A French Perspective in New York...
Join me as I search New York for everything that reminds me of Paris but of course is still New York. Follow me as I figure out what it means to be Paris in New York.
I met Picola at the wedding of my nephew in France in September and was very impressed by the work of this French photographer who lives in NYC.
PICOLA took beautiful photos of the event . The nice thing is also that photographs has been distributed freely to everyone about 7 days after the event. We were able to download them by a link sent in our email box. Very easy and practical...
So, we had the opportunity to spend a great day without the obsession of succeeding in making photos !
Get to know acclaimed photographer Didier Massard in an evening conversation with Julie Saul, founder of the Julie Saul Gallery, and David McFadden, Chief Curator of New York's Museum of Arts and Design (MAD). Following a 6-minute, behind-the-scenes film of Massard at work in his studio, the artist will give fascinating personal insight into the imaginary worlds he creates.
Immediately after the talk, join Massard for the Opening Reception of his wonderful exhibition, Artifices, at the FIAF Gallery. On view through July 5, the exhibition will feature Massard's unique largescale photographs that are as beautiful as they are chilling.
Meet the artist at 5pm, preview the exhibition, and enjoy a glass of wine at the opening reception 6.3- to 8.30pm!
Premier Amour Friday, April 9, 2010 at 8pm Saturday, April 10, 2010 at 8pm Florence Gould Hall
Celebrated French actor Sami Frey presents Premier Amour, a short story by renowned Irish avant-garde writer Samuel Beckett. Originally written in French, Premier Amour tells the emotional tale of a soulless narrator discovered by a prostitute on a park bench after becoming homeless, and the relationship that unfolds after their encounter.
Hailed by audiences in Paris, Frey now brings his acclaimed production to New York for just two performances!
This tragic love story between a 19th century courtesan and a young man from a good family is based on Alexandre Dumas fils' own life experience. In this classic drama, the Parisian "cocotte" Marguerite Gautier is pushed to sacrifice herself for the sake of social conventions. This production uses a recent adaptation by René de Ceccatty and is directed by the Parisian director Gérard Cherqui.
The novel by Alexandre Dumas fils has been adapted into a play, an opera 'La Traviata' by G.Verdi, a ballet 'Marguerite and Armand', a film 'Camille' and has been performed by almost every great actress, dancer and opera singer since its creation.
Not only Charlotte just launched her new album IRM last week here in New York, but she will be the hero of the month at the French Institute Alliance Francaise where some of her most famous movies will be shown every Tuesdays night in February.
The daughter of France's mythical couple, pop sensation and provocateur Serge Gainsbourg, and British actress and singer Jane Birkin, Charlotte Gainsbourg has shown both daring and creativity in her rise to the vanguard of France's cultural scene. A natural virtuoso by the age of twelve, her breakout role in Claude Miller'sL'Effrontéeearned her a first César award for "Most Promising Actress" in 1985. Since then, Gainsbourg has starred in over thirty critically-acclaimed films and has worked with prominent directors such as Agnès Varda, Franco Zeffirelli, Eric Rochant, Michel Gondry, and Todd Haynes, to name a few. Her film work has earned her countless César nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for La Bûche(1999), one of the films to be shown during the FIAF series. The fearless Gainsbourg's most provocative work yet as the grieving mother character in Lars von Trier's Antichrist (2009) won her the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival this past May.
With Charlotte Gainsbourg, Clothilde Baudon, Bernadette Laffont, Jean-Claude Brialy
Note: No English subtitles
Winner of the Prix Louis-Delluc, L'Effrontée earned Gainsbourg the "Most Promising Actress" César for this, her first starring role. As a teenager in rural France, Charlotte (Gainsbourg) is frustrated and bored with home life. But a young pianist upends her world with talk of opportunity elsewhere, far from her family.
Charlotte for Ever
February 16 at 12:30 & 7:30pm
Directed by Serge Gainsbourg, 1986. Color. 94 min.
With Charlotte Gainsbourg, Serge Gainsbourg, Roland Bertin, Roland Dubillard
Note: This film contains R-rated material
A rare, not-to-be-missed screening of this notorious and misunderstood film. Serge Gainsbourg wrote, directed, and starred in this dark and fascinating tale of a screenwriter grieving over his wife's unexpected death. Suicidal, he turns for affection to the only remaining link to his wife-his daughter.
Kung-fu master!
February 23 at 12:30, 4 & 7:30pm
Agnès Varda, 1988. Color. 80 min.
