 Capturing reality Imagine this: Up until that point, aside from a mirror’s reflection, no human being had ever seen their own precise and real image. Then suddenly, there was news of a kind of mirror that could capture your likeness and...
Paris Photo: disasters of war, memories of segregation and the grace of young models
Poor war hero The first thing that draws you in is his steady, clear gaze. In this image his face is tilted to the side because his head rests on a pillow. Then you notice his shaved head, marked at the top by a bloody swelling. In...
Gordon Matta-Clark: Renaissance of a great artist who sculpted architecture, from Paris to New York
Curiously, in an age like our own marked by creative profusion and profound upheavals, one of the strong tendencies when it comes to art consists of looking to the past to rediscover artists who might have been unjustly forgotten. This is the case for Gordon...
Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith and David Croland: when the artist came out
The Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery in Paris is showing the early works of Robert Mapplethorpe. Each is unique and made in his own hand. Some pieces incorporate photography, but not all of them. It’s proof – if proof is still needed – that Robert Mapplethorpe was not simply a...
Antonin Artaud: the family archives of the great poète maudit goes to auction
In the pantheon of poets, the most prized names are those collectively known as the maudits – the cursed ones. Literature, like art, has been partial to its martyrs, the ones who died too soon, or who were marginalised by society and who appear to have died at the...