Andrea Mantegna’s paintings in Paris Musée du Louvre

There are many reasons to pay a visit to Paris Musée du Louvre, and this fall provides a very special one : Mantegna 1431 - 1506.  The last exhibition dedicated to this star painter of Italian Renaissance took place in London in 1992, so this one is a real event.

Don’t get fooled by the apparent quietness in the lobby, people gather under the Sully aisle esclator, you have to stand in line for a while and it’s a bit crowdy inside, so I would suggest you to come early morning, or for nocturnes, or to make a reservation.

But you should’not miss this. For the first time - at least for decades- the exibition shows most of Mantegna’s remaining works, gathered from museums all around the world.

This Saint Marc leaning on a “trompe-l’oeil” balcony comes from Städelesches Kunsshalle in Frankfurt am Main, and Mantegna painted it in Padoue in 1450, when he was about nineteen.

This wonderful Saint Jérôme in the Wilderness comes from San Paolo Museum of Art and was painted in the same years.

The exhibition follows a chronological path, pointing the artist’s influences, his followers and the contemporary painters he knew, in the first place Giovanni Bellinni, who was also his step-brother.  It refreshens our perception of the cultural and political exchanges and habits in European countries during the fifteenth century. Mantegna’s painting turned the gothic page and opened the Quattrocento, which partly explains why he was so famous in his time.

Christ in the olive trees garden, painted in 1455, comes from London National Gallery.

This gathering makes clear some of the artist’s major topics, how he used the frame, trompe l’oeil effects, the underneath point of view, perspective and various scales, hyper realistic details and fantasmatic visions, which explains why his work interested or inspired many later artists, and is still fascinating.

The exhibition is also made for children. Next to some pictures, cardboards invite them to focus on some detail, to look for a rider hidden in a cloud, for animals, for what’s going on in the background…  ..

We can regret that the absence of the Dead Christ, who stayed hanged on a wall of Milan’s Brera Pinacotheca, but fortunately Madrid Prado Museum has let go this fascinating Death of the Virgin (1461), which actually represents a most beautifully staged portrait of the city of Mantoue (the city of his new sponsor)

This version of Saint Sebastien (1470) comes from Wien Kunsthistoriches Museum.

And this theatrical Judith and Holopherne (1495) comes from Washington National Gallery of Art.

But the Madona of Victory (circa 1596) is a resident of Paris Musée du Louvre.

His engravings, sketches…are fascinating too, and above all  the frescoes that could not be moved, so that we’ll have to go to Italy to see what’s left of them - but who would complain about this ?

Meanwhile, this Paris exhibition is a must, and a delight

Mantegna 1431 - 1506, Musée du Louvre, aile Sully (enter under the pyramid) metro Palais-Royal, tel 33(0)1 40 20 53 17, open everyday except Tuesday 9 to 18, Wednesday and Friday up to 22. Up to January 5. Entrance €9,50  (€13, or €11 at night, if you wish to visit some other part of the museum, but then, take a break, it’s a a very rich exhibition and you don’t want to look at something else right away ).

To buy your tickets previously you may go on : http://ticketnet.com/shop/fr/module.asp?id=34

or : http://www.ticketweb.com/

or: http://www.fnacspectacles.com/

More information on : http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp

Walk among glittering crystals in Paris Parc de Bagatelle

Bagatelle is a beautiful ancient romantic garden, created in queen Marie-Antoinette’s time, and located in Bois de Boulogne. It is famous for its gorgeous roses, but this fall, all great French historical crystal trademarks have joined their talents to change Bagatelle into crystal gardens

On a beautiful day, it’s a lovely destination, but forget it if it’s grey.

Ever lasting water lilies glitter in the sun.

Palm trees are heavy with shimmering glass fruits,

or blue flowers,

and fountains look frozen.

Walk in the Trianon to look at more traditional crystal works, like this chandelier.

Outside, crystal swans float along with their shiny transparent reflection,

but it takes more to to disturb living swans.

