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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
https://youtu.be/13JxbPM3yDE Golden Lion I have a confession to make. I disliked Anne Imhof’s German pavilion in 2017, called “Faust”, which won the Golden Lion that year displaying a slick showcase of beautiful and disillusioned youths, striking poses to express their nihilism (See here the report about the 2017 Venice Biennale). Wrong? Maybe I was […]
https://youtu.be/rRZR3nsiIeA Ultra sensitivity The job of the artist doesn’t call for the same virtues as those required of mere mortals. In the modern and contemporary period, for the greatest of painters, severe psychiatric problems are not considered a handicap but are seen instead as proof of an ultra-sensitivity which influences their powers of invention. […]
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 […]
https://youtu.be/VhOaIxHu-Hc Non essential values? During a period of time that is both very market-centric and fairly disoriented, you might think that Renaissance literature, like art more generally, belongs to the category of “non-essential” values. However, globally and against all expectations not only is the art market faring relatively well but literature itself may prove […]
https://youtu.be/LxH6-D2iYKA Appeared like by magic Contrary to the situation in France or in the United States, the Louvre Abu Dhabi closed its doors for only 100 days while the world was shaken by the pandemic. The museum appeared as if by magic in 2017 on a wild island previously overrun by mangroves, Saadiyat Island, […]
The effect of ‘Black lives matter’ Contemporary African art is a subjet of a new fascination. Touria el Glaoui, founder of the travelling fair 1-54 dedicated to African art, explains: “it was a collateral effect of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement in the United States. People began to look more closely not only at […]
Art, finance and museums In New York, the worlds of finance, contemporary art, and museums are all interlinked – but not in the way you might think. Take the example of Donald B. Marron, who died in December 2019 at the age of 85. The New York Times described him as having led […]
Giogione (Choice of Alexandre Giquello) The online world In our new experience of the relationship between art and the internet, the online world has won. The sensation produced by the phone or computer screen almost always predominates over the sensation of the art itself meant to be displayed on screen. Paintings always look flat, […]
We are on Long Island. Beyond the 45 kilometres of Hamptons coastline, about two hours from New York by car, there is a unique microclimate in America. With an atmosphere known for being tasteful and cool, surrounded by cornfields and old fishing huts, the very wealthy – with fortunes big and small – come […]
Art021 Shanghai Art week Shanghai Art Week takes place every year in November and over time it has become an important date in the global art market calendar. Last year it coincided with the opening of the Centre Pompidou Shanghai (See the report about Centre Pompidou Shanghai). This year is significant simply because the […]
Huge responsibility The major auction houses have a huge responsibility with regards to the entire art market. Through the publication of their official auction results – combined with market databases such as Artnet or Artprice acting as megaphones – they are supposed to reflect the major consumer trends in this field, especially during this […]
https://youtu.be/OzL5Wq1KGQc European Dutch Biennal Manifesta is a Europe-wide contemporary art biennial that takes place each time in a different city, having originally been Dutch and directed by Hedwig Fijen. After having seen the edition held this year in Marseille and which invaded Palermo in 2018 (See the report about it), there is one clear […]
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 […]
https://youtu.be/-Gp0p5XRMyI Cancellation On 15 October 2020 Paris’s contemporary art week was meant to have kicked off, which would ordinarily have accompanied the great French Fiac fair, with its plethora of all kinds of events, conferences, exhibitions, and salons… But it’s been cancelled due to Covid. However, there are certain events of a more […]
By Duchamp, Picabia, Bataille, Bunuel During the surrealist period, the visual organ was an obsession. Marcel Duchamp wanted to make “non-retinal” art, while in 1921 Francis Picabia produced a collage filled with pieces of text with the strange name “L’oeil cacodylate” (The Cacodylatic Eye) referring to ophthalmic shingles, which he contracted, and which greatly […]
