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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
https://youtu.be/ELj2brIz4OA An Irishman and an American dandy Take an American dandy who liked women, wild animals and photography. Then take another dandy, an Irishman who loved men and made paintings depicting torment and suffering with elaborate and dramatic mastery. (See here and here reports about Francis Bacon). The unexpected dialogue between these two figures […]
https://youtu.be/-pI4A56LDfI Neologism Messenger RNA, mutated virus, comorbidity, NFTs, blockchain, quantum theory, big data… The world in 2021 is filled – along with our heads – with an assortment of new words which, prior to the public health crisis, sounded like highly technical terms belonging to a specialist vocabulary. Virtual You The virtual world has […]
Mass sanitization These are times of mass sanitization. Long before we wore masks and handwashing justifiably became a global obsession, in another field the presence of sex in art was banished from the major themes of exhibitions in the Anglo-Saxon world. Beyond the little isle of French exception, a whole swath of visual sensuality […]
The exception of Luxembourg Luxembourg is known for its unique system of banking. What is less well known is that the duchy is also unique in terms of its museums compared to France, since this type of cultural institution is currently open there. Ahead his retrospective at the Royal Academy It’s therefore a good […]
https://youtu.be/RqF3Z5EjvpM Morandi mystery There is a sense of mystery about Morandi. For an artist who seems to have painted the same subject his entire life – carafes, bowls and vases in muted colours – from his tiny bedroom in Bologna, how did this painter who was both contemplative and fearful of the world, and […]
https://youtu.be/7Ytoz98rzSk Gagosian Le Bourget It’s probably the biggest aesthetic show of emotion in France right now. At Gagosian’s space located in Le Bourget, at the heart of the air terminal complex for private jets, which is accessible from Tuesday to Sunday, the gallery is presenting new work from the German painter Anselm Kiefer (born […]
https://youtu.be/giE0LqylYOA Heroes who die young In art history, posterity favours misfortune and heroes who die young. We love Van Gogh, who died at 37 without having sold a single artwork. We love Nicolas de Staël, who killed himself due to a failed romance at the age of 41. Similarly, we lament the fact that […]
Genius Henri Matisse is, without doubt, a painter of genius and an endless source of visual surprises and delight. The exhibition at the Centre Pompidou celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth was anticipated to be a blockbuster if it wasn’t for Covid. But it is further proof – if proof were needed […]
Coming from the sky Didn’t you know? Everything comes from above. In the 1940s watching the sky meant looking for planes that were going to bomb you. That’s where the H-bomb came from, which reduced people to human torches and annihilated all warlike sentiment by force. Day of Peace Just look at the Japanese, […]
There was a very short window of opportunity to visit the Countryside , the future exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York last February, thanks to Covid. The show, which is more theoretical than aesthetic and is overseen by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, will reopen on 3 October. For our American readers – […]
City of migration Palermo is a fascinating city, and one that’s sparked a lot of conversation in recent years. Firstly, this is due to its current international relevance as it’s one of the major sites of migration from Africa to Italy, where its mayor Leoluca Orlando, contrary to the nationalist discourse proliferating around the […]
170 arworks Too much is never enough. The Fondation Louis Vuitton is dedicating a retrospective of 170 artworks to the American artist Cindy Sherman (born in 1954). Overdose There is a risk of it feeling like an overdose. But we welcome it graciously because that is the point. It’s an overdose of […]
Heir to Marcel Duchamp He’s one of the most natural heirs to Marcel Duchamp. Rirkrit Tiravanija (born in 1961) is an extraordinary free and playful artist. Dematerialization of art In a world overwhelmed by commercial relationships he has made his mark, since the beginning of his career, through an extensive dematerialization of art. Negating […]
Cancel culture At a time when art which addresses societal issues has never been so relevant, exhibiting it in institutions has never proved so difficult. In late August in New York, at the epicentre of what is known as “cancel culture”, a movement which aims to boycott apparently problematic practices over social media, an […]
