https://youtu.be/zpbrtj6R_Lw?si=0NWKIFRn3LnPRcv0 By tradition By tradition, the English people have long harbored a visceral love for their countryside. For years, the archetype of this attachment was embodied by a sovereign—headscarf tied,...
In Mumbai, a grand voyage through time with Doug Aitken
https://youtu.be/MDXcOQHUZUU?si=o2_H36IULqhswmBQ Big effects The Californian Doug Aitken is what is usually described, somewhat vaguely, as a “multidisciplinary artist.” His mode of operation, however, is anything but vague. He deftly deploys every means at his...
Art Basel Qatar: a new model, a new center of gravity for the art world—and new antagonisms as well
Geostrategic tensions Beyond the acute geostrategic tensions currently undermining the climate across Middle Eastern countries, another, more subterranean conflict is also playing out locally. Its aim is to generate happiness without causing...
Why Does Nairy Baghramian Receive So Much Recognition? The Answer Lies in Her Exhibition in Brussels
Homage to Marian Goodman At the time of the interview, Marian Goodman, Nairy Baghramian’s longtime gallerist, had just passed away. The artist asked me to dedicate this article to her. “She was not an artist, but she sculpted my life.”...
The Immense Modern Cézanne at Beyeler
https://youtu.be/pbMMtJaGkEE?si=UV37tnEARM3b_ewu Rare privilege A substantial exhibition devoted to Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) is always a major event. The colossal force of the Aixois master’s work rarely disappoints. So having the opportunity...
The little French Accent of Oscar Wilde, a Mythical Writer for Wealthy Collectors
https://youtu.be/zekRFFxbzN0?si=ff5Rg3Z-Zgd2TEnI A temptation worth €825,000 “I can resist everything except temptation.” When the legendary Irish man of letters Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) coined this famous witticism in the dialogue of one of his...
Yu Nishimura: The Silence of His Paintings and the Sirens of Success
Quietly wise young man Painting has a kind of magic: it can open onto other senses. This is the case with the canvases of Yu Nishimura (born in 1982), which almost always evoke silence—or sometimes the crackling of old screens that distort...
Berthe Weill: Why Was This Missing Link in the History of Modern Art—the First Dealer of Picasso—Completely Forgotten? It Takes More Than a Keen Eye to Succeed
https://youtu.be/_RXKYlw-rB8?si=KFONA8qg-OgYqWnS La Boheme At the beginning of the 20th century, Montmartre was a territory of poverty and bohemia, filled with shantytowns, inhabited by street performers, circus people, "grisettes" and other...
Meriem Bennani at Lafayette Anticipations in Paris: Do You Know the Very Serious Language of Flip-Flops?
https://youtu.be/51tTGSImc5E?si=nLdlkp3wRhBTZSm0 Sense of astonishment This group of silent, motionless people does not have the attitude one ordinarily observes in a museum setting. They are rather young, sitting close together, among friends,...
Paris: Pablo Picasso and Philip Guston— the grotesque as a political weapon, a subject of our time
https://youtu.be/Q2aiNu3nGIw The grotesque and Picasso In the vast landscape of exhibitions devoted to exploring the work, life and habits of the greatest painter of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso, there is one obvious subject that had never...
The Great Magic of Wifredo Lam at MoMA: Where Trees Speak and Birds Are Gods
https://youtu.be/JlZFZgi-Jeo Magical beliefs It is an extraordinary world, steeped in magical beliefs and the polar opposite of a Western Cartesian mindset. It is inhabited by hybrid beings, stretched to the extreme, hidden within a...
Tribute to Frank Gehry: “I hope people will have loved what I have created. It was all done with a great deal of love.”
Seven years ago, I interviewed Frank Gehry for the first time. Since then I have seen him many times, notably for the opening of the Luma Foundation in Arles and, in the spring of 2025 in Abu Dhabi, when he was already frail, on the occasion of the Pritzker Prize...