France's colonial past France’s colonial past is a subject that haunts artists across national borders. In Venice in 2021, for example, one of the most visited pavilions, belonging to the United States, was occupied by Simone Leigh who created...
Carrie Mae Weems at the Luma foundation: “Democracy is under threat”
https://youtu.be/nVonVjYHG9w New York, London and Arles In every impactful artistic work, it is the form and content that makes it. In Arles, Luma is hosting a large-scale, spectacular exhibition of the work of American artist Carrie Mae...
David Hammons: the documentary. “The more he says ‘fuck off’ to the art world the more they want him”
https://youtu.be/7qy3KJRXkS0 Strange and glorious The American artist David Hammons (born in 1943) is a strange and glorious figure, frequently absent, yet always seeming to appear where he’s least expected. He isn’t affiliated with any one...
Rencontres d’Arles: There is no hierarchy in photographic genres. There are only good, bad or boring photos
An augmented Provence Arles is first and foremost an unusual place, a kind of “augmented” Provence. It is here, for example, that we find exceptional Roman ruins such as the recently renovated site that tourists always forget to visit: the...
Tacita Dean at the Pinault collection: a new milestone in the history of art and film
https://youtu.be/lcQghJQVwRw The extraordinary new production of Video art Video art, like painting or sculpture, is an extraordinary mode of expression and one that is widely explored in the contemporary period. Two great artists have created...
Cy Twombly: some secrets revealed about the gestation of his works
https://youtu.be/_p31N7P2xJk Burden of classical painting Over the course of the 20th century artists have sought to cast off the burden of classical painting. Forget the figurative, forget western painting, forget “flat” painting that only...
Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Titian… A great Renaissance show at the Louvre
https://youtu.be/LF_wYDcCHnw La Grande Galerie How long has it been since you walked through the permanent collections, the holy of holies at the Louvre, the Grande Galerie? Across 460 metres stretches a display of one of the grandest episodes...
Elmgreen & Dragset: the remarkable big show of anxiety and mischief
https://youtu.be/uuXfYPW7Fp0 Four eyes Four eyes open wide onto our current age. For close to 30 years Elmgreen & Dragset (Michael Elmgreen born in 1961, Ingar Dragset born in 1969), two Scandinavian artists who live in Berlin, have been...
Art Basel: changes in the market at the world’s foremost art fair
Slow down The art market always has a few surprises up its sleeve. While at the New York auctions in May prices showed a certain degree of slow-down - naturally enough, given the global context - at the opening of the Art Basel fair on 12 June...
Hélène Leloup is a legend of the African art market
2 kind of dealers You could say there are two kinds of art dealers. There are the ones who are obsessed with business, and with generating income to support their activities. Generally, they aren’t able to keep their best objects. And then...
Hans Ulrich Obrist: urgent confessions from a child of art
https://youtu.be/3rlfatblqWQ 1968 The story begins in 1968. The year that was defined by a generation who, across the world, proclaimed their desire for freedom. 1968 was also the year that marked the death of the French turned American artist,...
The big wave of Picasso bashing
https://youtu.be/3KxxqAGvRkA Celebrations The museums of the world are vibrating in unison to the tune of Pablo Picasso. Sprawling celebrations are being staged to mark fifty years since the Spanish master’s death. In New York alone the art...