All these dreamy pictures were taken by my friend Anne Marie Dumas.

Jardins de Cristal à Bagatelle, every day 10 to 18 up to November 8, entrance €3.

Bagatelle garden is route de Sèvres, Bois de Boulogne. Metro Pont de Neuilly + bus 43 up to Neuilly-Parc de Bagatelle (end of the line). But you can also take bus 43 from Gare du Nord, or Gare Saint Lazare and ride all the way by bus. It might take a little longer, but it’s a nice trip through Paris.

Paris Autumn Festival starting September 13 at “La Maison Rouge”

Beginning next week-end, on September 13, Paris Autumn Festival offers up to december 21  a selection of all kinds of modern artistics productions to be seen in Paris.

It starts at La Maison Rouge, one of the Paris foundations dedicated to modern plastic arts, located next to Paris Arsenal Harbour, built in an old factory.

It’s first exhibition on this fall shows an untitled installation by Marie Cool and Fabio Balducci :

Their work is based on repetitive gestures and videos.

In a dark room, Christian Boltanski opens for us his Archives du Coeur (Heart’s files)

Both events start on Saturday September 13 from 11 to 15, and go on up to October 5, Wednesday to Sunday 11-19, up to 21 on Thursday. During next Paris Nuit Blanche (Wakeful Night), Boltanski’s exhibition will be running all night through October 4 to October 5

Next to the Maison Rouge exhibitions rooms is a bookstore dedicated to plastic arts, and usually a nice cafe, which is closed up to October 5. But during this time, instead of having a drink, you can pay a visit to Andrea Blum’s Birdhouse Cafe.

It’s a birds house where public is staying stuck up  the aviary, looking down at birds who move freely.

La Maison Rouge, 10 boulevard de la Bastille 75012 Paris, Metro Bastille or Quai de la Rapée, tel 33(0) 1 40 01 08 81, entrance € 6,50, €4,50 for over 65, free under 13.

Festival d’Automne de Paris, information and reservation 33(0)1 53 45 17 17 (Monfay to Friday 11 to 18, Saturday 11 to 15) and on www.festival-automne.com

Richard Avedon in Paris Galerie du Jeu de Paume

The great photo exhibition in Paris this summer is dedicated to Richard Avedon. 270 photos showing the various aspects of the artist’s career, from 1946 up to 2004, the year of his death, are  to be seen at the Galerie du Jeu de Paume, in the Tuileries Garden.

Fashion pictures for Harper’s Bazaar magazine, like this one of Dovima wearing an evening gown by Christian Dior and posing with elephants at Paris Cirque d’hiver in 1955.

Or this 1968 portrait of Twiggy, a star model of the sixties, wearing a fancy hair do by Ara Gallant :

He’s been shooting politicians, artists and rockstars… and himself, like in this self portrait taken  on August 20 1980.

In the eighties, he started focusing on anonymous working class people :

Roberto Lopez, worker on an oil field in Lyons Texas, portraited on September 28 1980, is part of the series  In the American West, as well as :

Sandra Bennet,  from Rocky Ford, Colorado,12 years old, portraited on August 23 1980.

All this pictures copyright the Richard Avedon Foundation, courtesy le Jeu de Paume, and many thanks to the great site where you can go to if you want to know all about modern art exhibitions in Paris and all over France : www.paris-art.com/,

Richard Avedon, exhibition up to September 28, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, 1 place de la Concorde 75001 Paris, Metro Concorde, tel 33 (0) 1 47 03 12 50. Closed on Monday, open Tuesday 12  to 21, Wednesday to Friday 12 to 19, Saturday and Sunday 10 to 19. Entrance € 7.

More information on : www.jeudepaume.org

And after or before visiting this exhibition, take a walk in the garden and take a look at the modern sculptures. Don’miss Clara Clara by Richard Serra, remodeling the perspective from Concorde to the Louvre :

nore Louise Bourgeois’  Welcoming Hands

to be seen close to the Galerie du Jeu de Paume.

