SHARING WITH ME

If you want to, you can walk everywhere in Paris. I do. As I was seeing Hector at 5pm and it was just 3-30 and leaving behind a very long queue outside the Jeu de Paume (see below) - I decided to go on foot to the Odeon - some 5 kilometres away. Another wonderful thing about Paris is that there is always some exhibit in a garden or a museum close at hand. Here there is the delight and fun of Kusama following her exhibition at the Beaubourg in 2011. I hope that I will be as energetic as she is when I am 80 but would prefer not to need access to a mental institution. She is very preoccupied by death and says so but when you see these statues, they seem so positive.  

And further on there was William de Kooning  William de Kooning "Standing Figure" 1968-1984 and Magdalena Abakanowiez (Polish and aristocratic) - her statues are tall and even taller. I watched as the pigeons and the seagulls vied for a place on top. After a moment, a seagull won.  Abakanowi...

Paris can turn from a wintery -10° to a +10° Sometimes I think the + feels colder than the -. It was humid and dreary as I set out yesterday for the «Jeu de Paume» - one of the most important photographic museums in Paris.  Like many of us I had followed  the Chinese Ai Weiwei work and wanted to see his first major exhibition in Paris, «Interlacing». Of course he was not there as still forbidden to leave the country. Once upon a time I was a frequent traveler to China so was even more interested to see what work he had done since he returned from the States in 1993 and ‘til 2011. His blog was shut down by authorities in 2009. Many of his photographs showed situations that were not appealing to politicians, not to mention many of his written statements on political issues. There were not so many people when I arrived outside groups of Chinese. Two women asked the attendant how to pronounce Weiwei’s name, then stood in the middle of the first gallery and chatted about the fo...

On the Sunday morning before I was to leave to come back to Paris, Borgy decided upon Wimpole. As we left early we arrived before the crowds and were able to begin our walk all alone on the scene. 
 Borgy was right to comment that my city boots were not exactly made to cope with the mud and slush on the ground. They were both equipped in their walking shoes. I would cope. Wimplole Hall is a much larger residence than Anglesey. It has over 12 square km of parkland and farmland with sheep grazing upon it. I gather it is one of the largest residences in Cambridgeshire. Begun in 1640 and completed at the beginning of 1800. A National Trust reserve and as such, very popular with the public. In the grounds there are lakes, churches and a folly which Borgy told me once again was something built primarily for decoration. Gentle rolling hills help break the scenery and of course, sheep and more sheep. We have been there many times together and the walk is always invigor...

I caught the 17-15 train to Meldreth. If we had been in Paris, the train would have been crammed full but here I had two seats to myself and could start browsing the Picasso catalogue. Too much text of course but it is easier to study the pictures and periods this way, so I enjoy the pictures over and over again. Meldreth and «The Cottage» was waiting for me. The cosy salon with its fire and of course the glass of Australian sparkling wine awaited. There was a lot to catch up on. 
 The following day dawned grey and forbidding but no way we would stay inside. We were to visit the snowdrops in Anglesey Abbey. (In Cambridgeshire). I had not been there since we visited it all together with my Mother in the summer months, what must be well over ten years ago. It’s a Jacobean-style house with 46 hectares of grounds and even a working watermill.  What I found fascinating is that at a very young age, around 30, the future Lord Fairhaven began to create his own home. This was be...

By the time I had left the Picasso it was after 1-30. This left me another two hours to get to the David Hockney and then onto Meldreth to visit my «ex-belle famille» and closest friends.  So a taxi it was. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I arrived at the Royal Academy of Arts some ten minutes later. The entry queue was outside the academy and veering dangerously around the corner. Thank goodness for my ICOM card as otherwise I would never have got in. 
Four hours to queue, I was told ? Never. But in I went and before 2pm was with hundreds of others viewing what is LARGE, very large. I had seen a retrospective of Hockney's work in the Beaubourg over ten years ago. There were gigantic paintings of "The Grand Canyon" which needed a lot of space to see them. Like the Beaubourg, there is not that much space to get away from such paintings in the Royal Academy. One of the reasons I love the M.A.M. in New York. Sometimes there are only one or two large paintings in a g...

