At his conference at Sotheby’s, Pierre Arizzoli Clementel, who used to be Director of Versailles for 15 years, had the perfect voice for telling the magical story of Charles de Beistegui‘s life and style. The book he just wrote, based on the 35 watercolors by Alexandre Serebriakoff of château de Groussay, is important: it is the only thing left from … Read More
Min Jung-Yeon shines at Musée Guimet
I first met the Danish galerist Maria Lund when I bought, at Salon du dessin, a drawing on wood, by Korean artist Yoon Ji-Eun who studied at Ecole des Beaux Arts in Jean Michel Alberola’s studio. And I was happily surprised to meet at Musée Guimet one of her fellow students Min Jung-Yeon, who, like her, has remained in Paris … Read More
Félix Fénéon, the Revolutionary collector, at l’Orangerie
It is not a coïncidence that the major painting of the exhibition “Fénéon, modern times from Seurat to Matisse” at Musée de l’Orangerie, used to belong to David Rockefeller, who gave it to MoMA after he died in 2017. The portrait of Félix Fénéon by Paul Signac in 1890, sums up his versatile personality. This anarchist, art critic, art dealer … Read More
At the Gobelins, the most beautiful tapestries you will ever see
What Louis XIV’s minister Jean Baptiste Colbert and royal painter Charles Le Brun achieved at the height of the Sun king’s reign is exceptional and the exhibition at Manufacture des Gobelins gives us an idea of the luxury cultivated at court at the Louvre, first and then in Versailles. Tapestries created at la Savonnerie in Chaillot, at the Gobelins and … Read More
Jules Adler, a naturalist painter at MahJ
The Museum of Art and History of Judaism, MahJ, has wonderful permanent collections set in an 18 th century hotel in the Marais. After showing Helena Rubinstein’s collections last spring, it focuses (until February 23) on a Jewish Alsatian painter, Jules Adler, who is little known today in France but was celebrated at the turn of the century as a … Read More
Maria Helena Vieira Da Silva in three cities
Often when I visit Salon du Dessin in Paris or more recently FIAC, my eye is stopped by a curious painting and it is by Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, a Portuguese artist who became French in 1956. Her unique semi abstract style has always fascinated me whether it is an oil on canvas or a gouache on paper. Galerie … Read More
Zloty, an experienced graffiti artist with a child’s mind
Gérard Zlotykamien (Zloty), became the first graffiti artist in the world, when he traced his “Ephémères” in Great Britain in 1963. Today at 79, he is painting an empty wall in a children’s park, at 44 rue du Dessous des Berges, in the 13 th arrondissement. It is a joyful fresco painted in acrylic, which perfectly matches the playground beneath … Read More
Leonardo, reigns over the Louvre
To celebrate the 500 th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death (1452-1519), the Louvre has assembled 160 of his works including 11 paintings. Mona Lisa stayed in her own room so that visitors can keep coming to see her but the “Virgin and child” from the Duke of Buccleuth’s collection, and the “Belle Ferronière” are there to testify of the … Read More