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So here I am in Paris after a whirlwind trip around what felt like the whole globe.
27 April 2015
Straight to the Louis Vuitton building and am utterly in awe of the scale and ambition of the architecture. It’s mesmerising.
The art was interesting but not at all what I was expecting. Amongst the fine collection of Giacometti’s were many unabashed contemporary works, including my favourite Ed Atkins, ‘Ear Prick,’ which I had mentioned in my diary some months ago when I was in Warsaw.
A number of the artist’s on show will coincidentally be in our upcoming 20 Years exhibition such as Rachel Harrison and Wolfgang Tillmans, so it was great to see other works by them. I loved this ‘Charlie don’t Surf’ by Mauricio Cattelan. Mauricio loves to use the name Charlie in his work.
Then Mona Hatoum’s lonely work ‘Capello per due V’ reflecting upon living with other communities.
Buried in the bowels of this big humanist building was an Olafur Eliasson looking like a golden treasure reappearing from the ashes.
After Vuitton we had a bit of time to make a few other visits with a first quick stop to Max Hetzler’s ‘Open Source:Art at the Eclipse of Capitalism’ show where Re Rebaudengo junior, Eugenio had co-curated it across both the Berlin and Paris spaces. Loved this 3D resin maquette of the Royal Academy’s Frank Stella.
Roy Zab. was rather taken with ‘Mars Potential’ by Katja Novitskova.
Then it was home sweet home just in time to see Nic Deshaye’s new work at Jonathan Viner. A tough and challenging work but of course this is what you would expect.
Then I was right back to Paris to see the rest of it! The Musée Picasso’s refit is magnificent and some of the works were outstanding, notably ‘The Kiss’
And ‘Pregnant Woman’ 1949. Simple, violent and minimal and really one of my favourite works in the show.
At the Pompidou I was lucky enough to have the whole of the Koons show to myself, a huge luxury to view all these works in stillness and silence. I’d of course seen many of the works before but there were quite a number I had only seen in text books so it was such a joy to catch them in the flesh. I’m pretty sure this ‘Bunny’ 1986, taken from his earlier plastic works of rabbits and flowers, sold for more than $50M dollars at auction.
Then time to point the camera and experiment, hence ‘Gazing Ball “Farnese Hercules”’ and ‘Ballerina.’
We had a wonderful visit to see Frederique Laroque’s rather desirable collection. He was so happy to show myself and the BFAMI ladies his world, surrounded by Ruby, Hylden, Leckey and Loman to name but a few.
The BFAMI ladies adorned by a Nate Lowman and in the distance, a Sterling Ruby.
We also found time to visit the home of Clémence Krzentowski, where she showed us her interesting collection on Rue Dauphine and the most delightful view of the Eiffel tower I have ever seen out of a Parisian window!
A beautiful Sarfatti chandelier adorning the ceiling in front of the view.
Then it was home sweet home again and a last goodbye to our amazing Still House Group show. Hayley Mellin’s take on the Richter candles is truly wonderful. She’s one of the more interesting emerging artist’s on the scene.
Louis Eisner’s Princess Di which he managed to appropriate from online with its watermark on view. I find the work totally mesmerising, bringing back a woman who was an icon to us all in our past lives.
Now however, it’s time to get ready for our big 20th anniversary show! It’s going to be spectacular with a celebratory opening party to match. 30 April 2015 - pop it in your diaries.