With Jane Birkin, Mathieu Demy, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lou Doillon
Mary-Jane (Birkin), a divorced mother of two, grows close to a teenage boy she met at her daughter's party. Through conversations, vacations, and video games, the pair's relationship evolves in a way that confuses their families and even themselves. Varda's empathetic direction anchors this delicate, but often powerful story.
Sous les Etoiles Gallery is thrilled to introduce a new series of black and white carbon pigment prints from the French photographer Jean-Michel Berts.His unique vision of mystifying light compliments the carbon pigment's rich deep blacks and infinitely subtle tonal variations. The tactile surface quality of the prints pays homage to the handcrafted beauty of the early twentieth century Pictorialist movement.
The Cities work of Jean-Michel Berts began nearly ten years ago, almost by accident. “I was in Venice and the Piazza San Marco was flooded. I didn’t plan to take any images, but the atmosphere was so exceptional that I could not resist,” he remembers. Returning to Paris, he discovered the film inside his camera was black and white, not color as he had thought. It was at that moment when he rediscovered the pleasures of working in black and white.
She will be dancing, exhibiting paintings, releasing a book and more. Many events will offer the american public an unique opportunity to discover a new facet of this multi-talented artist.
If you are nostalgic of Paris, don't miss the opening of the last movie from Cedric Klaplisch, "Paris", a kaleidoscopic letter to the City of Lights and its inhabitants, on Friday at the IFC Center.
From 09/10 to 10/09, 58 of her ink-wash portraits of herself and her co-stars of various films and poems will be on display at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy at 972 5th Avenue. Admission Free. From 1pm to 6pm.
Beginning of September, she also presented her book "Portraits. In-Eyes" at Barnes and Noble
From September 15 to September 26, she will be performing with Akram Khan a contemporary piece for two "In-l & Jubilations" at the BAM. Artist talk tonight.
This dossier photography exhibition will focus on the changing shape of Paris during the Second Empire, when the city’s narrow streets and medieval buildings gave way to the broad boulevards and grand public works that still define the urban landscape of the French capital. The exhibition will feature portraits of the Imperial family and also include works in other media from various departments of the Museum.
Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum until September.
The Prayer Book of Claude de France is a tiny, jewel-like manuscript that was made for Claude (1499–1524) around 1517, the year she was crowned queen of France. Her coat of arms appears on three different folios. The book is richly illustrated: the borders of each leaf are painted, front and back, with 132 scenes from the lives of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and numerous saints. The manuscript and a companion Book of Hours also made for the queen (in a Paris private collection) were illuminated by an artist who was given the nickname Master of Claude de France after these two volumes. Active in the French city of Tours during the first quarter of the sixteenth century, the artist worked in a style that can be characterized as the pinnacle of elegance. The colors of his delicate palette are applied in tiny, seemingly invisible brushstrokes. Only about a dozen manuscripts painted by the artist survive.
In 1514, at age fourteen, Claude de France was married to François d'Angoulême (1494–1547), who became King François I in 1515. The marriage was political: Claude was duchess of Brittany, a duchy the king wanted to keep under his control. Short and hunched, Claude still managed to provide seven children (her second son became King Henry II) in ten years of marriage before dying of exhaustion at age twenty-four.
Also viewable on this Web site is the Prayer Book of Anne de Bretagne. Anne (1477–1514) was Claude's mother. She was queen of France twice, first as the wife of King Charles VIII and then as the wife of King Louis XII, who was Claude's father. Anne commissioned her book around 1495 for her son the dauphin, Charles-Orland (who died of smallpox shortly thereafter). Anne's manuscript was illuminated by Jean Poyer, a leading Tours illuminator in whose workshop the Claude Master is thought to have trained. These two codices thus juxtapose a mother's book with her daughter's and the work of one illuminator with that of his protégé.
"Last Light" by Sonya Sklaroff was sold during the March 15th Auction "Tableaux Impressionnistes, Art Moderne et Contemporain", organized by E&VE Auction House at Drouot Montaigne - Paris
"Sonya Sklaroff is inspired by the urban landscape. From her studio in SoHo she captures the energy and character of New York City. Her paintings frequently include water towers, fire escapes, street lamps, and other seemingly mundane elements of the NYC infrastructure. However, these structures are just one aspect of her paintings-- at the core of her work is a strong interest in abstraction. Sonya challenges herself with different methods of composition, contrasting elements of light and dark, complementarycolors, and negative space".
