https://youtu.be/G3iBrn3Dvlg You could say that he is at the origin of the Bilbao effect, with his famous gangling architecture for the Guggenheim Museum. You could say that he has created some of the most beautiful buildings in New York and Los Angeles. You could say...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn0JqAumE5c Marcel Duchamp was most certainly unaware that in inventing the principle of the “ready-made”, the transformation of the everyday object through the sheer will of the artist into a work of art, he was opening...
Every time a snippet of a notable collection is unveiled it naturally engenders an emphatic flood of reactions in the vein of “I like this” or “I don’t like that”, grimaces, “oh”’s and “ha”’s, enthusiastic exclamations and harsh words. Take, for example, in...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2DuGbgkcbI In art jargon we call them “artists’ artists”. To put it another way, they are often complex personalities whose art’s importance is initially highlighted by their peers rather than spontaneously realized by...
It’s nothing new: the contemporary art market consists of several strata, the most visible of which focuses on a small group of artists displayed by the most powerful galleries. This phenomenon tends to present a certain geographical unity: the majority of these kind...
I was told: “Come to the New Territories”. I didn’t know quite what that meant, but it sounded like a promise of adventure. The painter Firenze Lai (born in 1984) lives in Hong Kong, specifically in the New Territories. I had already made several attempts to...
Ever since that mythical day when the serpent tricked the original couple into taking a bite from the apple, the desire for domination has been a common human sentiment. It takes various forms, which have been illustrated by artists down the ages. Not long ago, the...
It’s the major event in Paris: the opening of Lafayette Anticipations, the Galeries Lafayette foundation at 9 rue de Plâtre in Le Marais. I was granted an exclusive visit to the impressive old building last autumn, which has been hollowed out and completely renovated...
In terms of current artistic creation, ever since the 1970s France has been seen as a nation weighed down by its old traditions – a view particularly prevalent on the other side of the Atlantic – and therefore with little capacity for producing innovative artists. But...
The veteran Pop painter Alex Katz, aged 91, has a bewildering dynamism. The day I meet him, having just been with his London gallerist Timothy Taylor and wearing a fluorescent jacket and pink trainers, he’s in a hurry. And it shows. He rushes through answers, skips...
Contemporary African art. This concept, which is far too broad for such a large continent, seems at first glance to be as absurd as the concept of European art. What does German art have in common with Spanish art? About the same as art from South Africa has with art...
The artist Sheila Hicks is exceptional for several reasons. Firstly because she was born in 1934 yet she is one of the most well-known artists currently on the international contemporary art circuit, which has a long given preference to young artists. She is exhibited...