In Japan The Korean artist Lee Ufan (born in 1936), has lived in Japan since he was 20 years old. He has been the subject of various major exhibitions, such as the Guggenheim in New York in 2011 and the park at the Château de Versailles in...
Tribute to Germano Celant, major theoretician of 20th-century art
A Living encyclopedia of 20th century art The art historian and curator Germano Celant(1940-2020) has passed away on 29 April 2020, after contracting the coronavirus . He was one of the most fascinating figures in 20th-century art, which he...
The world afterwards (3) Albanian prime minister and artist Edi Rama: “It’s a major failure. The world is unable to be together”
Tirana in bright colors His first great exploit dates from the 2000s. Edi Rama (born in 1964) was the newly elected mayor of Tirana, the capital of Albania (a country with 2.8 million inhabitants), when he decided to have a number of the...
The world afterwards (2) Subodh Gupta: “what is happening to us now must not be forgotten”
To reinvent obsessions The main strength of artists lies in their ability to reinvent identical obsessions. We are familiar with Subodh Gupta’s work through his installations – accumulations of metal kitchen utensils that have become the...
The world afterwards (1): Anish Kapoor: “ As long as we continue with a system that banks everything on profits, nothing will change”
Leviathan: 72000m3 It was announced in 2011 but it was very difficult to grasp its importance at the time. When the Grand Palais in Paris staged an extraordinary show entitled Monumenta, following the participation of Richard Serra and Anselm...
Acute Art: augmented reality and virtual reality from Kaws to Ai Weiwei, how a new kind of art is invading our homes now
Seen by tens of millions of people The figure has been seen and shared on social media over the past few days by tens of millions of people. It’s what’s known as an “art toy”, a figurine now sold as a work of art – we can also see it as a...
Art Basel Hong Kong: the organizers’ response to the coronavirus, a virtual fair which looks set to be interesting
Rushing towards technology As the coronavirus outbreak spreads across the world, art dealers and gallerists have been rushing at breakneck speed towards technology. In parallel to the Tefaf antiques fair in Maastricht, which was supposed to...
Hans Ulrich Obrist goes green: resolutions and warnings. A video interview
https://youtu.be/ot4aupt4VkY History of contemporary art Swiss-born Hans Ulrich Obrist (born in 1968) is now part of the history of contemporary art. The artistic director of the Serpentine Gallery in London has become a phenomenon in his own right thanks to...
Arco Madrid: the whisper of a new “Movida” in the art market?
Troubled times Coronavirus, various regions in quarantine, political upheaval and economic uncertainty… Do people still want to buy art in these troubled times? And yet it’s against this backdrop that the first large-scale fair of the year, Arco Madrid, has opened...
Steve McQueen at the Tate Modern: the man with two brains
The filmaker There are certain rare people who seem to have two brains. This is the case of the English filmmaker and artist who lives in Amsterdam, Steve McQueen (born in 1969). Turner Prize In 1999 the video artist was awarded the Turner Prize, Britain’s highest...
Frieze LA: does art that appeals to the angels of entertainment run the risk of being too shallow?
( From Velvet Buzzsaw: "A bad review is better than sinking into the great glut of anonymity.) Art and entertainment industry Los Angeles may be a city rich in art, but it is first and foremost the city of what Americans refer to as the entertainment industry. Here...
Eugenio Lopez: a video interview with the very influential Mexican collector
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe5XsVzwOwo Trends in contemporary art There are trends within contemporary art. Mexico It’s been several years since Mexico started to become an attractive country for fans of current artistic creation. Firstly because certain...