To read more about her, go to www.myartspace.com, or to www.sonyaslkaroff.com
Art Agents : G&O Art
New York - 347.739.8366 www.goartonline.com Paris - 06.20.73.11.09
Just few days left to see the colorful paintings of José van Gool’s .
The exhibition organized by G&O Art show the relationship between color and movement. All paintings follow, one to the next, a certain pattern. A solitary dancer, a pair of dancers, or a group of three or four are always the presumed focus of the composition. These subjects are women, strong
women, with coal black hair. The red dresses they wear, revealing brief stretches of marble-
carved shoulder, neck, and arm, suggest emotional music, a passionate sound that calls for
vigorous movement. But these paintings inhabit a movement unique to van Gool, one she
summons up through her dramatic charge of color.
José Van Gool was born the fifteen of November 1945 in Baarle Hertog (Belgium). In 1968 she
moved to Amsterdam (Netherlands) and has been living and working there since. After one year
at the Rietveld Academy, she spent 5 years at the Van Gogh Museum workshop.
The Corning Gallery at Steuben Glass
667 Madison Avenue @ 61St - Lower level, New York City
Mon - Sat, 10am - 6pm
LAST DAY: MARCH 21, 2008
G&O Art is a New York based representative agency for international contemporary painters and sculptors.
Odile Gorse and Ghenadie Burlacu's agency is an art source-expert for Private Collectors, International Institutions, Galleries, Hotels and Corporations. http://www.goartonline.com
Mireille Vautier uses fragile media such as plastic bags and creates complex shapes and patterns that evoke both the intricacies of the body and the fragility of the vessel.
Mireille Vautier writes “The human body is my main source of inspiration. Its inside and outside, its wounds and its vivid memory; skeleton, organs, ex-votos, precious jewelry protected by the skin....The human body is a relic, a base for work dealing with memory.”
She graduated from the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1986 and has exhibited works on paper, glass as well as her embroideries in numerous exhibitions across France. “Embroidered” will be the artist’s first one-person exhibition in the United States.
From February 14th through March 23rd
at Safe-T-Gallery in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn
Opening reception on Valentine’s day February 14th, from 6 to 8 PM.
Safe-T-Gallery Inc.
111 Front St. Gallery 214
Brooklyn NY 11201
Phone: 718 782 5920
You only have few more weeks to go and enjoy Serge Bloch's humor at the Living Art Gallery in Soho.
Serge Bloch is a contributing illustrator to several US publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, GQ, The Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, Scholastic, National Geographic Magazine and France Amerique: "A page of newspaper is like a wall of a gallery that hundreds of thousands of people can visit without being afraid to enter. You can be on a train, in bed or on a bench in the sun. But the exhibit is ephemeral because the following day, it's gone. It's become a piece of paper used to dry your boots or to peel vegetables". Serge enjoys doing humorous work, and refers to it as a work of modest art. http://www.sergebloch.net
Exhibition : January 31rst- February 29.
The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday. Noon to 6 pm
or by appointment. Please call: 917 783 5737
Or email: [email protected]
Living with Art gallery
153 Lafayette Street 7th floor
New York NY 10013
The Living Art Gallery managed by a couple of French people always have interesting artists to present. I highly encourage you to go check their exhibitions.
Eventhough, most of the French people living in NYC flee back to France for summer, you can still enjoy some very interesting French Events in town.
. La Comedie Francaise at the Lincoln Center : July 10 to 15th
Lincoln Center Festival 2007 will present La Comédie-Française, one of the world’s greatest theater companies, in the U.S. premiere of Les Fables de La Fontaine, directed by Robert Wilson. In Wilson’s visually striking interpretation, 19 of La Fontaine’s allegorical tales are brought to life by some of France’s finest actors. Wilson originally staged Les Fables de La Fontaine for performances at the Comédie-Française in 2004. When it was greeted with wide critical and public acclaim, the production was repeated in 2005. Featuring a company of 15 actors, Les Fables de La Fontaine revolves around the animal characters of the tales—lions, birds, foxes, and crows—with their parables of human behavior seen through the eyes of a 21st-century theatrical visionary. Performances: July 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, Gerald W. Lynch Theater. www.lincolncenter.org
. Bastille Day : sunday, July 15th. Noon to 6pm
On July 14, France celebrates Bastille Day and commemorates the 1789 storming of the Bastille prison, which marked the beginning of the French Revolution. New York is joining in the celebration with some fun events for the whole family: petanque, pastis, accordeon, waiter's race, French Cancan...a Street Fair with French Flair organized by The Alliance Francaise and French Tuesdays.
