Jean-Michel Othoniel, known in Paris for his artwork at the Palais-Royal subway station, leads us here into the world of Narcissus. 70 sculptures are shown In Paris Petit-Palais, during the autumn of 2021.

In awe, I climbed the glass clad steps to this ancient palace. Jean-Michel Othoniel had used Indian hand-made, azurcolored glass bricks, the color of the sky, to reach the gilded porch. I was wondering what it represents: the entrance from one world to another; from reality to fiction; from this world to the next? Whatever it might be, the magic operates!

This sunny autumn day, I started my visit by taking a coffee in the museum’s garden where 26 sculptures were either hung up in the trees, like pearl necklaces; hidden in the foilage or placed in its marble corridors. Narcissus makes himself known everywhere, as the visitor can’t hide from his own image, reflected in the sculptures’ mirrors.

The exhibition is fitting for our epoch, when we measure our worth according to “selfies” – posted on Internet for general approval. Othoniel is definitely a man of his time.

I walked down to the ground floor in the museum, after having admired the huge and colorful glass lamp, hanging from the high ceiling. There the atmosphere changed, as I entered a dark glass cave. It was an interesting contrast to the upper floor.

There the artist shows the result of his cooperation with a Mexican scientist, Aubin Arroyo. The mathematician’s “wild knots” reminded Othoniel of his own glass pearls. The scientist’s results marries the artist’s creations. It also shows the incredible human complexities with its endless constellations. We are alike but still so unlike each other. And that’s what’s so beautiful and mystical. Othoniel’s glass mirrors, as well as Arroyo’s knots point to the cosmic eternity.

Thus Narcissus mythology  gets another, deeper and less ego-centered significance. Let’s instead get inspired by life’s magic. Art is a reflection of our frail humanity and in the same time of our infinite creativity. From glass works to mathematical formulas, the step might not be that long after all.

Anne Edelstam, Paris

Le Théorème de Narcisse

Petit Palais, Paris

28 September 2021 – 2 January 2022       

The aging famous artist, stayed in Normandie, France, during the pandemic, that nobody suspected would last for over one year. David Hockney decided to spend his time in his house and garden during lockdown, to his favorite occupation: art.

He decided to dedicate his skills to painting on an Ipad, a technique he’s been using for the past ten years.

Spring turned into summer, into fall and into winter… Recorded in this exhibition at the Orangerie, in Paris. He painted more than 100 works in this manner.

Like the former impressionists, he captures the lights and the movements and the result is a mixture of pop – and impressionist art, using vivid and luminous colors. Inspired by a 70 m. long tapestry he had seen in a Museum, he made images that have been recorded on paper and are shown in two long rolls on each side of a corridor in the basement of the museum.

It’s fun and different! Not to be missed. You have until February 2022.

Anne Edelstam, Paris

Paris – the capital of haute couture – shows a retrospective of one of the world’s most famous fashion- and scenery artists. The Musée des Arts Décoratifs, situated next to the Louvre has dedicated two full floors to Thierry Mugler’s creations.  

Paris cultural life is once more buzzing after nearly two years of lockdown. This exhibition gives the viewer just the energy kick needed to get going! It was like stepping into another planet. Couturissime is unlike any of the usual haute couture exhibitions. The creations, as well as the materials used, resemble more Star Wars, than Paris chic drawing-rooms.

Mugler isn’t just a fashion designer, he’s also a scenograph, photographer, filmmaker; just to mention a few of his skills. More than a retrospective, this exhibition gives us a glimpse into a part of his life and creativity.

Despite that his first collection, from 1973, took place during the hippie movement, with its bohemian fashion, his was the opposite: Mugler’s women are strong, animal-like creatures dressed in the most outrageous clothes, using vinyl and plastic.

I walked into a fairy-world inhabited by insects, sea animals and snakes. The clothes exhibited resemble those found in a movie, theater play or an opera. Their are no boundaries to Mugler’s imagination. Women’s thin waists were enhanced as were their breasts, showing deep cleavages. I was met by nymphs wearing steal corsets, a cape with enormous butterfly wings, tightly fitting fishscale dresses and heroines taken directly from cartoons such as “Catwoman”. Mugler called his women “glamazones”, i.e. modern, chic, urban, imaginative and strong women.

