The other Mitterrand

To invite into his conservative government the nephew of a former socialist president, who claims though to be the depositary of his uncle’s memory, is in itself a true artistic figure. But yes, Sarkozy did it! Frédéric Mitterrand is now the new Minister of Culture, to the great delight of Anglo-Saxon newspapers such as the Guardian who see in the Mitterrand family what most resembles a royal dynasty. Now, what policy is he going to carry out? The new minister, who is leaving his chair at Villa Médicis in Rome, is as cryptic as his ancestor. He is known for his love of books and of animated images – he managed movie houses in Paris, among them the Entrepôt, had television shows and produced a few poetic movies such as Lettres d’amour en Somalie. There is less information regarding his program in terms of the defence of national heritage, the promotion of the performing arts or the support to the visual arts. No one is really surprised, since it has been obvious for some time now that the media buzz makes up efficiently for the absence of concrete projects.

LAST DAYS.... UNTIL JUNE 28.... Do not miss THE READERS OF CALVIN ANNOTATED COPIES IN THE COURSE OF CENTURIES at the MUSÉE JEAN CALVIN AND GALERIE DU CHEVALET in Noyon See article in ArtAujourdhui.info

AND ALSO 2 EXHIBITIONS at the MUSÉE DES BEAUX-ARTS DE ROUEN : RALPH-SAMUEL GROSSMANN THE VEILED WORLD and JAPAN ILLUSTRATED See article in ArtAujourdhui.info

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To paint Céret

CÉRET – Certain venues have a special aura in the history of modern art: The Estaque, Giverny, Auvers-sur-Oise… Céret, the small Catalan village, may be admitted to the club. With its neighbor Collioure, located on the coast, it has indeed hosted the Gotha: Picasso, Braque and Gris, of course. But Kisling, Soutine, Picabia, Herbin, Masson, Maillol as well… Locals follow these pioneers with interest: one of the local patrons will be Michel Aribaud, a wine merchant, who later donated his collection to the museum. These nearly 140 paintings show us today how the landscapes, combining mountains, cypresses, bridges, fountains and convents, have been interpreted numerous times. The thread is not broken either: today François Bioulès, Tàpies or Tom Carr still keep the flame burning.

Ensor in America

NEW YORK – The American press has listed the exhibits that have been cancelled or re-scheduled due to the recession. The Los Angeles Times has counted no less than eight for the sole three large museums of the Californian metropolis. Fortunately not all the schedules have been moved around. As planned, scathing artist James Ensor will disembark at the MoMA prior to his passage this fall at the musée d’Orsay in Paris. His masterpiece Christ’s entry into Brussels, will be absent (unmovable, precisely from Los Angeles, where it is exhibited at the Getty Museum), but a good series of masks, of skulls, self-portraits, and sea baths will be among the 120 pieces presented. The accent is put on the use of mockery in the vitriolic painting of Belgian (and European) society at the end of the XIXth century, when the Bourgeoisie shows off like an obscene gallery of spectres.

Miró in a French garden

SAINT-PAUL-DE-VENCE – If there is one spot where it makes sense to hold a retrospective on Miró, it’s at the Fondation Maeght. The friendship between Miró and Aimé Maeght goes back to 1948 when the gallery owner encountered the Catalan artist at Braque’s, in Varengeville, and encouraged him to get into engraving. This friendship lasted all of their lives: in 1979, fifteen years after the Foundation was inaugurated, Miró donated a significant ensemble of works of art. He knew the place well as he had created a sculpture garden there, the Miró Labyrinth , still visible, which combines a Lunar bird, a Lizard, a Woman with hair undone … The abundant retrospective – in total, over 250 pieces – brings face to face works from the Foundation to those of the Centre Pompidou and other collections.

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The wonder of robots

PARIS - The charm of Drouot lies, not in the large themed auctions for which the Anglo Saxon auctioneers have become unbeatable, but rather the generalist sales. Amateurs may find treasures and the browser will be fascinated by the infinite variety of the lots. The Baille-Robert sale on 26 June is a good example of this. We will feast of silver plates by Picasso, tapestries from Aubusson, pin boxes, an ivory helmet, an elephant tusk sculpted in the form of a monkey, Russian icons, naïf paintings by Fernand Boilauges, a beautiful Domergue (his Elégante au miroir), three works by Edy-Legrand, the fashionable Orientalist painter, erotic photographs by Pierre Molinier… To further enrich this offer of wonders, there are also XIXth and XXth century robots, of which some are by Renou. Estimated between 1000 and 3000 euros, some of them are operational such as the butterfly chaser, the narguileh smoker or the tightrope walker with porcelain eyes and satin clothes, who performs acrobatics one after another at the top of his ladder.