Ritsuko Nakamura, Akemi Nishimura and Sachiko Nakamichi in Paris
Japan exudes poetry and mystery (largely due to the language) like no other country I know and when I received the invitation to discover the Ryokan Collection, a sort of Japanese Small luxury hotels group, I rushed to a funny little house on avenue George Mandel where four Ryokan owners had gathered. There are 39 members of this very exclusive group and it is very tempting to disappear on a tour all around Japan.
Joséphine von Klitzing just started Jove-Paris with Uzbek shirts
It’s always fun to see your friends’ daughters become adventurers or fashion moguls and when Joséphine von Klitzing invited me to see her new collection of Uzbek shirts, Jove-Paris, I ran. She had a presentation at la Folie Saint Martin, a unique little house near Porte Saint Martin, where you can entertain, organise concerts or lectures and discover a new side of trendy Paris. Her colorful shirts made of Ikat, a coton/silk fabric, are out of this world and reminiscent of the Silk Road refinements.Read More
Hubert Le Gall with one of his new mirrors at Galerie Pierre Alain Challier
Designer and set director Hubert Le Gall has been exhibiting with Pierre Alain Challier since 2002 at Artcurial. His new show at the gallery on rue Debelleyme is devoted to “Eternal Spring” and golden branches grow out of red velvet armchairs, wooden cabinets show nature through their shelves and rabbits become cozy seats. It’s all very whimsical.Read More
Afghanistan, Kabul, 1996 © James Nachtwey Archive, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth
James Nachtwey is a photographer who witnesses drama. Drama everywhere and the retrospective of his work as a photo reporter at Maison Européenne de la photographie, “Memoria” is so tragic that I would recommend that you go on a sunny day and with a good friend. I can’t even imagine what opening night was like with trendy ladies on their Louboutin heels being confronted to children dying of hunger in Somalia. It is the most important photo show of the moment, so don’t miss it.Read More
The lady cat, Yoko Igashi, 2017, Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac
It is a collection of spirits wandering through forests, of hungry ghosts and vengeful cat-women which have been haunting the Asian imagination for centuries that is the topic of a new exhibition “Ghosts and Hells in Asian art” at Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac. From buddhism to video games, from religion to popular art, curators have found the most amazing documents and costumes in Chinese, Thai and Japanese collections. Read More
Jean Désiré Ringel d’Illzach, Young prince Medici, ca 1890 © Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg. Photo A. Plisson
It is always a delight and a special emotion to enter the large hall of Musée d’Orsay, formerly a train station, where the clock remains and hundreds of sculptures are shown with the Statue of Liberty in the foreground. A short (100 pieces), but fun exhibition of polychrome sculptures, has just opened and I found out that the 19 th century fashion of coloring statues came from the Antiquity and was revived by recent archaeological finds. Some of them are very kitsch but others, like Camille Claudel‘s “the Wave”, are truly revolutionary. Read More
David Hockney, “Self Portrait III, 20 March 2012” iPad drawing printed on paper, Edition of 25, © David Hockney / Photo Credit : Richard Schmidt / Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. Paris
The first time I saw a David Hockney iPad drawing was at Musée Yves Saint Laurent in October 2011. The show was revolutionary and everyone wondered if “real” art was over? For the opening of their new gallery on avenue Matignon in the former Jérôme de Noirmont space, Galerie Lelong is showing “Portraits”, a series of four new self portraits and many others produced on iPad. If, like me, you revere David Hockney, you will be happy to discover this new space at the corner of Matignon and Penthièvre.Read More
The Mapping journey project is told by the migrant in his own language
Bouchra Khalili is an adventurous photographer and video artist and it is worth spending a long time watching the six series of videos and many more photographies of this fascinating show at Musée du Jeu de Paume. For the Moroccan born French artist has spent time around the world meeting with Filipinos, Africans, Americans, Greeks, Cubans, travelers of all kinds, and drawing a human map of immigrants who tell their story in 25 languages and dialects. She is beautiful and sophisticated, yet there is nothing fragile about her.Read More