Playing with Fire
Now You See Her ...
The room is empty, with only a Steinway Spirio grand piano in the center. Don your virtual reality headset, however, and suddenly the famed pianist Yuja Wang, dressed in a chic black-and-white-striped gown, is seated at the keyboard playing Maurice … Read More
Eva Jospin: Grottesco & Claire Tabouret: D’un Seul Souffle
Pagan vs. Christian Iconography
French museums are brilliant at putting on mega exhibitions like the current “1925-2025: 100 Years of Art Deco” (through April 26) at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs or “Sargent: Dazzling Paris” (through January 11) at the Musée d’Orsay, both of … Read More
Light Cycles
A Scintillating Night Walk
“Light Cycles,” an often-breathtaking immersive night walk in the park, uses sound and light to evoke the beauty of the living world and takes full advantage of the varied features of La Villette, Paris’s largest park, designed by architect Bernard … Read More
Les Gens de Paris, 1926-1936
Who Are These People?
The exhibition “Les Gens de Paris, 1926-1936” at the Musée Carnavalet is not just a snapshot of the people of Paris in the years following World War I and during the Depression, it is a full-scale portrait. The show presents … Read More
Bridget Riley: Starting Point
Mentor and Mentee
If you arrive at the Musée d’Orsay to see the John Singer Sargent exhibition and find the line outside to be blocks long and the show jammed with art lovers, head instead for a sweet little show on the fifth … Read More
Les Mondes de Colette
Outrageous, Immoral and Multitalented
Having visited the writer Colette’s childhood home in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye on a sun-kissed spring day last year with two good friends, I suppose it was payback time when I arrived alone at the exhibition “Les Mondes de Colette” at the Bibliothèque … Read More
Boris Zaborov & Evi Keller
Things That Sleep in the Heart
I have written about the Caillebotte estate in the town of Yerres several times, extolling its many virtues: it is located only half an hour from Paris, and it boasts a large, beautiful park with a number of follies, including … Read More
Grand Palais
Grander Than Ever
It may have taken five long years, but the revamped Grand Palais, now completely reopened, is nothing if not grand, even grandiose. The always spectacular glass-domed ceiling is as beautiful and awe-inspiring as always, and new areas have recently been … Read More
The Nahmad Collection: From Monet to Picasso
Distributing Beauty
Planning a visit to Giverny to see Monet’s home and famous lily-padded garden? Spare a thought and a little energy for a side trip to another attraction in the same village: the Musée des Impressionismes Giverny, whose temporary exhibitions and … Read More
BAP! Biennale d’Architecture et de Paysage
Design for a Changing Climate
For the next couple of months, the quiet architectural harmony of the château and city of Versailles – built of beige pierre de taille (Paris cut stone) – will be disrupted by splashes of brilliant taxi-cab yellow, the color of … Read More