Mark Tobey is rediscovered at Jeanne Bucher Jaeger

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“Jazz Singer”, 1954 © Jean-Louis Losi Collection de Bueil & Ract Madoux

Galerist Jeanne Bucher discovered Mark Tobey (1890-1976) in New York in 1945, just before her death, and the gallery pursued her love for the artist and organized his first personal exhibition in 1955 in Paris, followed by an exhibition at the Tate in 1956 and one at Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 1961. “The Wise man of Seattle” as he was nicknamed, is one of the founders of modernity and he influenced Donald Judd’s minimalism, Cy Twombly’s scripts, Brice Marden’s encounters with Eastern art, Robert Ryan’s romance with white. His works are present in many museums from Fondation Beyeler in Basel to MoMA, the Whitney, the Tate… Centre Pompidou in Paris lent a large painting “Unknown Journey” from 1966, acquired from Jeanne Bucher. Private collectors Jean Gabriel de Bueil and Stanislas Ract-Madoux lent ten works. Very influenced by Asia, this corpus of 40 paintings is magically set in the Marais gallery where his diversity of style and colors can truly explode. Read More

With Chirico a lesson in metaphysics at l’Orangerie

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Carlo Carrà (1881-1966) Il gentiluomo ubriaco 1916-1917 © Private collection © ADAGP, Paris, 2020

“The suspension of logical sense in art is not an invention of us painters. Fair recognition for this discovery goes to Nietzsche, the Pole, even if in poetry it was first used by the Frenchman Rimbaud; in painting this achievement can be ascribed to the undersigned.”declare Giorgio de Chirico in 1919. The Chirico exhibition at Musée de l’Orangerie in the Tuileries is the fair recognition of the Greek born Italian painter’s influence on literary and cultural circles before and during WWI and thereafter. With sixty paintings, the show proves his influence on André Breton and Pablo Picasso but also on brilliant Italian followers such as Carlo Carrà and Giorgio Morandi, whom he met in Ferrare while doing military duties. This exhibition is organized with the Hamburg Kusnthalle and the Centro dell’arte Metafisico in Milano.

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Precious stones glitter at Museum of Natural history

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Ahumada meteorite, stony-iron meteorite (pallasite) with yellow green peridot crystals around 4.6 billion years old, found in 1909 in Ahumada (Chihuahua, Mexico) Museum d’histoire naturelle

“Pierres Précieuses” is an unusual exhibition  for a Museum of natural history and this is due to the dialogue between the collections of the institution founded in 1793 and the creations by Van Cleef & Arpels jewelers. And it is spectacular, probably the most exciting and intriguing show at the moment in Paris. Located in the Grande Galerie de l’Evolution’s lower space, it shows through 360 minerals and gems, how nature allows precious stones and metals to grow over millions of years. The interconnection of scientific and artistic knowledge has produced this show of  “Emerveiller pour instruire” (Amaze to educate) which is on until June 14, 2021.

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Gabrielle Chanel at Galliera, a stark approach to fashion

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Dress and coat ensemble, Spring Summer 1963, multicolored mohair tweed by Linton Tweed, raspberry silk twill with navy print, Pari sPalais Galliera

I was incredibly lucky to be asked by Pierre Provoyeur, former director of the museum of fashion at MAD, to the opening of “Gabrielle Chanel, Manifeste de Mode“, the exhibition which inaugurates the new Chanel galleries at Palais Galliera. Olivier Saillard, the artistic director of the show who instigated this partnership with the Couture house a few years ago, started his career with Provoyeur. Life goes in a circle. Véronique Belloir, who did the in depth research in narrow collaboration with the Chanel curators, also worked with Provoyeur at MAD. As an art historian and specialist of fashion, he was the best guide to outline the fabrics, the influences in design and the intellectual approach to fashion that Chanel had. The show is the largest ever (1 500 sq m, 350 pieces including 167 clothes), realized on her life with the oldest piece dating from 1916. It is quite dark and disciplined.Read More

In Le Havre, lampposts are the electrical stars!

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Anders Zorn, Fishermen in St Ives, 1888, Musée d’Orsay deposited in Pau

Musée André Malraux in Le Havre is a little glass jewel inaugurated in 1961, overlooking the beach which was still crowded two weeks ago. Temperatures of 25° allowed brave swimmers to enjoy the (quite) warm water of the great tides. The exhibition, “Nuits électriques” (electrical nights), is part of Normandy Impressionniste 2020, a large festival celebrating Impressionist painters, which covers the whole of Normandy (from Mont Saint Michel to Dieppe. And I was completely surprised by the theme, mostly lampposts, painted in France and abroad by artists avid to innovate thanks to electricity. With the visit of architect Auguste Perret (1874-1954)’s concrete post war apartments, it made for a perfect day trip.Read More

Museum of Modern art celebrates Victor Brauner, Sarah Moon and Hubert Duprat

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“Sur le motif”, 1937, Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / image Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI © Adagp, Paris, 2020

I had been waiting for these three exhibitions since April when they were due to open and strangely enough, between Sarah Moon and Victor Brauner, it is the third name, Hubert Duprat, a French contemporary self taught artist, who interested me the most. Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris certainly has a whole day to offer the visitor with these three major artists and it is a little miracle that these shows could be organized at all.  It is the largest retrospective for the Romanian painter since Dominique Boso’s at Centre Pompidou in 1972: Brauner was a prominent actor in the surrealist movement. It is the first one for fashion photographer Sarah Moon, who shows all her creativity especially at the beginning of her career. Fabrice Hergott, the director, was happy to open his galleries to the public again and is enchanting us with this trio.   Read More

In Veules-les-Roses, a wedding, a banquet of oysters, and the smallest fleuve in France.

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Caridad Duque, mother of the bride, with Mariana and Olric Izarn in Veules- les-Roses

One of the last weddings before they were all cancelled, took place in a charming lost hamlet of Normandy, in the middle of blue linen fields and it gave me the opportunity to spend some time in Veules-les-Roses, a sea side village with the shortest fleuve in France. A fleuve is a river which ends in the sea. This particular one, the Veules, is only 1 149 m long and our hotel, La Douce France,  was built over it. How much more poetic can life be? This village happens to be also, since 1997, a large center for farming oysters, and I ate there the largest one ever. It has a pretty greenhouse, Les Serres du Val, with lots of species and watercress growing in the river. A true haven.Read More

Man Ray and Fashion, at Musée du Luxembourg

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Man Ray, Hair, 1929 late print,© private collection, courtesy Fondazione Marconi © Man Ray 2015 Trust / Adagp, Paris 2020

It is not so easy to put on an exhibition of Man Ray, with only his fashion photographs, and I am not sure that the pink and celadon colors of the rooms at Musée du Luxembourg help much. Yet, fashion photography is an interesting phenomenon which started with Paul Poiret in 1911, Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli in the 1920’s. Before, drawings and sketches were the only way to illustrate fashion.  Many magazine covers are here to prove it from Vogue to Harper’s Bazaar. Yet we have been accustomed to such brilliant painting retrospectives in this museum that the theme of the show seems a little light… The artist himself considered this professional occupation as a “minor activity” and he was right. But we are so happy to have any exhibition at all, that I am sure the young crowds will like rush to see it.Read More