gogoparis.com » Art

La Décadence at Yvon Lambert

kvdb — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:41:22 +0000

‘Decadence is the grand moment when a civilisation becomes exquisite’, said that old queen Jean Cocteau. Through a prism of politics and social issues leading up to France’s next presidential election in April, the Galerie Yvon Lambert brings together a handful of fine international artists – Gardar Eide Einarsson, Douglas Gordon, Francesco Vezzoli, Cerith Wyn Evans and the Parisian Loris Gréaud – to present new works or earlier pieces which echo the salient words of Marguerite Yourcenar from her 1958 essay ‘Faces of History in the Historia Augusta’: ‘… this atmosphere of inertia and panic, of authoritarianism and of anarchy; those pompous reaffirmations of a great past amid present mediocrity and immediate disorder; those reforms which are merely palliatives and those outbursts of virtue which manifest themselves only in purges; that sensationalism that ends up expediting the worst politics…”
Until Sat 25 Feb.
Galerie Yvon Lambert, 108 rue Vieille du Temple, 3rd. M° Filles du Calvaire. www.yvon-lambert.com

Douglas Gordon, Bootleg (Bigmouth), film-still.

Néon at Maison Rouge

kvdb — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:05:45 +0000

Coming up at the Maison Rouge later this month is the first major international exhibition of neon art, from the 1950s to the present day. As early as the 1930s, Moholy-Nagy was predicting that it would not be long before the ‘field of expression’ formed by night-time city lights found ‘its own artists’. About 100 works will be presented in the exhibition, many of historical significance, many being shown for the first time. They will include pieces by such pioneers as Lucio Fontana from the early 1950s, François Morellet, Bruce Nauman, Stephen Antonakos, Joseph Kosuth and Mario Merz from the 1960s, and some of the many contemporary artists working in this medium today, such as Jason Rhoades, Sylvie Fleury and Claude Lévêque. Néon invites its public to follow and explore this simple line as it curves its way along innumerable winding, shining paths.
Fri 17 Feb-20 May. Wed-Sun 11am-7pm (Thu 11am-9pm).
Maison Rouge, 10 bd de la Bastille, 12th. M° Quai de la Rapée. 01.40.01.08.81. www.lamaisonrouge.org/

Claude Lévêque, Rêvez !, 2008 — Courtesy the artist & Kamel Mennour, Paris

‘Into the Woods’ at the Galerie des Galeries

kvdb — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:29:52 +0000

Just opened at the Galerie des Galeries, this group show “Into the Woods”, put together by Daria de Beauvais, curator at the Palais de Tokyo. The spooky show zigzags between contemporary romanticism and a gloomy minimalism. Dreamed up as a walk in the woods, the show limns a phantasmagoric mental landscape through the work of eleven women artists. Painting, sculpture, drawing, video, sound art and installations, the techniques employed vary widely, starting us along a path that is full of mystery. Recollections of fairytales and woodland folklore are hinted at, while the artworks themselves loom up like incantations.
Until 17 March. Tue-Sat, 9.30am-7.30pm (9pm, Thu).
La Galerie des Galeries, 1st floor, Galeries Lafayette, 40 bd Haussmann, 9th. M° Chaussée d’Antin. www.galeriedesgaleries.com

Hors Pistes 2012

kvdb — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:45:21 +0000

Opening on Friday is the 7th edition of this international festival dedicated to art films. Hors Pistes exists to showcase visual works investigating the world we live in by challenging narrative forms and remapping the borders between film genres (fiction, documentary, essay…). Hors Pistes presents in the cinemas of the Centre Pompidou a program of more than 30 films exploring the new tendencies of contemporary image, and an exhibition with the theme ANIMALS takes place in the exhibition space on the lower floor.
Fri 27 Jan-Sun 12 Feb.

HORS PISTES 2012, Un autre mouvement des images… par centrepompidou

Gisèle Freund at Fondation Pierre Bergé-YSL

kvdb — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:24:29 +0000

Closing next Sunday is this exhibition devoted to the work of the pioneering photographer Gisèle Freund (1908-2000). Following her last retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in 1991, Freund has been credited with pioneering colour portraiture and projection photography, as well as with adapting a sociological approach to the image and to the history of photography. Hundreds of prints and numerous archived documents testify to her talents as a portraitist; an impressive gallery of contemporary writers, photographed among their books, is at the heart of the exhibition. Born in Berlin, Freund was forced to flee to Paris in 1933. During her years in Paris (1933-1940), she became great friends with booksellers Adrienne Monnier and Sylvia Beach, thanks to whom she met many writers. Such encounters, at first intellectual, resulted in a whole series of photographs in black and white, later in colour, a new and rare technique at the time. Malraux, Cocteau, Gide, Colette, Valéry, Zweig, Joyce, Woolf…
Until Sun 29 Jan. 11am-6pm. Closed Mon. 7€/5€
Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, 3 rue Léonce Reynaud, 16th.

