The webzine for English speaking Parisians
“I wanted to leave Poland to see how my posters would stand up to the neon light of the west. I dreamed of Paris.” Roman Cieslewicz (1930-1996) came to Paris in 1963 and quickly became one of France’s leading graphic artists. The Musée des Arts Décoratifs revisits this major figure in late 20th century graphic design with a retrospective Roman Cieslewicz, la fabrique des images (until Sept. 23, 2018).
Paris’ Maison de l’Amérique Latine hosts an exhibition by fifteen international artists—photos, installations, holograms, video projections— inspired by Argentinian writer Adolfo Bioy Casares’ science fiction novel “Morel’s Invention or The Image Machine,” published in 1940 (to July 21, 2018). The book—a contemplation of image, reality, immortality and love— has influenced generations of artists from Garcia Marquez to Robbe-Grillet’s scenario for “L’Année Derniere à Marienbad (1961). Continue reading ““Morel’s Invention” Paris Exhibition”
Paris’ Denmark House is showing Henrik Saxgren’s stunning documentary photographs of Arctic Greenland (to May 17, 2018). Saxgren’s photos depict the life of sea hunters in the northernmost Greenlandic settlements. Documenting life in the harsh arctic wilderness he accompanied them on hunts on sea ice and travelled hundreds of miles by dog sled. The result is his latest book “Ultima Thule” and the exhibition at the Danish cultural center. Continue reading “Henrik Saxgren “Ultima Thule””
Art meets technology with “Artistes & Robots” at the Grand Palais (until July 9). The exhibition, featuring mostly European artists, opens with Jean Tinguely’s mid-1950s “Metamatics” (machines that make paintings). Among the techno pioneers the exhibition includes Nam June Paik’s iconic pseudo robot, “Olympe de Gougs,” an assembly of 12 wooden television sets, 12 color monitors and a laser videodisc player. It was commissioned by Paris for the bicentenary of the French Revolution in 1989. Continue reading “Robots & Artists at Grand Palais”
Paris’ Museum of Modern Art revisits French artist Jean Fautrier (1898-1964) with a major retrospective of his paintings, drawings and sculptures (to May 20, 2018). He is not well known outside France. But in Europe he is considered one of the most important precursors of “art informel,” a style which developed parallel to American abstract expressionism. In his famous series – Hostages (1943-1945), Objets (1955), Nus (1956), Partisans (1957) – the painting material itself becomes a major subject of the work. Continue reading “Jean Fautrier, Matter and Light”
Vincent Van Gogh in a letter from Paris to his friend Horace Mann Livens in 1886 said: “Paris is Paris, there is but one Paris and however hard living may be here… the French air clears up the brain and does one good.” Similar words have been spoken many times by countless artists past and present. “The Dutch in Paris, 1789-1914” —an exhibition at the Petit Palais—revisits the Paris sejours of nine Dutch artists attracted to Paris tracing their interactions with “La Ville-Lumière” (to May 13, 2018). Continue reading “Dutch Artists in Paris…”
The Tower Theatre returns to Paris performing Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (June 5-10, 2018) at the Théâtre de Verdure, Jardin Shakespeare. The play (performed in English) is a life affirming classic where romance and love triumph over hearts frozen in perpetual winter. Continue reading “Tower Theatre Performs in Paris”
The Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation revisits the work of photographer, painter and art intellectual Zbigniew Dłubak (1921-2005), who was a leading figure of the post-war Polish photographic scene (until April 29). “Zbigniew Dłubak, heir of the avant-garde” is not only an opportunity to discover an interesting Eastern European photographer, but also a snapshot of the Polish art scene during the Soviet era. Dłubak’s work blurs the lines between painting and photography, which may explain why he isn’t better known outside of Poland. The exhibition provides an overview of his artistic career and research beginning with his fifties modernist abstract experiments and includes his later more conceptual projects during the sixties and seventies such as “Iconosphere” “Desymbolisations” and “Asymmetry.”
“Zbigniew Dłubak, heir of the avant-garde”, to April 29, 2018, The Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation
The Grand Palais revisits the work of Czech painter and graphic artist František Kupka (1871–1957) one of the pioneers of abstract painting and Orphic Cubism. Kupka’s abstract works arose from a base of realism, but later evolved into pure abstraction. The retrospective traces Kupka’s career from his early Paris press illustrations of the 1890’s to his symbolist experiments to his final abstract paintings during the 1950’s (until July 30, 2018) The exhibition will be presented at the National Gallery in Prague next fall and then at the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki in 2019. Continue reading “Kupka …Pioneer of Abstraction”
The Centre Pompidou is showing photographs by David Goldblatt, who has chronicled South Africa and its people from the 1950s until today. The exhibition (until May 13, 2018) begins with his early 1960’s photos of “Afrikaner” famers and the mining world. His images provide insights into the troubled history of South Africa while inviting us to look at buildings and landscapes as indicators of the values of a society. Continue reading “David Goldblatt’s Photographs”
Paris’ Centre Pompidou hosts a sampling of work by American artist Jim Dine (until April 23). The title of the exhibition —translated as Paris recognition or gratitude— reflects the artist’s love for the city he has been visiting since the sixties. He maintains an art studio in Montrouge. The exhibition consists of 28 works that make up a recent donation by the artist to Paris Musée National d’Art Moderne. A gift he says to repay his “personal and cultural debt” to France. Over the past years Dine has also donated selections of his art to museums across Europe and the US, including the British Museum, the Albertina in Vienna, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Continue reading “Jim Dine Paris Reconnaissance”