Borghese Ares, 1st – 2nd century AD
The Louvre Greek galleries have reopened after redevelopment to proudly exhibit classical Greek and Hellenistic sculpture. In the north gallery, art, artifacts and sculpture are displayed alongside maps that lay down the broad parameters of the ancient Greek world. In the south gallery heroes and Gods of mythology stand [...]
Jeanloup Sieff, Yves Saint Laurent, 1969
The French love Yves Saint Laurent – the man, the legend, the collection, the clothes. Perhaps that’s why the Petit Palais has pulled out all the stops for the first ever major retrospective of his fashion oeuvre. Taking over more than the usual temporary exhibition space, the show includes the [...]
Photographing the inside of prisons is a delicate proposition, showing what is designed to be kept hidden from society. This is especially pertinent in France, where there has been a fair amount of controversy over the state of prisons in the last few years, one case stemming from [...]
Rirkrit Tiravanija modelling a T-shirt with his own poltical slogan
For his new installation, Asile Flottant, Rirkrit Tiravanija has filled the (not inconsequential) gallery space at Chantal Crousel with a huge wooden boat. The boat is a scaled down model of a Le Courbusier design, which was intended to be a Salvation Army floating refuge for [...]
Prisonniers du soleil (“Prisoners of the Sun”) is the second part of the Erudition Concrète programme at Le Plateau, and is a adventure through time, space and innovative curating.
In two parts, the exhibition leads us from quirky 19th century bourgeoise interior, through what looks like a door from Bilbo Baggins’ Shire, into the dark mystery [...]
Cy Twombly’s ceiling, Louvre
The Louvre yesterday unveiled the newest contribution to its collections: a ceiling painting by contemporary artist, Cy Twombly. The painting is in the Salles des Bronzes, housing classical bronzes. Predominantly blue, it is reminiscent of Renaissance and Baroque ceilings depicting the heavenly skies, albeit in a more paired down aesthetic.
Twombly, American-born but residing [...]
Crime et Châtiment (Crime and Punishment), opened last week at the Musée d’Orsay. The idea for the exhibition came from Robert Badinter, politician and criminal lawyer famous for his campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in France in the 1970s. The show boasts a variety of striking art, grisly documents [...]
Marco Decorpeliada, detail from Schizomètres
Out of the three new exhibitions at the Maison Rouge it might be as well to begin at the end, as that’s where you’ll find the best of the bunch – a small exhibition of Marco Decorpeliada’s Schizomètres. Marco Decorpelida fits into the sketchy category of “Outsider Art“, [...]
Van Gogh, Self-portrait as an artist, January 1888
The real Van Gogh is hard to pin down, so many and various are the accounts and interpretations of the artist’s life. Famous for cutting off his own ear and dying penniless only to achieve inordinate posthumous fame and recognition, Van Gogh is the ideal incarnation of “the [...]
Spending the holiday in Paris? Finally have a bit of time to see the big autumn shows before they end in January? Here’s a round up of what’s on (but not for much longer).
For painting head to the Louvre for voluptuous Venetian masters in Venetian Rivalry, and for a more Northern flavour The Brukenthal Collection [...]