The YSL brand has been long considered synonymous with French classic design. Now a there is a museum dedicated to the couturier’s work at the premises of his former haute couture house located at 5, avenue Marceau in Paris’ 16th arrondissement. Housed in the Second Empire mansion where the designer’s team worked for three decades, the museum covers all the major themes in Saint Laurent’s work, including: the most emblematic designs embodying the designer’s quintessential style, such as the tuxedo, the safari jacket, the jumpsuit and the trench coat; his various tributes to art such as the famous Mondrian dress and the collections inspired by his imagined journeys to such faraway places as China and India. Continue reading “New Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Paris”
RiverBlue
The documentary film River Blue asks the question “Can fashion save the planet?” The film follows river conservationist Mark Angelo as he chronicles some of world’s most polluted rivers. Along the way we discover the dark secret of the fashion industry while seeing some of the toxic side effects of textile production and jean manufacturing. Traveling from tanneries along rivers in India, to some of the largest jean manufacturing factories in China Angelo guides us on a journey through the environmental effects of toxic fashions. Continue reading “RiverBlue”
John Baxter’s Saint-Germain-des-Pres
The Saint-Germain-des-Pres neighborhood is world famous for its connection with artists, writers and intellectuals… and now shopping. For many years this part of Paris has been a stronghold of the “sans culottes,” a refuge to artists and a place for bohemians. Napoleon, Hemingway, and Sartre have all called it home. Descartes is buried there. The writer Oscar Wilde spent his last days in the quarter, at the small, run-down hotel called the Hotel d’Alsace at 13 rue des Beaux‑Arts. The legendary Ecole des Beaux-Arts—attended by such artists as Pierre Bonnard, Edgar Degas and Georges Seurat—is here. And the Place Saint-Germain-des-Pres is where students battled the police in May 1968. Continue reading “John Baxter’s Saint-Germain-des-Pres”
Janice MacLeod’s Paris Year
“This travel journal is a replication of my original notebooks,” says Janice MacLeod in the introduction to her new book “A Paris Year, my day-to-day adventures in the most romantic city in the world.” “It is a memoir, a guidebook and ode to ma belle Paris.” Continue reading “Janice MacLeod’s Paris Year”
Jaromir Funke Revisited in Paris
Paris’ Czech Cultural Center exhibits the work of photographer Jaromir Funke (1896-1945) who was a leading figure in Czech photography during the 1920’s and 1930’s. Funke’s work is a melange of the major trends in modernist European photography, blending constructivism and functionalism with surrealism, photograms and social commentary. He cofounded in 1924 the Czech Photographic Society with Josef Sudek and Adolf Schneeberger. Two years later he produced a series of Surrealist images of store windows titled “Glass and Reflection,” inspired by Eugène Atget. Continue reading “Jaromir Funke Revisited in Paris”
Dessiner en Plein Air
In the early part of the 19th century —before photography was invented— artists took their easels and sketchbooks outdoors to more faithfully represent nature. “Designer en plein air,” a temporary exhibition at the Louvre revisits drawings, etchings and some thirty sketchbooks of several open air artists such as Delacroix, Corot, Chassériau, Valenciennes and Daubigny (to January 29. 2018).
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Francois 1er and Dutch Art
The Louvre revisits the French Renaissance with a temporary exhibition “Francois 1er et l’Art des Pays-Bas “ devoted to Dutch artists patronized by Francois Ier (1494-1547) who ruled France from 1515 until his death. Francois, an enthusiastic patron of the arts, initiated the French Renaissance by attracting to France many Italian artists including Leonardo da Vinci, who brought the Mona Lisa with him. Continue reading “Francois 1er and Dutch Art”
Johanna Calle’s “Drawings”
The Maison de l’Amérique Latine hosts a remarkable exhibition of work by Columbian artist Johanna Calle (to December 20, 2017). Although titled “Drawings” it is much more than that. Her drawings explore the idea of line in all its forms while using text, lattice screens, metal and cloth. Wire is an integral material for many of her projects. Calle often uses it alongside drawing. She says “It is a more dimensional form of line and can communicate certain things that simply drawing cannot… My artworks are the result of research processes that discuss the investigation of materials.” Underlying the visual dimension of her work are such dialectics as abstract vs figurative and what is legible and illegible… the details we see up close and how things look further away. Continue reading “Johanna Calle’s “Drawings””
Ali Kazma’s “Souterrain”
The Jeu de Paume in Paris is showing Turkish lens-based artist Ali Kazma’s recent non-narrative documentary videos (until January 21). Kazma, who studied in the States at the New School, represented Turkey in the 55th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia. His video installations —usually five to fifteen minutes—are a melange of various situations and social types… a kind of update on August Sanders. In a recent interview with ARTE he described the documentary nature of his work as an effort to create a “poetic archive of the human condition.” Kazma’s videos are an excellent compliment to the other Jeu de Paume exhibition currently on devoted to legendary “New Objectivity” photographer Albert Renger-Patzsch. Continue reading “Ali Kazma’s “Souterrain””
Albert Renger-Patzsch’s “Things”
A major exhibition of around 190 photographs revisits the work of the German photographer Albert Renger-Patzsch (1897-1966), whose photographs are associated with the “New Objectivity” genre ( to January 21, 2018). His typologies and industrial landscapes have influenced the documentary style of several generations of photographers including Bernd and Hilla Becher as well as Andreas Gursky. Continue reading “Albert Renger-Patzsch’s “Things””
The Mistress of Paris
Take a walk on the wild side of Belle Epoque Paris with this biography of Emile-Louise Delabigne, known as countess Valtesse de la Bigne (1848-1910). who was a legendary French courtesan and demi-modaine. Her lovers included countless painters, writers and politicians, while her affairs with women caused a scandal in turn-of-the-century Paris. She was painted by Édouard Manet and inspired Émile Zola, who immortalized her in his scandalous novel “Nana.” Continue reading “The Mistress of Paris”