Picturing the Medici: Power Personified “Portrait of Cosimo I De’Medici” (1560), by Bronzino. © The Alana Collection, Newark, Delaware, USA. The year is 1530, the setting is the Florentine court: the scene is set for the return of one of … Read More
Physically Brutal,Metaphysically Rich “Empires” by Huang Yong Ping. © Adagp, Paris 2016. Photo: Didier Plowy for RMN-GP To misappropriate one of Donald Trump’s favorite words, this year’s Monumenta installation at the Grand Palais is “HUGE.” For the next few weeks, … Read More
English Love Affair with Erotic Sensuality “A Song of Springtime” (1913), by John William Waterhouse. Photo © Studio Sébert Photographes In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the English were a pretty rakish lot. Victorian prudery drove that tendency underground, … Read More
Underground Art inChampagne Country “Maintenant/Now” (1997), by Stéphane Calais in the stairway leading to the cavernous cellars. Photo: © Fred Laures In the soft chalk of the hill beneath Reims, the Roman Gauls burrowed a honeycomb of mines, extracting the … Read More
A Conflicted Continent’sTormented History ”Untitled,” from the ”Latin Fire” series (1975-78), by Ever Astudillo. Courtesy Toluca Fine Art, Paris. Whether by accident or design, the Fondation Cartier in Paris is devoting a major exhibition to five decades of contemporary Latin … Read More
Finding Harmony in Organized Chaos “Duet Room.” © MONA/Rémi Chauvin Image Courtesy MONA Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia The Maison Rouge contemporary art space in Paris is currently offering an odd jumble of a show called … Read More
True or False?Let the Viewer Decide “Orogenesis: Derain” (2004). © Joan Fontcuberta Two intriguing exhibitions are currently showing at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. One is a series of photographs by the filmmaker David Lynch, Favorite
Beyond the Decisive Moment,Multiple Cartier-Bressons “Martine Franck, Paris, France” (1967). © Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos, courtesy Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson Henri Cartier-Bresson, wealthy bourgeois, Surrealist, leftist, portraitist and father of photojournalism, was unequivocally one of the great photographers of the last century. … Read More
The Gilded Life of aProlific 19th-Century Artist Gustave Doré’s “Souvenir de Loch Lamond” (1875). © French & Company, New York As an artist, Gustave Doré doesn’t fit comfortably into standard categories, which may be why serious 19th-century art critics turned … Read More
Finding Affinity inExistential Cruelty “La Tête aux Clous”(1994), by Philippe Vandenberg. The Maison Rouge can always be counted on to put together daring, offbeat shows, the absolute antithesis of standard blockbusters. Its current offering is no exception. “Il Me Faut … Read More
