2019/2020 To see in Paris during the holidays

🇫🇷 Version française

by Joshua Lacoste , Vassar-Wesleyan Program in Paris Fall 2019 & Florence Briat Soulié

Cluny museum, national museum of middle ages “sens dessus dessous ” Cinq sens, un écho à la Dame à la Licorne”

https://www.musee-moyenage.fr/collection/oeuvre/la-dame-a-la-licorne.html

To see also : Musée de Cluny – L’art de la broderie au Moyen-âge – Informations

Until 20 January 2020

The Cluny Museum in Paris is one of the most famous medieval museums in the world.  The museum has many wonderful artifacts from the Middle Ages and has wonderful architecture. The main exhibit at the museum is La Dame à la Licorne, a beautiful collection of six tapestries with an interesting backstory. The tapestries were meant to be viewed in a specific order, with each tapestry taking you further into the spiritual world than the previous one.  The first tapestry is touch, since this is the most physical of the five senses. Next is taste, smell, olfactory, and finally sight.  The last tapestry is considered to be a sixth sense. As of now, it has been given the name My Only Desire since this is written on the tent behind the woman. The museum was a lovely experience, and if you have the opportunity you should check out the tapestries in person.

Takashi Murakami

Galerie Perrotin – Takashi Murakami – Informations

Too late !

At the Perrotin gallery, on December, was a collection of works done by Takashi Murakami. Here we could  see his various artistic styles and the methods he uses to create his art.  All of these works of art are available to be purchased, however, they are not for the faint of heart. Murakami is a world renowned artist and many art lovers all over the world would love the opportunity to see his art in person.

Hans Hartung la fabrique du geste

Hans Hartung – Musée d’art moderne de Paris – Informations

Until 1 March 2020

See previous article Hans Hartung

At the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, there is currently an exposition dedicated to the artist Hans Hartung (1904-1989) .  Early on his career he experimented with abstract watercolors, and slowly progressed into using charcoal and red-chalk drawings.  He was a strong admirer of Rembrandt and Goya, and imitated their styles. In the 1930’s he was an admirer of cubism, and anchored his art in repetition.  Later he opened his styles to be defined in his own way, and his artwork near the end of his career composed of black bars and calligraphic elements.

The modern times from Seurat to Matisse

Félix Fénéon – Musée de l’Orangerie – Information

Until 27 January 2020

At the musée de l’orangerie, the exposition about Félix Fénéon (1861-1944) is truly incredible.  Not only are there many of his most famous masterpieces, but work by similar artists can be found including that of Seurat, Signac, Luce and Van Rysselberghe. As an anarchist, art critic, writer, editor, gallery director and collector, Felix Fénéon was a major player in the arts world at the end of the nineteenth century and the start of the twentieth.

Modern Maharaja, a patron of the arts in the 30s

Musée des Arts Décoratifs MAD Paris – Modern Maharaja – Informations

Until 12 January 2020

Modern Maharaja, a patron of the arts in the 30s. The Musée des Arts Déco presents the universe of Yeshwant Rao Holkar II: the Maharajah of Indore, his portrait was painted by Bernard Boutet de Monvel and was sold at an auction by Sotheby’s for the record price of € 2.499 million. The furniture had already been sold by this same auction house in 1980 in Monaco.

The is a wonderful story of a young couple who was passionate about the construction of this artwork that was created between 1929 and 1934 under a complicated political context during the rule of the British Empire. It was one of the last to be abdicated after their departure. His meeting with the collector and man of letters Henri-Pierre Roché author of Jules and Jim was the starting point of an adventure of modern times, avant-garde in traditional India, he introduced Jacques Doucet to whom the Maharajah returns visit, he will keep an exceptional memory and confirm his will to build a very contemporary palace. The Maharajah built the Manik Bagh palace, which was very modern at the time, just after the crisis of 29, a boon for the architect Eckart Muthesius (1904-1989) and the artists who contributed to this project. Louis Sognot, Jean Puiforcat, Eileen Gray, Le Corbusier … they were a modern, fascinating couple, both very beautiful, and they were photographed by Man Ray. We can watch with pleasure all these intimate photos that retrace their history, sometimes surprisingly, the photographer captures the couple contemplating a work of art.

Another extraordinary character is Ivan Da Silva Bruhns (1881-1880), a self-taught artist, inspired by Cubism, he produced sumptuous rugs with abstract patterns.

The Maharani died very young at 21, and from that moment, a feeling of melancholy took over the Prince, and he put a stop several projects like that of the Temple of Meditation in Brancusi. The Maharajah still acquired two masterpieces, the birds in space, a black and a white.

His only regret was that they were not present, and that they were kept at the Canberra Museum in Australia.

“My last two black and white birds are the ones where I have come closest to finding the right measurements. I approached this measure as I was able to get rid of myself” –an extract from a letter from Brancusi to the Maharajah. Marcel Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roché, were the merchants of the sculptor and when the collector John Quinn is dead, they bought his 18 sculptures by Brancusi and thus supported the cost by placing them judiciously in collections.

Académie des Beaux-Arts – Raghu Rai “Voyages dans l’instant”

Last days, until 5 January 2020

Institut de France