And that’s what it is ! A skip. Into the Eurostar and less than three hours later you are in London from Paris of course. It was the first time in 16 months that I had been over alone for an exhibition. Strangely I was a little nervous about what I had planned as two major exhibitions in a day and not museums which are close together could prove to be a bit much. NONSENSE. The old energy was there and so was discovery. 
 I arrived in London at 10-35am,local time). Left my case at the baggage office and off to the underground. At 11 I had arrived at the Tate Britain. First on the list was «Picasso and Modern Art» It was the day after the exhibition had opened. No queues although there were quite enough people inside. I cross borders for a Picasso exhibition. This was already the second in less than two months. The Stein collection could be described as the third.  Picasso remains the 20th century most important artist and he certainly changed the face of modern art. This exhibition ...

A few days have gone by and yet I have been very busy. Once again a few filmed operas. One of great interest for me was CANDIDE (Leonard Bernstein) - After «Westside Story» Bernstein had always wanted to write a serious opera. «Candide» (but hardly a serious opera) was presented without much success on Broadway in 1956. Bernstein died in 1990. A stage production was produced in France in 2006 with an overwhelming success. Why I didn’t see it I don’t know. Lambert Wilson played the role of Dr. Pangloss/Voltaire. I am sure if high school adolescents had seen that, they would have found their literary preparation of Candide for the Baccalaureate very much easier. A reasonably modern day production which sticks closely to the original and so called philosophical adventure of Candide. However, highly controversial and many scenes, political, may not have appealed to an American audience. Lambert Wilson is remarkable. I have only seen him in films but he sings well and of course this chang...

Going through the Bozar Expo magazine at the end of last year I discovered that a painter I knew nothing about - was to have a retrospective of his work in Brussels. What I think attracted me most to this exhibition was that it was called The «Forbidden Paintings» of Kurt Schwitters. This is a period in Germany when the artist’s work did not «correspond to history» . Expressionism. I talked about in an earlier chapter. A period which I am passionate about. Energy, coulour, space, movement and works which are so unpredictable for so many artists we know. «Is that really Nolde?» «No, it couldn’t be a Kandinsky?»I was never wildly attracted to Schwitters collages but knew little about his painting. This was going to be a «double» discovery. Kirkeby had fallen in love with Schwitter’s landscapes and could identify with his liberated style of painting. Would I? Kirkeby, Danish, born in 1938, has always explored the relationships between nature and abstraction, landscape and architecture...

Gianni has an uncanny way of finding gaffitti images in side streets...who couldn't full in love with these?

10th February It’s been a curious week. Two filmed operas, two concerts with another one tomorrow evening and a further filmed opera on Sunday. The exhibition which I spoke about last time, Eko Nugroho,  I followed with Damien Hirst. That’s why I’ve called this entry «Dots and Diversion». Opera is not my scene at all, but I had gone along to see «Julie» as it was a Luc Bondy production and «Jenufa» because it was Janacek’s music. Bother very contemporary productions. Filmed opera gives you the opportunity of seeing opera singers very close. Very close indeed. I don’t like opera any more but still have three other films in store for me. Such «diversions» are chosen in function of the  composer, the direction or the title of the opera which I may know from a theatrical performance. I don’t think I will be doing this again. On the other hand, Gianni and I went to see two very different concerts this week. «Cors and Cris» - fully contemporary and The Tiger Lilie...

When I went to the M.A.M. this morning with a very close friend, we went to see the legacy  of  some 60 paintings of De Chirico  given by the foundation to the Modern Art Museum. I had already seen it but wanted to share it with Pierre who said he «loved» this artist. Due to cold and freezing conditions some of the major rooms had been closed. Great disappointment and we prepared to leave. But I needed one of those precautionary pees before going out in -5° and in one of the lower rooms discovered an installation which bowled me over. I called Pierre at once. Eko Nugroho is an Indonesian artist and this installation is called «Hybrid Witness». At once I found it politically involved. A statement against the burqa or the hijab and probably it could be read that way. However, to quote the press article :-  «The multiplicity of identities lies at the core of his work. Relationships depend on the image of ourselves we show to people. Everyone of us h...

                                 My daughter Nicky came back from the South of France last week. She had been down there for two months and our daily sms conversation was full of energy about our different adventures. I was so glad while she was down in the outbacks of Provence that she was able to visit Nice, Cannes, Antibes, Monaco... and especially Saint Paul de Vence. Nicky was able to take some interesting  photos making me a little envious as Paris was grey and cold at the time Now it’s beautiful but -10° this morning. That part of the world is «modern art country». I am not putting the region into competition with the Impressionist country (Avignon, Marseille, Normandy...) but by now, you know that I prefer modern art. This is Picasso land (Antibes),  with an unforgettable collecti...