Jesper Christiansen at Maison du Danemark

parisdiaArt2 Comments

Op Alle De Ting, 2019-2020, Martin Hansen’s bicycle ride

Most Parisians only know Maison du Danemark at the top of the Champs Elysées for its fabulous restaurant where aquavit and “unilaterally cooke” salmon are the prime attraction. But if you go up to the second floor, you will find a pretty art gallery which regularly shows Danish artists. This time and until July 31, Jesper Christiansen exhibits his landscapes and interior scenes with all the mystery of the North. Northern light, northern flowers and trees and this made me want to travel to Seeland this summer. On the floor above are the New York Times offices.Read More

Chantilly and Compiègne, two reasons to drive north

parisdiaArchitecture, Art, Flowers and gardens4 Comments

Model of a berline with suspensions as described by Garsault in his treaty of cars in 1756, ca 1760-1770, preempted by Château de Compiègne

Les Journées des Plantes de Chantilly were sunny and very relaxed this spring and a few new exhibitors attended, whom I loved. Prince Amin Aga Khan, the faithful garden lover, presented the Jurys and Alain Baraton, Head Gardner of Versailles, awarded the different prizes with a good sense of humor. Hélène Fustier who founded Les Journées des Plantes in Courson in 1982, was there talking to everyone and curator Mathieu Deldicque was preparing, at the Jeu de Paume, his exhibition of Dürer drawings and engravings which opens on June 4. Thirty minutes away at Château de Compiègne, curator Etienne Guibert was unveiling five years of new acquisitions which are both modest and extraordinary, and include Napoléon III’s yacht’s furniture and models of 18 th century carriages with suspension. It is fantastic to still discover affordable historical pieces of art at auction and in galleries.Read More

Guy Ladrière, a very special collector…

parisdiaArt, Books1 Comment

Sardonyx cameo, The head of Medusa with wings in her hair and snakes at her neck, I-II nd century AD? found in the Tiber, Rome 1886

Guy Ladrière is an established antique dealer on quai Voltaire, facing the Louvre. He started his career with Charles Ratton (1895-1986), a specialist of primitive arts, who organized the major 1930 exhibition of African and Oceanic art at the Pigalle theatre. He learned from him the sense of aesthetics of objects. His passion for research and his fantastic eye have made him a great specialist of sculpture from Antiquity to 18 th  century. But last week, it is at Ecole des Arts Joailliers, the school founded by Van Cleef & Arpels, that he was presenting his intimate collection of sculpted stones, cameos and intaglios, which he has been identifying for almost fifty years. The show is curated by Philippe Malgouyres, from the Louvre, the very museum where he first became acquainted with medieval rings. He pursued his passion at the Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothèque Nationale where he trained to recognize the tiny works of art. From Alexander to Medusa, Augustus to Elizabeth I, there are many famous faces on these sculpted gems. But what is most striking is the precision of each portrait and the beauty of the stones. Read More

Eva Ionesco and Christian Louboutin are so fun! And so is Diane de Beauvau Craon…

parisdiaBooks1 Comment

Eva Ionesco and Alain Pacadis at le Palace

One of the best books of the moment for its excellent writing and the perfect 1980’s lifestyle it describes, is Eva Ionesco‘s “Les enfants de la nuit” (children of the night). It is the story of how she, 11 1/2 years old met Christian Louboutin, 13 1/2, on the street, near her house, and how they discovered they were (not) attending the same lycée at Porte Dorée in the East of Paris. She was an abused child to her mother who made her pose for Lolita type pictures and films and lived off her money. She dressed with 10 cm high heals and wore mascara and they went out every night with Vincent Darré, to gay nightclubs, first at “le 7” on rue Sainte Anne, later at “le Palace” which will be the theme of an exhibition in October at MAD. They went rollerskating at la Main Jaune in Montreuil and socialized with the entourage of Yves Saint Laurent, Andrée Putman (who had children their age) and in Rome, Dado Ruspoli. Diane de Beauvau Craon is featured often in the book as an actor of night life of the time. She publishes her own Memoir “Sans départir” and will sign it at Galignani‘s on May 24.Read More

Aline Vidal takes us on a walk and Stéphanie des Horts writes about Doris

parisdiaArt, Books1 Comment

The artist Marcel Broodthaers’ box is in front of Hotel de la Monnaie at Fabrice’s bookshop

