If you’re coming to Paris in may or june, don’t miss these shows :
- Rodin, the exhibition of the centenary at Grand-Palais :
The french master of sculpture died in 1917, one hundred year ago exactly, and this show curated by the actual director of Rodin Museum -Catherine Chevillot- and the former one- Antoinette Lenormand-Romain- ( they were both my teachers at Ecole du Louvre) demonstrate in a masterful way why and how Rodin was a forunner, a visionary, a tireless inventor who influenced generations of artists, from his time to today.
This exhibition which is not a classic retrospective will take you deep into the creative process of the artist who became himself a monument of french sculpture. The best tribute the curators can offer to Rodin to commemorate his true genius indeed and therefore a must see exhibition if you’re in Paris soon !
Superior part of the Doors of Hell with The thinker in the lintel.
Brancusi under the influence of Rodin with The sleep -1908
Anthony Gormley ‘s man standing.
2. Olga Picasso in Picasso museum
A very moving hommage to the first -official -wife of Picasso. They met in 1917 while the spanish painter was working with Les ballets Russes in Rome for the show “Parade”. She was a professional russian dancer , she was classy and beautiful, they fell in love in the eternal city and got married in Paris in 1918. She became his favorite model , depicted alone, reading, often thoughtful , or with their new born, Paul , showing lovely intimate moments of motherhood.
Unfortunately these quiet and happy times of domestic life won’t last …Olga was suffering in silence. First she felt powerless away from her family who endured the terrible repression from the october revolution in Russia -while she had an exciting worldly life in Paris-then she stopped dancing-the passion of her life- because of an injure and her pregnancy, and finally, the relationship with her husband crumbled, as the crual female portraits made by Picasso in the mid-20’s show it.
It was high time to devote an entire exhibition to Olga, who was actually almost unknown by the public at large . To answer to this exceptional event, the family lent not only paintings but also precious archives ( letters- photographs – documents), some of them exhibited for the first time, that shed a new light on Picasso’s works and life and reveals the odd and unique destiny of a russian woman in the early 20th century.
Olga with a mantilla – Barcelone 1917
Seven dancers with Olga on foreground- 1917
3. Gardens in Grand-Palais
Since the antiquity artists have always been inspired by nature and celebrated it through fine arts or decorative arts and even high end jewelry. Paintings, sculptures, artifacts, later photography, video, installation, created by the most outstanding artist of each great artistic period bear witness of it. This is exactly what this exhibition curated by talented director of Picasso museum , Laurent Le Bon, demonstrates with a selection of artworks from the Renaissance to today. You are invited to an exquisite promenade in company of Dürer, Klimt, Matisse, Fragonard, Monet , Cézanne, Cartier, Mellerio, to name but a few. This is a fabulous feel-good exhibition that will make you want to cultivate your own-real- garden !
John Constable- Cloud Study – circa 1821 ( New Haven,Yale center for Bristish Art)
Albrecht Dürer- Columbine- circa 1490 ? ( Albertina- Vienna)
Cartier- pair of diamond brooch Fern 1903
