The Basque country, which goes across borders over the Pyrénées, from Bayonne to Bilbao, has always fascinated ethnologists and this new book on its traditional dance costumes conceived by Serge Gleizes, is a little gem. Largely due to the talent of photographer Véronique Mati. If you have ever been curious about provincial French costumes, this is a series of photographs … Read More
London is swinging even in the heat
While the whole of literary London gathered around charming historian Philip Mansel at the French Institute for his talk on his remarkable new biography of Louis XIV, “King of the World”, and art collectors and dealers (like Alexis Kugel) were at Christie’s bidding for the Rothschild treasures with its exceptional Flemish cabinets, polychrome enamel plaques by Léonard Limosin and rock crystal … Read More
Rachel Cobb, a sensitive photographer who celebrates the Mistral
American photographer Rachel Cobb won the Picture of the Year award for her coverage of 9/11, she worked in Sarajevo and with the homeless in New York. But the topic of her first exhibition in Paris is more poetic and results from twenty years of watching a specific wind, the Mistral in Provence, which became a book published by Damiani. … Read More
Two exceptional shows bring Romanticism to Petit Palais
Once again, an exhibition opens at Petit Palais and the surprise is overwhelming in quality and originality. “Romantic Paris, 1815-1848” comprises all the arts of the beginning of the 19th century thanks to the clever Christopher Leribault who convinced his colleagues from Musées Galliera, Carnavalet, Arts décoratifs and de la Vie Romantique, to lend exceptional treasures. It is a panorama … Read More
New York is changing fast but remains the best
I had not been to New York for three years and I found lots of changes. First the Hudson Yards, a new business/shopping/living area at the start of the Highline on 30 th st and the Hudson, attracted me because I wanted to see the Vessel. This large pile of staircases in red copper was much talked about and I … Read More
La Fontaine’s fables illustrated in Lahore, at Musée Guimet
It’s a curious phenomenon that is shown at musée Guimet in the rotunda: a series of illustrations of Jean de La Fontaine‘s Fables, painted in the first half of the 19 th century by Imam Bakhsh at the Sikh court of Lahore, Punjab. “Oriental Fables” shows beautiful miniatures illustrating the Memoirs of General Court (1793-1880) at the time when French … Read More
Spheres, the Earth and the Universe at BNF
It is an extraordinary exhibition that is presented at Bibliothèque Nationale de France after the Louvre Abu Dhabi. 2 500 years of representations of the atmosphere and the Earth from Antiquity to today. Two hundred pieces restitute all its nobility to the quest of discovering the universe which was started by Ptolemaeus with the first globes. The evolution of our … Read More
Fontainebleau celebrates Art history, on June 7-9
The 9 th Festival of art history is taking place at Château de Fontainebleau, an hour south of Paris, and this year the theme is “The people”. Instigated by Pierre Rosenberg, the three day event brings together art historians, curators, museum directors, artists and publishers and this edition is dedicated to five Northern countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The … Read More