SHARING WITH ME

Having read so much about the Sainte-Anne restoration and looking at the photos in two major art magazines which I subscribe to, obviously I went to see the exhibition at the Louvre. Why obviously? Well, because Marielle would be joining me and looking at this kind of work as well as Artemisia, is I consider part of my «education». Even more so when I am accompanied by a connaisseur. It took Leonardo da-Vinci over 20 years to complete this painting and was it completed? That is the question even today. It also took nearly 20 years for the Louvre to go ahead and restore the picture. This took 18 months with enough dramas along the line to make the «da-Vinci Code» look dull itself. The curator did a remarkable job of getting all the notes together and acquiring over 30 I think of the preparatory designs. Many, 20, come from the Queen’s collection. I wonder if she ever looks at them? I would every day. They are astounding. Muscles in the arm. The drapes of a coat. A foot where nails s...

What always surprises me about Nikki’s work (I prefer Nicky) is its diversity. On the 2nd February I showed her paintings which are unique in my book and that’s not just because she’s my daughter. Her sculpture is something else again. As she doesn’t have access to an oven, she works with earth that does not need to be baked. It’s surprising, as taking a piece in hand, it’s very heavy and feels solid. Looks it too. Apart from the Angel which I feel that I have seen before, her snake and vase are quite different. The sculptured face is something I recognize as her work. Most of it is functional especially for incense. I am not permitted to buy the snake as it is to burn incense and as I am not an incense lover... Those eyes are compelling but I am sure he is a very nice slithery snake..... Vase From the top Those eyes Meduse ? Angelic look

After Christopher Wool I needed something else. The something else I found was perhaps not what I needed at all. «Resisting the Present» 24 artists born after 1975 living around the world but Mexican. So Mexico 2000/20012. One tends to think that globalisation will mean the same artistic thinking around the world. Perhaps this is the case but the statements are very different even if they are relating to drugs, corruption, climate changes, political unrest ... the exhibition I saw of Chinese artists some time ago made the same statement as those I saw yesterday but differently. For Mexico, the installations, videos (which I didn’t look at as having to sit an hour in front of some video in a museum does not appeal to me), graffiti, sculptures were depicting what I suppose these young people feel about their country today. For me it was not very cheerful Black Kites - Arturo Hernadez Marcela Armas - Petrol chain No title I could see but science fiction ? When I look...

I have a couple of very closed friends who are totally adverse to Jean-Michel Basquiat or Cy Twombly. «Scribbles» they say and laugh at my interest in such artists. However, to be honest when I went to see Christopher Wool yesterday, I felt there was some truth in what they were saying. These were not scribbles but more like hugh blotches and then every now and again, scribbles. Stains, traces, twisting lines on cavas or paper. 
At the beginning, I really didn’t know what I was looking at.  I think we must have seen him at the Venice Biennale in 2011 but did we actually look at his work? He’s a contemporary artist - American -. His work is in a large format and when I began to look at it closely, there were no signs of a paintbrush but definitely airbrushes, spray guns, linen, silk screen and then I began to see. He was endlessly repeating what he had created. Recomposing elements. Sometimes in colour but most of the time in black and white or dull ocre shades.  " L...

After the three week isolation in La Roche-Posay, as much as I had seen of the region and visited interesting medieval sites, I was hungry for Paris. My intention had been of going to see a modern art exhibition before meeting Artemisia again. Again ? Yes I had «met» her some five years ago in Rome. Then «she» seemed to follow me. I was lent a book on her life...which didn’t over enthrall me. My next encounter was in Naples 18 months ago. Even if my understanding of Italian was limited to say the least, the guide who introduced me to her «again» was passionate about his subject. As is always the case, such passion flows over onto me. 
 The first woman painter to be recognized in the 17th century. What fascinated me the most was how could a woman, illiterate, passionate, living in a world of men become a super star? Or, as our guide Claude said today, «a superwoman»? She was born in 1593. The eldest in a family of sons - 4. It must have been at a very early age that he father, a fam...