In the Oval Office It was Barack Obama who, during his presidency, chose to hang two paintings in the Oval Office, one above the other. We recognized them as two views of Cape Cod, the coastal area which was a favourite of the Kennedys. More generally, they were two...
Pilgrimage in Montauban Picasso didn’t wait for the invention of the high-speed train or the arrival of airliners when he specially embarked on the interminable journey three times to the little town of Montauban, situated 54 kilometres outside of Toulouse in the...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa1pKj2F8cU What he is not This is an artist of whom it’s easier to say what he is not, as opposed to what he is. Peter Saul (born in 1934) is not a pop artist in the true sense, as you will often read. Extreme distorsions...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlbMXLQWvfg Walter Benjamin The visionary writer Walter Benjamin once said of Marcel Proust (1) that he admired “his astounding way of using the great poets’ method of taking their metaphors from everything that is close at hand...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USq6Bc5oZvU Symbol of love Imagine a gleaming red heart made of metal measuring 2.7 metres and weighing 1500 kilos which is suspended from some sort of golden thread. A symbol of love no doubt but also at the same time the...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGHryRqArlg The theme of movement They say that what best characterizes the work of Gabriel Orozco (born in 1962) is the theme of movement. Impatient This may well be true, because he himself can’t keep still. It was hard...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PwFht9Ua1c Pastiche, nostalgia, nihilism In history there are moments of great fruitfulness that are, however, described as decadent. These occur when what is believed to be the high point of a civilization begins to all decline...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdiEui18_dw An esthetic from Catholicism The American artist Kiki Smith (born in 1954) fascinates the world of contemporary art (see her exhibitions at the Venice Biennale before last or on the island of Hydra at the invitation...
Unknown Imagine an absurd situation where there’s a canvas measuring 144cm x 173cm whose author remains unknown, whose sale price also remains unknown, and whose buyer’s identity isn’t really known either. This mass of mysteries has been the subject of intense...
Surrealism and Dada Surrealism and Dada were movements that radically revolutionized not just the art world but also our general ways of thinking, dreaming and writing. Intellectual revolutions If you want to possess testaments to this kind of human...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rprylIsrdUg South Africa William Kentridge was born in South Africa in 1955. Apartheid He therefore spent 40 years living under the notorious apartheid regime. He describes how at the time the only way of understanding society...
On minute in front of a masterpiece How long does one spend in front of a masterpiece? For mere mortals who can’t claim to possess any, one minute maximum and often even less will be dedicated to experiencing this outstanding vision in a museum. Apart from in...