Oh Paris

The Paris Art Gallery La B.A.N.K  is showing Serge Leblon’s second personal exhibition. This time the exhibition consists of selection of large photos. The first two pieces, which can be found at the entrance of this Paris art gallery, are landscapes framed like doors and presented on tall panels. The first piece shows a luxurious trimmed green grass path that goes into a forest. It is as if nature, tired of being tamed by man, is trying to escape and revive its wild side. The second print’s composition is also divided in two. The bottom part shows a messy grass bank reminiscent of a thick fur coat brushed by gushes of wind coming from all directions. The upper half shows a washed out white-grey sky. It is as if the light is coming from the ground, not the sky.

More landscapes are exposed on opposite side to these first two panels: a white house hidden in mist and diluted in a watercolor setting, and a dark pine forest slashed by a path of long dry grass.

In the basement of this Paris art gallery La B.A.N.K., two videos set themselves apart formally but keep the photographs’ sense of loneliness.

In one of them, two children are playing around in the snow with music from a Fellini movie playing in the background. The children are in fact models. They are not playing. They are pretending to play. And the trees and snow are not real as well. After every laughing session, they look towards someone outside the frame, seeking his or her approval.

The other movie, apparently shot during a photo shoot, shows a girl sitting despondently. Music and voices can be heard. Another character, a man, walks into the frame, heads towards the girl, but walks past her to work on decorative elements of the setting. He comes and goes, drops off a cushion, and another one, but doesn’t once pay attention to her even though she seems desperate for attention. The artificial atmosphere makes it difficult to know if she is being sincere or not. She could be acting, and the man could be pretending not to see her.

The varnishing day (vernissage) is on Thursday November 5, 2009 from 6pm till 9pm. The exposition is open till January 2^nd 2010.

You can find the Paris art gallery La B.A.N.K. at 42 rue Volta in the 3^rd district of Paris, or at www.bankgalerie.com. You can reach them at: +33 1 42 72 06 90

On September 17 the Paris Louvre Museum opened the colorful exhibition “Rivalités à Venise (Rivalries in Venice)” with Titien, Tintoret, and Véronèse.

All 3 were talented, but Titien, the eldest, was a great source for the other two. This came from visits to his studio, but also by the mere contemplation of his works. Titien, born between 1488 and 1490, had a special status: official painter of the city. But he was also gifted with a fertile imagination. He initiated trends which the others just followed. That Titien could not crush them was that each had their own style.

Paris Louvre Museum

This Paris Art exposition in the Louvre museum shows that Venice in the sixteenth century was a prosperous city. At that time about two hundred families of aristocrats commanded many works, and so did the government, and the very powerful guilds. They organized competitions, creating a very productive rivalry between painters. “With these competitions, everyone was able to present their work and get recognition for his talent,” says Jean Habert, curator of the exhibition in the Paris Louvre museum.

In the expositions of Italian painters of the 16^th century Titien is of course the main attraction. But the works of Tintoret, Véronèse, and also those of Bassano and Palma the Younger, for example, demonstrate the perfect evaluation. Jean Habert chose to associate their works to make this comparison and evaluation obvious and subtle at the same time.

Fun to observe is the version of “Tarquin and Lucretia” painted by Titien around 1568-1571, and then that of Tintoret painted ten years later.

Until January 4, 2010 in the Napoleon hall of the Louvre, 75001 Paris.

Open every day except Tuesday from 9 am to 6pm, till 8pm on Saturday, and till 10pm Wednesday and Friday.

Entrance fee is 11 €.

More information: +33 1 40 20 53 17  or www.louvre.fr.

Paris Art Galerie Lelong presents Karel Appel from September 4 till October 10, 2009. After the exposition of fourteen very large nudes in the Albertina in Vienna in January 2008 and the exhibition Appe lJazz the Cobra Museum in Amsterdam, Galerie Lelong presents, in collaboration with the Appel Foundation, a group of works painted in 2000 and 2001.

Paris Art Karel Appel

These large format paintings play very freely with classic themes – landscapes, still lives and human figures. The energy that runs through these paintings is always associated with a very keen sense of construction. The touch is firm, full, and the sudden presence of a pair of boots, trivial and majestic at once, of course, is somewhat reminiscent of his compatriot Vincent van Gogh.

Karel Appel (Amsterdam 1921 – Zürich 2006) was one of the leading painters in the second half of the twentieth century and his name is attached to the Cobra movement, which was a source of energy.

Paris Art Galerie Larock Granoff, 13 Quai de Conti in Paris, presents from September 9, ceramics made by Karel Appel in 1997 in the workshops of the Galerie Lelong in collaboration with Hans Spinner.

13, rue de Téhéran
75008  Paris
Varnishing day (vernissage): September 3 from 6pm.