The portraits d'insurges in the Lutheran Church cloister at 24 rue des Archives in the 4th, honors some of the participants and I take it victims of the struggle for the independance of Madagascar from France 65 years ago. They finally achieved independance in 1960 and in 2005 Jacques Chirac sort of apologized. The photos are unremarkable without knowing their context.
Until May 27th.
The Institute of the Monde Arab has a temporary exhibition of uncovered bodies, male and female, by artists in Arabic countries. I went partly to see if it was true and I can certify that no hair is covered either on their bodies of the heads of patrons.
No real Wows; on til 15 July.
As many times as I've been in and around the Place de la Concorde, and I remember most memorably entering it in 1955 on a two-wheeled rocket, after a long slog from Istanbul, I got out of the subway today, gasped looking at the Jeu de Paume and thought - "this really is spectacular."
Now maybe I'm jaded and past my shelf life, as some readers have suggested, but despite the museum's statement that many of Abbott's photos were displayed here for the first time, it seemed to me that I had unfortunately "been there, seen that." As for Al Weiwei, what the Chinese government is doing to him is a scandal but pictures of middle fingers in front of buildings and dropping pots are hardly a reason to put someone in jail without a trial.
I rated them both sans Wows.
Now granted, the 1600's is not "my period," but I found this huge show hugely disappointing despite or perhaps because of the huge publicity blitz that has accompanied it.
No Wow's but eager anticipation of the Canaletto show in September.
"I confirm the subscription of this blog to the Paperblog service under the username johntalbott"
When I was growing up, my Dad, who was a buff of the art and architecture of the indigenous peoples of Central and South America, trotted us off to visit archeological sites during summers we were not visiting the US national parks. So I'd thought I'd seen it all; but no.
This exhibition presents 15 jade masks and 150 or so other objects excavated from several royal Mayan tombs in Mexico during the past decade. I do not think they are beautiful, but they are surely impressive. Until June 10th.
2 Wows!
OK, let's get the dance film that's all the buzz out of the way first. Yes, there is a film of a lovely young woman writhing around in oil (one presumes EEVO) and beginning to pleasure herself - so what? This is high art. And you're forgetting the Matisse, Josephine Baker, Isadora Duncan, etc., up to John Travolta; an astonishing survey in still and moving pictures of dance in the 20th century. 2 Wows!
But the reason I went to the Pompidou today was for the Matisse pairs and series which like Monet's haystacks, bridges and churches, are really quite interesting in a cumulative way. As opposed to Monet, who painted the same thing at different times in different light-situations, the Matisse's here show a reworking of the same images in sometimes astonishly different ways. 1.5 Wows!
Finally, as I entered the secret FOPR (President of the Republic) Entrance I saw a sign saying Preview of Transitions and indeed just over the gift shop, where the old gift shop used to be, were a bunch of illuminated tents like they pass out to the homeless here, around which were marching young kids, which I supposed symbolized something. Negative Wows.
If you thought you'd seen enough of Berthe Morisot's paintings and drawings, especially the Marmottan's holdings of some 80, you ain't seen nothing yet. Here there are some 150 including those from the Marmottan as well as private collections. Colette loved it/them; I thought enough was enough.
3 Wows for Morisot lovers.
While the subjects are giants of contemporary art, these photos of them are not worth the trip.
I was paging through my JDD version femina when i came across this De Chirico and a story about how the Paris Moma was featuring 30 De Chirico's from their collection and so I hustled myself over after lunch. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the posters outside:
I don't see the show advertised, do you? Never mind, except it took me asking 4 museum guards and searching through about 20 galeries to find the paintings. I guess they were worth it, but why tout Eko Nugroho and Peter Doig and leave poor Georgio De Chirico to be found like a treasure hunt?
OK; as the lawyers love to say, let's stipulate that:
- when one goes to an exhibit that says it's from Seurat to Matisse, one knows only that there will be one Seurat and one Matisse,
- and that between these two icons, there could be any amount of dreck,
- that I took "the pledge" not to preserve my virginity but to respect a moratorium on pre-, post- and full-Impressionist art my friend and advisor, G., has imposed on himself and that his fideles have endorsed, and finally,
- that anyone who changed his name from Delacroix to Cross has some serious issues undealt with.
I went in, standing in an incredibly slow line caused by every old person on the planet coming today and by the most incompetent cashier on the planet checking us all in.
So in. Ground or at least RDC.5 floor nicely showing works largely Monet and Marmottan derived. OK.
Downstairs. OK. Cross stuff, a bit derivative of the big boys, a bit more flashy, a bit more boring than the work of the well-known Impressionists.
Wows? Huh? Not here.
