For the second time, the 5 000€ Bob Calle Prize for an artist’s book was awarded at Ecole des Beaux Arts in the magnificent Amphithéâtre d’Honneur. This year’s laureate is Jean Marie Krauth with a miniature book, “0…103” in a print of 100 at Editions Ju Young Kim in Strasbourg. Laurence Dumaine Calle conducted the ceremony in the presence of … Read More
Marie Colvin, what a fascinating but tragic life!
Her face with a black patch on the left eye became synonymous of courage for war reporters, after Marie Colvin was wounded in Sri Lanka while covering the civil war in April 2001. She had already been a journalist for twenty years after graduating from Yale University and travelling to Brazil and Mexico as a young woman. In the page … Read More
New York Splendor behind closed doors
Have you ever walked on Park Avenue or by the Dakota apartment building on Central Park West and wondered what the interiors of these prestigious buildings looked like? Well if you have, you will get the answer in Wendy Moonan’s beautiful book, “New York Splendor“. Her book signing party last week in Paris at Jean Marie Rossi’s “Aveline” antiques store, … Read More
Four years later, Charlie Hebdo’s tragedy is remembered with books
You might remember reading the wonderful and devastating book “Darling I am going to Charlie” written by Maryse Wolinski (Atria books) on the day her husband, the cartoonist Georges Wolinski, died at the Charlie Hebdo offices. Another book has come out last year in France and will be published in 2020 in the US and Great Britain: “Le Lambeau” (The … Read More
Michelle Obama and Dominique de Menil, two giant Ladies
I don’t know if you have read many good books recently but I have not. And most literary critics are useless or just lazy, I don’t know? Nowadays I only trust word of mouth. This is how I recently read Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” which I found not only riveting, but also very gracious. And “Double vision“, the extraordinary history of … Read More
Opéra Garnier revisited inch by inch
5 January 1875, marks the inaugural Gala for the Paris Opera created by Charles Garnier. Napoléon III has been deposed. The show on stage is very “pale”, all eyes are directed on King Alfonso XII of Spain, the Lord Mayor of London and the President of the French Republic, Patrice de Mac Mahon. The building was the real hero of … Read More
At Château d’Ecouen, witness the birth of Renaissance theatre
The birth of theater in the French Renaissance can only be tracked down thanks to writings and a few sketches of religious “Mysteries” played outdoors. Many representations in markets and other public places were linked to stages of Christ’s passion. These were set in different cities like Bourges in 1536, Valenciennes in 1547, Troyes, Chateaudun or Romans, which were very … Read More
Henri de Rothschild, a multitalented genius
I only knew him as a playwriter and as the grandfather of Philippine de Rothschild, the larger than life owner of Château Mouton Rothschild. But thanks to Nadège Forestier’s biography, “Henri de Rothschild, a humanitarian before his time”, I now know that he was primarily a doctor, a major contributor to Marie Curie’s lab, the inventor of pasteurized milk in … Read More