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...
Picasso, his mother, the French police and the Légion d’honneur
France filters In his introduction to the history of French art, the historian André Chastel writes: “France filters. It receives and it sifts.” The best demonstration of this is one of the most talented Spaniards of the 20th century, who the...
Al Thani collection: a new little museum in Paris housing an exceptional cabinet of curiosities
Place de la Concorde To travel through time all you have to do is go to Paris to the Place de la Concorde. You will first arrive in the 18th century, visiting the building designed by the King’s architect, Gabriel, sumptuously restored by...
De Kooning: “I’ve always been crazy about Soutine”. An astonishing dialogue between the two genius in Paris
https://youtu.be/q7rBYGoFz98 The legacy of the artist It is utterly fascinating to learn why an artist starts to paint such or such a thing that goes on to secure their artistic legacy. This is the subject on display until 10 January at the...
Fondation Beyeler : Goya is a contemporary artist
https://youtu.be/hpLbQbGgiR8 The fascinating Duchess of Alba There exists not one but two Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828). He has gone down in collective memory as a portraitist to the Spanish royal family, where he...
Beyeler Foundation: Goya is a contemporary artist
https://youtu.be/hpLbQbGgiR8 The fascinating Duchess of Alba There exists not one but two Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828). He has gone down in collective memory as a portraitist to the Spanish royal family, where he...
Botticelli: the serial production of grace shown in Paris
Autorship Not a year goes by without some controversy over the authorship of such and such an old master, as in the case of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Salvator Mundi (See here and here the last reports about the Salvator Mundi and here about...
Edmund de Waal: follow the artist’s guided tour through the Musée Nissim de Camondo, to celebrate the memory of a vanished fascinating family
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvCcyJkZbsg Moise de Camondo First it was a house. From 1911 Moïse de Camondo used his mansion located in the Plaine-Monceau district of Paris as a place to house his collection of French art. Then it...
The Albers, an ultra-modern couple united by abstraction. An exhibition in Paris and a testimony from Sheila Hicks
To think as a couple There are artists – and they are in the majority – who think as an individual, and there are others who think as a couple. This is the case, for example, of Christo and Jeanne Claude who created and authored their huge...