SHARING WITH ME

For our annual visit tot Versailles, Anne and I went off to see the South Korean artist Lee Ufan. I knew nothing about him and as usual did not do too much research on Internet before we went. I’d looked at a few of the photos in the gardens and left it at that. The Beaux Arts article had been very philosophical and I have to say, there was no real enthusiasm or excitement about our day out. To begin with the crowds were horrendous. As Anne now has an Icom card as well, there was no waiting and it was perhaps not interesting enough to see the one sculpture inside the Castle. 

I had read about his « Arch » in front of the chateau, that from a certain point it disappeared completely from view. Something to do with light and the material used. The picture on Internet shows it in all its glory - and no, we did not have that pleasure. Just a little about him….. Born in 1936 in a mountain village in South Korea, Lee Ufan was first initiated to traditional Chinese...

I was lamenting to a friend that at the « rentrée » - (our term for the beginning of the business year which is in September) - the exhibitions opening were really not too exciting. In a list of 50 in the Beaux Arts magazine, I have noted down 9 I want to see. A few years ago when the list came out, I usually noted more than half of them and planned my trimester in consequence. Michel then asked me if I had seen Howard Hodgkin at the Gagosian Gallery. I hadn’t and as the exhibition had been prolonged, this was the last day. Plans were changed and off I went. Prolonged perhaps but in the time I was there, at least an hour, only one other couple came in. Americans. Perhaps they knew who he was. I didn’t and as is always the case, I am very excited when I discover a new artist. He’s English and works and lives in London. When I asked if the exhibition was also upstairs (alas no), I was told that Hodgkin had been there in that morning and left an hour before I arrived. Curse i...

The blank look on his face when I asked the concierge at the hotel « where was the Mac ?» (musée d’art contemporain), left me somewhat perplex. He asked a colleague who gave me directions on the map….metro, bus then walking….Somehow it didn’t fit the description I had of the place. Thank goodness I finally found it myself. More than 6 kilometers from where I was which would not be difficult on foot but as I had a train to take. I took a taxi there and back. The drivers were both from Marseille and delightful men. Both capting my attention with stories about all the Marseille museums which I have never seen or for that matter, never heard of. Both had taken up « being a taxi driver » when they retired from their real jobs….I had 40 minutes in all of a cultural tour in Marseille! But we must find another name for contemporary art - especially installations. First of all, I couldn’t believe that the Mac was celebrating it’s 20th birthday. I had heard about it - was it te...