https://youtu.be/Y73YWHsMoc8 Absolute masterpiece It’s a small museum that contains an absolute masterpiece. Located at Hauterives, in a commune of 2,000 inhabitants not far from Lyon, Saint Etienne and Valence, it is home to a complete...
Tadao Ando at the Centre Pompidou: Jean Nouvel and Renzo Piano tell all
The ultra-famous Japanese architect and winner of the Pritzker Prize , Tadao Ando (born in 1941) possesses an uncommon grace. He doesn’t display the usual rigidity during interviews. I met him last year and the man was all smiles, speaking to me at length about boxing...
Gordon Matta-Clark: Renaissance of a great artist who sculpted architecture, from Paris to New York
Curiously, in an age like our own marked by creative profusion and profound upheavals, one of the strong tendencies when it comes to art consists of looking to the past to rediscover artists who might have been unjustly forgotten. This is the case for Gordon...
Frank Gehry: Inside the mind of the great architect. 6 answers in 60 seconds and more
https://youtu.be/G3iBrn3Dvlg You could say that he is at the origin of the Bilbao effect, with his famous gangling architecture for the Guggenheim Museum. You could say that he has created some of the most beautiful buildings in New York and Los Angeles. You could say...
Galeries Lafayette foundation in Paris: a dream building by Koolhaas and generous ambitions for the artists
It’s the major event in Paris: the opening of Lafayette Anticipations, the Galeries Lafayette foundation at 9 rue de Plâtre in Le Marais. I was granted an exclusive visit to the impressive old building last autumn, which has been hollowed out and completely renovated...
Louvre Abu Dhabi: A visit to the most daring museum of the twenty-first century
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjxPp2dPZIc This story begins, for me, in 2006 or early 2007 in the lobby of a London hotel. Tom Krens was head of the Guggenheim at the time, a museum he sought to transform into a global brand. He had opened branches of...
Les Galeries Lafayette: The very first visit to the impressive foundation designed by Rem Koolhaas in Paris
We are all familiar with the Galeries Lafayette, established in 1893, which have become synonymous with luxury consumption beneath that great cupola adorned with Art Nouveau glasswork. Less familiar for an international audience perhaps is that the French family-run...
Tadao Ando: the famous architect discusses the Pinault Museum in Paris, Richard Serra and boxing
The day before French businessman François Pinault unveiled his plans for his new museum in Paris, opening in late 2018, by chance I met Tadao Ando while sat at Café de Flore in Saint Germain des Près. The Japanese architect’s English is patchy, his French even more...
On Tom Krens, the charismatic former Guggenheim director. Dangerous are those with nothing to lose
When François Mitterrand discovered he had prostate cancer and opted not to make the information public, this powerful politician who had a remarkable talent for manipulating other people suddenly had nothing to lose. When the economist and the ex-IMF chief Dominique...
Rem Koolhaas: In the mind of a celebrated architect… and his son
Approaching his 72nd birthday, Rem Koolhaas is a global star of architecture. He’s the winner of the Pritzker Prize, the “Nobel” of architecture, the Praemium Imperiale, awarded to him by the Japanese emperor in 2003, the Golden Lion at the 2010 Venice Architecture...
The New Tate Modern: A Disappointment
On paper it was the best news from the European art world this season. Tate Modern, the epicentre of modern and contemporary art in Britain, is tightening its grip by adding 60% more exhibition space in a new extension designed – like the original gallery, which...
Dasha Zhukova’s New Museum in Moscow
A few years ago, Moscow’s Gorki Park, a highly significant space in 1960s Communist times, had fallen into deep neglect. But as the world turned, so did Gorki Park. Today, the park has become a highly significant place for hipsters of all stripes, with at its center a...