Jean Cocteau

FOTO/GRÁFICA at Le BAL

kvdb — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:11:37 +0000

Opening to the public tomorrow is this new history of the Latin-American photobook. Put together by major Spanish curator, historian and writer Horacio Fernandez, and coming directly out of the research for his just-published book The Latin-American Photobook, this exhibition is the culmination of a four-year, cross-continental research effort. Beginning with the 1920s and continuing up to today, it provides new perspectives on the under-charted history of Latin American photography, featuring work by great figures such as Claudia Andujar, Barbara Brändli, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, and many others. The show is divided into 6 thematic sections: History and propaganda; Urban photography; Photographic essays; Artists photobooks; Literature & photography and Contemporary photobooks. Also worth noting is the parallel experimental film program, plus a program of debates and discussions at the gallery from February.
Until 8 Apr. Wed-Fri noon-8pm (10pm Thu), Sat 11am-8pm, Sun, 11am-7pm.
Le Bal, 6 impasse de la Défense, 18th. www.le-bal.fr

Georges Tony Stoll at La Galerie, Noisy-le-Sec

kvdb — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:24:50 +0000

A painter who became a photographer and video maker while also working as a movie production designer, this French artist sees his oeuvre as a fruitful dialogue between all these disciplines. In this back-and-forth between painting, photography, drawing and writing, he operates in what he calls “abstraction territory”, a space open at any and every moment to the appearance of multiple possibilities and ambiguities. His chosen forms and media reflect his speculation about the experience and the actual making of art, and about the concept of abstraction in a society in which the dominance of the real can extend even to the domain of the imagination. This show offers a fresh interpretation of the Paris-based artist’s work. (This Sat 21 Jan, 5pm, meet the artist and curator Jean-Marc Avrilla at the gallery; and on Fri 3 Feb, 7pm, a screening of Stoll’s films in presence of the artist at Mains d’Œuvres).
Until 11 Feb. Tue-Fri, 2-6pm; Sat, 2-7pm (Closed Sun, Mon).
La Galerie, Centre d’art contemporain, 1 rue Jean-Jaurès, 93130 Noisy-le-Sec. RER E Noisy-le-Sec. www.noisylesec.net

Cézanne & Paris at the Luxembourg Museum

kvdb — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:48:30 +0000

If the pioneering Post-Impressionist (‘the father of us all’ said Picasso) is more associated with the South of France, where his emblematic motif the Mont St Victoire is located, Cézanne spent his life travelling between Aix en Provence and Paris. Divided into five sections, this exhibition of about 80 works charts his relationship with the capital: Following Zola to Paris; Paris, the City beyond the Walls, near Auver; The Temptation of Paris; Pose like an Apple, Still Lifes and Portraits; The Paths of Silence. More than any other artist, he left his stamp on modern art: avant-garde artists from the Post-Impressionists to Kandinsky looked on him as a forerunner.
Until 26 Feb. 9am-10pm (10am-8pm, Tue-Thu)
Musée du Luxembourg, 19 rue de Vaugirard, 6th. www.museeduluxembourg.fr

La Rue des Saules à Montmartre, 1867-1869

Dan Flavin at Perrotin

kvdb — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:39:31 +0000

An installation of 8 neon works (1963-1990) by minimal master Dan Flavin opened this week at Perrotin. Dan Flavin started making three-dimensional monochromes with mounted or barred fluorescent tubes or light bulbs in 1961 that he referred to as”Icons” (even though he contested any mystical or religious reference in his approach). His installations of infinite combinations transcend Duchampien gestures, radical in essence and minimal in form. These physical experiences of colour and light transformed into matter introduce the presence of the immaterial.
Until Sat 3 Mar.
Galerie Perrotin, 76 rue de Turenne, 3rd. www.perrotin.com/

“four red horizontals (to Sonja)”, 1963

untitled, 1975

Other Criteria at Colette

kvdb — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:27:47 +0000

Backing up Damien Hirst’s show The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011 (which opens tonight at Gagosian galleries around the world, including Paris), Colette is offering a selection of new products from Hirst’s London brand Other Criteria, which works with artists to make limited-editions and multiples, t-shirts, jewellery, photographs, posters, prints and books. You’ll find a selection of cool Hirst-centric, spotty paraphernalia including mugs, t-shirts, badges, key chains, tote bags, and card holders, on the e-shop and in store…
Colette, 213 rue St-Honoré, 1st. M° Tuileries. 01.55.35.33.90. www.colette.fr/