Dormant mystery In all major visual creation there lies a dormant mystery. Why does the artist decide to change style as if overnight? For the occasion of its summer exhibition, the excellent Beyeler Foundation in Basel has chosen one of the...
Kehinde Wiley ahead of his exhibition at Orsay: “At the Louvre the history paintings are made to physically dominate you”
Errors of judgment Writing about contemporary art also involves making errors of judgment on art that is currently being made. The creative output of the major protagonists is still in gestation and the viewer’s framework for understanding it...
Tefaf Maastricht: the fair of extraordinary objects
You are rich Imagine that you are rich, very rich, and that you love art. Another possibility: imagine you are a curious die-hard fan of things created by man, without boundaries of time or space. If you recognize yourself in one of these two...
Robert Storr: “the art world today is almost entirely commercial”. A meeting with the great American art critic capable of numerous premonitions
https://youtu.be/P3i5fvE8ti8 Media hype As the modern and contemporary art sales opened with the auctioning of a portrait of Marilyn from 1964 by Andy Warhol for 195 million dollars, we realize that the media hype surrounding works presented at...
Villa Medici: the art of doodling and scribbling from Leonardo to Cy Twombly
Suspending their attention The subject may seem trivial, but it is both unprecedented and fascinating how when the artist suspends their attention for a moment and their hand continues to work alone, it produces something unique. Gribouillis The French speak...
Maryan: the forgotten Polish artist’s “truth-paintings” at Moca in Miami and Kamel Mennour in Paris
https://youtu.be/tqRrN8CRO_E Zeitgeist Success in art is quite often linked to an element that may be considered superficial, and which is described in all languages using a German word: the zeitgeist. For a very long time Pinchas Burstein,...
The private life of Andy Warhol from T to V
https://youtu.be/aeC76ncf66w The Andy Warhol diaries It’s hard to find a more fitting idea than that of a TV documentary made about the artist who wanted to be a television star: Andy Warhol. Netflix has just released a documentary series made...
Boilly: the 19th century artist who fascinates the 21st century
It's just an illusion Seeking to create illusions is one of the great virtues of art. It is a process that is often practiced in current creation. Without mentioning the entire hyperrealist school, we might think for example of Gerhard Richter,...
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré: historic star of African art, discovered in France, celebrated at Moma
African art in vogue There can be no doubt that African contemporary artists are currently in vogue. This is generating a rapid promotion not just of those who are truly talented but also of painters who are repeating a tried and tested...
The story of a portrait long exhibited at a museum in Dresden now auctioned in New York
How to leverage flattery Nicolas de Largillière (1656-1746) is a French painter who enjoyed huge success during his lifetime thanks to his portraits, in which he knew how to leverage flattery. La belle strasbourgeoise His body of work, spanning...
Pissarro, Signac: their major roles in the history of modern art are re-examined in Basel and Paris
Changing mind A good exhibition is one that enables you to change your mind about an artist. Pissarro There are all sorts of reasons why this should happen at the show staged by the Kunstmuseum in Basel dedicated to Camille Pissarro...
Anselm Kiefer: forever in search of the ideal painting
https://youtu.be/yQS91FsimQ4 The same painting Across kilometres and kilometres, since the very beginning, or almost, Anselm Kiefer (born in 1945) has been making the same painting. This is not to say that he’s repeating himself, that...