On 60th street from Fifth to Lexington Avenue, everyone is invited to be French for a day...
. "France Will Never Forget"
On June 30th at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, more than 3000 people will form a chain on the beach and write together on the sand "France will never forget. Thank you America"
In a very intimate atmosphere, Wildenstein Gallery has gathered more than 60 major works from all the stage of the long career of Claude Monet. Claude Monet: A Tribute to Daniel Wildenstein and Katia Granoff is the largest survey of Monet's oeuvre to be held in New York over thirty Years....
Along the three rooms, take your time to look closely to the different stage of Impressionism in Monet's paintings. The effect produced by lighting and weather conditions on the natural landscape became one of Monet’s essential concerns as the Impressionist aesthetic evolved. This aspect of his art will be very much in evidence in the exhibition’s hanging. The show also succeeds in presenting a broad range of themes, from still life compositions and depictions of members of the artist’s family to views of Venetian and Paris landmarks, such as The Tuileries Gardens, which also comes from the Musée Marmottan. A tantalizing feature of the exhibition will be the presence of several works that have rarely, if ever, been publicly exhibited or even reproduced in color.
More than a third of the exhibited works are from public collections, including five from the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, the largest repository of late pictures by the artist. Among the early masterpieces are The Garden of the Princess(1867, the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College), Still Life with Flowers and Fruits (1869, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles), On the Beach at Trouville (1870, The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford CT), and Woman Reading (1872, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore MD).
A quintessential Impressionist painting is The Gare Saint-Lazare, the Normandy Train (1877, The Art Institute of Chicago), one of the finest of a number of Monet’s depictions of the busy Paris train station. It contrasts with a significantly larger, more finished work such as a View of Lavacourt (1880, Dallas Museum of Art), one of his rare triumphs at the Paris Salon in the early part of his career.
Monet’s dazzling evocations of Mediterranean scenery—Villas at Bordighera and Cap Martin (1884, both lent privately)—are particularly impressive. Finally, the last decades of the artist’s career are exceptionally well represented: from Marmottan’s Rouen Cathedral, Effects of Sunlight (1892) to The Flowering Arbor (1913, the Phoenix Art Museum). And there are no fewer than four improvisations on the Japanese bridge that spanned the famous water lily pond on Monet’s property in Giverny.
An Exhibition held for the benefit of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation
April 27-June 15, 2007
WILDENSTEIN & CO., INC.
19 east 64TH Street,
New York, NY 10021
TEL. 212-879-0500
Admission : $10 per person/$5 for students and senior citizens.
Acclaimed French actress Fanny Ardant makes her NY stage debut in an adaptation of Marguerite Duras’ short story La Maladie de la mort. In this one-woman show, Ardant plays a prostitute speaking directly to a man who has paid her to spend several days with him. The man suffers from an illness— he is incapable of loving or being loved.
This production comes to New York following a successful run at Paris’ Théâtre de la Madeleine last summer.
One of France’s leading actresses of film and theater, Fanny Ardant has appeared in more than 40 films and was awarded the César for Best Actress in 1997. This is a rare opportunity to see her on stage in the Unites States.
“Submit to the commanding charms of an actress whose intelligence we love, and here, the ironic restraint and precision of character.” Le Figaro
In French with English supertitles
Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street
Members $40
Non-Members $50
Also in May at the Alliance Francaise, a special Fanny Ardant at the occasion of the CinemaTuesdays,
Films: May 1 - Callas Forever
May 8 - 8 femmes / Eight Women
May 15 - Ridicule
May 22 - La Vie est un roman / Life is a Bed of Roses
May 29 - La Femme d’à côté / The Woman Next Door
May 29 - Vivement dimanche / Confidentially Yours
Charlelie Couture is a multi-talented French artist, painter, musician, sculptor, graphic designer... His work has been more prolific than ever since he moved to New York City. Everybody in France remembers "Comme un avion sans aile" in the '80s, but since then, he has developped his talent in so many different ways. "Deep down inside, I'm motivated by the idea of artistic quests, not an ambition to become famous. What counts most for me at the end of the day is taking my artistic quest – that I've had inside me from the age of twelve – as far as I possibly can."
