Rrose C’est la Life: Agnès Thurnauer
Transgender Art
Many agreeable surprises are to be found in the French provinces, not the least of which are contemporary art spaces in the most unexpected places. One example is the Centre d’Art Contemporain at the Bouvet Ladubay winery in Saumur, which … Read More
Salgado Amazônia
Paradise Transformed
The first thing you see when you enter the darkened “Salgado Amazônia” exhibition space in the Musée de la Musique at the Philharmonie de Paris will knock your socks off: a large, grainy, high-contrast black-and-white print of heavy, roiling, black-edged … Read More
The Power of My Hands
Threading the Lines of Filiation
Speaking of women-only exhibitions (see last week’s review of “Women in Abstraction”), I recommend a visit to the show “The Power of My Hands” at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, which presents the work of 16 African women artists … Read More
Women in Abstraction
Women Apart: Spotlight or Ghetto?
Ideally, there would be no need for all-women exhibitions of art that make a special case for – and risk ghettoizing or condescending to – women artists; women would simply be included in sufficient numbers in all group shows and … Read More
Cherry Blossoms
Pretty Wrapping Paper
Damien Hirst may have set out to shock and dismay in his early days with works featuring dead animals preserved in formaldehyde and maggots feasting on cows’ heads, but today he seems to be taking exactly the opposite approach: seeking … Read More
Mémoires de Glace
Frozen Souvenirs
“This show is a call for help,” says Pierre-Yves Nicod, curator of the exhibition “Mémoires de Glace” at the Musée Départemental de Préhistoire d’Île-de-France in Nemours, France. The melting of glaciers caused by climate change has one positive side effect: … Read More
Eugène Atget: Voir Paris
Balzac of the Camera
I fell in love with Eugène Atget’s photos of Paris long before I ever set foot on French soil when a friend gave me a book of his pictures many years ago. I couldn’t get enough. While I have seen … Read More
Salammbô
Art Imitates Life Imitates Art
The lovely Musée des Beaux-arts in Rouen is celebrating the bicentennial of the birth of its famed native son Gustave Flaubert with a clever exhibition based on his historical novel Salammbô. Why Salammbô and not the much more famous Madame … Read More
Bourse de Commerce–Pinault Collection
Pinault Pulls It Off with Panache
French tycoon François Pinault’s desire to show his contemporary art collection in Paris has been thwarted over and over again for more than two decades, but now his dream has finally come true. The Bourse de Commerce–Pinault Collection opens to … Read More
Drawing Factory
The Drawing on the Wall
Most of us have been to open-studio events, and while it is always interesting to see artists’ studios and their work, the quality of the latter often leaves something to be desired, leading to art fatigue. At the Drawing Factory’s … Read More