La Collection Brukenthal - Musée Jaquemart André

I went today to the Collection Brukenthal (Brugel, Memlin, Van Eyck) exhibit in its last days, as the Musée Jaquemart André which I had never visited before.  The museum itself had a few architectural things which were interesting, but I'd have been disappointed if I'd made the regular museum the center of the outing.  The Brukenthal collection was great, and the free iPhone audioguide was fabulous!  I learned a lot about Flemish painting & there were some really impressive paintings on exhibit.

Fauves et Expressionistes Allemands - Musee Marmottan

We went to see German Fauves & Expressionists at the Musée Marmottan which was an interesting exhibit & a fun return to the location where E & I had our first date!  The exhibit was great, some really interesting paintings & a nice intimate location.

Jeff Koons at the Chateau de Versailles

I had the idea that seeing Jeff Koons at the Chateau de Versailles would be a fun thing to do w A, since it's hard to imagine art that's more accessible to an 8 year old than Koons (giant balloon sculptures and Disney characters). We didn't manage to get there in December before it was supposed to end, but it actually got extended and we booked tickets in the final days and went to see it Saturday night.

It's a shame to visit Versailles at night, because the best part of it is the gardens, and the magnificent over-the-top Gallerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) is impressive during the day because it reflects the gardens over and over. It's also not so fun in the cold, since you don't feel like lingering in the garden if you do go out there (there was a Koons installation in the gardens that we froze to see, then were unimpressed by).

The Koons works were as expected - the NYTimes summed it nicely as an "American Invasion", but the contrast of modern and classic made it much more interesting (A described it as "Old and Original"). A enjoyed it (more than he would probably enjoy a classical art show). Still, hanging beach toys on fences or from the ceiling does not make things "art" to me, and I generally think he's trying too card to be clever (or commercial). As I've felt the last several times I've seen big names in contemporary art, I can wait a while before giving this genre another go...

A liked Puppy best of all, and I thought the Disney-esque flowers were clever in the overdone Versailles bedroom with the flowery wallpaper. The contrast of the lobster raft and the fuscia drawing room was original.

Emil Nolde

We went to see Emil Nolde at the Grand Palais this morning. Nolde was a German expressionist painter who was contemporary to many, and frankly in general interesting but not better than the more famous artists of his day.

There were a few really great paintings, but most were just okay. His watercolors, especially near the end of his life when he was not allowed by the Nazis to paint, were quite interesting.


It's been a while since I've made it to any museums in Paris, so I was glad to start 2009 off on this footing!

Denver Museum of Contemporary Art - Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst is a man not afraid of death or coming back in another life as a member of the animal kingdom, since he seems to love putting animals in some type of decimated form into his art. (Those are real butterflies stuck into the paint, and of course he's famous for putting all kinds of beasts into formaldahyde and then on display).

The new but small Denver MCA had a very small (4 works) show of a few pieces of Hirst that I saw with Pam & her girls. I think the guide/guard said it best when he said "he's a very successful artist if you judge by his prices, and the collectors must know something". He indeed is the master of marketing, is very provocative, and has become filthy rich. Still, is it really good art?

The MCA has a great upstairs area for kids, a big playspace full of FatBoy bean bags. It was more fun (and less urban hip - well, Denver hip which of course means jeans) with kids piling them up and jumping on them...

Mark Rothko at the Tate Modern

We saw Mark Rothko at the Tate Modern - the main driver of me wanting to schedule a return visit to London this Fall, in fact. The gray series of paintings were really great, but otherwise there was not much I had not already seen, since the Seagram paintings are on permanent display at the Tate and I've been many times. E didn't appreciate it much, but he was a good sport about coming.

British Museum

We went to the British Museum, where E could easily have spent all day. It was enjoyable, in particular the cataloging room which has these incredible display cases. Some of which were taken over by Damien Hirst's brightly painted skulls, Cornucopia.

Francis Bacon at Tate Britain

We went to see Francis Bacon at the Tate Britain, an exhibit I probably would have skipped had it not been for E, and I'm very glad we went. I didn't know Bacon's work very well, but enjoyed it and the intensity of emotion he communicates.

Terracotta Soliders

We were looking for a good family outing and found this, the "Soldats de l'eternite". At the end of summer there aren't too many expos in play, and I'd seen most of what I wanted to see, so this seemed like a good choice, mixing art (for me) and history (for E) while staying short and manageable for all, friends included.

The works themselves were interesting but the layout was a pain and the ratio of really good stuff to filler was pretty poor. The Pinacotheque is not one of my favorite spots, and this expo did nothing to change that impression.

We also took in the gardens at the Musee Rodin (but not the actual museum) and that left more of an impression on me - he was just masterful, and the gardens are lovely, even on a crowded sunny Saturday.

Peter Doig - at MAM

This was the same exhibition I saw in London at the Tate, this time here in Paris at the MAM. I had really loved discovering him and his work, and was thrilled to see the same exhibit coming here. I liked the presentation at the Tate much better, but it was great to see the paintings again. I also had more time to linger and listen to the video, last time we were in a rush to catch our train back.

Bridget Riley @ MAM

I'd been really looking forward to this exhibit of Bridget Riley, because I've always liked her work and always loved the space at the Museum of Modern Art of the Ville de Paris. The exhibit was cool, although I found her work a bit uneven. I really liked the wall installation she did of circles in the place, and a lot of her early work. The variations of colors w Egypt and other themes I found less compelling, but I did appreciate the comment I'd read that she is best classified as one of the last post-impressionists rather than an op-art artist.

