https://youtu.be/7qy3KJRXkS0 Strange and glorious The American artist David Hammons (born in 1943) is a strange and glorious figure, frequently absent, yet always seeming to appear where he’s least expected. He isn’t affiliated with any one...
Rencontres d’Arles: There is no hierarchy in photographic genres. There are only good, bad or boring photos
An augmented Provence Arles is first and foremost an unusual place, a kind of “augmented” Provence. It is here, for example, that we find exceptional Roman ruins such as the recently renovated site that tourists always forget to visit: the...
Tacita Dean at the Pinault collection: a new milestone in the history of art and film
https://youtu.be/lcQghJQVwRw The extraordinary new production of Video art Video art, like painting or sculpture, is an extraordinary mode of expression and one that is widely explored in the contemporary period. Two great artists have created...
The colossal Sharjah Biennial : an inventory of new world futures
Global South If anyone mentions Sharjah, the contemporary art fans say: that’s where the Biennial is. People generally don’t know much about this emirate, which is part of the UAE, apart from the fact that it is wedged between the riches...
Thomas Demand in Paris: immersive conceptual trompe-l’oeil trickery
https://youtu.be/7hcG_sptgfI Like a little dead The German artist Thomas Demand (born in 1964) is a strange kind of photographer. He creates images that are all based on the same principle. In actuality, he has always created illusions of...
The new Ambani cultural centre: Mumbai the ‘maximum city’ and contemporary art
Big numbers The Indian Ambani family is famous for various reasons. Firstly due to the father, Mukesh, an astute businessman who is largely responsible for growing his own father’s textile business, to the point of turning it into a...
Poussin obsessed: an exhibition reveals the erotic side to the 17th-century painter
https://youtu.be/K8ekvjgV9MA No taboos Super-erotic and without taboos. Nicolas Poussin(1594-1665), an artist’s artist favoured by art historians, considered to be the most austere of his era, had a period that was decidedly risqué. The...
Ugo Rondinone in Geneva: love and death shared with Hodler and Vallotton
https://youtu.be/ZXcus1rGJxQ Global Ugo Rondinone (1964) is one of the star artists on the global contemporary art scene. The Swiss national is represented by six galleries around the world. He works primarily in the fields of sculpture and...
A meeting with Lee Ufan in his Japanese studio
https://youtu.be/1LrnSLhWSqE Erudition and execution “The act of painting is the longest and the most difficult. You need the erudition of a composer, but also the execution required to play the violin.” Eugène Delacroix wrote these words in...
Alex Katz at the Guggenheim museum: What matters to me is the idea of the present moment
https://youtu.be/ewBKSBa7aoc Guggenheim Not all artists merit the Guggenheim. The famous spiral-shaped building in New York designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is a death knell for those whose career is half-baked, overly repetitive and...
Contemporary art seen from Sao Paulo (to Arles)
Turbulent events Brazil continues to face turbulent events. In 2021, while the vast country was still in shock from the chaos of the pandemic but also amid major upheavals from the reign of Bolsonaro, who openly declared his antipathy towards...
Christian Marclay: images of sounds at the Centre Pompidou
Forms of sounds What forms can we give to sounds? It’s a strange question, but it was posed in the early 20th century by major artists such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. In our current age there is another artist, the Swiss American who...