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
And more to look forward to in music and paintings.
The “rentrée” in Paris is always super exciting with all the new books being published for the prizes, the new season at Opéra de Paris and Théâtre des Champs Elysées but also at Athénée and the openings in galleries. I will start with an extraordinary and promising show at Louvre Lens (90 mns north of Paris by train), which features … Read More
What I look forward to in the autumn!
The fist large show is devoted to Nicolas de Staël, 1913-1955, who died too young and yet is one of the most revered XX th century French painters. Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris is opening a new exhibition of 200 of his works on September 15 and this is an event not to be missed. Xavier … Read More
Nic Barlow, a photographer at heart, has left us
Nic Barlow was a very dear friend. But most importantly he was a fabulous photographer, a garden specialist and also a great portraitist. His warmth, extravagant tastes, unusual clothes brought him the sympathy of all sitters. He left us last Tuesday, August 1, at 72, peacefully in his sleep in his beautiful house of Stancombe Park, Gloucestershire. He liked to … Read More
Musée Albert Kahn has more than its Japanese gardens to show
Albert Kahn, the successful banker of the turn of the century, who documented the world with 72 000 autochromes, in the “Archives of the Planet”, was a keen traveller and he always took a photographer with him. For its new exhibition, his museum in Boulogne is showing extraordinary photographs of Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro in 1909. The crossing … Read More
Frank Horvat is rejuvenated at Jeu de Paume
One of the good surprises at the opening of the new exhibition at Jeu de Paume was to meet Frank Horvat‘s daughter, Fiammetta, who is in charge of his archives and runs his studio. I knew the photographer (1928-2020) well in the 1980’s when he worked for Vogue Hommes and he had kept his charm and extreme simplicity, even though … Read More