Museum exhibitions
Present and past exhibits that have historical value and lingering interest for a Paris visitor
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Sarah Bernhardt – Woman Created the Star (Et la femme créa la star )
The artist, Sarah Bernhardt’s life knew no limits. There was no frontier she could not conquer during her 79 springtimes on earth. She was an emblematic figure, the “divine Sarah”, the “holy monster”, the “golden voice”. Miss Bernhardt (1844-1923) created the star that she was. She was the influencer of the epoque. This icon’s face appeared on major brand beauty, soap, cigar and food products, posters and calendars. Bernhardt’s “S” silhouette, her sharp profile and curly, red hair corresponded perfectly to the aesthetics sought by the Symbolists and Art Nouveau artists. Four hundred pieces make up the exhibition “Sarah Bernhardt – And the Woman Created the Star” (Et la femme créa la star) at the Petit Palais until August…
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Rosa Bonheur Looking Into The Souls of Animals
Rosa Bonheur married art—”It is my husband, my world, the air that I breathe. I do not feel anything else. I cannot think of anything else.” For Rosa Bonheur, animals were that art and the eyes of animals were the windows to their souls. The Musée d’Orsay presents this retrospective on her “marriage” for you until January 15, 2023. A friend mentioned wanting to see Rosa Bonheur. A browser search of the name suggested three drinking spots in the Parisian suburbs (guinguettes) named Rosa Bonheur. With more digging, I found out she was a French animal portraitist, sculptor, illustrator, photographer, independent female, admired icon of Buffalo Bill Cody, and first…
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Shocking! Surrealist Schiaparelli at MAD – Paris
When is a fashion house a walking art gallery? When your audacious mentor is fashion designer, Paul Poiret, and two of your contemporary artist friends are surrealists, Man Ray and Salvador Dali. When you walk up the stairs of the Musée des Arts décoratifs (MAD) toward the rays of sunshine, prepare yourself to be transported into a world of design in the shocking surrealist Schiaparelli show at MAD. The pink jacket with those sun rays greets you as you open the exhibition’s door. Welcome to the Elsa Schiaparelli retrospective, the first in 20 years. Shocking! The surreal world of Elsa Schiaparelli (Shocking! Les mondes surréalistes d’Elsa Schiaparelli ) continues until January 22, 2023. Admiring the multitude of form-fitting jackets…
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Marcel Proust on His Mother’s Side
The “Marcel Proust-Du côté de la mère” exhibition has it all: Fake news, social, art and theatrical history, fashion and moral transformations and politics. A more in-depth look at Marcel Proust’s writings is illustrated by the use of the period's contemporary painters and photographers throughout the exhibition. Their scenes illustrate Proust’s words. There is so much to this exhibit, I recommend you visit to absorb the family history, Proust's observational history and the intensity of a time machine between the Belle Époque and the modern life of society and the rich contributions of modern Jewish families.
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Marcel Proust “A Parisien Novel” is a Novel Journey
An unexpected pleasure came with choosing the wrong ticket. The ticket was not a Carnavalet Museum general admission ticket. My ticket was actually a timed ticket for Marcel Proust. Marcel Proust, is a well-known, popular Parisian author (1871–1922) who set his novels in the Belle Epoque of 1890s until 1922. The Marcel Proust A Parisian Novel (Un Roman Parisien) exhibit is a map of characters, fashion and scenery (exterior and interior) for the visitor's novel journey.... read more
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Vivian Maier: A Photographer Found
The negatives and undeveloped rolls of film from Vivian Maier's Rolleiflex, Leica and Super 8 and 16 mm cameras ended up in cardboard boxes. To the world of renowned photographers, she did not exist. To the children of three different families, she was the Nanny. Vivian Maier is the photographer found. She was finally found in 2007 in Chicago. A handful of Vivian Maier’s images of street life photography are the current exhibit until January 16, 2022 at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris.
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Christian Louboutin Exhibition(iste)
For Christian Louboutin, "a shoe has so much more to offer than just to walk". The fashion designer known for his over-the-topThe sign that impressioned Louboutin between 10 and 12 to work with heels footwear with the red soles, Louboutin was inspired to create a line of high heels after a visit to the Museum of African and Oceanian Arts. Here he observed a sign forbidding patrons to wear high heels because of the delicate mosaic tile floor. Inspired by the museum in the 12th arrondissement where he lived, Louboutin used motifs, architecture, color, Indian and Egyptian movies even the iridescent fish in the museum’s aquarium to interpret this multi-cultural neighborhood in his…
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A Rare Moment in Paris with Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry had just left the auditorium in a conversation with Jean-Louis Cohen at the Fondation Louis-Vuitton. After listening to his architectural journey as it relates to the "free and independent" architect Charlotte Perriand, I walked up to him. I thanked him for sharing his thoughts and for his unique design of this Fondation Louis Vuitton museum shaped like a boat, which is the symbol of Paris. He touched my arm and asked if I had seen the Charlotte Perriand exhibit, which had opened the day before.
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The Extraordinary Madame de Maintenon at Versailles
Until July 21, Versailles currently has two exhibitions about Queens of France. The one, Madame de Maintenon, was never declared queen; the other Marie Leszczynska, reigned for 42 years and is little known. The anonymous illustrator of "Le Camp de Compiègne" places Madame de Maintenon sitting in the center of the illustration. As the center of attention, viewed by the nobles and soldiers, she is treated as a queen. Madame de Maintenon was the secret wife of Louis XIV. The announcement of her official marriage to Louis XIV is still only a whisper at court. This scene is part of the exhibition "Madame de Maintenon, In the Corridors of Power".
