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

Ferdinand Gueldry, Sorting the wool, 1913

When you travel to Lille and its adjacent city of Roubaix, in the north of France, you enter a world of past huge wealth (the wool industry) which has been drastically erased in the 1970’s. Since, unemployment and desertification have been the mottos. A former swimming pool, La Piscine,  was transformed in 2001 into a museum of modern art with extended collections of sculpture and ceramics. It has just been enlarged by architect Jean-Paul Philippon and rooms dedicated to local history have been developed. It is spectacular!Read More

Elena Prentice, Morning, 2018, Sumie-e and watercolor on paper

I have a weakness for a small gallery on rue de l’Echaudé, Documents 15,  which presents works on paper and mostly prints and etchings. This month’s show features a couple, Elena Prentice and Gustave de Staël, who are both wonderful artists. She paints with watercolor and he draws and prints. The hanging is perfect, and the very pretty space enlightens the talent of both artists who share their lives between Tangier, Paris and the East coast. Read More

Robert Bittenbender at Galerie Lomex in front of “quora”, 2018

It was a young and very international FIAC, (Foire international d’art contemporain) this year at Grand Palais and I discovered a few artists which is what one wants from art fairs. The Grand Palais looked stupendous in the sun and everyone was still tanned from the summer and happy to be in Paris. With many exhibitions “off” at Petit Palais, on place Vendôme and in the Tuileries gardens, Jennifer Flay, director of FIAC, has managed to shake Paris and bring contemporary art into everyday life.Read More

The Policeman’s daughter, 1987, private collection, © Copyright Paula Rego Courtesy Marlborough Fine Art

At 83, Portuguese born British artist Paula Rego is as violent as ever in her show at Musée de l’Orangerie. I fell in love with her work in November 1988 in London, when she exhibited at the Serpentine gallery and one of the paintings, “The Policeman’s daughter”, which so struck me then, is also here. “The Cruel Stories” is about fairy tales inspired by Louise Bourgeois’ spiders, Goya and Daumier dark prints, Jane Eyre and James Ensor. Her culture is as wide as her modernity and all the themes she develops are strikingly contemporary. There is a parallel show of her work at Galerie Sophie Scheidecker, behind Place des Vosges.

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