Paris Parc de la Villette : a place to visit this summer, for art, outdoor films and concerts

This summer, there are a lot of good reasons to go north up to Parc de la Villette, the largest of Paris gardens, offering a wide range of cultural and leisure activities.

The art event takes place in the beautiful glass Grande Halle :

Up to August 17, come in and discover a giant installation by Yayoï Kusama, who has been working on dots for forty years.

This artist, who was closed to Pop Art and Andy Warhol in the sixties, takes this pattern both light and seriously, declaring “My life is a dot lost among other dots”.

Tuesday to Sunday 14 to 22, free entrance.

And it goes with a workshop on dots for kids (from 2 years old). July Sunday 20, Wednesday 23 and Saturday 26 at 16.30. It’s one hour long, with a drink at the end, and costs € 7.  But you have to make a reservation, dialing 33(0)1 40 03 75 75.

Up to August 17,  you also have the opportunity to watch a film (in original version) sitting on a lawn, at Prairie du Triangle, Tuesday to Sunday at nightfall. Price € 2  . For € 5 you can book a deck chair and a blanket. Program on : www.cinema.arbo.com/index.php3?p=tous_films -

World musics every Sunday up to August 24 at Folie Belvédere : it’s scènes d’été (Summer Stages), July 20 and 27, August 3,10,17 and 24, one concert at 17.30 and one at 19.30. Free. Program and information on 33(0)1 40 03 75 75.

For all information on these events and detailed programs go to : www.villette.com/

Parc de la Villette, 211 avenue Jean Jaurès, 75019 Paris, Metro Porte de Pantin or Porte de la Villette

John Armleder:Jacques Garcia - an unusual experience in Paris Swiss Cultural Center

Wandering in Paris Marais streets  on a hot or rainy, or windy day, do take a break and pay a visit to Swiss Cultural Center, located rue des Francs-Bourgeois, at the end of a narrow cobbled alley.

The Swiss artist John Armleder has kept being concerned by the prominent part of the viewer in a work of art, and the relation between paintings and their surroundings.

“Most of the time, my paintings would end being hanged next to a couch or over a fire place, so at this point, I decided to provide both the painting and the couch.“

As John Armleder thinks that it’s the viewer who makes the work of art, French designer Jacques Garcia thinks that it’s the customer who makes the design.

For this installation, John Armleder has asked  Jacques Garcia, well known for his baroque, neo- gothique, second empire interiors (Ladurée tea rooms for example), to create a furnished flat as a setting for paintings and photographs.

You first enter a fancy dining room  with a table set for supper, and then come in a boudoir opening on a bedroom, with a tiger skin laying  on the floor, its naturalized  mouth wide open, and a painting of a vampire lady on the wall. All  walls are covered with burgundy drapes, the only natural light comes from a ceiling window.  Profusion of art and literary books, decorative objects, paintings and photos on the walls (not all by Armleder) that  share a  sophisticated and a bit deleterious erotic touch, all that make you feel it’s really someone’s place. An odd, out of time, a kitsch but somehow charming private place, a place you don’t belong to.  And suddenly, you see yourself in a mirror you had’nt noticed : you’re part of the whole installation. It makes you feel as if you were walking inside a Gustave Moreau painting.

A bit weird experience, but really worth it.

Centre Cuturel Suisse 132-138 rue des Francs-Bourgeois 75003 Paris Metro Saint-Paul tel 33 (0) 1 42 71 44 50 opened Wednesday to Sunday 13 - 20, Thursday up to 22. Free entrance. Exhibition John Armleder : Jacques Garcia up to August 4, and from September 3 to September 28 (Swiss Cultural Center closes in August )

For more information, go to : www.ccsparis.com/

all shades of red in Paris Musée des Arts Décoratifs

In Paris, 2008 celebrates red as a color, and it takes place at Museum of Decorative Arts, located in a western wing of Louvre Palace.

