Marcel Proust was baptized but he loved his mother who was Jewish. At Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme, Professor Antoine Compagnon and curator Isabelle Cahn have produced an exhibition on the writer’s Jewish world with -disappointingly- already well known paintings recently shown at Musée Carnavalet and at IMA. The greatest discovery of the show is Baruch Weil, 1780-1828, his … Read More
At Château de Fontainebleau, balls and parades are on tapestries …
“There never was in France such a display of magnificence and “courtliness” as during the last years of the reign of Henri II” writes Madame de Lafayette in her historical novel La Princesse de Clèves. This is one of the reasons to go and see the new show “L’Art de la fête à la cour des Valois” (Festivities at the court … Read More
Cameroun is celebrated twice this week at l’Odéon and at Quai Branly
This week marks a double success for Cameroun, the large country in Central Africa, which is home to Djaïli Amadou Amal, the writer (in French) of “Les Impatientes”, winner of Prix Goncourt des Lycées in 2020 and Ambassador for UNICEF since. She has been named Writer of the Year 2021 by Trophées de l’Edition, and a ceremony at Théâtre de l’Odéon … Read More
Romanticism is there, but unevenly
Just when Musée de la Vie romantique is opening a new (dreary) exhibition “Héroïnes Romantiques” (Romantic heroines until September 4), we learn that Musée des Beaux Arts d’Orléans has acquired at auction in Munich, Marie d’Orléans’ portrait by Ary Scheffer (1839), which had remained in her son’s Philippe de Wurtemberg’s family ever since. And at Galerie La Nouvelle Athènes, the opening of … Read More
Art Paris and PAD, talent is everywhere
The atmosphère at ArtParis was very electrical and within ten minutes I had already seen four galleries with works I loved. At Mayoral, Vieira da Silva with a large “Blue and Yellow, The Villages”, and a remarkable Joaquin Torres-Garcia, “Dos formas en ocre y rojo” from 1938. At Claude Bernard, Sheila Hicks and Julius Bissier transformed the booth into a … Read More
Toyen, a revelation at MAM Paris
Toyen was born Marie Čermínová in Prague in 1902. And she died in Paris in 1980 where she had lived for thirty two years in relative poverty but surrounded by very close friends. One of them, French writer Annie Le Brun, met her through André Breton in the 1950’s and co-curated the show of 150 paintings and drawings at Musée … Read More
Boldini is always the most elegant, at Petit Palais
One thing is certain with Giovanni Boldini‘s retrospective at Petit Palais: the Italian painter (1842-1931) loved women and when he pictures them fairly denuded in pastel or lavishly dressed in full length portraits, they are always sensuous and beautiful. Yet he was not handsome at all, quite the contrary as described by his best friends. He was so short that … Read More
The best and the worst, make your choice
What a relief to see at last a good painting exhibition at Lafayette Anticipations with the Chinese artist Xinyi Cheng show “Seen through others” and how sad to see the nightmarish “Pionnières” (pioneers) at Musée du Luxembourg. At least we have the choice not to go… I watched the new series on Netflix, “Drôle” (Standing Up), written by Fanny Herrero, who is … Read More