Even if he launched his latest album, New Yor-Coeur, an anarchic mix of hopes, desires and snapshots of contemporary life, in 2006, painting is his main activity these days.
Galerie Mourlot is presenting his latest works on Re constructions until April 14th
Uncle Sam, photography by Gerard Franciosa
Galerie Mourlot
16 East 79th street
212.288.8808
Tues-Sat: 10am-5pm
Every week, Paris in New York will interview a French person who has a successful career in New York City.
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Brigitte Saint-Ouen moved to New York 14 years ago. Initially, she was working as director of marketing for Wally Findlay Gallery on 57th Street. After more than a decade, Brigitte decided to create her own gallery, Gramercy 32 Fine Arts to provide a more customized service to corporations, decorators and private collectors. The Gallery specializes in European paintings of fine quality art work spanning 16th century Masters to 21st century. Over the past three years, Brigitte has organized numerous events to promote French painters. 2006 was a fantastic year when Gramercy 32 Fine Arts became the only guest gallery to stage an art exhibit at Sotheby’s. It spanned an entire floor for five days.
How do you sell Art?
I created a huge network of contacts along my 15 years in the business and I communicate with collectors all the time. I send a lot of brochures, personal letters, and I make a lot of phone contact. I also create a lot of events in New York and Miami. I have a monthly Newsletter with information about the gallery, the art scene, and a talkative section about my social life.
To increase my contact list, I am going out four to five times a week to cocktails or events where I make connections. I have now more than 7.000 names in my mailing list.
Being French does that makes any difference for your clients?
I would say it opens doors. People are more willing to talk with me because I am French.
But when I started working with Wally Findlay Gallery, there was always a colleague to ask what I did understand from the meeting to make sure that I listened to the new rules and wasn’t going to do it my own way. My philosophy was and still is: Everything is possible. I always try to find a solution to a problem.
During the French bashing, it was not easy. Nobody had interest in purchasing French artists. So I decided to diversify and I launched a new Photography department at the gallery. I represent an American artist and in collaboration with Kodak we just signed to represent an English photographer in the USA.
Where to meet French people in New York ?
I would say one of the best opportunities is the French Tuesdays (www.frenchtuesdays.com), where we network and dance in a new place every two weeks. Then if you are free during the day, you might want to join Accueil New York, which is planning lots of activities for French Expatriates (www.accueilnewyork.com).
Is it easy to meet French Natives in Manhattan ?
There are actually two types of French in New York. The one who are working in an American company and that you would have hard time to meet because they working long hours.
The other category is the French who are still attached to their country. They haven’t cut the ombilical cord yet. They stay between French people in small and close group. At first they might appear cold but they warm up as soon as you break the ice. They love inviting you for dinner in their house. Get ready to invit them back...that's the rules !
Tell me more about this French artist you have been promoting lately ? Danielle Le Bricquir ? She is fantastic. She creates very colorful folkloric paintings based on old French legends from Brittany. She loves working with children. Gramercy 32 Fine Arts was able to accompany her to some of the most prestigious private schools in New York City, but what really affected her was the Master Class she gave at P.S.333, a public school in the Bronx. There, she spent time drawing and painting with 6 to 8 year old kids. It was an amazing experience!
Do you have another French artist that you would like to talk bout ?
Right now I have some paintings from Thierry Le Baler. He is influenced by the Nabis, a group of young avant-garde Parisian artists, who in the 1890s developed a decorative and Synthetist style.
His paintings are a study in color. He often repeats the same landscape a number of times with different palettes, exploring mood, tone and emotion.
I would like to invite you to visit my web site, www.32finearts.com . My gallery offers a concierge service. I am very grateful for this interview.
Brigitte Saint-Ouen
Gramercy 32 Fine Arts
32 Gramercy Park South, suite 15d
New York, NY 10003
212.780.0932
The International Center of Photography presents Cartier-Bresson 's own selection of his early work, pictures he glued meticulously in chronological order into an album that he brought with him upon his arrival in New York in April 1946. The exhibition give a wonderful insight in his early period (1932-1946) when he was still interested more by creating art that gathering news as photojournalist, always looking for the "moment of Grace", or this decisive moment where he tries to capture the best light and life...Through his pictures, you can follow him during his travels to Spain and Mexico and his encounters with Surrealism and modern art in Paris before and after the World War II.
From January 2007-April 2007
ICP (International Center of Photography)
1133 Sixth Avenue (@ 43rd Street)
New York, New York 10036
