https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roF4jWEqBLg Even though Andy Warhol may not have had the museum namesake he deserved in New York – only Pittsburgh accepted a Warhol Museum after his premature death – and even though he isn’t actually buried there...
Sean Scully: the Irish abstract art star explains why he’s turning to the figurative and answers 8 questions in almost 1 minute
Sean Scully (born in 1945) cuts an imposing figure. Tall in stature, he moves slowly. His face is stern. He has thin lips. A shaved head. He could play the role of a bad guy in a film. He has a reputation for being difficult, but after spending a short time in his...
JW Anderson: 8 answers on art in 1 minute from one of the edgiest fashion designers
The first thing you notice is his blue eyes. He has even features, a fair complexion. He seems calm and poised and it would appear I’m in luck: Jonathan William Anderson doesn’t talk to the press much. The first time I met him was during an exhibition at the Vuitton...
Hiroshi Sugimoto at Versailles: in his sublime glass tea house the star photographer speaks of zen and ghosts
“Lacquerware is light and soft to the touch and gives off hardly a sound. I know few greater pleasures than holding a lacquer soup bowl in my hands, feeling upon my palms the weight of the liquid and its mild warmth. The sensation is something like that of holding a...
Tadao Ando at the Centre Pompidou: Jean Nouvel and Renzo Piano tell all
The ultra-famous Japanese architect and winner of the Pritzker Prize , Tadao Ando (born in 1941) possesses an uncommon grace. He doesn’t display the usual rigidity during interviews. I met him last year and the man was all smiles, speaking to me at length about boxing...
Basquiat at the Vuitton Foundation: the ultimate exhibition with his rebus-like paintings explained by the world specialist
The Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris is staging an exhibition dedicated to Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), the hero of contemporary American painting, comprising 120 works that are emblematic of the artist. The ensemble of paintings and drawings presented here,...
Glenstone Foundation in Potomac: A lesson in collecting contemporary art but also a contemplative experience
The American businessman Mitchell Rales (born in 1956) can’t be said to be wanting for money. Forbes values the wealth of this man, who started out in real estate in 1983, at 3.5 billion dollars and ranks him 652nd in their list of the world’s richest people in 2018....
Picasso’s blue and rose-tinted worlds: this season’s most fascinating exhibition is now on show at the Musée d’Orsay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXETztMZjZI Pablo Picasso lived to the age of 92. His total painting output is estimated to number over 4000 works. It’s conceivable that he could have produced 120 paintings between the ages of 20 and 25. At that time the...
Tom Wesselmann: immersion in feminine pleasure in Monaco
There’s nothing “politically correct” about this exhibition. Here the women often tend to be nude, they smoke, and they pursue their own pleasure. And it’s an American painter-voyeur by the name of Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004) who portrays, against a seaside background,...
Zao Wou-Ki: an exhibition in Paris of large-scale pieces by the Chinese artist that resemble American abstract paintings
It’s a revelation. The Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris is presenting an exceptional exhibition dedicated to the large-scale works (up to 6 metres in length) of the painter Zao Wou-Ki, a practice he started in the 1950s. Born in China in 1920, he died in Paris...
Gordon Matta-Clark: Renaissance of a great artist who sculpted architecture, from Paris to New York
Curiously, in an age like our own marked by creative profusion and profound upheavals, one of the strong tendencies when it comes to art consists of looking to the past to rediscover artists who might have been unjustly forgotten. This is the case for Gordon...
David Goldblatt: A tribute to the great South African photographer who has just passed away
The South African photographer David Goldblatt, born in 1930, died on 25 June. I met this exceptional man at his home in Johannesburgh. He was both humble and humanistic, and had long been involved in the fight against apartheid and racism in his country. Then I...