News from Japan recounts scenes of near hysteria as the public sets eyes on Gauguin’s mythical painting, Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?, which is on show for the first time in Nagoya. Women cry, men pray. This confirms that the museum can be a temple – Stendhal himself used to faint when facing beauty and the syndrome that describes this type of ill-feeling is named after him. Museums can also be the latest fashionable venue – where one goes rather than go have a drink at Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Concerts, shows, fashion shows and the rendez-vous of the «Night of the museums», which will be held for the 5th time on 16 May, are party to this sometimes forced adaptation to the trend. Lastly, the museum can be the successful extension of a vineyard or a tool-manufacturing multinational: just think of the different Würth museums or the latest one, the James Turrell museum, inaugurated two weeks ago by wine magnate Donald Hess, on his Argentine estancia in Colomé. Some may find this variety a bit shocking but it illustrates the sector’s vitality at a time when the crisis American museums are going through due to a lack of funds always comes up in conversations.

CAEN-ROUEN-LE HAVRE – This is what happens when Normans get together: a major exhibition, in three parts, presenting the image of Normandy over the last two centuries, strongly shaped by Anglo-Saxon artists and photographers. Rouen presents the vision of English painters Bonington, Turner or Cotman, pioneers in appreciating Normand beauties. The Havre focuses on one of those ambitious projects of the XIXth century: Picturesque and monumental Normandy was a publication in five volumes, in perfect quality as we can see through the helioprints. Lastly, the city of Caen shows the attraction photographers had for a region of changing lights and omnipresent water. And the itinerary ends with a contemporary look thanks to a commission made to three current artists – Joachim Mogarra, Vincenzo Castella and Ruth Blees Luxemburg.

Voyages pittoresques. Normandie 1820-2009 (Picturesque voyages. Normandy 1820-2009) at the musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen, at the musée Malraux in Le Havre and at the musée des Beaux-Arts in Caen, from 16 May to 16 August 2009.

NEW YORK – He died two months before the inauguration of the Guggenheim museum, his most known work. It is a little as if Frank Gehry had passed away before the opening of the Guggenheim Bilbao… Fifty years after the birth of the spiral building that marked the New York landscape, an exhibition celebrates its architect, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), the variety of his inspiration and his exceptional longevity. Original drawings, rarely or never seen before, and new models, made especially for this exhibit, give a perspective of a career that spanned three quarters of a century, and includes office buildings (the Larkin Building in Buffalo), villas (the Falling water House or his own house in Taliesin, now the headquarters of the foundation) and urban utopia such as the Crystal City in Washington or the map of Larger Bagdad.

Frank Lloyd Wright, From Within Outward at the Guggenheim Museum from 15 May to 23 August 2009.

PARIS – They come from the National Gallery in Sofia, from the Historical Museum in Preslav, or the monastery in Batchkovo: a choice of Bulgarian icons, presented at the recently restored Sainte-Chapelle in the Castle of Vincennes. The icon was born when the people converted to Christianity in 864, and became a true political symbol of the country during the fight for independence, won in 1878. The nearly 80 examples brought together are set up on a narrow wooden gallery, similar to a iconostasis, and span a period of nearly one thousand years, from a saint Theodore in ceramic from the Xth century up to profane motifs from the XIXth century, including large compositions from the XIVth century, when the genre was at its peak.

Les trésors des icônes bulgares (The treasures of Bulgarian icons) from 13 May to 30 August 2009

BRUSSELS - A chameleon in repoussé copper from the Wiener Werkstatte workshops, a bird in rosewood by the Martel brothers, great names in Art déco, a watercolor of an elephant by Paul Cooreman, an illustrator from the thirties, or an etching by Paul Jouve detailing the fight between a tiger and a python. During the May sales, the Pierre Bergé house has planned a session of animal art. It will include famous artists such as specialists Mène and Barye or Rembrandt Bugatti. The latter had settled in Antwerp in 1907 and used to often go for walks towards the zoo… His marabout faces a monkey or an ostrich during her bath by his friend Albéric Collin. The highest bid, that could go beyond 50 000 euros, will have a competition between Dunand with a deer screen, Fernand Gysen and his baby elephants and a cayenne chicken from Pompon.

Animal art at Pierre Bergé et Associés, Beaux-Arts room, 19 May 2009 at 2:30 PM

A hard or sweet atmosphere, filled with light or sombre? A cozy or a stressful ambiance? It is what Norwegian artist Borre Sæthre tries to produce. Influenced - or contaminated – by the multiplication of specific or interchangeable environments– waiting rooms, airport terminals, elevators, relaxation rooms, UV booths – he offers his own installations combining physical materials, lights, sounds, odors, and, often, stuffed animals that symbolise total disorientation. Sibylline and definitive phrases, written on panels, sometimes enhance the feeling of alienation. This work is appreciated based, not so much on a corpus of aesthetic criteria as on the question that maybe these hostile atmospheres are not so different from the one we live in.

Borre Sæthre is present at the Loevenbruck gallery (40 rue de Seine, 75006), until 20 June 2009.

He was small, once upon a time, according to the book. It is Ousmane Sow, the colossal sculptor from Senegal, whose gigantic statues were exhibited one memorable summer on the Pont des Arts in Paris in 1999. Ten years later, this small book illustrated with photographs, personal documents and drawings by Christophe Humbert, is an implicit biography of the artist, from his years of «hell» in the poor district of Dakar, to his Parisian wanderings (he used to sleep in police stations), from his beginnings as a physical therapist thanks to the help of Boris Dolto (Françoise’s husband) up to world recognition at the Documenta in Kassel or at the Biennale in Venice. The book is aimed both at adults and at children, to whom he teaches that art can move the world but that it sometimes demands from its enthusiasts an unwavering will …

Même Ousmane Sow a été petit (Even Ousmane Sow was once little), by Béatrice Soulé, drawings by Christophe Humbert, Le P’tit Jardin, 2009, 164 p., 24 €, ISBN : 978-2-9513768-3-0.

BARCELONA-The Joan Miró prize, representing 70 000 €, has been awarded to Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist. The first edition, in 2007, had been given to Olafur Eliasson.

FLORENCE-The Ardengo Soffici museum, dedicated to one of the main representatives of Italian Futurism (1879-1964), will open on 16 May 2009 at Poggio a Caiano. It will exhibit paintings, prints and works by the artist.

HOONG KONG-The Hong Kong International Art Fair, dedicated to contemporary art, will be held from 14 to 17 May 2009.

NEW YORK – The Asian Contemporary Art Week will be held until 18 May 2009 with events in 35 museums and galleries.

PARIS – Les Temps forts de Drouot (Drouot’s important moments), presenting the most beautiful auctions to come, will be held from 19 to 24 May 2009 at Drouot-Montaigne. Among the pieces exhibited there will be paintings by Boucher, Sisley and Buffet.

PARIS – The manuscript of the central chapter of Terre des hommes by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, that will be on sale on 17 June 2009, is shown on 14 May from 10 AM to 6 PM at Sotheby’s (76, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré).

PARIS – The artistic itinerary of Art Saint-Germain-des-Prés will hold its 10th edition from 14 to 17 May 2009.

SHANGHAI – To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the Magda Danysz gallery will inaugurate a space of 400 m2 on 25 June 2009 in the Bund district. The exhibit is dedicated to American artist JonOne.

USHUAIA (Argentina) – The 2nd Biennale of the tip of the Earth (Bienal del fin del mundo) will be held until 25 May 2009 with the participation of 35 artists from around the world.