Musicanimale

The Symphony of Life

December 14, 2022 | By Heidi Ellison | Exhibitions

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

Christian Marclay

Bang! Visible Sound

November 23, 2022 | By Heidi Ellison | Exhibitions

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

Rosa Bonheur

Rosa Redux

October 26, 2022 | By Heidi Ellison | Exhibitions

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

Oskar Kokoschka: Un Fauve à Vienne

Wild Thing

October 12, 2022 | By Heidi Ellison | Exhibitions

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