more cinemas, l’Artistic (boulevard Voltaire) and L’Entrepôt in the 14 th, where his “cashiers” were Serge de Proutchenko and Isabelle de Gramont. His little dog Violette attended every show. At the funeral, his son Mathieu, who was born at the time of l’Olympic, where his mother worked, talked gratefully of their life and holidays together with his two Tunisian brothers Saïd and Jihed.Read More