Often in my frustrated moments—more and more frequent as the years pass—I tend to refer to France by my pet name for it: “Talk-a-lot.” I know of no other nation whose citizens can spend so much time, energy and often anger debating how many angels on the head of a pin.
 

Last Updated ( Monday, 07 April 2008 )

I’ve been walking around for days now telling all my friends and associates that I actually know people who exhibited their art work in the Carrousel of the Louvre. The thing about it? It’s true. Last Sunday, October 15, in conjunction with Expatica, the IVY Artists group, which is sponsored by Bonapart Consulting, did indeed take over a part of what is arguably the world’s most famous museum. I crawled out of bed that day, pushed through the guide-book carrying tourists and ventured over there with my son.

Last Updated ( Monday, 07 April 2008 )

In 1962 photographer Bert Stern was on a plane, from Rome to New York, having photographed Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Cleopatra. “I was feeling very chipper. “Follow that Stern, I said to myself, who can I do next?”  Stern’s fantasy was Marilyn Monroe who he pitched to Vogue as soon as he got back to New York.
Last Updated ( Monday, 07 April 2008 )

In case you haven’t noticed—and it would be hard not to notice in France at the moment—this year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of France’s famed nature painter Paul Cèzanne who came haltingly to the fore in the era of impressionism but became, in his latter years, one of the forerunners of cubism.. 

Last Updated ( Monday, 07 April 2008 )

In preparation for Bonjour Paris’s very own BP get together scheduled for this May 20^th in DC, any Paris-Washington connections are more than welcome. Here are some fairly convincing reasons why the National Gallery of Art on the northern side of the National Mall (diagonally across from the Smithsonian) should be a destination for any visitor (or resident) looking for that undeniable French touch.

Last Updated ( Monday, 07 April 2008 )

How many Rousseaus can you name?  No, I don’t mean the titles of the paintings.  I mean the men associated with the name.  I’ve got three* who come to mind, but only Henri Rousseau is on show at the Grand Palais’ wonderful exhibition. 

Last Updated ( Monday, 07 April 2008 )

Want to know why the French are obsessed by their uniqueness? Pay a visit to the Musee Carnavalet, the repository of four thousand years of French history, with emphasis on the French Revolution. Last Updated ( Monday, 07 April 2008 )

Now, thanks to a team of curators from Venice and the Louvre, we get a chance to see the entries in a Venetian competition.  Five of the most established of the city’s artists were asked to submit oil sketches on canvases proportionate to the wall on which the painting was to hang.  The assigned subject was Paradise.  The Louvre exhibition gives us the paintings submitted by four artists; Tintoretto, Palma the Younger, Francesco Bassano, and Veronese.  In the case of Tintoretto, preliminary drawings for individual figures have been strategically placed in front of the oil sketches. 

Last Updated ( Monday, 07 April 2008 )

Neo-classicism is neo all over again.  In the past 12 months there have been two exhibitions focused on the work of Jacques-Louis David, a large retrospective of Girodet’s paintings, and now the Louvre has mounted a major exhibition of Jean-August Dominique Ingres’ paintings and drawings.  Can Poussin be far behind?  It seems that there is a desire for the clarity and precision of the art of the neo-classical movement.  What would T.J. Clark say about this?  Is ours a society in search of simplification, of serious-minded explanations, or precedents and examples of morality by which we can live?  It’s an interesting question worth posing, but it probably does not have a definitive answer.

Last Updated ( Monday, 07 April 2008 )