SHARING WITH ME

I have got to admit it! I am addicted to Scrabble on my Ipad. Hours seem to go by when of course I should be doing other things. If you have the game you have probably discovered too that your virtual partner cheats badly with words that do not exist and even words that if you ask for if in a predicament are not, in my Larousse either. So wandering along toward the Odeon the other day, the rain was beginning and I was next to the Cluny Museum which is medieval. It’s a museum I enjoy and have discovered that much of this art - be it religious or not along with the sculpture is often without the incredible detail that you find for instance in the Renaissance. There was an exhibition  which was about to end and I had intended going before the last day, but what better moment that now with the rain spitting and a ghastly wind blowing. «Art of Game and Game in Art» «Art du jeu, jeu dans l’Art» - from Babylone to the Medieval Occident. Before my addiction to Scrabble, I have never bee...

After our conferences at the Louvre School on the Monday or Wednesday, Marielle and I usually go off and look at the originals of the work that have been discussed - if of course they are in the Louvre. This week there were none so we decided to go and see two small - very small exhibitions. Both quite bewildering! The first had interested me as I have been reading quite a bit on the subject New Frontier II. American Art Enters the Louvre. 
The origins of American genre painting «This year’s theme is the development of genre painting in the United States from the first half of the 19th century to the Civil War, a period of economic and territorial expansion for the young nation. Interest in art was not yet widespread, and European academics struggled to find an audience. Some American artist met with popular success by painting scenes that depicted the daily lives of people on the fringes of society, those who ventured into the huge country’s virgin territories. Though seemingly n...

Marielle had sent me over a link for a new «art-page» so I could read an article on one of Courbet’s major works. «A Burial at Ornans». Not finding the page at once, I spent a couple of hours reading different historical facts about different paintings. A wonderful new page for me and finally the article on Courbet was fascinating. http://www.histoire-image.org/index.php   However, it is not in English. Instead of going to the exhibition I had planned to see and having discovered something on the new page, I went off to «L’Histoire de France racontée par la Publicité». «French History through Advertising». It was also the first time too I had visited  the Forney Bibliotheque.  http://equipement.paris.fr/bibliotheque-forney-18 So the Gaulois smoked gauloise cigarettes, Henry lV drank beer, Napoleon lll didn’t suffer from the cold, Mariane (who represents liberty)  is very much a advertising star not to mention all the political figures of a period between 188...

Sometimes I wonder why I go to an exhibition at all? I go, I look and come out with a frustration of not always understanding why I went. Erik Bilal a photographer, writer and cartoonist was one of them. French, but born in Yugoslavia in 1951. I’m not a cartoon lover but the subject of Ghosts in the Louvre was fascinating. So after our weekly excursion in one of the galleries following the Ecole du Louvre conferences, Marielle went her way and I went to study ghosts. Bilal’s ghosts include those of a Roman soldier, a muse, a painter, a German officer… men, women and children who died long ago, often meeting a violent end. Now they wander the Louvre, hovering near the place or work of art that changed the course of their lives—the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a recumbent Christ, an Egyptian bust, the Alcove Bedchamber… The artist conjures up these evanescent, wandering souls with a delicacy that belies their forceful presence. And he recounts their life stories in dram...

The proverb, «safety in numbers» does not apply to me! I prefer the complicity of «one» and yet in London this week, I picked up a second lover! The first one is already perfect. There when I want him.  Never pesters me. Always as I want him to be and leaves me alone when I don’t need him. You don’t get better than that. So discovering a second one in the citizenM on London Bankside could be termed as infidel - but you’ll see.... Would I get to the UK at all? The snow had fallen heavily since my return from Florence and Eurostar had been cancelled from Brussels to London.  Finally we left - on time - and arrived ten mintes or so late. Down to Meldreth and there the countryside did not seem to be as white as Normandy had been. In the afternoon we wandered up to Cambridge and there Kings College looked beautiful in white although the ducks were not finding too much to eat.  On our return th snow was melting King's College The following day we were coming to...

Florence Florence was to be a 48 hour trip and then when I thought perhaps Gianni could join me, I prolonged it to three days - or nearly. Which turned into four days as I was stuck at Pisa airport for nearly 8 hours before we were informed that the plane was canceled. Not because of the snow in Paris but because of an army plane which was grounded on the runaway. If it hadn’t been for Gianni, I would have stuck to my usual ritual of exhibitions and for once taking in the Uffizi and that would have been it. Instead as you can see from the above map, we walked Florence and saw an awful lot. Santa Maria Novella Not being overwhelmed with churches, although I would have liked to see the Basilica di Santa Novella but it wasn’t open the couple of times we went.  I liked the Ognissanti Church. (All Saint’s Church) Not very impressive from the outside but baroque in the inside. It’s a Franciscan order completed at the beginning of the 13th century. What I liked about it ...