Aline Vidal who used to have a beautiful gallery on rue Bonaparte, has become an itinerant curator and manages many projects, more original one than another. After creating special artists seats for theatre La Scala, she invites us to wander around the bouquinistes of quai de Conti (across the street from the French Academy), and discover little boxes designed by a series of artists in the show De(s)rives. A few blocks further, on rue du  Bac, the well known novelist Stéphanie des Horts had a book signing in a lovely second hand bookshop Librairie Kogan, for her new sexy biography of Doris Delevingne, Viscountess Castlerosse, who knew Prime Minister Winston Churchill intimately. And Asia Society, opens its new headquarters for Europe near the Arc de Triomphe, with paintings by Hao Shiming lent by galerie HDM, Hadrien de Montferrand. Read More

Musée de Cluny has reopened, what a treat!

parisdiaArchitecture, Art6 Comments

New reception building, west façade, Bernard Desmoulin, architect © M. Denancé / musée de Cluny – musée national du Moyen Âge

Musée National du Moyen-Age Cluny has been under works for the last ten years and closed for three, which was heart breaking. But it is now reopening on Thursday and the magic has remained even though 23 million € were spent on the architecture, the restoration of the works and the modernisation of all spaces to prepare it for the new generations. And a new route was devised chronologically with more light streaming through the medieval glass windows. The intent was to get younger visitors into museum and it has achieved thanks to the wonderful team of curators under the leadership of Séverine Lepape. The recently modernized façade and new entrance were designed by Bernard Desmoulin who joined the Académie des Beaux Arts last year. Now there is easy access to all 28 different levels and to the light spaces devoted to 1 600 works in the 21 rooms. Of course the chef d’oeuvre is the series of 6 tapestries of the Lady with the Unicorn but until you reach it in the penultimate room, so many beautiful treasures await you . Read More

Daniel Marchesseau parts with his Lalannes to benefit Musée d’Orsay

parisdiaArt, Auction3 Comments

François Xavier Lalanne, Le mouton de Pierre, 1979, concrete and bronze, 150 000€-200 000€

I now realize what a rare privilege it was to have dinner beneath the 700 000€ Lalanne suspension and facing the Alechinski painting at Daniel Marchesseau‘s house in the 7 th arrondissement. It was always a round table of ten, slightly too tight with a mix of collectors, young curators, beautiful ladies and blinis and salmon eggs eaten with the Lalanne spoons. This top museum curator who worked for Musée d’Art Moderne Paris, Musée des Arts Décoraitfs, Musée de la Vie Romantique and for many Japanese museums as well as Fondation Gianadda in Martigny, is giving up for sale his very personal collection of Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne‘s animals, suspensions and sculptures. The proceeds of the auction,  at 2.30 pm on Tuesday 24 th, conducted by François de Ricqlès for Sotheby’s, will go towards restoring the XVII th century Hotel de Mailly-Nesle which was acquired by Musée d’Orsay in 2016. Misia Sert lived there in 1905. It will become a documentation and research center for art historians on the same block as the museum.Read More

La Sauvegarde de l’Art français turns 100 and celebrates…

parisdiaArchitecture, Art1 Comment

Abel Faivre, logo for the Sauvegarde, 1922

An exhaustive book on the history of the “Sauvegarde”, a new program of “The greatest museum in France” for high schools, and more medieval churches saved in the middle of nowhere… The energy of La Sauvegarde de l’Art Français ‘s president, Olivier de Rohan is endless and his ideas are revolutionary.  On May 19th at 6 pm, there will be a book signing at Hotel de Sully in the Marais. A true tribute paid by Philippe Bélaval, President of Centre des Monuments Nationaux, to this amazing institution founded by Duc de Trévise in 1921. This gentleman and art lover was a great fighter of what he called himself “Elginism” a reference to Lord Elgin who took apart pieces of the Parthenon and sold them to the British Museum. Monuments were not being restored in France after the war and the separation of the church and the state in 1905 had impoverished religious establishments. When he discovered that marble arcades of the Cistercian abbey of Bonnefont, in Occitany, had been transported in a private house transformed in a gendarmerie,  he decided to help the mayor to save the sculptures. Read More