When François Mitterrand discovered he had prostate cancer and opted not to make the information public, this powerful politician who had a remarkable talent for manipulating other people suddenly had nothing to lose. When the economist and the ex-IMF chief Dominique...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJC9wbiKeV8 You can’t mistake her. She is coiffed like a contemporary Capuchin monk with her two-tone haircut, white at the roots, burgundy at the tips. She walks slowly but her spirit fizzes like lightning. Agnes Varda is...
‘Asia’s Precarious Rise’ was the headline the Wall Street Journal ran across its front cover not long ago (1). In fact, the eyes of the world are turned towards the great Chinese Leviathan to see whether this boom is not in fact a mirage, none more so than the art...
In Paris, a stone’s throw from the Boulevard Saint Germain, an exceptional new show has just opened that looks into the creative process behind Dutch masterpieces of 17th century. It involved a police-like investigation of history to locate the drawings that helped to...
In this age of political upheavals, with possible economic reverberations, the major art market trend is identifying any artists from our recent past that have been unfairly skipped over. It’s a sensible decision. Their careers are already established and their artist...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tpuBstGmFs In art, even contemporary art, chronology matters. In other words, who did what before whom. To give you an example, in 1915 the entire world from Russia to Germany, passing through Montevideo, was doing...
At a time when the world has been shaken by a series of catastrophic election results, France is growing increasingly nervous about the approaching presidential contest in April. Running counter to these trends is the Tefaf antiques fair in Maastricht, taking place...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0NLVDadpcQ The most powerful pieces of art are the ones that offer the potential for multiple readings. In the work of the French artist Annette Messager (born 1943) ambiguity itself becomes an art form. The winner of the Golden...
New York is the international epicentre of the art market. And it’s here, from 2 until 5 March, that The Armory Show, a fair that is emblematic of the city, takes place, assembling 210 contemporary and modern art galleries along the banks of the Hudson. It is also the...
This exhibition is the first of its kind. It doesn't just tell the history of an art dealer but also the history of art, the history of a family and plain History with a capital H, filled with the blood and tears of the Second World War. ‘21 rue La Boétie’ is the...
Diego Giacometti (1902-1985), the brother and close collaborator of the illustrious sculptor Alberto Giacometti, has a seat in the pantheon of 20th century decorative arts. Hubert de Givenchy (born 1926), whose creations were made famous by the actor Audrey Hepburn...
There was once a time, until the late '90s, when if you wanted to be considered a prominent artist, you were best off being North American. Back then, money and institutional support was primarily found on the other side of the Atlantic. But thanks to globalisation,...