https://youtu.be/_3THFMe0qow Without paint For centuries, art was the result of an almost identical action: applying layers of paint with varying degrees of thickness to produce forms and create artworks. The American artist Mark Bradford has...
What can the Venice Biennale from the times of covid teach us? The artistic director Cecilia Alemani responds
https://youtu.be/a1VAviBtf5Y Finally the Venice Biennale Amid the great lethargy that’s descended on the world over the past two years, things have continued to advance, albeit at a slower pace and in a different way, including in art. This...
Charles Ray’s vanity of vanities : death, art history and humour at the Centre Pompidou and Pinault collection
https://youtu.be/OwcJ8lJnmVg Death's triumph In what is known as classical art, painters and sculptors used to amuse themselves by creating vanitas works: dead game lying on a table, flowers or fruit from different seasons arranged...
Oscar Murillo: The artist whose paintings allow him to infiltrate the world
https://youtu.be/RVCU9Qd68gg Romanticism Artists can have a kind of 21st-century romanticism, if we can call it that, which means that some of them aren’t satisfied with recognition. They’ll call into question all the signs that bring them...
Levy, Gorvy, Dayan, Rohatyn (LGDR): the new global consortium of the contemporary art market
Paris again Paris is in the process of once again becoming, with dizzying speed, a major hub for the global art market. On 26 January 2022 an announcement was made by the organizers of Art Basel that they would be taking over as the...
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré: historic star of African art, discovered in France, celebrated at Moma
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...
The story of a portrait long exhibited at a museum in Dresden now auctioned in New York
How to leverage flattery Nicolas de Largillière (1656-1746) is a French painter who enjoyed huge success during his lifetime thanks to his portraits, in which he knew how to leverage flattery. La belle strasbourgeoise His body of work, spanning...
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...
Pissarro, Signac: their major roles in the history of modern art are re-examined in Basel and Paris
Changing mind A good exhibition is one that enables you to change your mind about an artist. Pissarro There are all sorts of reasons why this should happen at the show staged by the Kunstmuseum in Basel dedicated to Camille Pissarro...
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...