Ilya Repin: Painting the Soul of Russia
The Tolstoy of the Russian Art World
The exhibition “Ilya Repin: Painting the Soul of Russia,” at the Petit Palais in Paris, serves not only as a retrospective of the work of the great realist painter but also as a sort of overview of nearly a century … Read More
Matt Coco: The Respiration of a Monster Lurking in the Depths
After the Deluge
The French artist Matt Coco often takes a natural or human disaster as a starting point for her installations. She sees catastrophes not just as an endpoint but also as a potential new beginning. “I try to transpose that moment … Read More
Chaïm Soutine/Willem de Kooning: Paint Made Flesh
Painters' Painters
An illuminating exhibition at the Musée de l’Orangerie, “Chaïm Soutine/Willem de Kooning: Paint Made Flesh,” takes us on a trip from the strange, twisted figures and landscapes of Chaīm Soutine to the blowsy, almost frightening figures of women by Willem … Read More
L’Ahah
Art Angels
Artists often have troubled relationships with their dealers, but most need their gallery shows to get their work out into the public eye, where, they hope, it will find buyers. There may be another way, however, for artists to find … Read More
Regards Croisés
Landscapes of the Oise
To visit the town of L’Isle Adam, set on three islands on the River Oise, is to want to live there. An hour’s train ride north of Paris, it is even blessed with the last thing you’d expect to find … Read More
Painting Apart from the World: Monks and Scholars of the Ming and Qing Dynasties
Mountain Sanctuaries
To the uneducated eye, traditional Chinese landscape paintings may all look pretty much the same, with their tall, pointy mountains, misty skies and tiny figures, but each one is not only an individual work of art but also a compendium … Read More
L’Âme Primitive
Soul-Searching Art
I have said it before and will probably say it again: the Musée Zadkine is one of my favorite museums in Paris, with its small light-filled house and studio set in a garden, the whole charming ensemble cut off from … Read More
Anni and Josef Albers: Art and Life
Designing Power Couple
The exhibition “Anni et Josef Albers: L’Art et la Vie” at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris focuses on the ultimate 20th-century art-and-design-world power couple, she a weaver and printmaker, and he a painter. Both of their careers began at … Read More
Flames: The Age of Ceramics
Ceramic Magic
When Paris museums attack a subject, they don’t mess around. The exhibition “Les Flammes: L’Âge de la Céramique” at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris is a deep dive into a vast subject: ceramics. Ceramics of every imaginable type, style, … Read More
Vivian Maier
Maier Mania
Who hasn’t yet heard of Vivian Maier, nanny by profession, photographer by avocation? Her story is so unusual and her photographs so good that she never ceases to fascinate. Now the Musée de Luxembourg is holding what is apparently the … Read More