There is a strange feeling about driving in a very large car park which only contains one brand, Mercedes cars. This is what happens when you drive a Mercedes and you enter the large Museum in Stuttgart. With a smile, you get special access… Cars and garages have a very prominent role in this city which was destroyed at the end … Read More
What to expect in the autumn, lots of goodies…
“La Rentrée” in Paris is already so busy that you will not have time to recover from your holidays. On September 10th, the Kugel brothers are opening their yearly extraordinary exhibition at the same time as Musée du Luxembourg is showing treasures from the Tate Gallery, “The Golden Age of English painting” from September 11 to February 16. At Musée Maillol, its … Read More
The Liberation of Paris is celebrated in a new museum
Général de Gaulle walking down the Champs Elysées on Saturday, August 26, 1944 in a liberated Paris, is an image that every Frenchman has kept in mind. When in 1968, the Général was heavily contested, I remember my mother joining the demonstration and walking with millions of people of her generation, in remembrance and in support for the man who … Read More
In Rodez, Pierre Soulages has set an example for all
How does a city with 56 000 inhabitants attract a million visitors in five years? Rodez, where French painter Pierre Soulages was born a hundred years ago (next December 24), is a city in the middle of Aveyron, near the Lot and the Creuse. That is, in France profonde (deep agricultural France), where beef comes from Salers, cheese from Roquefort, … Read More
Ars en Ré celebrates its very special spire
Ile de Ré, an island off la Rochelle which has become a very posh holiday destination, was for an evening, the rendez vous of many Parisian art lovers. 28 artists who have a special relationship to the place, gave a painting or a drawing for the restoration of the church of Saint Etienne d’Ars en Ré. The particularity of its … Read More
Institut Giacometti is thriving, a year later
A year ago, Institut Giacometti was opened in a delightful studio overlooking Cimetière Montparnasse. After four exhibitions based on Fondation Giacometti’s precious collections, the place is thriving as a small charming museum. Catherine Grenier and Michèle Kieffer, curators of the show “Narrating the body”, have researched the artists’ relation to the woman body. And his early drawings at Académie de … Read More
Trees reign at Fondation Cartier
Don’t expect an art exhibition on the theme of trees, “Nous les arbres”, (We the trees) is a scientific and political diatribe for saving trees, essentially in Latin America. The oldest fossils of a forest date back to 385 million years while man appeared only 300 000 years ago. The fight between man and trees is shown through our admiration … Read More
Berthe Morisot, charming but a little repetitive, at Orsay
Berthe Morisot, the French lady impressionist painter, had never had a retrospective at Musée d’Orsay since it opened in 1986 and her last exhibition was in 1941 at the Orangerie. After studying painting as an amateur and learning “plein air” painting with Jean-Baptiste Corot at 19, she decided to make a career of it and showed at the Salon for … Read More