There is not a week without a new event at Versailles and the opening of the Queen’s hamlet, newly restored is major news. At the same time, a new prize for historical books is created and given to a biography of Camille and Lucile Desmoulins by Hervé Leuwers (Fayard). From Revolution to restorations, the old palace is constantly on the … Read More
Musée Jean-Jacques Henner rediscovered
There is a charm to the newly restored house of Jean-Jacques Henner, similar to that of Gustave Moreau on rue La Rochefoucauld. The artist is less well known and the museum serves as residence for young artists who just graduated from Les Beaux Arts. To enliven the place, the curator Claire Bessède, had the idea of inviting Eugénie Alméras to … Read More
Junya Ishigami, magic architecture at Fondation Cartier
The cherry trees at Fondation Cartier were in full bloom for Junya Ishigami‘s opening of twenty architecture designs and models. And discovering his work was a blessed moment. The laureate of the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2010, Ishigami represents at 43, the young generation who devotes an important place to landscape, poetry and conceptualism in architecture. … Read More
The Qajar dynasty in Iran, more than just warriors
The new exhibition at Louvre Lens, “The Rose Empire” is devoted to the Qajar dynasty, who reigned over Persia from 1786 to 1925, when Reza Khan Pahlavi took over. Four hundred pieces came from 35 French institutions and private collections and twelve countries to describe the world of this family, whose descendants now mostly live in Europe and the United … Read More
A very festive Suez Canal at Institut du Monde Arabe
Théodore Frère, Promenade de l’Impératrice Eugénie en chameau dans le désert, 1869 © Souvenir de Ferdinand de Lesseps et du Canal de Suez / Lebas Photographie Paris When you enter the first room of the exhibition “L’Epoque du Canal de Suez des pharaons au XXI ème siècle” at IMA, the red velvet curtain, the large screens with photographs commented by … Read More
Alvar Aalto so inspiring at Cité de l’architecture!
We all know Finnish designer and architect Alvar Aalto‘s emblematic Savoy vase and wooden stools but at Cité de l’architecture‘s retrospective, we learn more about him, his many churches and office buildings, and we discover his own house and offices. It is a beautiful show under the brick arcades of the museum at Trocadero. And since Aalto was mostly preoccupied … Read More
Lafayette Anticipations, a new meeting place in the Marais
The staircase and elevator are particularly well conceived
The concept store Colette closed last December, a new artists’s store is born in the Marais : « A Rebours » inspired by Joris Karl Huysmans’ famous novel (Against the grain), a novelty store which is the tip of the icebeerg of the new Lafayette Anticipations Foundation. You will not find an art collection there but a building enlarged and renovated by … Read More
Beautiful architecture for watch straps!
It is quite extraordinary to walk into a new boutique and find oneself immediately happy. This is what good architecture does to a space. And when I heard architect, Boris Cindric explain the mixture of materials he used for the Camille Fournet shop on rue Cambon, I started feeling even more interested.