The last room on the first floor, was filled with scents from his different perfumes. I discreetly lifted up my face-mask to smell Angel, his most famous perfume. “I wanted to remember my childhood with a scent of hot choclate and cookies”, he said. After months of trial and error in one of the perfume factories in Grasse, the scent was finally approved and has since been an international hit.

On the upper floor, I was met by Mugler the photographer, with large, magnificient pictures, inspired by Helmut Newton, that he had also worked with. The photographs heighten Mugler’s interest in extreme nature sceneries. The mannequins were photographed on the top of Opera Garnier and on the Chrysler Building’s roof; on an Iceberg in Greenland or out in the Sahara desert. Mugler seems to be drawn to women’s power over and struggle with nature’s most inhospitable places. These women are more like “übermenschen” than women.

Thierry Mugler also fought for Aids’victims and made a collection to denounce the predjudices against them. He got several famous people to help him in this endeavor, such as Madonna, Emma Sjöberg and the trans mannequin Connie Girl, to mention a few.

David Bowie, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga also wore his creations, as is shown in different photographes. The exhibition ends bloodily, with a video clip from Mac Beth to which Mugler had designed the clothes.  

One either loves or hates this exhibition, but it won’t leave anyone indifferent, that I can assure you. I felt like I had been at the opera, the theatre, the movies and … to Jurrasic Park all at once. You’ll get for your money’s worth!

Anne Edelstam

Thierry Mugler

Couturissime

Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris

30 September 2021 – 24 April 2022

For two weeks, Paris famous Arc de Triomphe, that had been attacked just a few years ago, during one of the first “Yellow vests” demonstrations, got a new autumn dress. The artist died in 2020, but this didn’t prevent the accomplishment of this incredible art work. The Arc de Triomphe, situated on top of the Champs-Élysées, got wrapped for the occasion by 25000 sqm of recyclable polypropylene in silver and blue, as well as 7000 m of red rope.

For many Parisians it was a welcome “gift” after nearly two years of lockdown during the pandemic. A gift from an interesting artist and his wife. Both of which had been working together as a team since they met, decades ago. A love letter to Paris – “la ville de lumière”.

Anne Edelstam, Paris

The Luxembourg museum, close to the artists quarters of Saint Germain, in Paris, is situated in a lush park. Its opening exhibition shows women painters, a rarity in those days.

It was a big day, this 31 May 1783, when the prestigious Royal Academy of Painters welcomed a new member: the talented Adélaïde Labille-Gaillard. Soon afterwards, another woman, close to the royal family, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, also insisted on becoming a member. Her magnificent portrait of Marie-Antoinette, her protégée, is displayed in this intimate exhibition.

A quota to accept only four women had been established long ago among an abundance of men. However, a few years later, this one hundred year old Academy was transformed into an Institute and women painters were accepted in greater numbers. They excelled in the art of portraits. Women could not paint nudes because, at the time, the models were exclusively males…

The relative democratization between the genders, opened up doors to otherwise closed ateliers for these women painters. They were thus accepted as pupils for male teachers. It further led to free of charges, highly classified, drawing classes for the impoverished ’demoiselles’ who possessed an artistic talent.

This short epoch was called la parenthèse enchantée – or the ’enchanted parentheses’. During this period, the art world experienced a women painters’ boom. During the 1783 painting exhibition a commentator wrote that: ’women have truly become rivals of their male counterparts and these shall have to deal with some real competition!’

I was surprised at the dexterity and vigor in those paintings, mostly depicting other women. Many of which were auto-portraits, often sitting painting, with their brushes and easel at hand or holding a child. They favored intimate, domestic scenes sometimes with fun touches, like the woman who’s attaching her shoe laces. They also showed great dexterity in the ’sentimental genre’ that enhanced feelings by painting music being played for example.

However, apart from the two above cited women painters, most  of the others have been ’buried’ and forgotten in the collective memory… This exquisite, rather small, exhibition finally gives them justice.  

Anne Edelstam,

Peintre Femmes, 1780 – 1830

Musée du Luxemburg, Paris

19 May to 4 July 2021