Marie Hélène de Taillac, a very pretty Byzantine gold ring with a large lemon quartz, and multicolor semi precious stones, at 3 890€

Going shopping for Christmas can be fun and I loved my little time spent at Marie Hélène de Taillac‘s shop on rue de Tournon. It is all blue and red and her sister Gabrielle, who beautifully edited the book on her jewelry, could not have been more patient and charming as is Philippe, the director of sales. Sealed drawers magically open and there comes a myriad of colored stones which are all cut and mounted in Jaipur, India. Prices are modest for precious stones and start at 300€. You find earrings and light necklaces, but mostly incredibly playful colored rings starting around 800€. One is in the shape of lips, very Dali like, others glitter like a summer sky.

Mary Ellen Bartley, at Yancey Richardson in New York, 3 600€ each

I can’t go to New York at the moment but have bought photos by Mary Ellen Bartley before in Long Island. She concentrates on books and you never tire of her very simple images which are quite mysterious and soothing. Her gallery Yancey Richardson who also represents Kenneth Josephson, Sebastian Salgado and Larry Sultan…,  usually comes to Paris for Paris photo but not this year. So I feel very frustrated. But you can order online of course.

Jérôme Tubiana, Fragments de Jeunesse, a childhood friendship with Patrick Modiano

Books are a cheap but often precious present and if you pick a beautifully written and heartfelt text like Jérome Tubiana‘s posthumous book, “Fragments de jeunesse”,  you will make your friends happy. I knew Jérôme well when I was young and he was always a very modest, very clever, kind and sharp mind. He went to school with writer and 2014 Nobel prize winner Patrick Modiano and tells how uneven their friendship was all along their lives. The book is incredibly sensitive and well written and one goes deep into the intricacies of teenagers’ friendships and anxieties. It is so moving and so interesting to follow a tortuous mind like Modiano’s who has devoted his whole corpus of books to the Nazi occupation of Paris. How they both discovered as young children that they were partly Jewish, how they both had problems with their fathers. How Modiano’s childhood was perceived differently by Jérôme than the way he described it himself in his autobiographical book “Le Pedigree”. One thing is certain, at age 10 his teachers already considered him a brilliant writer… The book is published by L’Herbe rouge. Jérôme sadly left us in April 2020 and we miss him dearly.

Khaled Dawwa, Compressed in his chair, 2016, bronze, 2800€

Pauline de Laboulaye, a well known art writer, has devoted the last five years to Portes ouvertes sur l’art , an association which helps Syrian and Afghan artists exhibit in Paris and in the suburbs.  Since the last show was cancelled in November, they edited a catalog of thirty photographers, painters, sculptors and you can buy their works directly from them. I love Khaled Dawwa who uses compressed bronze figures to express the imprisonment of his country, Khaled.dawwa@gmail.com.  I was very amused by photographer Abdul Saboor, who illustrates his vision of France on his website. I like the sense of humor of his photographs shot in the suburbs. abdulsaboorjan123@gmail.com

Abdul Saboor, Untitled, photography, 300€

The whole catalog can be downloaded at this website. The artists are not only talented but they need your help to survive, so far away from their country.