When I went to Giverny on my yearly Spring visit, I had the surprise of seeing new tall peonies given by the director of the Yuushien Japanese garden of Shimane province. A ceremony celebrating 160 years of diplomatic relations between our two countries took place in Monet’s garden with Hugues Gall and Ambassador Masato Klitera planting the flowers the same … Read More
From Monet’s waterlilies to Rothko’s abstraction, at l’Orangerie
When Alfred Barr bought a large “Nymphéas” for MoMA in 1955, Monet suddenly became the hero of “Mainstreams in Modern art” facing “Autumn Rhythm” by Pollock in John Canaday’s book on abstract expressionism in America. Based on a number of writings of the fifties by art critic Louis Finkelstein and Clement Greenberg, the new exhibition at Musée de l’Orangerie is curated by … Read More
A visit “chez Caillebotte” in Yerres
You probably identify Gustave Caillebotte with his paintings of umbrellas around Gare St Lazare. Left apart from the Impressionist craze, he was rediscovered two years ago with a large retrospective at Musée des Impressionistes in Giverny and now, he has his own house outside Paris, a charming 1824 building which was renovated by the city of Yerres. It is an … Read More
Delacroix can still surprise us at the Louvre
I am always reticent to tell you about exhibitions that have been widely reviewed by famous art critics but, this time, the Delacroix show at the Louvre is just too exciting to be missed. The 180 paintings were selected over a forty two year career of one of the most revered French painter of the 19 th century. The show will … Read More
“Wild souls” or symbolism in the Baltics
It is rare to walk into an exhibition in a famous museum like Musée d’Orsay and see 130 works whose authors you have never heard of before. This is the miracle of the show, “Wild souls, symbolism in the Baltic States”, which was inaugurated last week by President Emmanuel Macron and the heads of states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. … Read More
Stéphane Erouane Dumas, charm at its best
On Thursday April 12 th, Stéphane Erouane Dumas celebrated his sixtieth birthday with a beautiful opening at galerie Pierre-Alain Challier, rue Debelleyme. This discreet French artist, who studied at Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, has devoted his life to painting trees and cliffs. The cliffs are in Varangeville, one of the most dramatic countrysides of Normandy, where he lives … Read More
Subodh Gupta, from Indian daily life to grand art
What I love about Subodh Gupta’s exhibition at the Monnaie de Paris, is that he is obsessed with daily life and food. « Adda » (exchanges in hindi) is the first retrospective in France of this New Delhi based artist, who trained as a painter and now explores video, electricity installations and cooking instruments, with a great sense of humour and talent. … Read More
Giuseppe Ducrot, an Italian talent at Pierre Passebon
His great grandfather, Vittorio Ducrot was a foremost art nouveau furniture designer in Palermo. His mother is a forceful painter and textile designer, his grand father was an engineer and he used to play around in his workshop when he was little. But Giuseppe Ducrot has definitely found his own artistic track and the ceramics he exhibits at Galerie du Passage, … Read More