SHARING WITH ME

When the exhibition opened in April this year, I had already received a message on one of my art sites about Paula Modersohn-Becker. (1876-1907)An artist I knew absolutely nothing about. The title itself was intriguing « An Intensely Artistic Eye » or in French « L’Intensité du Regard ». The image used for the exhibition certainly defined that. Over the following weeks and probably well into May, I met quite a few people who said they had seen the exhibition, but it was « uninteresting » and they were sure that I wouldn’t like it. Most of these friends know my taste in art so l decided against it. The weeks roll by. The other day I was hesitating about which exhibition I would go to. That face looked at me again from my computer. I was going to see THAT exhibition. Portrait of a young girl, fingers spread on her chest : 1905 After training in Berlin, Paula Modersohn-Becker joined the artists' colony at Worpswede in northern Germany, but soon left to ...

Laurent and Jerome had just come back from the Mauritius Islands and I was impatient to catch up with news. To my delight they ‘phoned and suggested Versailles as an outing on the Sunday. Usually Anne and I visit Versailles once a year. A pilgrimage to discover the artist who has been chosen to install « something » in the grounds and sometimes in the chateau. Over the years you have seen our discoveries but this year, the critics had slashed the installations even more than usual. Olafur Eliasson had been a discovery for me at the Tate in London with the weather project installed at the London's Tate Modern in 2003 as part of the popular Unilever series. The installation filled the open space of the gallery's Turbine Hall. Quite startling. In all probability we had also seen his work at the Biennale in 2005. Another place was for sure. The Fondation Louis Vuitton in  2015. There I know that I had been most impressed. The First Visit to the Foundation with Marie...

I don’t know if it happens to you but sometimes l am convinced an artist is a painter and suddenly discover that he was working more in in another media. I associated Jean Lurçat (1892-1966) with the cubist period but not neceassirly a cubist... Boats The Cock Square and in actual fact knew virtually nothing of his work. Walking home down the Avenue to Gobelins recently, this was perhaps the second if not third time I had seen a very enticing communication like a huge sun called « Au Seuil Bruit du Soleil » A rough translation could be « On the Threshold of the Sound of the Sun » . In French it intrigued me. What was Jean Lurçat doing at the Gobelins? I would soon found out. Si Srir Laroussi 1925 Tante Annie - 1920 Table with glasses - 1923 Still Life with musical instruments 1922 Ouled Naïl - 1925 Snake charmer - 1926 Strong Bather - 1931 Bathers at the sea 1932 He was born in Bruyères, Vosges. After his ...