Juliette Polac celebrates spring with jewelry

parisdiaFashion, Flowers and gardens2 Comments

Ring in gold and silver with a quartz stone incrusted with black tourmaline

“L’ivresse du Printemps” is a pretty title for a jewelry exhibition and when I met Juliette Polac, the talented designer who has been showing at Naïla de Montbrison‘s gallery forever, I immediately felt happy. She and her daughter Angela Fabre, an actress, discovered the show with me on the morning of the opening. And they were very excited and charming. Read More

Drawing now Art Fair, is at the height of its quality

parisdiaArt

Raquel Maulwurf, Burning XXIII, 2018, charcoal, pastel, Livingstone Gallery

For its 12th edition, Drawing now, the contemporary version of Salon du Dessin, was an exciting moment with many discoveries. It is not too large, so you have time to look properly at each one of the 72 International galleries including the lower level with “Insight”,  “Process”  and comic books. Fourteen different countries were present and many young artists are represented. I found precious treasures which I will share with you here and you can always buy them at their galleries later.Read More

Jacques Genin, a chocolate genius!

parisdiaHappy moments2 Comments

An Easter egg, a true art work at Jacques Genin

 

His reputation is that one has to eat his chocolates the day they are made and his metal boxes are devised to keep them fresh for a fortnight… Jacques Genin has a corner chocolate store on rue du Bac and rue de Varenne and it is hard to resist his lovely Easter bunnies and hens. He was recommended to me by another chocolate maker who insisted on saying that he was the one and only!Read More

Foujita, the Japanese master who fell in love with Paris

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La Danse, 1917, Watercolor on paper, © Fondation Foujita

The exhibition of Japanese artist Foujita (1886-1968) at Fondation Maillol is so varied that one could believe it refers to three different artists. From a very early age, Foujita became passionate about French art after seeing a painting by Monet. He was raised on the island of Kyushu where his father was a doctor in the Imperial army, and went to Tokyo to study art. But at 27, he moved to Paris, and immediately met Modigliani and Soutine. He became a French citizen in 1935.Read More

Tziganes in photographs, what a world!

parisdiaMovies, Photography1 Comment

Roger Schall, Pilgrimage at Saintes Maries de la Mer, ca 1938

 

I was curious to find out more about the world of Tziganes at Musée de l’Immigration at Porte Dorée and I fell upon a wonderful photo exhibition rather than a social history of the world of Romanys. The show initiated by Mathieu Pernot at Rencontres photographiques d’Arles, is a comprehensive reconstruction of images telling the story of these wandering people who have established themselves in Europe, the Middle East but also in Canada, the US and in Latin America.Read More

Joyeux, there are many reasons to love this place!

parisdiaHappy moments, Restaurants & Hotels9 Comments

Joyeux, a new kind of trendiness

Yann Bucaille Lanrezac is a dreamer. But before dreaming, he became a successful businessman in Brittany and in 2012, he bought a catamaran named Ephata. He used it to take autistic children and/or with drown syndrome for a day’s sail. Six thousand so far have been on the boat. One day, a young woman told him: “I don’t need a nice sail, I need a job”: and this is when he decided to open his first Joyeux coffee shop in Rennes, at the heart of Brittany. Today he is opening Joyeux Opera in Passage Choiseul (at corner of rue St Augustin) and he hired the hip young architect Léonie Alma Mason to do the decor. It is a very surprising and happy place!Read More

Mary Cassatt, Queen of prints at Jacquemart André

parisdiaArt2 Comments

La Toilette, 1890-1891, dry point et aquatint, © Courtesy Marc Rosen Fine Art and Adelson Galleries, New York

When you see Mary Cassatt‘s name in a museum you immediately think of mother and child portraits and impressionist paintings just not quite as amazing as Degas’ (her great friend) or Monet’. But at the private breakfast organized at Musée Jacquemart André by Teddy Tibi, founder of the art magazine Art Absolument,  I also discovered a fabulous dry point print maker (pointe sèche) and a modern woman who had no children of her own but loved painting them. Read More

Alvar Aalto so inspiring at Cité de l’architecture!

parisdiaArchitecture, Furniture2 Comments

A general view of the show with Aalto’s iconic chairs (the Fauteuil 26  in green) under the brick arcades of Cité de l’architecture

We all know Finnish designer and architect Alvar Aalto‘s emblematic Savoy vase and wooden stools but at Cité de l’architecture‘s retrospective, we learn more about him, his many churches and office buildings, and we discover his own house and offices. It is a beautiful show under the brick arcades of the museum at Trocadero. And since Aalto was mostly preoccupied with daily life, it is a good occasion to think about one’s own decor.

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