OUR SUMMER EXHIBITIONS
IN PARIS...

THE VERY RICH HOURS OF THE COURT OF CHINA (1662 - 1796)
Masterpieces from Qing imperial painting

GUIMET-To celebrate the fifth anniversary of its reopening after renovation, the Guimet Museum presents to the public for the first time an exceptional collection of painted scrolls, imperial commissions intended to celebrate events marking the reign of three great sovereigns Qing: Kangxi (1662-1723), Yongzheng (1723-1736) and Qianlong (1736-1796). More than 100 works from the Ming and Qing dynasties are presented: monochrome scrolls and album sheets, paintings on fans, engravings, porcelain, albums of imperial seals and works dealing with perspectives. A unique opportunity to discover the museum's treasure and one of the great moments of the history of China

CINDY SHERMAN

JEU DE PAUME - She is alternately movie actress of the fifties, fashion model, a medieval Saint or an anonymous woman waiting for the bus in an American suburb. Cindy Sherman is the queen of transformation. Since her beginnings in the mid-seventies she has represented a great number of characters while remaining, deep inside, Cindy Sherman. Through the use of makeup, staging, poses, lights, she simply embodies our clichés and fantasies, by walking through time and history. Cindy Sherman works by series, using nothing else than photography. The exhibition at the Jeu de Paume, one of the most complete ever dedicated to her, groups together 250 works . We will be able to see in particular all of Film Stills (69 images), and the series History Portraits, Fairy Tales, Murder Mystery, Fashion, etc. After using models as well (Sex pictures) and working in black and white (Broken Dolls), the artist finally approached an obvious prey, the clown.

I LOVE PARIS

LOUVRE - France and the United States have not always had a love story. On the other hand, between France and American artists, feelings have always been fruitful and cordial. We see this clearly in an exhibition on the interest painters from across the Atlantic ocean have always had in the Louvre museum. Nearly thirty paintings are presented, of which some were quite famous in the past, such as Panorama du Salon carré et de la Grande Galerie( Panorama of the Square room and the Great Gallery) (1831) by Samuel Morse, hung precisely in the location it describes. Another artist was famous in his time, George Catlin (1796-1872). In 1845, Louis-Philippe granted him the extraordinary privilege of an exhibition in the Salle des Séances (the Meeting Room) for its series of paintings on the Indians from Missouri. But the study visit to the Louvre is a tradition that still existed in the XXth century, as can be seen in the examples of Thomas Hart Benton and Edward Hopper.

BRILLIANT MOGHOLS

LOUVRE-It was not such a bad idea after all to present these sumptuous jewels in the Summer, the season where one and all undress. What could we coordinate them with that would be better than the naked skin? The collection of sheik al-Sabah of Kuwait includes hundreds of jewels commissioned by the Muslim sovereigns of Northern India, from the XVIth to the XIXth century. It was started in the middle of the decade of the 1970s and was diminished in 1990 when Saddam Hussein took it off like a war trophy during his invasion of Kuwait. Whether it is the inventiveness of the forms, the techniques in enamel, in setting precious stones or in damascening, the silver and gold smiths of the Great Moghols left a great number of masterpieces. Sword sheaths in sculpted walrusq ivory, dagger ruby sheath, ring mounted with a gold bird, miniature cup cut in one single emerald… A British ambassador in the XVIe century, very impressed, spoke of the «treasure of the world», an opinion that was picked up again as the exhibition's title.

The treasure of the world,Indian jewels at the time of the Great Moghols at the Louvre museum, until September 3 2006.
Presentation of the exhibition
/www.louvre.fr/llv/exposition/detail_exposition.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673352999&CURRENT_LLV_EXPO%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673352999&bmUID=1152377604917

MARYLIN, THE LAST CLAP

MAILLOL-«It is as easy to undress Marilyn as it is to go to Egypt and turn a pyramid into a martini glass». And yet… Bert Stern, a fashion photographer from Brooklyn, kept of his wild bet and had the star pose in the nude. That was in 1962, a few months before her death. This «last show», held in a suite at the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles, has since been archived among the myths. It includes 2571 photos, and has often been shownin very tight selections. This one, of only 59 images, belonged to a musuem before being bought by its current owner, Leon Constantiner. The titles of these photos taken with a a Rolleiflex or a Nikon, «Marilyn biting the stripped scarf», «Portrait with a necklace», «Marilyn with roses, cuddly» are very evocative and bring backto life a star who was both provocative and fragil, vane and sincere. Nearly half a century after her death, the Marilyn magic still works…

WHEN MILLET USED TO GO OUT FOR FRESH AIR

ORSAY - The Orsay museum, which owns the largest drawing collections (600 in total) by Jean-François Millet, will be exhibiting an interesting ensemble. The avowed aim of this exhibit-dossier is to belie the image of Millet as a workshop artist, one who never worked outdoors. This interpretation is largely due to his son's memories when he wrote, "When he walked through the fields, he carried only his cane". While this may be true for his painting, his drawings at the Orsay museum reveal a rather spontaneous character, showing they were done in front of the motif. Among these works quickly sketched, some come from notebooks the artist slipped into the pockets of his pea jacket. Rural life is clearly at the heart of his sketches, of which many were done after he settled in Barbizon in 1849.

WILLUMSEN (1863-1958), a Danish artist

ORSAY - The Orsay Museum did not undertake an easy task when it decided to show Willumsen’s work. Besides the fact that the artist’s very long career goes many decades beyond the chronological limits imposed on the museum, his work is multiform. Putting aside painting, he was interested in sculpture, architecture, ceramics and he practiced engraving and photography. His deeply individualistic, mobile and assimilating personality makes it difficult to approach his work, and holds many surprises. To try to figure him out the exhibition has grouped together some thirty paintings, nearly ten prints, as many ceramics as well as some forty photographs

DAVID SMITH

CENTRE POMPIDOU - He is one of the major American sculptors of the last century but his name continues to be largely ignored in France. The retrospective that is arriving at the Centre Pompidou from the Guggenheim in New York is here to fill that gap. David Smith (1906-65) is a child of the industrial civilization who carries within him the nostalgia of a golden rural age (a little like Frank Lloyd Wright, see below). With a strong preference for metal, he reconstructs figures by welding recycled objects together. One of his main series, called Agricola (in the 1950s), uses peasants tools, pieces of tractors, elements from carts. In another one, the Tanktotem, he uses boned boilers. More than forty of these sculptures, representing a link between Julio Gonzàlez and Arman, are brought together. They are accompanied by a few drawings.

and also...JOCELYNE ALLOUCHERIE, THE BACK SIDE

CANADIAN CULTUREL CENTER– In the context of the Francofffonies festival!, and witht he major participation of Jocelyne Alloucherie at the Biennial Urbi & Orbi at Sedan, the Canadian cultural center presents an installation by artist Jocelyne Alloucherie. Made up of five photographs and five lampposts , playing wi the images that are projected, she was presented for the first time at the Oratorio San Ludovico, in Venice, in October 2005.