SHARING WITH ME

My trip to Metz had been cancelled a couple of times. Now I was off again. Every time I have visited the Beaubourg there, the weather was freezing cold or rain and cold. This time the sun shone and providing I had the time I would do a bit of visiting. Notably the Cathedral which has Chagall stained glass windows. 

The exhibition I was to see was « PHARES » or « Beacons » Based entirely on loans from the collection at Centre Pompidou/Museum of Modern Art, the « Beacons » highlights a selection of masterpieces rarely shown to the public due to their monumental size. With no specific chronological order, the exhibition's staging provides an overview of the primary movements in art since the start of the 20th century, from Pablo Picasso to Anish Kapoor including Sam Francis, Joseph Beuys and Dan Flavin. I was so lucky. As the first rush of visitors was over - especially the summer months - there was virtually no-one in the museum. For openings, there wa...

When we arrived at the Academy of Arts, the queue was not that daunting and although I was somewhat reticent, Pierrette suggested that as we were there, we visited the exhibition at once. My Icom card worked wonders and we sailed through. The crowds though were there and I would think that not only will this exhibition be a block buster but it may well change people’s way of thinking. I have come across Ai Weiwei's work (1957-) often over the years and saw a photographic exhibition long before I created my blog. He is an artist that fascinates me. I had hoped to see his work when I was in China but never found his studio. Probably the time he was in jail. But to start with, in the courtyard there was an installation of trees. Ai’s trees are made from parts of dead trees that are brought down from the mountains of southern China and sold in the markets of Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province. Ai transports these to his studio in Beijing where they are made into trees. As he says, “i...