https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DftPH89bSyg In his youth, before earning his living as a painter, he taught drawing but he also worked as a psychic medium. This is a way of situating the figure of Frantisek Kupka, born in 1871 into a modest family from...
There’s nothing “politically correct” about this exhibition. Here the women often tend to be nude, they smoke, and they pursue their own pleasure. And it’s an American painter-voyeur by the name of Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004) who portrays, against a seaside background,...
It’s a revelation. The Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris is presenting an exceptional exhibition dedicated to the large-scale works (up to 6 metres in length) of the painter Zao Wou-Ki, a practice he started in the 1950s. Born in China in 1920, he died in Paris...
The South African photographer David Goldblatt, born in 1930, died on 25 June. I met this exceptional man at his home in Johannesburgh. He was both humble and humanistic, and had long been involved in the fight against apartheid and racism in his country. Then I...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K43H-AvZXtc It’s a huge shock. It’s a major exhibition driven by a universal message. It’s a piece of the history of modern art. In Paris there’s a place that is little known for its exhibitions, the Shoah Memorial located...
I am the curator of an exhibition dedicated to Ai Weiwei in Marseille, Ai Weiwei.Fan Tan at the spectacular museum designed by Rudy Ricciotti on the shores of the Mediterranean, the Mucem, which opened this week. Since the purpose of this blog is to communicate my...
In Spain they love to eat. And when the most famous modern Spaniard, Picasso, sits down at the dinner table it would be easy to imagine it as an excessive affair. For the Malaga-born painter was a glutton. He consumed women one after another and seized upon images...
Anish Kapoor (born in 1954) is not just an artist, he’s also a great illusionist. He is helping to set in motion the blurring of mankind’s perception and in doing so touches on a mystical part of us that makes us pleasantly uncomfortable. He makes our heads spin....
Two of the greatest artworks of the twentieth century were almost conceived in a brothel. The masterpiece “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon”, Picasso’s cubist manifesto now on display at Moma, doesn’t depict pretty girls from the south of France but rather creatures...
On Friday 8 June, Christie’s is auctioning a group of 62 artworks estimated at 800,000 euros owned by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. They all share the distinguishing feature of having once belonged to a Milanese dealer, Arturo Schwarz (born in 1924). Schwarz has now...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBHxf2FvTyQ On the big international art show circuit, Kader Attia (born in 1970) is everywhere. He was exhibited at the penultimate Documenta in Kassel in 2012. One of his large-scale works was exhibited as part of the...
Over the past 3 months and up until 9 May the glorious central spiral of the Guggenheim in New York was occupied by the artist Danh Vo (born in 1975 in Vietnam raised in Denmark). He will be succeeded by Alberto Giacometti in June. Which just goes to show… But in my...