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...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqtRGAW_yLQ In these times when extreme nationalism is sweeping the globe it is good to remember that the greatest art is always the fruit of multiple influences of disparate origins. In his “Introduction to the History of...
The art public adores suffering artists. They live badly, they die young, they’re ill, but every now and then they produce extraordinary things. In the rankings of this type of artist the gold medal goes to Vincent Van Gogh, but just behind him there is the Italian...
On 13 November, Christie’s is set to auction an artwork that perfectly encapsulates the fascination wielded by René Magritte (1898-1967) over the twentieth century. Made in 1949, it is called “L’empire des lumières” (“The Dominion of Light”). In the painting, which is...
An American flag. A target. A sequence of numbers. Are these simple subjects for a simple painter? Not at all. Since the 1950s, when Jasper Johns (born in 1930) develops a unique language using familiar themes, his vision is so powerful that paintings of targets,...
Chantilly is the name given to a sublime variety of whipped cream, for which France is envied the world over. But it shares its name with another French speciality: a Renaissance château, home to a long forgotten art history treasure trove. The Château de Chantilly...
He proudly announces that he celebrated his 80th birthday on 1 April and carts around an encyclopaedia of art inside his head (1). Born in Germany, Werner Spies has always been fascinated by France where he’s lived since he was 25. The director of the Musée National...
This summer in Venice the Biennale is stealing all the attention. Which is why contemporary art lovers might miss an exceptional Philip Guston (1913-1980) exhibition at Gallerie dell’Accademia. Guston, an American painter with a distinctive verve, is known for having...
(David Hockney studio did not allow photos or videos in the exhibition even for journalists ) There are artists who dream about pictorial revolutions and there are those who celebrate easel painting as it has always been. Painting has its great adventurers, those who...
Who among us hasn’t felt at least once, while walking by the sea, through a forest, or in the mountains, a kind of mystical impression, a communion with the sky and the earth, a sensation of being drawn towards the sublime absolute. To relive that experience, but...
In Paris, a stone’s throw from the Boulevard Saint Germain, an exceptional new show has just opened that looks into the creative process behind Dutch masterpieces of 17th century. It involved a police-like investigation of history to locate the drawings that helped to...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRDCmQEFk6Y Nobody can emerge unscathed from this exhibition. Mounted with exceptional skill by the Pompidou Centre curator Jonas Storsve with the collaboration of Nicola del Roscio who worked with the artist during 48 years ( he...