Paris-Photo, the biggest fair dedicated to photography is held in the French capital for two decades now, and this year back again under the Grand Palais’ glass roof. The true benefit of this mega commercial show is that it attracts the very best specialists in the...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRl1EuJNnFk In the small world of international contemporary art, he's a star. Yet he has no objects for sale, unless you include (good) intentions, freedom and a moderate desire to change the world. His name is Tino Sehgal, he...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Mq5PtT9Yw This story gets off on the wrong foot. It involves an artist who is already the subject of a lot of talk – arguably a little too much – and who caused several scandals in the 2000s, through his art, and also with his...
The reigning king of Antwerp since the 17th century was an absolute genius when it came to painting, but also ambitious, dishonest and filthy rich. We’re talking, of course, about Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). In his hometown, the studio where he worked is...
There is one school of contemporary art, going back to Marcel Duchamp, that involves playing pranks and ridiculing everything encountered in this absurd world of ours. You could be led to believe, on first appearances, that Scandinavian artists Elmgreen and Dragset,...
The whiff of scandal seems to follow Andres Serrano (born 1950), but as an artist he’s so much more than that. Of course there was ‘Immersion (Piss Christ)’ from 1987, a highly stylised photograph of a crucifix submerged in a multi-coloured liquid that we know to be...
Here in France, where people have  a new habit of vandalising artworks, the Danish artist Olafur Eliasson arrives to face-off against the opulence of the Sun King but also, alas, against reactionaries of every stripe. Until 30 October he’s taking up residence in...
It was the famous collector from Miami Mira Rubell who first told me about Hank Willis Thomas. Born in 1976, he’s a talented American artist dealing with popular culture, gender and racial stereotypes in contemporary consumer society, and the perception of ‘African...
It’s the most beautiful sculpture park in France, if not Europe. In the golden light on the outskirts of Aix-en-Provence, not far from the mountain of Saint Victoire that Cezanne loved so much, Chateau La Coste’s 230 hectares are an abundance of pine...
(take your time to watch it!) We expect our artists to be visionaries. But when they happen to naturally fit that mould we misunderstand them since they’re too far ahead of their times. It’s been a very long while that Alfredo Jaar (born in 1956) has been...
In the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, there’s something different about the scenery. From the distance, it’s a bundle of colours criss-crossing in strange patterns that you first notice. Up close, the colossal object is breathtaking. The roof of the Frank Gehry-designed...
Every two years at the Grand Palais in Paris, Monumenta is an act of creative bravura and a truly colossal show in the international contemporary art calendar. It’s a battle of the titans, in which an artist has to struggle to assert himself inside and against a...