A very personal and subjective view of Paris life for all of you who are curious of what's going on in France

Oil on paper marouflé on canvas, 1963

Two exhibitions are devoted to post war painter René Laubiès this month, one in Les Sables d’Olonne at Abbaye de Sainte Croix and the other in Paris at Alain Margaron’s gallery. Both show the light and serenity of the French painter, born in Saigon in 1922, who died in Mangalore in 2006. He painted mostly in Kerala at the end of his career and led a very ascetic life in a local hotel. To spend time with his paintings is a privilege. They are soothing and enlightening.Read More

Caspar David Friedrich, Two men on the sea side, 1830-1835, Pushkin Museum of Art

Once again, Fondation Custodia is offering us an exceptional exhibition of rarely seen drawings. Taking advantage of the closing of the Pushkin Museum for renovations, Ger Luijten and Marina Lochak directors of Custodia and of the Pushkin museum have agreed to show these chefs d’oeuvres for the first time in Paris.  195 of the 27 000 drawings kept in the Russian museum’s collections are hanging at rue de Lille.  Drawn over a span of five centuries, these works by Albrecht Dürer, Carpaccio, Rembrandt, Poussin, Matisse and Picasso, show what fervent collectors the Russians were in the 19 th century and what a great eye, the initiator of the collection, Ivan Tsvetov, had in 1912 when he opened the drawing galleries.  It is a mind-blowing show with ancient drawings on the first floor and 20 th century in the basement. Read More

Bordalo II in front of “Plastic Tigger”, series Plastic animals, 2018

He is 31 and admits to having been a bad boy for a while but now, Bordalo II, the grandson of a Portuguese watercolorist with the same name (thus the II), is exhibiting his strange animals near the Grande Bibliothèque in an empty concrete space which will become a supermarket at the end of the year. The irony is that he spends his life and his art fighting plastic waste and turning garbage into art. The title of the show “Accord de Paris” refers to the Cop 21 agreement signed by 55 countries with Laurent Fabius in November 2016. I completely fell for him and his bears, lions and elephants which will seduce more people than just children.

Read More

Louise Pressager in front of Météo, 2018, l’Escalade, 2018, Fratrie, 2018, La main soleil, 2018 and Dessin bateau, 2016

You probably remember seeing Louise Pressager‘s work here before when she won the Prize of the Salon de Montrouge and was invited to show her videos at Palais de Tokyo by Jean de Loisy. She has since exhibited in Malakoff and in Caen, in Nancy and in Villeurbane, but her show at Galerie Laure Roynette is the first in a private gallery. And it is exhilarating. When I received the invitation of a large yellow cloud lit by the sun, I immediately felt happy and the series of drawings and video she is showing are both dark and very funny. They all treat the theme of human kind, socially, spiritually and mentally.Read More

Val Blenio, 1997

Xavier Valls, a Catalan painter whose son Manuel became Prime Minister of France during Hollande’s presidency, is at last getting some light in Paris at Institut Cervantès. The exhibition of his aerial paintings was the occasion of a little event around his charming Swiss Italian widow Luisangela (Luisa) who has many friends, their son and daughter Giovanna, who had flown in from Barcelona.  Read More