The Japanese season is booming at Musée Guimet where the main exhibition, “At Prince Genji’s court” has just opened with the celebration of women’s literature in the Heian Period (794-1185), mixing short poems, waka, and prose. Fashion, art and buddhism illustrate love in “The Tale of Genji” which has fascinated generations of Japanese, during multiple periods. The story recounts the … Read More
Jean Michel Othoniel and Villa Dufraine produce marvels
Usually when you are invited to see the works of students in residence you find one out of 10 which is interesting and have to force yourself … This time the divine surprise at the exhibition “Bonsoir Mémoire” is that most of the 10 young artists were fascinating and the whole exhibition at la Monnaie de Paris is intriguing, dynamic … Read More
André Ostier on Avenue Matignon, and more…
Avenue Matignon has never been so busy as this week with an exceptionally well attended Paris Photo fair taking place at Grand Palais éphémère on the Champ de Mars and all the galleries looking at their best. At Jaques Lacoste, who specializes in furniture and decorative arts of the XX th century, the first major exhibition of André Ostier‘s … Read More
At Bibliothèque Nationale, photographs are in black and white and in color
It is a season rich in discoveries that BnF has prepared for us from their photo department. Héloise Conésa, in charge of contemporary photography, curated a courageous exhibition on metamorphosis: “Epreuves de la Matière” or materiality of photography today. Will images disappear with numeric art? How do young artists use different means for manipulating the original shots? Through 200 photographers … Read More
At Jeu de Paume, British photographers are the stars
Two very different British photographers are exhibited at Musée du Jeu de Paume: 19 th century portraitist Julia Margaret Cameron who is a great example of a later bloomer in life (she became a photographer at 48 after having had 6 children) and conceptual artist Victor Burgin (b.1941), who shows fifty years of work, including phototextuals and videos. The title … Read More
A Lebanese writer leads the French Academy, tapestries at auction, Irving Penn photographs and more…
When the Perpetual secretary of the French Academy, Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, died on August 5, at 94, the institution which is in charge of writing the dictionary and defending our language, was suddenly abandoned. This amazing woman, born in France, from parents who had emigrated to France, after the Russian Revolution, became one of the foremost Historians in France: she … Read More
In Ottoman Salonika, Jews reigned…
This exhibition on Jews in Salonika at the beginning of the XX th century is the story of a passionate collector who travelled to Turkey for his fashion business and started buying documentary photographs of the Ottoman world. After his famous company Anastasia went bust in the 1980’s, Pierre de Gigord sold his collection to the Getty Museum but they … Read More
Black and white reigns at Pompidou while color explodes at Templon
The Marin Karmitz/Pompidou center exhibition “Corps à Corps” of 500 photographs is a real marathon of faces, bodies and human dramas, all in black and white. A little too many to my taste, and very intellectually conceived, but you can choose to look at what you like. I heard that the first opening of the rentrée was very crowded, it … Read More