I was just back from the luxurious and delicious Gala dinner at Chantilly where Prince Amyn Aga Khan entertained two hundred “Friends” with Anne Miller and Mathieu Deldicque when the lovely artist Louise Pressager invited me to attend the opening of an exhibition at Maif Social club, the gallery sponsored by the insurance company. The contrast was extreme between the … Read More
Gérard Zlotykamien, a dark street artist full of humour
Gérard Zlotykamien, dit Zloty (b.1940), is a self taught artist and the precursor, in 1963, of street art in France and in the world. While preparing to attend the 3rd Biennale of Paris with Eduardo Arroyo and Jorge Camacho, he went to London and started painting walls with a “poire à lavement” (a douche). His first work “Ronde Macabre” was … Read More
A film “The Anatomy of a fall” and paintings by Xavier Valls, there is so much to love
I went to see “Anatomy of a Fall” because it had won the Palme d’Or in Cannes last May, and I thought I would dislike it intensely. Its director and screen writer Justine Triet disgraced herself with her political speech attacking the French Government on its retirement law after having received all the financial help that French cinema distributes. Everyone … Read More
Picasso and Gertrude Stein but mostly Andy Warhol, at Musée du Luxembourg
The exhibition “Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso” conceived by Cécile Debray at Musée du Luxembourg is a last minute replacement for another show on Picasso and the Russians which was canceled. The director of Musée Picasso had worked extensively on the Stein family when she organized a show of their collections at Grand Palais in 2012. And the close relationship … Read More
Louis Janmot, l’Inconnu d’Orsay
You have never heard of 19 th century painter Louis Janmot, 1814-1892, and unless you come from Lyon, you are not the only one. But Christophe Leribault, director of Musée d’Orsay, has always admired him, and he waited many years to be able to put on an exhibition about this “Painter of the Soul”, whose romantic spiritualism echoes William Blake’s, … Read More
At galerie Lelong, the rentrée is festive
Galerie Lelong and its director Jean Frémon have long lasting relationships with their artists and when Richard Tuttle 82, mentioned that they had worked together for sixteen years, you could feel a true friendship between them. The artist, who shares his life between the desert in New Mexico and Mount Desert Island in Maine, shows 26 new works “My Best” … Read More
Black and white reigns at Pompidou while color explodes at Templon
The Marin Karmitz/Pompidou center exhibition “Corps à Corps” of 500 photographs is a real marathon of faces, bodies and human dramas, all in black and white. A little too many to my taste, and very intellectually conceived, but you can choose to look at what you like. I heard that the first opening of the rentrée was very crowded, it … Read More
Brittany is still a winner, especially in the heat!
In the summer, I love to take my little car and drive west with a few friends to visit. This year I went to château de Lassay, in Mayenne, with Hugues de Montalembert whose young cousins still inhabit this mid 15 th century military castle. Aymeri, Cecilia and their three super talented children (two girls are classicists at Ecole Normale … Read More