SHARING WITH ME

Is this art ? A good friend who came with me to see «Excentrique(s) Travail in Situ» or perhaps « Excentriques(s) Art on the spot», did not think so. When I ventured to say that it was changing colour - she added that in a church with stained glass windows there would also be changing colours if the sun was shining in. Murielle is right but on the other hand, this work is colour - changing colour - and changing light. With every footstep I seemed to see another colour and another perspective of Daniel Buren’s work. Thanks to Claude who was our speaker, we had the time to look closer and see structures and colours which we may not have seen otherwise. Claude also described this creation as art. Monumenta, is just  that - monumental. Every year an artist is invited to «invade» the 13 500m2 and 45 metres of height in the Grand Palais. A work of art which is created for this space. Two of the five artists so far have created ephemeral works. Daniel Buren’s is one of them. He is one of Fra

I sometimes try to give artists a second chance. Especially living ones. It’s not easy as installations and work which just  doesn’t say anything to me leaves me quite perplexe and as friends say, snarly ! Wim Delvoye’s work is strange and sometimes quite funny. When I was looking at the listing of his exhibitions, I was surprised that he recently gave one in the MOMA in Tasmania. He seems to have been all over the world. He reinterprets artworks of the past whilst giving an amused glance at contemporary society. He explores art history although when there are references to Bosch, Brueghel or even Warhol, I am a little if not quite lost. One of his pigs which is mentioned in the chapter «Reassuring and Otherwise» is very well known. When I saw this image as the front page of an art magazine, I burst out laughing. There was the exhibition I had just seen in Grenoble alone with Wim and his pig. Wim is from Belgium and 47. The exhibition I saw today was in the Gallery Perrotin. A bea

Musée de Grenoble It was quite a day  as there are 6 hours of travelling by TGV there and back to Grenoble. Having left very early I was at 11 in the Grenoble  Museum to see «Die Brucke». «Thanks to an outstanding loan of more than 120 leading works coming from the Brücke-Museum in Berlin, and 20 years after the last such event held in Paris, the Musée de Grenoble is presenting an exhibition devoted to the Die Brücke [The Bridge] group, the first German avant-garde movement, which ushered in one of the 20th century's major art tendencies :  Expressionism. Etablished in Dresden in June 1905 by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Erich Heckel, who were subsequently joined by Max Pechstein, Emile Nolde, Cuno Amiet and Otto Mueller, this group was defined above all by its rejection of academic art. These artists were influenced by the works of Van Gogh and Munch as much as by the primitive arts, and translated into a style involving dazzling colours an

Collège des Bernadins The Collège des Bernardins is just down the road from my place and was reopened in 2008. It is a centre for Research and discussion for the Church and society in general. Open to everyone, Christian or not and all those who question the sense of life and what man will become. It is the most beautiful place and holds some of the strangest events as far as contemporary installations are concerned. I popped in with a friend the other day. Eelco had not seen the centre and was slightly bemused by Michael Blazy’s installation in the old vestry. Collecting the foam On the Left On the Right Blazy creatures sculpture from anything he is inspired by and finds around the house. Carrot purée, lentilles, food, dog or cat croquettes....and a lot more. His installations are very temporary and rather fragile. This «Bouquet final» (Eelco felt it was the last wedding bouquet») is a foam bath . What interests him is when he finishes his installation, it begins

Gianni gave me a book a few weeks ago «L’Homme de l’Art» on the life of D-H Kahnweiler (1884-1979). He was without any doubt one of the most important art dealers of his period and also the most ardent protagonist of the cubists. I like the way he calls the artists he represented. «His artists» To name a few, Picasso, Braque, Gris, Leger, de Vlaminck, Derain, Masson....it would not surprise anyone knowing my tastes a little that I find it difficult to put the book down. One particular chapter on Gleizes and Metzinger caught my eye as there is an exhibition on of their work in Paris at the moment. Their cubist paintings were criticized by Kahnweiler and the REAL cubists themselves. Picasso and Braque. Copyists, and certainly considered to be esthetically pretty without the sophistication of THE cubists. Gleizes and Metzinger came from very different backgrounds. Gleizes is a self-taught artist. Metzinger studied art and was introduced into this world thanks to Max Jacob and Apollina

Certain exhibitions just bowl you over. And this one did. In French «Le Corps Découvert». I would translate that as «The Discovery of a body». Why do I add the «a» ? For decades, since the beginning of time as far as I’m concerned, the expression of nudity in a Arab community has been a taboo. I should add that it is not only in an Arab world. All groups have been hostile to nudism in one way or another. Homosexuality, as far as I know, still means the death penalty. Yet I have visited many Arab countries and have never ceased to be amazed by the sensuality that exists between men. Hand in hand, arm in arm, hugging, kissing...many physical displays of affection that would be frowned on even today in some European countries. I have not seen the same affection or love as such between and Arab man and woman. In some countries the women, especially the young women are as outgoing as our own. In others, scarfs, Hijab and Burqa are the order of the day. This exhibition with over 70 artists