Pierre Matisse: the ‘American’ son of the painting genius who became one of the great dealers of his time
https://youtu.be/RLKOwokicu4 Son of a giant How to exist in your own right when you’re the son of one of the giants of 20th century painting? To put it another way, how do you “kill your father” when your father is Henri Matisse (1869-1954)? An ocean between them The tried and tested solution, as […]
The artist Ser Serpas, 26, unveiled at Luma Zurich and the Pinault collection: a video interview
https://youtu.be/VnR1g5Y0BoY Dumas, Doig and Serpas Ser Serpas is 26 years old and she is astonishingly free. This young woman, who was born in Los Angeles and whose mother is a police officer, is one of the stars of the Pinault collection with her remarkable paintings of fragments of bodies, which are displayed not […]
Les Rencontres d’Arles: The American ideal of sexuality is rooted in the American ideal of masculinity
Major Phenomena We didn’t expect to go to Arles in Provence to learn that society is being rocked by major phenomena relating to gender or the perceptions of black men and women. Around Arles While these subjects have already been covered extensively, this year’s edition of the Rencontres d’Arles illustrates them in a timely […]
An homage to Christian Boltanski
Christian Boltanski Christian Boltanski Christian Boltanski Christian Boltanski Christian Boltanski Christian Boltanski Christian Boltanski Christian Boltanski Christian Boltanski Christian Boltanski Christian Boltanski Christian Boltanski Christian Boltanski Christian Boltanski 14 July 2021 All his life Christian Boltanski was obsessed by death. At his final large-scale exhibition, a retrospective conceived as a single artwork in 2019 […]
Jeff Koons in Marseille like you’ve never seen him before
https://youtu.be/w2a4_K2Yfm0 Famous Jeff Koons is one of a small number of contemporary artists of whom the general public often says “I know them” and frequently follows up with “I don’t like them.” Money But people don’t tend to be familiar with the actual works by the American artist, born in 1955, so much as […]
In Venice at the Prada Foundation, Pinault Collection, Palazzo Grimani: the three most beautiful exhibitions on show
Not the architecture Biennale No, it wasn’t the architecture biennale that made me rush to Venice. I initially found it intellectually stimulating, with all the societal and ecological questions it raises, but it was weak and difficult to access in terms of the visual form these issues were given. Palazzo Grimani In […]
Les Lalanne in Versailles and Williamstown. The prodigious rise of their ostriches, cabbages and sheep at auction
Stephan Zweig “It was a doll’s house, this Little Trianon (…) This ‘Anglo-Chinese garden’ was to represent, not merely nature, but the whole of nature. In the microcosm of a few square kilometers, there was to be a quasi-microscopic reproduction of the entire cosmos (…) North and South, East and West, all that […]
Paolo Roversi: a sale that’s like a glimpse of the famous fashion photographer’s inner world
Snapshots with a soul Photographing a top model is all well and good, but having the ability to infuse these beauty snapshots on glossy paper with a soul is nothing short of miraculous. Those who can do this are few and far between, and belong in the category of some of the most […]
Contemporary art like a beating heart. Luma Arles by Maja Hoffmann is impressive and exhilarating
A lineage of collectors The Swiss billionaire Maja Hoffmann comes from a lineage of remarkable collectors. Her grandmother, Maja Sacher, was one of the founders of the art museum in Basel (See here the video interview of Maja Hoffmann) Childhood in Arles Maja Hoffmann spent her childhood in Arles because her father, Lukas, was […]
Kunsthaus Zurich: The great landscape of Gerhard Richter’s extraordinary landscapes
Great painter It’s generally taken as a given that Gerhard Richter is one of the great painters from the latter half of the 20th century. But for anyone who may still have doubts on the subject, it’s worth paying a visit to the Kunsthaus Zurich before 25 July. The institution is devoting a […]
Masterpieces from a secret French collection of tribal art are auctioned at Christie’s
To travel gloriously “What is the good of moving when a man can travel so gloriously sitting in a chair?” The great decadent writer Joris-Karl Huysmans offers a good description of the state of immobility conducive to savouring one’s surroundings, in a world of ultra-refinement like in his famous novel “A rebours”, published in […]
Lacaton and Vassal: the 2021 Pritzker Prize winners in their own words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOcPjIvN450 Ego Are they starchitects? On 16 March 2021 the famous Pritzker Prize was awarded to a French couple: Anne Lacaton (born in 1955) and Jean-Philippe Vassal (born in 1954). Partners in life and in business, these two architects, aren’t remotely affiliated with any kind of star system, as is usually the case for […]
Bazille: artworks by the legendary impressionist painter who died at 28 miraculously appear on the market
A legendary artist For those who are truly interested in impressionist art, Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) is a legendary artist. He only painted for a period of seven years, before dying aged 28 after enlisting in the French army in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian war. Prior to this he mixed with, was inspired by, and […]
The Black artistic renaissance. The phenomenon takes different forms in the United States and in France
Heritage of the traumas For some time now colonialism, slavery and the heritage of these traumas has been at the centre of an unusual kind of attention, giving rise to what was once called “history painting” up until the 19th century, only in a new genre. Tina M.Campt The phenomenon, omnipresent in art itself […]
David Hammons: the latest New York monument is an extraordinary ghostly structure stretching over the Hudson
Strange and glorious The American artist David Hammons (born in 1943) is a strange and glorious figure, frequently absent, yet always seeming to appear where he’s least expected. The drawing center The Drawing Center in New York has recently staged a large-scale exhibition of his works on paper, apparently defined by one […]