Prehistory: A Modern Enigma
The Weight of the Past
I was as fascinated by the exhibition “Prehistory: A Modern Enigma” at the Centre Pompidou as the artists featured in it were fascinated by prehistoric art. The premise of the show is that the many new scientific discoveries made during … Read More
![Every Stone Should Cry & [Apokatastasis] Interior Garden](https://www.parisupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ParisUpdate-Musee-Chasse-Nature-Mercier-tires.jpg "Every Stone Should Cry & [Apokatastasis] Interior Garden")
Every Stone Should Cry & [Apokatastasis] Interior Garden
Messing Around with Mother Nature
Paris’s Le Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature is a wonderful place in its own right, with its amazing collections of taxidermied animals, firearms (whoever would have thought that guns could be so beautiful?), paintings, objects and furniture, … Read More
La Lune: Du Voyage Réel aux Voyages Imaginaires
Shine a Little Light
If you have been mooning around wondering why no one has ever staged an exhibition about that big cheese ball in the sky, your worries are over. The Grand Palais is holding a show called “The Moon: Real and Imaginary … Read More
The Toulouse Caravaggio
Is It or Isn’t It?
If nothing else, it’s a great story: in 2014, a man in Toulouse, France, is cleaning out his attic and comes across a dirty old painting with rather gory subject matter: a young woman is caught in the act of … Read More
The Pushkin Museum: Five Hundred Years of Master Drawings
An Impressive Array of Drawings
Anyone who loves drawing must not miss the current exhibition at the Fondation Custodia, “The Pushkin Museum: Five Hundred Years of Master Drawings,” a survey of 200 works by some of the greatest artists from the 15th to the 20th centuries. … Read More
Henri II: Renaissance à Saint-Germain-en-Laye
The Luster of Grandeur and Gallantry
Henri II, king of France from 1547 to 1559, is probably best-known for two things: his brazenly open relationship with his beautiful mistress, Diane de Poitiers – to the great chagrin of his wife, Catherine de Médicis – and his … Read More
Extreme Manuscripts
Heartfelt Messages from the Past
The overarching idea of “Extreme Manuscripts,” the new exhibition at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, is highly original. Instead of showcasing sets of full manuscripts that would go on to form part of the canons of great literature, it concentrates … Read More
Black Models: From Géricault to Matisse
Diversity in Art History
For its latest temporary exhibition, “Black Models: From Géricault to Matisse,” the Musée d’Orsay has scoured Western art history for examples of people of color posing for artists and has conducted extensive research to learn more about these models and, … Read More
A Vision for Painting
It’s Alive!
Painting has been declared dead many, many times – and not just by the Constructivists in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution (see our review of the exhibition “Red” at the Grand Palais) – but the patient always makes a miraculous … Read More
Red: Art and Utopia in the Land of the Soviets
The Short Revolution in the Soviet Arts
The exhibition “Red: Art and Utopia in the Land of the Soviets” at the Grand Palais in Paris tells the tale of how the Russian Revolution of 1917 affected the arts under the Soviet regime, but it inadvertently goes beyond … Read More