The museums with the richest collections of paintings always stage the most beautiful temporary exhibitions of Old Masters art. This is, quite simply, because these collections constitute a great currency of exchange. But it’s also because they naturally attract the...
Artists have an advantage over mere mortals in that the fruit of their torments can give rise to great works of art. They are able to express their contradictions and allow them to play out on canvas, creating a sort of tension that appeals to the viewer’s emotions....
If there is an ultimate narcissistic being, it is surely the artist. Yet when the artist turns to evoking his fellow artists’ work, provided that it consumes him with passion, it becomes exceptional. Currently showing in Antwerp at the MHKA, the city’s museum of...
It is altogether highly unlikely. 660 km from Paris, deep in the heart of Aveyron in the South of France, there’s a town that cannot be accessed by motorway or by the TGV – neither of them travel through here – where you can visit the most substantial exhibition in...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DftPH89bSyg In his youth, before earning his living as a painter, he taught drawing but he also worked as a psychic medium. This is a way of situating the figure of Frantisek Kupka, born in 1871 into a modest family from...
It’s a revelation. The Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris is presenting an exceptional exhibition dedicated to the large-scale works (up to 6 metres in length) of the painter Zao Wou-Ki, a practice he started in the 1950s. Born in China in 1920, he died in Paris...
In Spain they love to eat. And when the most famous modern Spaniard, Picasso, sits down at the dinner table it would be easy to imagine it as an excessive affair. For the Malaga-born painter was a glutton. He consumed women one after another and seized upon images...
On Friday 8 June, Christie’s is auctioning a group of 62 artworks estimated at 800,000 euros owned by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. They all share the distinguishing feature of having once belonged to a Milanese dealer, Arturo Schwarz (born in 1924). Schwarz has now...
The history of art can be unjust. But we quickly find the reasons for certain anomalies. Take Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973). Does her name sound unfamiliar to you? That’s understandable. She presents two major disadvantages. She’s a female painter who was also...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mAt6S_zdWY Imagine an artist who would become a legend within the first decade of his career. What would he do with the rest of his life? In the contemporary period, we could say that Damien Hirst (born in 1965), who was...
The greatest painters are those who have paid very close attention to their predecessors. Just look at Picasso, steeped in knowledge from a very young age thanks to his father who was an art teacher. Similarly, these days a major artist such as Scottish painter Peter...
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...