https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PwFht9Ua1c Pastiche, nostalgia, nihilism In history there are moments of great fruitfulness that are, however, described as decadent. These occur when what is believed to be the high point of a civilization begins to all decline...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdiEui18_dw An esthetic from Catholicism The American artist Kiki Smith (born in 1954) fascinates the world of contemporary art (see her exhibitions at the Venice Biennale before last or on the island of Hydra at the invitation...
Political and economic upheavals As 2019 comes to a close, in a year shaken by various political and economic upheavals, observers may wonder what fate has in store for the modern and contemporary art market. Stratospheric prices Over the past few years, auction...
A question of language Each language possesses a certain way of communicating that goes beyond even words. To put it another way, there are means of self-expression that are widely practised, and others that are not. Not to lose face While France is known for a...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQJVMwmNaAk Various perspectives Our present day is too complex to be comprehended unambiguously. There are numerous artists who talk about this phenomenon, like William Kentridge who addresses the issue of History, which...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5oF-HBcCh4 Beloved of collectors You have to hear him talk about art history. Urs Fischer (born in 1973), the Swiss artist based in New York, beloved of contemporary art collectors who exhibit him all over, from Peter Brant in...
Successful art fairs These days every successful contemporary art fair, from Miami to Hong Kong, takes place on a city-wide scale. La Fiac And this week that point is being made by the Fiac, the Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain, which is held between 17 and 20...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv1Nvn4Gc34 Everything must change “For things to remain the same, everything must change.” This now-legendary line, uttered by the dashing Alain Delon in Luchino Visconti’s film The Leopard, could actually be reclaimed by...
Victim of the Brexit It’s clear to see that the art market is one of the victims of Brexit. What taxes will be applied to artworks due to leave Britain? What will be the potential obstacles to their circulation? Turning toward Paris Certain major galleries have...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXWkF5fpi84 Call me again tomorrow “I was 24 years old. I travelled from Chile to Paris. I arrived at my hotel. It was 2 o’clock in the morning and I had the phone number of André Breton (ed. the theoretician of...
Free spirit The free-spirited and prolific Sigmar Polke (1941-2010), a great painter, was the subject of a retrospective at Moma in New York and at the Tate in London in 2014. Palazzo Grassi His work was also exhibited in 2016 at the Pinault Foundation’s Palazzo...
A seventh continent It’s like something out of science fiction. Human beings today have been granted a seventh continent – in addition to the known ones – that occupies over 1.6 million square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean and is made up entirely of plastic...