To do and not to do this week

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Louis-Antoine Prat, President of les Amis du Louvre, Sébastien Fumaroli, Nahal Carrière, José Luis Lópes-Linares and Charlotte Chastel-Rousseau, curator of Spanish paintings at the Louvre

For some reason there are many galas this month at Musée d’Orsay in the Munch exhibition,  at the Palais Royal for the Friends of Chantilly, at Cercle Carpeaux for the Académie de l’Opéra National de Paris, and they are all fun. “Les Amis du Louvre“, organized a screening of the wonderful film “l‘Ombre de Goya” (Goya’s shadow) in the Michel Laclotte auditorium designed by I.M. Pei. The atmosphere was  electrical with Jean Claude Carrière’s beautiful widow Nahal, presenting the film with Louis Antoine Prat, Sébastien Fumaroli and Charlotte Chastel-Rousseau, curator of Spanish paintings at the Louvre. The film which comes out in theaters on Wednesday 21, is about the modernity of the 18 th century painter who inspired Luis Buñuel, Julian Schnabel, and so many artists. Read More

Johann Heindrich Füssli, precursor of the Game of thrones

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“The three witches”, after 1783, The Royal Shakespeare Company Collection, Stratford-upon-Avon

Shows are not always perfect at Musée Jacquemart André but this time, the “Realm of Dreams and the Fantastic” with Swiss painter Füssli is perfect for the size of the rooms and visiting the show with the witty and very knowledgeable Christopher Baker, director of European and Scottish art at the National Gallery of Scotland, was a real treat. He made sure we understood how innovative the painter’s dreams were and how his strangeness was perverse for his times. Also how he influenced twentieth century artists such as Max Ernst or more recently Eric Rohmer in his film “La Marquise d’O”, which takes after his Incubus in “the Nightmare”. He trained to be a priest and therefore had an in depth knowledge of the Bible. He also contemplated becoming a writer and Shakespeare and John Milton and German poet Christoph Martin Wieland, inspired his paintings and drawings. Read More

At Maison Européenne de la Photo, Boris Mikhaïlov brings back a Ukrainian past

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Sotas Art, 1975-1986, Pinault Collection

Born in 1938, in Kharkiv, photographer Boris Mikhaïlov is considered as one of the most influential Eastern European artist today. The fact that he is Ukrainian obviously adds a dramatic note to the exhibition “Ukrainian Journal” curated by Laurie Hurwitz at MEP (Maison europécnne de la photo) until January 15. For the last fifty years he has documented the collapse of the USSR and its consequences on his own country. And he has turned these documentary pictures into conceptual art using colorization, overimpressions and text. The effect is tantalizing.Read More

Frida Kahlo is an inspirer at Musée Galliera

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Florence Arquin, Frida Kahlo in her wheelchair, La Casa Azul, 1951, private collection

“Beyond Appearances” is how the brilliant Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), is presented in the bottom floor, curved galleries at Palais Galliera until March 5, 2023 and the 200 pieces flown in from Casa Azul in Mexico City are really magical at reviving her dramatic life. These personal effects, jewelry, dresses, medicine, make up bottles, family pictures, were placed under seal when she died by her husband, Diego Rivera, and were not revealed until fifty years later. On the first floor, a group of fun and glamorous contemporary dresses, bring a more optimistic look to the visitor. And Circe Henestrosa, the Mexican curator of the show seemed extremely happy with her Spanish Basque colleague Miren Arzalluz, the director of Palais Galliera since 2018. Read More

The Day the Queen died, IKSEL decorative arts opened on rue Bonaparte

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Mehmet and Dimonah Iksel with their son Kubilai, a philosopher

We all remember where we were on September 11 and we will forever remember where we were the evening Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8. She managed to complete her 70 year jubilee AND to meet the new prime minister Liz Truss at Balmoral, two days before leaving us. What a determination and courage she had! When we learned the news, Paris was in the middle of design week and all the galleries of the Latin quarter were open and serving champagne. I was in the new IKSEL showroom on rue Bonaparte, next door to Ecole des Beaux Arts.Read More

Gérard Garouste, a giant at Centre Pompidou

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Gerard Garouste in front of “Adhara”, 1981 which was exhibited at Holly Solomon in New York in 1982

We spent the summer waiting for this large retrospective of Gérard Garouste’s paintings and no one was disappointed at the opening at Centre Pompidou! Sophie Duplaix, the very discreet curator of the show, dialogued with the artist who seemed extremely happy in his elegant blazer, light pants and brown suede shoes. We talked about his decor at the Privilège in the Palace night club which launched him with the general public in 1978 and how upset he was when he discovered it had been destroyed after Fabrice Emaer died. Garouste’s sensitivity and great intelligence strike the eye throughout the show. It is a major discovery, even for those who have followed his work through the Durand Dessert and Templon countless exhibitions. And the size of most works is astonishing.Read More

Cyril Duret has come a long way since Nancy

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Collector Alain Weill at home

When we first met, Cyril Duret had just graduated from the University of Arts ENSAD in Nancy where his teacher, artist Etienne Pressager, had recommended that he contact me for his thesis. He has since exhibited his “Portraits mondains” in a few galleries, in Provence where he lives part of the time and his new show at Loeve&Co Marais is on until October 15 in a delightful greenhouse, rue de Montmorency. I am not sure that the word “mondain” is appropriate for his series of art collectors and curators, who are usually hard working people, but his paintings are interesting as a genre. He is better with men than with ladies and he is good at enhancing their attitudes. The decor, the objects, the world of his models, is what really counts.Read More

Gérard Depardieu is irresistible in Les Volets Verts

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Gérard Depardieu and Benoît Poelvoorde go fishing

The critic has been very negative and I don’t know why. “Les Volets Verts” (the green shutters), the new film by Jean Becker, with Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant is based on an old story published in 1950 by George Simenon. The script is Jean Loup Dabadie‘s last one. He died in May 2020. It is an (almost) one man show by the most brilliant living French actor, who plays his own part in a way, in the film. He is overweight and risks a heart attack any minute, is still in love with his former wife, an actress, Fanny Ardant, and likes to seduce. All the supporting actors are excellent, Benoît Poelvoorde as his only friend, Anouk Grinberg who dresses him every night for the mediocre play he acts in, and Steffi Celma the wonderful actress (discovered in “10%” call my agent) who accompanies his last days.Read More