Richard Serra - Monumenta @ Grand Palais

Yesterday I went to see the Richard Serra exhibit for Monumenta at the Grand Palais.

It was high on my must-do list this season, as I still can't stop thinking about his exhibit at the MoMA last summer, so I was hoping to have another dip into that atmosphere.

I enjoyed the work "promenade" that he did here in Paris, but found it much less powerful than any of the large-scale steel works from the MoMA expo. Clearly there was a huge challenge, and the space is really vast and over-the-top with the curves and curlicues. He did do a decent job of making you feel the height of the building and of changing perspective as you approached and distanced the 5 plates, but I still found it less interesting than I had hoped.

I'd imagined dragging my husband to see it (as I regretted a lot that he did not see the MoMA expo) but it didn't leave me with a need to see it again or share it, as the other had.

Still, a nice hour in the afternoon, and the Grand Palais space is pretty cool overall. And the weather was perfect for it - neither too hot nor too cold, which isn't often the case in that hall.

Peter Doig at the Tate Britain

I saw a fabulous exhibit today at the Tate Britain. I really had to boogie to do get there and back in time for our departure from London, but it was worth it, even if I didn't have time to see anything else at the museum.

Peter Doig is a contemporary painter who has a magical complex and beautiful style. Pure joy to see, it was really terrific.

Cellar Door - Loris Gréaud

I also stopped by the Palais de Tokyo (on the left side) the contemporary art museum. I've had some bad memories of previous exhibits here (although one or two that I liked a long while back). But for the first time they are running a one-man show by a 'young genius' Loris Greaud. I don't think I'd call it genius (although most of it was clearly above my head) but it was interesting and new, and gave me back some confidence in contemporary art. I doubt I'll be rushing out to every new contemporary show, but at least I've ended the Nivea-inspired boycott in place for over 2 years now... I looked for an image of these really cool black trees w a red sun/moon to no success - no images easily findable so I put a photo of the artist...

Here's a video on youtube that shows the forest

A. R. Penck - expo

Today I went to the Palais de Tokyo to visit both sides. On the left is the Musee de l'art moderne de la ville de Paris, which has an incredible exhibition space. I've loved just about everything I've seen there, largely because the space is so amazing. I can't wait for Bridget Riley later this summer, but decided to check out the current offering, as a way for me to explore an artist I didn't know at all.

AR Penck was interesting - I suspect his work shows better grouped like this instead of mixed w other artists. I can't say I love it, but I did enjoy the expo.

Modern Art Collection New Hanging - Centre Pompidou

After seeing Giacometti we passed through half of the Modern Art Collection at Beauborg, seeing the years 1905-1960 on the 5th floor. It's the re-hanging of the permanent collection, with huge impressive showings of Matisse, Delaunay, Leger, Picasso, Mondrian and so many others. There was a whole room of Fauves other than Matisse which I really appreciated too.

I was really happy to discover a painter I didn't know, Kupka, who had 2 magnificant paintings on display.

L'Atelier de Giacometti - Centre Pompidou

I went to the Giacometti expo at Beaubourg today with 2 friends. It was really great, jam-packed with sculpture and his fantastically haunting paintings. I bought the book of the expo and hope to get back again before it closes, although no guarantees...

Ferdinand Hodler @ Musee d'Orsay

I went to see the Ferdinand Hodler expo at the Musee d'Orsay today, cutting it close (as the exhibit ends tomorrow) but pleased I actually got one of the Parisian art things I want to see accomplished.

Ferdinand Hodler is the Swiss impressionist-period painter who never had much success in France, but is hugely respected in Switzerland. I really liked his portraits, the works he did on working people (woodcutters and the like) and most especially the landscapes. His work is very different from Georgia O'Keefe but I found a lot of the same power and grandeur and boldness to it.

Weekend in Amsterdam

We left for a weekend in Naples (to visit Pompeii ) only to get stuck on the highway near the airport for over an hour and a half. We missed our flight, and while I was actually looking forward to a relaxing unscheduled weekend at home, my DH was bound and determined to get out of town.

At the airport we debated between Madrid, Venice, Rome and Amsterdam, and settled on the latter. Amsterdam is a city where my DH spent a nice vacation with his ex-wife, and he felt weird planning a weekend for us there, so a last-minute pick was a good solution. It's also a good size city for a weekend.

It was nice because we did a ton of walking around - and even though it was rainy, it wasn't too cold, so it was pleasant.

We visited two museums - the Anne Frank house, and then on Saturday I went to the Van Gogh museum alone while my DH & DSS went wandering about. Both were interesting, but the Van Gogh was really nice in that it showed the artist's evolution over time. Like the Picasso museum, the evolution context was more powerful than any single painting - none of his best works were present. It's always good for my spirit to spend a few hours seeing art, and I need to make sure to do it more often.

We also had some good food (and some bad). We went to a nice "traditional Dutch, updated" restaurant which was more to my DH's tastes than mine (lots of game, pork, etc). I had a split pea soup w a pork and sauerkraut square in it. Followed by scallops with lobster. We didn't take dessert because it was late and my DSS was getting difficult.

On Saturday night we went to an Indonesian restaurant, what had filled my mind as soon as we'd settled on Amsterdam, as I had good memories of this from prior trips to Amsterdam. My DH, however, was skeptical, telling me he hadn't liked the food in Indonesia when he'd traveled there, etc. He was game to try (and I was clearly really wanting it) and the hotel told us they'd booked one of the better ones in town. It was really good and pretty much how I remembered it - lots of little dishes on a warmer w some rice, rather spicy and clearly Asian but different than Chinese, Japanese or Indian.