Red as a color has many strong and opposite meanings, such as passion, danger, interdiction, rebellion, power…in popular French, “prendre un coup de rouge” does’nt mean what it’s literal translation suggests : “get hit by a communist”, but just “have a glass of (red) wine”.

Organizing elements of its permanent collection, the museum proposes an exhibition called aussi rouge que possible (”as red as possible”). It’s a series of installations , focused on diferent themes.

Red for power:

sculpture of roman emperor Hadrien (antique restored in French seventeenth century) next to  armchair Big Easy (Ron Arad, Italy 1991) and a portrait of Turgot by Carl Van Loo (circle 1739)

Red interiors:

armchair vermetila Fernando Campana Brazil 1993

couch Bocca Studio 65 Torino 1969, in front of 1950 posters for Lido Review and lipstick Rouge Baiser

Red clothes :

couch Djinn by Olivier Mourgue France 1993 under a tapestry : Return of the prodigal son France 1580

hats (1939/1950) in front of the window where a 1990 Yohji Yamamoto dress stands in front of a Castilian altar piece (circa 1475/1480) featuring Saint Michel beating the dragon, and two servant dresses (France 1820 - 1860)

Hell and Redemption :

Cabinet Enfer by Elisabeth Garouste Mattia Bonetti France 1998 and a poster advertising Anis Infernal by Leonetto Capiello France 1905

Red Alert:

Poster Hiroshima mon Amour (a play by Marguerite Duras) Théâtre de la tête noire, France 1998.

And in the same time and place, Valentino, Themes and Variations, an exhibition dedicated to the work of a fashion designer well known for his “red”.

And it’s also fascinating to wander through this museum’s huge and various permanent collection.

Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 107 rue de Rivoli 75001 Paris, Metro Palais-Royal, tel 33 (0)1 44 55 57 80 Closed on Monday, Tuesday Wednesday Friday : 11 to 18, Thursday 11 to 21, Saturday Sunday : 10 to 18.

Exhibition Aussi Rouge que Possible, up to November 1.

Exhibition  Valentino, Thèmes et Variations, up to September 21

ephemeral garden and everlasting myth around Paris town hall

At the edge of Marais area’south part, Paris Hôtel de Ville is nowadays offering us two kind of dream, one on each side of the building.

On Town Hall’s eastern side, a free temporary exhibition is dedicated to Grace Kelly, princess of Monaco.

Anyone who has seen her entrance in Hitchcock’s Rear Window (except Jim Stewart, performing the main character) can understand why Grace Kelly became a Hollywood myth, and consequently a prince’s bride.

There is a huge line in the afternoon, so I would suggest to go in the morning if you don’t want to wait too long.

You’ll still have stars in your eyes while walking on rue de Rivoli towards Town Hall square.

There, you can take an ecological and dreamy journey.

A quiet green pond reflects Town Hall’s front.

People rest in the sun close to a wooden cabin.

and luxuriant plants almost hide the traffic of one of Paris most crowded areas.

Les années Grace Kelly, Princesse de Monaco Hôtel de Ville salle Saint-Jean Metro Hôtel de Ville, everyday except Sundays  10/19, free entrance (last entrance 18).  Up to August 16.

Le jardin éphémère, Parvis de l’Hötel de Ville, Metro Hôtel de Ville, free entrance everyday 9/21, up to August 17.

Musée Bourdelle : a quiet journey back to old Paris Montparnasse

The current exhibition Rêve Brisé by Alain Séchas also gives the opportunity to discover the Bourdelle Museum.

It’s a brick building of the sixties, on a quiet street close to the noisy avenue du Maine, Montparnasse Raiway Station and Tower.

Along the street, a garden with benches to sit, rest, dream or read among some of the more than 500 sculptures by Antoine Bourdelle that are permanently exhibited in all parts of the museum. Here a neo antique warrior with a modern background.

