Germaine Richier

Hurricane Woman

Through June 12, 2023 | Centre Pompidou | By Heidi Ellison

The history of modern French sculpture can be easily traced in Paris by a pilgrimage to the Rodin Museum, followed by a visit to the just-reopened Bourdelle Museum (more on that in an upcoming issue of Paris Update), featuring the … Read More

Who You Staring At?

A Nod to No Wave

Through May 1, 2023 | Centre Pompidou | By Jeff Rian

In some in-between times, artists resort to effect – a form of expression that brashly avoids polished technique and stylish finesse. That was the case in the mid-1970s, an interstitial period in the United States, with the OPEC oil crisis … Read More

Musicanimale

The Symphony of Life

Through January 29, 2023 | Musée de la Musique-Philharmonie de Paris | By Heidi Ellison

Strange sounds fill the exhibition space at the Musée de la Musique-Philharmonie de Paris: the roar of a rutting stag, the trill of a song thrush, the clacking of stag jawbones being used as percussion instruments – and that’s just … Read More

Women War Photographers

Women on the Front Line

Through December 31, 2022 | Musée de la Libération de Paris–Musée du Général Leclerc–Musée Jean Moulin de Paris | By Brian Childs

War photographers are mostly portrayed as a macho breed, summed up in the death-defying bravado of Al Rockoff as played by John Malkovich in the movie The Killing Fields, about the genocide in Cambodia, or the frontline action motto of … Read More

Panorama: The Other Side

Mysterious Worlds Revealed

Through December 31, 2022 | Le Fresnoy | By Heidi Ellison

Every year, Le Fresnoy–Studio National des Arts Contemporains, an art school and production center for multimedia and digital arts in Tourcoing (near Lille), invites an outside curator to put together a new edition of the exhibition “Panorama,” this year titled … Read More

Christian Marclay

Bang! Visible Sound

Through February 27, 2023 | Centre Pompidou | By Heidi Ellison

Like many people, I first discovered Christian Marclay through his spellbinding 24-hour video installation “The Clock” (2010), consisting of film clips showing the actual time, which was being shown at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. After having seen a section … Read More