From El Greco to Dali
  • 21
  • May
  • 2010

The Musée Jacquemart-André presents until August 2010 a prestigious collection of paintings by the Spanish masters offering a selection of paintings that has never been exhibited in France before. Among them are works by artists from the Spanish School such as El Greco, Ribera, Murillo, Sorolla, Picasso, Dalí and Miró. The exhibited works are selected from the private collection of Juan Antonio Pérez Simón, an important Hispano-Mexican businessman and celebrated art collector who began to build his collection in the 1970s.

The exhibition is structured by both themes and by chronology. Starting with a selection of the sixteenth century court paintings commissioned during the heyday of the Spanish kingdom under the reign of Charles V (Charles I of Spain) and his successors .
A big part of the exhibition is of course inspired by religion. Alongside the traditional subjects of the Christian faith, artists of the time are inspired by mystical ideas and devoted their interests in the depiction of saints such as Saint John the Baptist, Virgin Mary and Saint Jerome. Highlighting the selection is Dalí’s L’Ascension du Christ.

But the period when child portraiture has risen to prominence in Spanish paintings, is also presented such as  Sorolla’s Sur la plage , depicting the scene of mother and child on the beach.

Continuing with subject of the everyday life with a particular focus on outdoor paintings, featuring works such as Sorolla’s Soleil du matin (1901) and Godoy’s La Balançoire (1899-1900). And  the theme of feminine figures, with particular focus on bathers and nude figures which dominated the interests of Spanish artists at the turn of the twentieth century. Artists employ different styles in the depiction of the female forms, as seen in the simple strokes of the plump figures in Picasso’s Grande danse nue (1962), the soft, sensual portrayal of the bather in Buñol’s Après le bain (1913), and in Miró’s Personnage étoile.

Ending with the painting of portraiture dated from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Highlighting the selection is Romero de Torres’ Portrait de femme (around 1925-1930), which captures a Beauty endowed with a sense of mysteriousness. The captivating dark eyes and the delicate features create a mystical veil upon the subject which entraps and fascinates. The exhibition ends with the works of the modern Spanish masters who play an important role in the avant-garde movements. Among them are notably works by Picasso, Dalí, Tàpies and Miró.

From El Greco to Dalí.
The great Spanish masters. The Pérez Simón collection.
Jacquemart-André Museum,158, Boulevard Haussmann,75008 Paris
Open daily  from 10 am to 6 pm

Parisians : An adventure history of Paris
  • 12
  • May
  • 2010

The writer Graham Robb, the acclaimed biographer of Balzac, Rimbaud and Victor Hugo published in 2007 “The discovery of France”.

His new book “Parisians, an adventure history of Paris” tells the story of Paris through the lives of its most colourful citizens. These include spies, scientists and businessmen as well as photograpers, philosophers and prostitutes that are part of Parisian mythology.

The book begins at the dawn of the French Revolution, and ends a few months ago. There are also some excursions to the medieval and prehistoric past.

It traces the spread of the city from the island in the Seine that was the home of the Paris tribe to the mushrooming suburbs that inspire more fear today than when they were patrolled by highwaymen and wolves.

Reading this is an adventure, one which will turn even the briefest trip to Paris into a tumble through time.

Yves Saint Laurent at Petit Palais
  • 27
  • Mar
  • 2010

Until August the Musée des Beaux Arts at the Petit Palais has its first ever exhibition dedicated to haute couture; it is fitting then, that it should be a retrospective of the work of a man who embodied the ideal of fashion designer as artist like no other, France’s beloved last great couturier: Yves Saint Laurent.

Charting his lifetime’s work through a selection of over 300 original creations, from his beginnings at Dior, through the height of his experimentalism during the 70s, to his later refined exoticism; the exhibition celebrates the astounding range and beauty of his accomplishment, both technical and artistic.
Displayed alongside contemporary films, photographs and drawings, the work is placed in its proper cultural and historical context. It is evident that Yves Saint Laurent had an incredible capacity to draw inspiration from everything and anything – from 19th century theatre, Mondrian canvases, and Moroccan spice markets to kids on the streets of Saint Germain des Prés. Original sketches and images from his atelier prove that he saw himself above all as a craftsman, working obsessively hard to master the tools of his trade, with a deep understanding and respect for form, fabric, cut and the importance of detail. The greater significance of his work is also emphasised, showing how this relentless moderniser changed the world of fashion forever, freeing women from narrow and outdated ideas of style, and democratising high fashion by making ready to wear respectable.

Like the hundreds of mourners in Le Smoking trouser suits who lined the streets at his funeral in 2008, the retrospective at the Petit Palais promises to be a great tribute to one of France’s greatest artists of the twentieth century.

read at Vingt Paris, March 2010

Musée du Petit Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008 Paris, M° Champs-Elysées-Clémenceau or Concorde

Videoclub off the beaten track
  • 23
  • Mar
  • 2010

Already for 7 years, Stéphanie Heuze has a videoclub where you can hire movies of the beaten track. It’s a very cosy shop where you hire Visconti, Rossellini, Lars von Trier and others.

More than 2000 titles, almost a collection. The owner is very passionate about movies and loves to discuss it. She did watch 92% of it.

Videoclub, 4, rue de Nemours 75009