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”
Paris Impressions
A new bilingual book “Paris Impressionniste” illustrated with 100 paintings brings together some of the images of this mythical city many of us carry in our head, such as Camille Pisarro’s “Le Pont Royal” or Caillebotte’s “Rue de Paris, temps de pluie,” or Edouard Manet’s legendary “un bar aux Folies Bergere” When Humphrey Bogart told Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca we’ll always have Paris. he wasn’t talking about the Paris of surly bureaucrats, strikes and traffic jams, but the Paris of Manet’s lovers in “Chez le pere Lathuille”… the romantic Paris.
Monet painted smoke clouding the Gare Saint-Lazare, Renoir captured the Pont Neuf’s reflections in the Seine, Pissarro portrayed Avenue de l’Opéra from his hotel room, Manet immortalized waitresses in a café at Pigalle… Between its river and its tall skies, the French capital lacked neither nature nor textures for artists intent on capturing the magic of light in an urban setting. Plus the city with its street life, workers, cafes and entertainment was an extremely happening fin de siecle place to paint. Continue reading “Paris Impressions”
Magnum’s Analog Recovery at Le Bal
The legendary Magnum photo agency, founded in 1947 by Robert Capa, David “Chim” Seymour, Henri Cartier-Bresson and George Rodger, is an international photo cooperative owned by its members. This year marks the 70th anniversary for the famed photography agency and the completion of its Paris archive. To celebrate Le Bal presents “Magnum Analog Recovery” an exhibition of work from Magnum’s Paris archives that spans from the agency’s creation in 1947 to 1977. This collection—stored in Paris as paper prints— brings together “press” photos distributed to newspapers and magazines. Continue reading “Magnum’s Analog Recovery at Le Bal”
Walker Evans Paris Retrospective
The Pompidou Center revisits the work of one of the 20th century’s most influential photographers with an extensive Walker Evans’ (1903-1975) retrospective. His signature style with its attention to quotidian detail became a major photography reference for serious students of photography. This is the first major retrospective of his work in France (until August 14, 2017). Continue reading “Walker Evans Paris Retrospective”
Espace EDF Revisits Video Games
Over the last fifty years video games have gone from scientific curiosities to fads to becoming one of the most popular forms of entertainment earning billions world wide dwarfing the film industry. The exhibition “Game, le jeu video a travers le temps” (History of Video Games) at the Foundation EDF revisits video games from Ralph Baer’s legendary “Brown Box” (1967) to Pac Man to mobile gaming and immersive virtual reality (until August 27). Continue reading “Espace EDF Revisits Video Games”
Mystical Landscapes at Musée d’Orsay
Wassily Kandinsky called for a spiritual revolution in his 1911 manifesto “Concerning the Spiritual in Art” so that artists might express their inner lives in abstract “non-material” terms. The exhibition “Beyond the Stars. The Mystical Landscape from Monet to Kandinsky” at Paris’ Musée d’Orsay revisits artists such as Kandinsky who during the late 19th and early 20th century attempted to evoke the transcendental in their work. Continue reading “Mystical Landscapes at Musée d’Orsay”
Extraordinary Gardens Exhibited
“Jardins Extraordinaires” — a series of sixty photographs showing some of the world’s most beautiful gardens—is exhibited on the gates of the Luxembourg Garden (until July 21, 2017). The outdoor exhibition is in parallel to a large garden theme exhibition “Jardins” at the Grand Palais. Continue reading “Extraordinary Gardens Exhibited”
Claude Iverné Sudan Photographs
French photographer Claude Iverné, awarded the 2015 HCB Prize for his project “Sudanese photographs, the river of Gazelles,” has been exploring North and South Sudan for nearly twenty years. He is exhibiting his “Bilad es Sudan” photos at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson (until July 30, 2017). Continue reading “Claude Iverné Sudan Photographs”
Rodin, the Centennial Exhibition
“The Thinker” and “The Kiss” are among the world’s most recognizable sculptures. Both were created by the French artist Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) and are part of an extensive retrospective of the artists work paying homage to the centenary of his death at the Grand Palais ((until July 31). Continue reading “Rodin, the Centennial Exhibition”
“Jardins” at Grand Palais
Claude Monet once said “I perhaps owe it to flowers that I have become a painter.” Monet cultivated gardens wherever he lived. Today an estimated half million visitors pay homage to the artist’s Giverny garden where he painted his renowned water lilies. But Monet —although the most famous — is far from being the only artist inspired by gardens. Continue reading ““Jardins” at Grand Palais”
Primitive Picasso in Paris
Picasso said he experienced a “revelation” while viewing African art at Paris’ Palais du Trocadéro ethnographic museum. “A smell of mould and neglect caught me by the throat. I was so depressed that I would have chosen to leave immediately. But I forced myself to stay, to examine these masks, all these objects that people had created with a sacred, magical purpose, to serve as intermediaries between them and the unknown, hostile forces surrounding them, attempting in that way to overcome their fears by giving them colour and form. And then I understood what painting really meant. It’s not an aesthetic process; it’s a form of magic that interposes itself between us and the hostile universe, a means of seizing power by imposing a form on our terrors as well as on our desires. The day I understood that, I had found my path.” His discovery that day of African art resulted in what became his “African” style (1906-1909) and his iconic “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” Continue reading “Primitive Picasso in Paris”