It is rare enough to see a painting by Leonardo da Vinci from close up and – to enter the residence of the Italian Ambassador in France, Giandomenico Magliano. So doing both at the same time really made me happy. Especially since three friends had called me saying “How come the diary has not reported on this event yet”?
Ben reopens Fondation Maillol
Fondation Maillol, a museum devoted to the sculptor of generous ladies, is reopening and the program of exhibitions established by Culturespaces is great fun. Irreverent artist Ben Vautier is the first guest to be offered the whole space for his works from the 60’s, which he kept in his personal collection, and there is a whole floor of new installations … Read More
Reims, behind the scene
When you say Reims, you think, the famous cathedral where all Kings of France were crowned and which was saved after the first World war by John Rockefeller who partly paid for its reconstruction. Well there is another side to this capital of champagne and I discovered it while playing a golf championship nearby.
The magic and dark world of Oscar Wilde
It is a whole new world of literature and art that we enter in the small but beautiful show on Oscar Wilde at the Petit Palais. The world of a wonderful theater writer who started as a poet, an art critic and a lecturer in America, and was at the heart of artistic life at the turn of the century.
Napoléon III at Orsay
There could not be a better place than Musée d’Orsay for an exhibition on « Spectacular Second Empire », the lavish era of Napoléon the Third, the French equivalent of Victorian style. The show curated by Guy Coeval is elegantly set by Hubert le Gall and looks more like an antique dealers stand than an exhibition. It is a pleasure … Read More
Five days in New York
I did not understand why there were so many police cars arresting people on the way back from Newark airport where my Openskies perfect flight had landed. Traffic was unbearable on Sunday night and there could not have been any speeding ! Only the next day, did I read in the New York Times, that the New Jersey bomber had been … Read More
Tintin invades the Grand Palais
When Georges Remi was a little boy in Brussels, his mother used to take him to the movies once a week. When he grew up, he created the famous character of Tintin, first published in the magazine « Le petit Vingtième » (The little twentieth) in 1929. And he went on to draw the very real adventures of Tintin around … Read More
Henri Fantin-Latour, full of charm
« Painting is my only pleasure and my only goal » says Henri Fantin-Latour at 19. His retrospective at Musée du Luxembourg is a soothing moment of charm and beauty in anxious Paris. And what a surprise to discover his many flower paintings which came from all around the world.