Paris Arts Club

Botticelli was a practical joker- so says Vasari, the 16th century art historian, writing 50 years after the artist's death. He was also an artist whose works represent nowadays the ultimate in beauty and grace.  His real name was Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi (1444/5 - 1510), but he is better known as Sandro Botticelli. The above painting is considered to be one of his first independent works, executed in the early 1480s when he was still under the tutelage of Fra Filippo Lippi. Sandro showed his independence in choosing to paint a full length virgin Mary. The tenderness he had assimilated from Brother Lippi stayed with him to the end of his life. The vibrant colours are his own.  Botticelli's expertise as draughtsman is apparent throughout his work; his early training was in a goldsmith's workshop where he developed his flowing linear style. The exhibition points out how influential Sandro Botticelli was in his day- an artist later eclipsed by such talents as Leonardo, R...

France has been fascinated by ancient Greece for at least two centuries. The present exhibition traces the cultural and historical links between the two countries from 1675 to 1919. It also shows how the identity of modern Greece developed. 1821 was the date of the Greek Revolution. It coincided with the year when the French king (Louis XVIII) donated the Venus de Milo statue to the Louvre.  At first French curators were convinced Venus was older than she was- possibly 4th century B.C. and of the classical school of Praxiteles. However Germans scholars argued that she was only about 100 B.C., of the Hellenistic period, and the French management of the Louvre had to concur.  So Venus suddenly became a few centuries younger.  The  Louvre exhibition has Venus's old rival, lent by Berlin, - a powerful statue of Hermes de Milo, messenger of the gods. The Hermes statue was found in 1827 very near where Venus had been discovered. He is dated 1st century A.D. and is probably...

It is a refreshing and enjoyable experience to be surrounded by colourful, optimistic paintings of cherry blossom, especially from an artist from whom we expect to see dead sheep in formaldehyde!  The series, Hirst says, took him back to his childhood, when he watched his Irish mother painting cherry blossom. Damien Hirst's show in Paris lasts until January 2nd, 2022 at the Cartier Fondation for Modern Art on the left bank, not far from Montparnasse. The Bristol-born, Leeds and London trained artist has reached a certain maturity in decoration with this exhibition. He has also returned to a more traditional kind of painting. There are echoes of Jackson Pollock's action painting and the Pointillists in this exhibition. One has the impression of being in a forest of cherry trees. Since the beginning of his career as a painter, Damien Hirst has experimented with dabs or spots of colour. Earlier series were more controlled and schematic.  In this latest series he appears more spon...