African art in vogue There can be no doubt that African contemporary artists are currently in vogue. This is generating a rapid promotion not just of those who are truly talented but also of painters who are repeating a tried and tested...
Ceramics and contemporary art: a love story
Contradictions Right now the art world is caught between two powerful cross-currents that are utterly contradictory. One the one hand there are artists seeking to explore what we’d describe as virtual realities through digital art, now often...
Bruno Latour’s Biennial, from Taiwan to Metz with artists who act as whistleblowers
Turning inwards In the art world, the most evident consequence of the public health crisis has been a geographical turning inwards. Sao Paulo Biennal While in the past, and for some time now, the flourishing of biennials has resulted in...
The Lee Ufan experience in Arles: “Death transformed by nature lives on discreetly”
https://youtu.be/ybfy9DPWkAg Van Gogh In 1888 Vincent Van Gogh brought his friend Paul Gauguin to Arles. He dreamed of creating a community there, a communion even, of artists captivated by the colours of the Camargue region. It was...
Carsten Höller: in Lisbon inside the belly of the whale, the artist plays with light and science
https://youtu.be/ZWpomNj3mrQ Phytopathologist Carsten Höller is a man of experiences. That’s not to say he is particularly old, since the Swedish-Belgian-German artist – who speaks French very well – was born in 1961. But from his...
Anselm Kiefer: forever in search of the ideal painting
https://youtu.be/yQS91FsimQ4 The same painting Across kilometres and kilometres, since the very beginning, or almost, Anselm Kiefer (born in 1945) has been making the same painting. This is not to say that he’s repeating himself, that...
Jeff Koons and David Beckham: the unexpected encounter in Doha
Soft power In the early French Renaissance when King Francis I assembled the greatest artists of the time, such as Leonardo da Vinci, in the West, or closer to the present day during the postwar period when the United States extended its...
Art Basel Miami Beach: the spectacular success of artists from the African diaspora
Josephine Baker As the Pantheon in Paris – the inner sanctum of the French Republic – saw the entrance of Josephine Baker, a black woman, former music-hall dancer, activist and patriot of American origin, Miami saw the inauguration of the...
Beeple, the author of the 69.3-million-dollar NFT: “I want to change the course of art history”
https://youtu.be/C0KMkaN-qx4 More open to change The public health crisis has made people more open to change and has led to a growing awareness of the importance of physical experiences (meeting friends, listening to live music)...
Tribute to Etel Adnan, poet and painter
https://youtu.be/eLoob9CzooM Recognition in Art can be belated. It was only in 2012, at Documenta in Kassel, that Etel Adnan(born in 1925) was honoured. Since then this woman warrior whose weapons were poetry and painting, this woman of magnificent sensibility...
De Kooning: “I’ve always been crazy about Soutine”. An astonishing dialogue between the two genius in Paris
https://youtu.be/q7rBYGoFz98 The legacy of the artist It is utterly fascinating to learn why an artist starts to paint such or such a thing that goes on to secure their artistic legacy. This is the subject on display until 10 January at the...
Will the Macklowe collection reach a billion dollars at Sotheby’s? Harry Macklowe also talks about his new collection
https://youtu.be/5lhu6XXCBNk Art market/Art history For the past few years now the art market has been making its grand entrance into art history. In museums there have been exhibitions dedicated to great art dealers such as Ambroise Vollard or...