Private Collections: A Journey from the Impressionists to the Fauves
Out from Behind Closed Doors
It is always a pleasure to peek behind closed doors and discover some of the treasures private art collectors normally keep to themselves. And it is always a pleasure to visit the Musée Marmottan Monet, a hunting pavilion near the Bois … Read More
Gustave Moreau: Vers le Songe et l’Abstrait
Inadvertent Abstractionist
Was Gustave Moreau (1826-98) – the Symbolist painter famed for his mysterious and moody paintings of biblical and mythological subjects – actually a pioneer of abstraction? This was a theory posited in the 1960s by some observers based on works in … Read More
The Cruel Stories of Paula Rego
The Phantasmagoria of Female Reality
The first time I saw Paula Rego’s storytelling paintings at the Tate Britain in London, I was fascinated by their almost perverse weirdness. Finally, a Paris museum, the Musée de l’Orangerie, has turned its attention to this unique artist with … Read More
Jean-Michel Basquiat & Egon Schiele
Art-World Bad Boys Face Off
The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris is simultaneously holding two blockbuster exhibitions, one on Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) and the other on Egon Schiele (1890-1918). The show on Basquiat, a young painter who went from being an iconoclast to an art-market … Read More
Picasso: Blue and Rose
When Picasso Had the Blues
Just as I was going into the exhibition “Picasso: Bleu et Rose” at the Musée d’Orsay, a man who was on his way out said to me: “I envy you. You’re going to have a wonderful experience.” His face was … Read More
Miró
Poet of Painting
As I discovered when I visited the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, a lot of Miró can sometimes be too much Miró. I soon got bored with the repetitiveness of the paintings on show there, all with similar colors and full … Read More
Giacometti: From Tradition to Avant-Garde
Becoming Giacometti
How did Alberto Giacometti (1901-66) become the superstar sculptor whose spindly statues are instantly recognizable by just about everyone? The exhibition “Giacometti: From Tradition to Avant-Garde” at Paris’s Musée Maillol helps to answer the question with an ambitious show tracing … Read More
Debussy at the Beach
No Fun in the Sun for Composer
Why, you might ask, is an exhibition titled “Debussy at the Beach” being held at the National Museum of Archaeology in the precincts of the château at Saint-Germain-en-Laye? Perhaps in order to present a close examination of the beach pebbles … Read More
Caravaggio in Rome: Friends and Enemies
The Sacking of Rome's Caravaggios
Rome has been pillaged, stripped of many of its precious paintings by Caravaggio! Whodunit? The Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris, to the great joy of Parisians and visitors to the city, who for a time can have the thrill of seeing no … Read More
Franz West
Adaptive, Interactive Art
I took a liking to Franz West (1947-2012) as soon as I entered the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou and saw this quote by him: “I’ve always thought that the ideal is to do nothing and still be able to … Read More