Chéri Samba, Picasso, 2000 © Chéri Samba
Yan Pei-Ming’s portrait, 2009, looks at Maurizio Cattelan’s statue, 1998
Radio France, music by excellence
The organ under construction in Barcelona, for the new auditorium of Radio France
Radio France, the state organization run by the dashing Mathieu Galet, owns seven public radios, and runs two orchestras and two choirs. To host their concerts, which are usually transmitted live on France Musique, a new fabulous auditorium has been built by AS architecture studio and reopened on November 14 of last year.Read More
From Edo to Tokyo with Kuniyoshi and more…
The Tamura ferry on the road to Ōyama, Sagami province, circa 1842. Courstesy of Gallery Beniya.
I did not know that before being called Tokyo, an anagram of Kyoto, the imperial capital until 1868, the main Japanese city for entertainment was called Edo and had more than 1 million inhabitants.. It is not surtprising then, that Kuniyoshi, the king of coloured prints in 18 th century Japan, had a large public and made over ten thousand of them during his 66 year long life.
Emperor Sutoku sends his vassals to save Tametomo, 1851, (detail) Courstesy of Gallery Beniya
The exhibition at Petit Palais is a big surprise and quite riveting. Curated by Gaëlle Rio and Yuriko Iwakiri, it is beautifully laid out and details of its violent and imaginative works are visually striking.
Beautiful Families….
Mathieu Amalric, Karin Viard, Gilles Lellouche and Marine Vacth in “Belles Familles”
This film is a true family business in many ways, since director Jean Paul Rappeneau has directed the film with two of his sons. Julien as co-script writer and Martin as music composer. And the film, a classical French family story with notaries, inheritance, a lost house, and a second “wife” with a beautiful daughter, is a real success !Read More
Korea now!
Red oak, natural stone desk by Afterimage, 2008 and white porcelain moon jars in the background
It is France-Korea year and Paris is buzzing all over with this mysterious and so successful country. In music, golf and design, Koreans have made many of their names famous in the last ten years and so it seemed natural that Musée des Arts Décoratifs, dedicate two large spaces, la Grande Nef and Musée de la Mode to its artists and designers.
Two designers from Hanbok, traditional clothes in the red dresses room
From royal couturier to painter of palaces
Hervé Aaron and the artist, Victor Edelstein, at Didier Aaron gallery in Paris
He became instantly world famous in the 1980’s after Princess Diana danced with John Travolta in the « ink-blue » velvet gown he designed for her dinner at the White House. Victor Edelstein, who started his career as a couturier at Biba in London in 1966, went on to dress all the British royalties and New York queens (Anna Wintour) and designed costumes for the ballet. He has now since 1993, become a full time painter like his wife Annamaria Succi.
Alan Salz and Kristen van Riel enjoy the Indian decors of the throne room in the place of Jodhpur
Splendour and Misery at Orsay
The bed of the famous Païva whose house is now the Traveller’s club on the Champs Elysées
It is interesting to see that two major exhibitions in Paris, are totally dedicated to women. Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun at Grand Palais describes in detail the elegance of aristocrats at Marie Antoinette‘s court. « Splendour and Misery » at Musée d’Orsay, tries to draw a fresco of prostitution in the late 19 th century. It is full of beautiful paintings by Toulouse Lautrec, Degas, Constantin Guys and Béraud… and wonderfully designed by Robert Carsen, but the thematics did not convince me.Read More
Wilfredo Lam out of Cuba and back
Wifredo Lam, Cuba, 1956 Photo: Jesse A. Fernandez © Jesse A. Fernandez Estate
Campesina castellana, 1927, Photo: Archives SDO Wifredo Lam © Adagp, Paris 2015
Born the 8 th child of the family in Sagua la Grande, a little town east of Havana, Wilfredo Lam takes his Chinese name from his father Enrique Lam-Yam, who emigrated from Canton in 1860. His mother, part Congolese and part Spanish, was born in Cuba. Thus the most handsome metis young man, who studied art in Havana at 14, before leaving for Madrid at 21. The retrospective of over three hundred of his works at Centre Pompidou is the first one in France where he lived for so many years.Read More