The arcades on the museum’s building side makes you almost feel you’re in a cloister, with profane statues.

this one is called the Fruits, and this proud young Eve is typical of many Bourdelle’s women figures.

As this gracious silhouette in the dark of the museum entrance.

Many of Bourdelle’s works are exhibited in a large room lighted by a glass roof.

The famous Héracles archer. (1909)

A bas-relief called La Tragédie, made  in 1912 for the Champs-Elysées Theater.

In the back of the exhibition rooms, you get further in the past, entering the studio where Antoine Bourdelle worked from 1884 up to his death in 1929.

It overlooks a backyard with outdoor scultptures, among these, another (bronze) version of the dying centaur that we just saw in the studio. It is really cool out there, even on hot days.

Back toward the street, you can also visit Bourdelle’s appartment, originaly located impasse du Maine, which no longer exists.

It’s cluttered up with statues which certainly were some place else when Bourdelle lived there, and modern metallic chairs and halogen lamp look terrible. But still, you can get an idea of a nineteenth century Montparnasse artist home, focusing on the few pieces of furniture along the walls.

Musée Bourdelle, 18 rue Antoine Bourdelle, 75015 Paris Metro Montparnasse, tel 33(0)1 49 54 73 73, open everyday except Monday 10-18, free entrance when there is no temporary exhibition (currantly Alain Séchas Rêve Brisé up to August 24.

Alain Séchas in Paris Musée Bourdelle : “Rêve Brisé”, a never ending dream

Paris Musée Bourdelle often welcomes living artists (previously, Henry Moore) and for this new exhibition, Alain Séchas has worked in relation with the world and art of Antoine Bourdelle.

The magnificent cat in the poster, sitting in front of a Bourdelle’s nude bronze might sign an important evolution in Séchas universe, up to now mostly composed of stylized white cats.

As in this 2002 installation in Salpétrière church, called les Somnambules (the sleepwalkers)

Since I have seen these half human cats wandering in circle around the frozen canopy bed of a wide awake catlike princess, I kept being interested by Séchas work.

And this last one is worth visiting.

In the museum ’s great hall, among Bourdelle’s sculptures, Alain Séchas white centaur stands like on a scene, brighty lighted every fifteen minutes. It has taken the usual place of one of Bourdelle’s Dying Centaurs, which is waiting in a nearby room with a clock called Gong, showing hour and date since the beginning of Séchas exhibition.

The Dying Centaur is a major mythological figure in Bourdelle’s work, and in the museum, you may find another one in Bourdelle’s studio, and another more in the inner garden.

They do look alike, for Alain Séchas’centaur is made of white polyester, from the moulds made for the bronze versions of Bourdelle’s scuplture. It’s not called Dying Centaur but Rêve Brisé (Broken Dream). Broken dream of a creature not only half human, half animal but half human, half god too.

So every fifteen minutes, after light has come on the white centaur, it starts slowly collapsing.

It comes more and more to pieces as it falls.

And at the end of the process, its head bangs against the ground.

But after a while, it starts rising from the dead.

Until it’s completely up and restored.

And then light fades out, and fifteen minutes later, the centaur dies and comes back to (still) life.

Though of course, it is the movement (in circle) which sighs the artist’s singularity in his tribute to Bourdelle.

In other rooms are shown pastels, pencil, paintings made by Séchas without preliminary drawing, in a continuity of time, on a rotating support. Like le plaisir, four acrylic paintings on cartboard :

Or Criterium, named after a famous pencil pen trademark :

or Ping Pang Pong :

All titles testify of the artist’s sense of humor.

Alain Séchas, Rêve Brisé, Musée Bourdelle, 18 rue Antoine Bourdelle, Metro Montparnasse, everyday  except Monday 10 to 18, entrance 5 euros, up to August 24. Tel : 33(0)1 49 54 73 73.

It might be worth while calling, for the first time I came to visit this exhibition, the centaur’s mecanism was out of order, and could be fixed only the next Monday (while the museum was closed).