When Richard Flahaut introduced pianist Gen Tomuro in the salons of France Amérique, he talked about the great understanding of music that the Japanese and the French share. And this young man who studied with Philippe Entremont and is finishing a masters in London, is proof of it. His program of Granados, Schumann, Poulenc and Stravinsky was absolutely delightful and his … Read More
“Entrée libre” at Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris
Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, is one of those rare and secret monuments in the Marais, where you can enter freely and consult magazines from a hundred years ago. And no one in Paris is aware of it. After two years of modernization, Emmanuelle Toulet, its director, was hosting three days of public visits and has decided to … Read More
Three religions at the heart of diplomacy
As often, it is a highly political exhibition that takes place at Musée de l’histoire de l’Immigration, in Porte Dorée, where « Il était trois fois, Lieux Saints partagés » treats of Judaism, Christianism and Islam in their shared geography of the Mediterranean. This original exhibition has matured over five years (it was first shown in a shorter version in Marseille two … Read More
Western Africa in masks and Mali in photographs
It is always intimidating to visit an exhibition of African art because one knows little about this culture which so fascinated Apollinaire and Picasso and their contemporaries and yet the genuine beauty of most objects is immediately palpable. So I encourage you to go and see the amazing masks at Musée du Quai Branly- Jacques Chirac where the exhibition « Les … Read More
Albert Renger-Patzsch, German photography at its best!
I had never heard of German photographer Albert Renger-Patzsch (1897-1966), who had a fabulous career in Germany and in America but for some obscure reason, remained fairly unknown in France. The founder of objectivity in photography and one of the promoters of photography as modern art, he was brought to Musée du Jeu de Paume in the Tuileries by Portuguese … Read More
Andres Serrano, a treasure hunt at Petit Palais
After Kehinde Wiley last October, Petit Palais is now exhibiting controversial American photographer Andres Serrano as a teaser for a treasure hunt on the two floors of its permanent collections. The access is free for all and it is quite fun to rediscover the Greek statues or Luca della Robbia glazed terra-cotta through Serrano’s violent photographs. If you decide to attend … Read More
Irving Penn is a 100 at the Grand Palais
We all know Irving Penn’s fabulous fashion shots for Vogue and his portraits of famous writers and painters. But I had never seen his series of Cuzco peasants photographed in 1948 nor his cigarette buts which were so visionary at the time : the exhibition of mostly black and white pictures at the Grand Palais is stunning and so elegantly laid … Read More
Raymond Depardon “Chez” Cartier Besson
Raymond Depardon was born in 1942 in a farm near Villefranche sur Saône, in Burgundy. His early life was not easy but he always knew that photography was his passion, as he was telling us at Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, where a hundred of his pictures are exhibited until December 17. And very soon his parents accepted the fact that he … Read More