https://youtu.be/giE0LqylYOA Heroes who die young In art history, posterity favours misfortune and heroes who die young. We love Van Gogh, who died at 37 without having sold a single artwork. We love Nicolas de Staël, who killed himself due to...
Matisse: the most anticipated exhibition in Paris is disappointing despite the sublime artworks
https://youtu.be/qeah722Q5Ew Genius Henri Matisse is, without doubt, a painter of genius and an endless source of visual surprises and delight. The exhibition at the Centre Pompidou celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth was...
Centre Pompidou Metz: the reciprocal influences of Yves Klein on Lucio Fontana and the Gutai movement
Coming from the sky Didn’t you know? Everything comes from above. In the 1940s watching the sky meant looking for planes that were going to bomb you. That’s where the H-bomb came from, which reduced people to human torches and annihilated all...
Rem Koolhaas: the architect’s great cultural revolution fills the whole Guggenheim in New York…Finally
There was a very short window of opportunity to visit the Countryside , the future exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York last February, thanks to Covid. The show, which is more theoretical than aesthetic and is overseen by the Dutch...
Palazzo Butera: one of the most beautiful palaces in Sicily is all about Art and … immigration
City of migration Palermo is a fascinating city, and one that’s sparked a lot of conversation in recent years. Firstly, this is due to its current international relevance as it’s one of the major sites of migration from Africa to Italy, where its mayor Leoluca...
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris: Cindy Sherman, artist of extremes
https://youtu.be/FE3wDrJqe5o 170 arworks Too much is never enough. The Fondation Louis Vuitton is dedicating a retrospective of 170 artworks to the American artist Cindy Sherman (born in 1954). Overdose There is a risk of it...
Rirkrit Tiravanija: the new exhibition “featuring” Marcel Duchamp, John Giorno, Jasper Johns and the shadow of Donald Trump
Heir to Marcel Duchamp https://youtu.be/X-HI9Kl7qAA He’s one of the most natural heirs to Marcel Duchamp. Rirkrit Tiravanija (born in 1961) is an extraordinary free and playful artist. Dematerialization of art In a world overwhelmed by...
From the Whitney in New York to the Pompidou in Paris: the delicate yet significant marriage of art and politics
Cancel culture At a time when art which addresses societal issues has never been so relevant, exhibiting it in institutions has never proved so difficult. In late August in New York, at the epicentre of what is known as “cancel culture”, a...
Centre Pompidou: Why did Christo wrap things?
Thanks a to a hairdresser There are many smaller stories within the larger sweep of history. Christo, the Bulgarian-born artist who died on 31 May 2020, famous for his gigantic wrapping works at the scale of Paris’s Pont Neuf in 1985 and the...
Pinault Collection: When the most magical parts of Los Angeles meet Venice
No longer accessible The hazards and disasters of the coronavirus crisis mean many countries and artists that once seemed to be within reach are no longer accessible, and will apparently remain that way for some time. Excellent exhibition This is why we should...
Tribute to Christo: the art of gigantism and the impossible
Christo died on 31 May 2020 at the age of 84. He was one of the very first artists that I interviewed early on in my career. I went to meet him in 1993 at his studio in Soho in New York, where I made his acquaintance through the dealer Daniel Varenne, now also...
How museums are responding to the crisis : the reactions of directors from Los Angeles to Saint Petersburg (1)
Museums: the highest idea of a man “The museum, after all, is one of the places that give us the highest idea of man (…) The role of museums in our relationship with works of art is so great that we can hardly conceive of the fact that they...