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Mikhail Larionov's Van Gogh Moment
Two artists, two moments. For the thirty-seven year-old Vincent van Gogh, 1890 was the final year of a short and tormented life that ended in July with a gunshot, a presumed suicide. For the young...
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Eric Poitevin, Photographer
"Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!" Part ii, Line 32 from Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope, 1711, London.When I saw this photograph of Mount Alticcione I remembered these lines by the...
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The Colors Of Lament
"It is the duty of us all to ensure that our society remain that of which we are proud, not a society wary of immigrants and intent on their expulsion or a society that disputes the welfare state or a...
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"Silence Is So Accurate" : Michelangelo Antonioni & Monica Vitti
"Your paintings are just like my films. About nothing. But with precision." - Michelangelo Antonioni to Mark Rothko, in conversation at Rothko's New York studio.I. - But for the fact that...
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Old Christianshavn And A New Bridge
"I have a student who paints in a very strange way...I try not to influence him." - Peter Severin KroyerI. - Silence is the word most often used in connection with the paintings of Vilhelm Hammershoi...
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Art In Paris: Cai Guo Quiang Rethinks the Ark
Cai Guo Quinag - The Ninth Wave - Shanghai, 2014, photo courtesy of Cai StudioThe international conference on has just begun At Le Bourget in Paris and already it has surprised the world including...
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Objects Of Desire: Lubin Baugin
La dessert de Gaufrettes (Still Life With Wafers), no date given, 17th century, Louvre Museum, Paris.Charles Sterling a Polish art historian and curator of the department of painting at the Louvre...
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Objects Of Desire: Leslie Lewis Sigler
Think, for a moment, about the what the term 'still life' means. It sounds like an oxymoron; life is anything but still. Plato quoted the early philosopher Heraclitus to that effect, as saying...
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Objects Of Desire: Kacper Kowalski
At first glance, this photograph looks like some strange never-before-seen exploding flower. Then when you realize that the "petals" are trees, you may wonder if this is some kind of satellite photo...
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Effet de Lumiere: The Albertine Reading Room
“Always try to keep a patch of sky above your life.” - Marcel Proust Effet de lumiere. The effect of light. It's a thing in itself in French in a way that the discrete English words do not convey....
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From Paris To The Cosmos: Noel !
Image: Patrick Kovarik for Agence France Presse, 2015, Galeries Lafayette, Boulevard Haussmann, Paris.
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The Very Rich Hours Of 2015
Rather than write reviews of some of my favorite readings of the year, I have linked you to the reviews that whetted my interest. Added are some comments that occurred to me after reading...
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Happy New Year !
Image: Janine Niepce - La petite patineuse, 1954, Pompidou Center, Paris.
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On Epiphany. A Visit From The Befana
I. - The old woman pictured above in a painting by Felice Casorati (1883-1963) is not a befana but she looks the part. When I went looking for a suitable illustration of this beloved Italian folk...
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Now You See Her. Loren MacIver
Quick! A question. Who was the first female artist to have her work hung on the walls of the Museum of Modern Art? Does the name of Loren MacIver come to mind? I thought not. The diffident...
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The Surprising Moments Of Bruno Réquillart
“Certain photographs, I no longer know which, but I remember the feeling, were born from a sudden turning around. As if a presence, in my back summoned me: it was a photo.” - Bruno Réquillart, 1994....
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An Unusual Painting By Jean-Leon Gerome
This painting by the French artist Jean-Leon Gerome (1824-1904) is one of my early discoveries via the internet. Although Gerome holds an important place in the history of nineteenth century art, his...
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Alone Together: Juliana Force & Guy Pene du Bois
History is not kind to most reputations. Juliana Force (1876-1948) and Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958), to name just two, are no longer so well known as they were in life. This is a more because our...
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Josef Frank: Post-Modernist
"Styles have a way of announcing themselves timidly some time before they become insistent and popular and they often linger on because people are accustomed to them and feel affectionate toward them...
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A Wealth Of Bonnards
One of the great French artists of the twentieth century is Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) whose work is well documented. Why then are the paintings shown here not more familiar? "As Delacroix wrote is...
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