Heidi Ellison
The Hermitage: The Birth of the Imperial Museum & The Birth of the Museum: The Esterhazys
Detail of Domenico Fetti’s “Portrait of an Actor” (1620-23). © Hermitage Museum. Photo: Vladimir Terebenin, Leonard Kheifets, Yuri Molodkovets The Pinacothèque de Paris, flush with the success of crowd-magnet exhibitions like the continuing “Gold of the Incas: Origins and Mysteries,” … Read More
Haute Culture: General Idea
Detail of “XXX (Bleu)” (1984). Courtesy of the estate of General Idea. Conceptual art requires a great deal of patience. I always wonder why I should stand around in a museum looking at murky photos of some performance … Favorite
Tous Cannibales
Jérôme Zonder’s “Macrophage 0” (2006). Collection of Antoine de Galbert. Conceptual art requires a great deal of patience. I always wonder why I should stand around in a museum looking at murky photos of some performance … Favorite
Jean-Michel Othoniel & François Morellet
“The Boat of Tears” (2004). © Jean-Michel Othoniel. Courtesy of Galerie Perrotin, Paris Anyone who has seen Jean-Michel Othoniel’s delightful Paris Métro entrance on the Place Colette, all playful round shapes made of colored glass balls and … Favorite
Five Exhibitions
Miró’s “Jeune Fille S’évadant” (1968). © Successió Miró/Adagp, Paris 2011. Photo: Claude Germain Joan Miró (1893-1983), best known for his colorful, whimsical paintings, was also a prolific sculptor, to put it mildly: between the ages of 50 and … Favorite
Richard Prince
Richard Prince’s “Untitled (de Kooning)” (2009).© Richard Prince. The debate rages on about the appropriateness of appropriation in art and music, but when it comes to Richard Prince, I will definitely come down on the … Favorite
Fleurs Fraîches
David Hockney’s paintings are so pretty and colorful and joyful that it should be easy to dismiss them as not being serious art. And what could be prettier than the flowers that are the subject of the new show “Fleurs … Read More
Trésor des Médicis
“Adoration of the Magi” (1476) by Sandro Botticelli.Photo: Archivio Fotografico della Soprintendenza per il Polo Museale Fiorentino You might call it an Italian rags-to-riches story: a family of wool traders-turned-bankers who grew so fabulously wealthy that they were able not … Read More
Arman
Arman: “Chopin’s Waterloo” (1962). © ADAGP Paris 2010. Photo: Adam Rzepka. Collection Centre Pompidou, Dist. RMN I went to the Arman retrospective at the Centre Pompidou with every expectation of not enjoying it. Wasn’t Arman one of those publicity-hound artists … Read More
Henry Moore: The Studio
“Working Model for Sheep Piece” (1971) © Henry Moore Foundation Henry Moore’s highly popular and seemingly ubiquitous sculptures have never really appealed to me, but I couldn’t put my finger … Favorite