Rosa Bonheur
Rosa Redux
This must be the season for exhibitions of the work of ballsy women artists in Paris’s museums. It’s about time. While I used the word to describe Alice Neel, whose work is on show at the Centre Pompidou, it could … Read More
Paris art exhibition
Joan Mitchell & Monet-Mitchell
Expressions of Impressions
The Fondation Louis Vuitton is devoting not one but two exhibitions to the great American abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell (1925-92). One is a retrospective of her work, and the other, “Monet-Mitchell,” compares some of her paintings with those of the … Read More
Ugo Rondinone
Dancing with the Elements
Just in time for Art Basel, the new contemporary art fair that has replaced FIAC, the Petit Palais has opened an exhibition of the work of one of today’s leading contemporary artists, Ugo Rondinone. The show’s lowercased title, “the water … Read More
Oskar Kokoschka: Un Fauve à Vienne
Wild Thing
Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) was a wild young thing in staid turn-of-the-20th-century Vienna. A critic even called him the Oberwildling, or “head savage” of the exhibition ”Kunstschau,” where he exhibited his illustrated poem “The Dreaming Youths,” a tale of teenage sexual … Read More
Alice Neel: Un Regard Engagé
An Irrepressibly Radical Artist
I fell in love with the work of Alice Neel (1900-84) when I came across a show of her quirky portraits while gallery-hopping in London several years ago. After that, I never heard a peep about her until the Centre … Read More
Edvard Munch: A Poem of Life, Love and Death
Origins of “The Scream”
The exhibition “Edvard Munch: A Poem of Life, Love and Death” at the Musée d’Orsay does not start off with the Norwegian artist’s most famous painting, “The Scream,” but a sense of strangeness and unease still hits the visitor right … Read More
Héroïnes Romantiques
Dramatizing Life and Death
In our world of conflict, plague, dictatorships and the rise of the far right, it is hard to escape the feeling that things are regressing rather than progressing. However, one discernible area of positive advancement can be found in the … Read More
Polyphone: Polyphonies Visuelles et Sonores
Seeing Sound, Hearing Art
Once you get past the vendors of contraband cigarettes surrounding the exit from the Métro station Saint Denis-Porte de Paris and the string of fast food shops on Rue Gabriel Péri, the scene changes dramatically when you suddenly spy a large … Read More
Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori
Never Too Late to Out Talent
“There was no stopping her from painting,” says Amanda Gabori, daughter of painting powerhouse Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori (Sally Gabori for short), currently the subject of a solo exhibition at Paris’s Fondation Cartier. Normally, there would be nothing surprising about an … Read More
Toucher le Feu
Playing with Fire
The exhibition “Toucher le Feu” (“Touch Fire”) at the Musée Guimet rights an age-old wrong: historically, Japanese women were banned from making ceramics. They were not allowed to use a potter’s wheel or “touch the fire” of the kilns. As … Read More