https://youtu.be/zxItYejrUOI Magic There is a certain magic that exceptional artists possess — the ability to renew their vocabulary endlessly while remaining unmistakably themselves. It is not so much that they crave novelty; rather,...
Bourse de Commerce in Paris: Minimal, But Not Quite
https://youtu.be/oiqjrU6ZFY8 François Pinault Season after season in Paris — and in Venice at the Punta della Dogana and the Palazzo Grassi — the Pinault Collection’s program continues to reveal different facets of the vast ensemble amassed by...
Irving Penn: A Historic Sale
https://youtu.be/k71kMCpGtt0?si=RZafvMibrTPPueHn Stylist of the female image Among the pantheon of modern fashion photographers stand two American talents turned legends: Richard Avedon (1923–2009) and Irving Penn (1917–2009). Among their many...
The Return of Madame X: John Singer Sargent’s Radical Icon at the Musée d’Orsay
https://youtu.be/S1NHvbciBFY?si=3FSAGe-7heUC0dcX Madame X and Princess X The title of the work is Madame X. Imagine a fashionable artist pretending to anonymize, in this way, the portrait of a well-known woman. The effect is guaranteed. In...
Bando, the Forgotten Franco-Japanese Modern Master, Is Rediscovered at Auction in Paris
Like Van Gogh “It is not because I sell little that I am a bad painter.” On August 22, 1882, Vincent van Gogh closed a letter to his brother Theo with these words, complaining of the hurtful remarks of a shortsighted art dealer. As he...
Georges de La Tour and There Was Light: The Mystical Beauty of Chiaroscuro in Paris
https://youtu.be/0Y81nKHGEMA?si=7njVbwZrhaV82n9T Light obsession For painters, light is an obsession. It is what gives life to a picture, sometimes to the point of provoking a mystical response.(Take for instance the light in Cézanne paintings,...
Maiolino at the Picasso Museum: The Golden Lion and Her Beautiful Clay Metaphors
https://youtu.be/Ng2-g8ImgEk?si=8_HaXiEnGgBXqQ2L The fate of women There’s a great deal embedded in the work of Anna Maria Maiolino. But nothing reveals itself at first glance. The artist—who, though born in Italy in 1942, has spent most of her...
Come Summer, Arles Blooms Into Capital of the International Scene, Now Featuring Wael Shawky and Ho Tzu Nyen
Van Gogh, tourist magnet The scorching sun, the Rhône winding majestically through the city, lively café terraces, Roman ruins, Van Gogh—the ever-present tourist magnet—and everywhere, down one alley or another, contemporary art exhibitions....
Barbara Hepworth at the Fondation Maeght: Harmony of Curves and Hollows in the Pine Grove
https://youtu.be/x5XqBEE-pWY Never before attempted “Here, something never before attempted is being tried: to create the universe, create instinctively, and through love, the universe in which modern art might find both its rightful...
Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles : Happy Days
Letizia Battaglia Often, when artists first begin documenting their lives through photography, they naturally start by capturing their happy days. But what comes next—in both their work and their lives—usually ends up telling another story....
Cézanne in Aix: If You Miss This Exhibit, You’ll Have Failed Your Summer
https://youtu.be/QhDVh8aFuMs Aix en Provence It’s a safe bet that had Cézanne not been from Aix-en-Provence, the history of modern art would have gone down a very different path. In the final years of his life, the painter—whom Picasso would...
Venice: When Renaissance Artists Let Loose
https://youtu.be/q8U8JJt7o5w Absolute masterpiece When we think of the absolute masterpieces of art history, we often think first of the Italian Renaissance. And among the Italian museums that house some of the most significant examples, the...