From Dharamsala, with love

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Dharamsala 2021, Trees B3, all pictures come in three sizes and are printed on archival paper, signed and numbered

Some of you might be aware that the 14 th Dalai Lama, Tenzyn Gyato (b.1935)  has left Tibet in 1959 with 100 000 Tibetans and settled in Dharamsala in order to keep its religious freedom. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Nicholas Vreeland who was raised in New York, and worked there with both Irving Penn and Richard Avedon as an assistant photographer, has become a Tibetan monk and is, since 2012, the abbot of the Rato Dratsang monastery in Southern India. He is currently showing  thirteen photographs, “Trees of Dharamsala”, at The Other Space, in Jogiwara Village, Dharamsala.  The exhibition is made up of three sections with prints in three specific sizes: Tree Portraits, Trees, and Barnett (a small village near his monastery). If you can’t travel to India to see the show, you can order the pictures from Julian Urban. All proceeds from the sales will benefit the monastery and the prints will be mailed to you.

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Photographer Samuel Fosso is impressive at MEP

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Série « Tati », The Golfer, 1997© Samuel Fosso, courtesy Jean-Marc Patras / Paris

Suddenly African artists and writers are hip in Paris and at the time when the Goncourt Prize is being awarded to “La Plus secrète Mémoire des Hommes” by the Dakar born, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, I enjoyed Samuel Fosso‘s exhibition at MEP, Musée Européenne de la photographie, run since 2019 by the Scot Simon Baker. The very talented photographer was born in Cameroon in 1962 from Nigerian parents and has lived in Bangui, in Central African Republic, since he was 13. This retrospective includes very early pictures from his studio in Bangui, the Tati series which was exhibited at Centre Pompidou in Africa Remix and very recent pictures of the Pope and Mao. A series of black and white personal pictures is particularly moving halfway through the exhibit.Read More

In Compiègne, speed takes many faces

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La Souplette, Bicycle in curved wood, France, 1897 © Collection of musée d’Art et d’Industrie de Saint-Etienne, photo Hubert Genouilhac

Two years ago, Rodolphe Rapetti, director of Château de Compiègne, had impressed us with a fabulous car show “Concept car-Pure Beauty” consisting of models with the most brilliant designs, which had invaded the first floor salons and everyone, young and old, enjoyed it. This week, a new exhibition called “Vitesse“, (Speed) is opening with a wide range of vehicles from horse-drawn sulkies to cycles in wood and a XX th century Ferrari: it tells the story of man’s desire for speed. From Joséphine Bonaparte’s fancy sleigh to Venturi, the fastest electric car in the world, we travel through time and shapes in this magical exhibition.Read More

Don’t miss, this week…

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Anke Vrignon, coral and gold earrings, 1 700€ at Naïla de Monbrison

It’s Christmas very soon and of course you have not found any presents yet… Here are a few ideas for you. Inès Olaechea who used to run a beautiful shop of Mexican earrings and handbags on rue de l’Université is now marketing  Marine Breynaert‘s lamps and candle holders and she is having a private sale until December 24, at 46 rue de Varenne. You need to register here or call 0669305786 to get the access codes. Naïla de Monbrison has her usual magical earrings and necklaces on 6 rue de Bourgogne with creations by Violaine Febvret, Anke Vrignon and Brita. Isabelle de Borchgrave shares a space with florist Christian Tortu on 16 rue de Turenne where she presents her famous paper, and now bronze, pleats and Sophie de Laporte exhibits her tondos at Galerie Pierre Alain Challier, rue Debelleyme. But the surprise of the week was the Special Prize of l’Académie du Renseignement in the non fiction category which was awarded to Ben Macintyre, an author recommended to Editions de Fallois by Daphné and Henri Bernard, who translated “Agent Sonya” in French. The very secret ceremony was a unique moment where Andreï Kozovoï received the Grand Prize of the Académie for his book, “Russian Secret services” published by Editions Tallandier. He has recently published a biography of Brejnev. Read More

Simone Pheulpin folds cotton at MAD

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Simone Pheulpin with Croissance III, photo Antoine Lippens

Some of you might remember the extraordinary exhibition four years ago at la Chapelle Expiatoire of Simone Pheulpin’s folded cotton sculptures? This is where I first encountered the 80 year old artist who celebrates her new decade at Musée des Arts Décoratifs with fifty works shown in the period rooms on the fourth floor, and it is no surprise that they work perfectly well with Emile Gallé’s and Hector Guimard’s furniture or Jeanne Lanvin’s fabulous Rateau screens.  This is a new artistic departure for the former tennis teacher, who has been folding cotton for fifty years now, but was only “discovered” in 2008 par Florence Guilier Bernard, the founder of galerie maison parisienne. The other good fairy in the conception of this exhibition is Chloé Pitiot, an architect by training, who first saw Simone Pheulpin‘s sculptures at PAD and fell in love with them. She is the curator in charge of decorative arts and design at MAD since 2018.Read More

Open Air painting at Fondation Custodia is a true emotion

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Jules Coignet, View of Bozen with a painter, 1837, National Gallery of Art Washington

When Ger Luijten introduced his new exhibition at Fondation Custodia describing “portraits of rocks” on the music of Simon and Garfunkel‘s “I am a rock”, everyone clapped in the audience. This outstanding director of the Dutch foundation is certainly the most creative curator of classical art at the moment and when he went on to read a poem on trees by the Swiss writer Philippe Jacottet (who died last February), we were all moved and inspired. The new exhibition called “Sur le motif, Peindre en plein air” “True to Nature, Open-air painting in Europe” describes the numerous painters (1780-1870) who, a century before the Impressionists, went and painted in the open air with oil. The show started at the National Gallery in Washington last autumn and will continue at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge next May. It is totally fascinating and a great moment of emotion.Read More

Gigot de 7 heures, 7 hour leg of lamb by Joseph

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The weather was so dreary last week that I decided to flee to Brussels in my little car and spend the week end with the best chef I know who was kind enough to cook a gigot de 7 heures (a seven hour leg of lamb) one of the most comforting and delicious winter dish you can dream of. You might remember him, Joseph de Vilmorin, who already shared with us his Poulet Molière last February? It was very successful with all of you. So please enjoy with me the pleasure of cooking and mostly eating this traditional lamb, by a fireplace in a very confortable mansion. There is nothing that can rival good food and wine with exceptional friendship. Read More

Georg Baselitz, reigns supreme at Centre Pompidou

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Der Baum, (The Tree), 1966, private collection

I had seen his majestic sculpture in front of the Institut where he was accepted on October 27 as a member of the Académie des Beaux Arts, and was afraid to be disappointed by his large exhibition at Centre Pompidou and it was exactly the reverse. I was stunned by the power of his paintings and loved almost all of them, dancing from one room to the other with excitement and joy. Georg Baselitz, (b.1938) was first trained in the German Democratic Republic and created a scandal in West Berlin in 1963 with his sombre iconography peopled by myths and legends. From the first painting in the show dedicated to Antonin Artaud in 1962, to the last period painted in 2019, the large retrospective of sixty years of work, is a festival of talent and colors. The show is less crowded that the Georgia O’Keefe and you can visit it without booking. Read More