Tom Photographing La Femme à la harpe
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net
This month’s bodacious bronze bottom belongs to a bas-relief sculpture located in the Pompidou Center. Follow the link below for a close-up view!
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/411586853417089057/
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Tom Photographing Archer in the Jardin des Plantes
Photograph by www.DiscoverParis.net
This month’s bronze fanny belongs to the sculpture of an archer that sits in a grove located in the Jardin des Plantes. Follow the link below for a close-up view!
www.pinterest.com/pin/411586853416838379
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Angelu(s)x by Clément Cogitore
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
Is La Galerie Saint-Séverin the smallest art gallery in the world? We like to think so. It is so petite that patrons have to stand on the sidewalk outside the gallery to see the works exhibited within!
Currently, Angelu(s)x by Alsatian artist Clément Cogitore is being exhibited there. The work is a video installation that shows a glowing sphere slowly rising in the steeple of the Strasbourg Cathedral until it reaches the very summit. Arriving there, the glow of the sphere transforms the steeple into a radiant lantern.
Clément Cogitore
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
The gallery, located at 4, rue des Prêtres-Saint-Séverin in the 5th arrondissement, is open for viewing day and night.
The exhibit ends on Sunday, November 20.
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Monique Wells, Co-founder of Discover Paris!
and Dorothy Polley, Owner of Dorothy's Gallery
in front of works by Henry Miller
(c) Discover Paris!
November at Dorothy’s Gallery finds Dorothy hosting an interesting mix of artists, from abstract to surrealist, from figurative to photographic. The exposition, entitled De Henry Miller aux jeunes artistes d’aujourd’hui, features eight artists, and includes three serigraphs by the late Henry Miller. Known primarily as a novelist, Miller was also a painter who turned out several thousand watercolors in his lifetime.
The exposition contains three photographs of Miller taken by the late French photographer Denise Bellon. Two show Miller with his third wife Eve McClure, while the third shows him with French writer Joseph Delteil.
Isabel Meyrells produces sculptures in bronze and terra cotta. Ten of her works are placed around the gallery and seem to pop into and out of one’s visual field to demand attention like little elves in a forest. Her Autoportrait is a bronze Chinese dragon tamping his pipe with his finger. When I asked her why she thought that the dragon resembled her, she replied that this was a good dragon that inspires good sentiments and does not frighten. In another room, her sculpture of a dolphin shedding large tears as it climbs a flight of stairs gives one pause for thought.
Isabel Meyrelles with Her Autoportrait
Thomas Levy-Lasne is the only artist at this exposition who represents figurative painting. He produces images with ambiguous themes, such as Marie, a comely, large-breasted woman dressed only in denim pants. While one might be tempted to think that she is available, the artist explained to me that her facial expression indicates she does not want to be desired. Levy-Lasne’s Vacance portrays a group of three young people awkwardly positioned on a sandy roadway on a beach. The idea that they might actually be enjoying their vacation seems improbable.
Vacance by Thomas Lévy-Lasne
Mariano Angelotti paints landscapes devoid of people. His haunting Piscine, a scene that he painted when he was in the south of France, depicts a swimming pool that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea on a moonlit night. His painting Route portrays a two-lane highway thrusting through the Patagonian countryside, giving a keen impression of the remoteness of that part of the world.
Mariano Angelotti with Landscapes
The three other artists, with whom I did not get a chance to talk, are Artur do Cruzeiro Seixas, whose surrealist images show humans and animals in various stages of transformation; Benjamin Marquès, whose imaginary cartographs conjure up images of continents that might be very dangerous places to visit; and Emmanuelle Fèvre, whose painting entitled Obama for President recalls those hopeful days in 2008 when change was in the air.
Dorothy’s Gallery
27, rue Keller
75011 Paris
Metro: Bastille
Open from Wednesday to Saturday from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Tuesday and Sunday from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
The exhibition ends on November 29, 2010.
Bending Iron for a Hand-crafted Chandelier
(c) Discover Paris!
Members of the Paris Alumnae/i Network attended a guided visit to the Baguès workshop on Tuesday, June 8 to see how craftsmen make elegant bronze and iron chandeliers, lamp fixtures, wall sconces, and mirror frames. We observed the careful pounding, chiseling, bending, and twisting that the workers applied to lengths of iron and cast bronze to shape the metals into beautiful works of art. Some two to three years of experience are required for a worker to begin to get proficient at the craft. And because the work is so labor intensive, the products that come out of the shop are well beyond the means of the average consumer.
Among those public and private institutions wealthy enough to be able to afford to decorate their palaces with Baguès products are the Château de Versailles, the Banque de France, the Hôtel Ritz, the State Department in Washington, D.C., and the Royal Palace of Bucharest. The lamps and chandeliers are made to measure. This, the expensive materials, and the careful handiwork, account for the costliness of the finished product.
Baguès began as a family-run business in the 19th century, making lamps for churches. Today, a different family runs the enterprise. There are only about three or four companies remaining in France that perform this type of workmanship.
The showroom is located at 73, avenue Daumesnil in the 12th arrondissement.
Finished Chandelier
(c) Discover Paris!
Thor's Story
By Erró
Museums in Paris will open their doors late into the evening on May 15 for the “European Night of Museums,” and a special participant will be UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).
The organization is opening up part of its vast art collection to the public for the second time, with the event having particular significance this year as 2010 is the UN-designated International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures.
Visitors will be able to view works by famous artists from around the world at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters (7, place de Fontenoy, 7th arrondissement) and take guided tours in French and English, from 8 p.m. to midnight.
UNESCO is home to more than 600 works by artists such as Picasso, Moore, Miro, Calder, Giacometti, and many others, and among the main attractions are Picasso’s largest-ever painting, “The Fall of Icarus,” and one of Moore’s most impressive sculptures – “Reclining Figure.”
“What’s interesting is that renovation of our building just finished last September and now the Henry Moore sculpture is visible,” said Raya Fayad, a spokesperson for UNESCO’s Works of Art and Special Projects Unit. “It wasn’t visible last year.”
Art lovers will also get to see the bold, colorful canvas of Icelandic artist Erró as well as the garden and fountain created by Japanese craftsman Isamu Noguchi. “The Symbolic Globe,” created by Danish artist Eric Reitzel, has become a city landmark since it was erected beside the UNESCO building in 1995. Its shape and simplicity form a curious counterpoint to the Eiffel Tower in the background.
The art collection began in the late 1950s when UNESCO’s headquarters was inaugurated in Paris, according to Fayad. The organization commissioned works from the contemporary artists of the time to “embellish” the building. Since then the collection has grown through donations from member states. Now UNESCO’s headquarters “currently owns the largest artistic heritage within the United Nations.”
We wish to thank A. D. McKenzie for her contribution to the Paris Insights blog.
 | Tom Reeves - author of Paris Insights - An Anthology and Dining Out in Paris - What You Need to Know before You Get to the City of Light. |