2 MO + 2 PP = 4 TE - Wait, what?

4 exhibitions: 2 museums

Hockney and Soutine-deKooning/Othoniel and Repin

Musée de l’Orangerie

David Hockney, A Year in Normandie (until Valentine’s Day, 2022)

Soutine/de Kooning (until January 10, 2022)

I am going to be very disciplined today. I am going to BRIEFLY tell you about 4 exhibitions at 2 museums in Paris. At each venue, the permanent collections are impressive. So, even if the temporary exhibitions don’t do it for you, I’ve got you covered.

Figure 1. A Year in Normandie, David Hockney

1. David Hockney. A Year in Normandie. (Figure 1) As David Hockney said, they could cancel the Olympics but they couldn’t cancel spring. And in this exhibition, he shows us exactly what a creative person with a lot of time on his hands can accomplish when everything shuts down but the earth tracks its steady course around the sun. I wrote about a Hockney exhibition at the Galerie Lelong, a little over a year ago. It was also about Normandy, but it is not the same exhibition. You can refresh your memory about the first exhibition here: David Hockney Ma Normandie

And you can learn more about this exhibition, here: So What did you do during the Confinement. A Year in Normandie is a long scroll of a painting which shows Hockney’s little corner of Normandie during four seasons. (Figure 2) After you’ve seen this gorgeous exhibition, walk upstairs and remind yourself why you love Monet. Waterlilies, different seasons, different times of day. (Figure 3) Remind you of anyone?

Figure 2. A Year in Normandie, Musée de l’Orangerie, David Hockney

Figure 3. Waterlilies, Claude Monet, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris

2. Chaim Soutine / Willem de Kooning, (Figure 4) who said: "I’VE ALWAYS BEEN CRAZY ABOUT SOUTINE - ALL OF HIS PAINTINGS" Which is as good a reason as any for an exhibition tracing the influence that a Russian artist, who fled the pograms in his native country only to be laid low by the Nazis in his adopted one, had on a Dutch artist who snuck into the United States a generation later. The source of de Kooning’s admiration can be traced to a painting by Soutine in the collection of Paul Guillaume which is at the Orangerie. (Figure 5) Which so impressed the venerable Dr. Barnes of Philadelphia that he bought 60 paintings and took them all to Philadelphia where de Kooning saw them. For a more in-depth discussion of this exhibition, go here: Soutine and de Kooning Together at Last

Figure 4. Soutine / De Kooning, Musée de l’Orangerie

Figure 5. Chaim Soutine, Guillaume Collection, Musée de l’Orangerie

Petit Palais

Jean-Michel Othoniel, Le Théorème de Narcisse (until January 2, 2022)

Ilya Répine, Peindre l’Âme Russe (until January 23, 2022)

Figure 6. Jean-Michel Othoniel at the Petit Palais, Paris

3. You simply MUST SEE Jean-Michel Othoniel installation at the Petit Palais. (Figure 6) You already know his work if you’ve ever walked by the metro at Palais Royale. (Figure 7) If you’re in San Francisco now, you can admire one of his pieces in front of the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. (Figure 8) The Petit Palais is one of those places that just makes me happy. First of all, the permanent collection includes icons of 19th century art, like Bonnard’s portrait of Ambroise Vollard and Courbet’s Sleep (Figure 9).The interior of the Petit Palais is beautiful. But what makes me particularly happy is the garden. (Figure 10) Even if you weren’t admiring Othoniel’s pieces, you would be contented here. Recently I had a similar experience walking around the grounds of the always worth a visit, Chateau de Versailles, to see a temporary sculpture exhibition.(Figure 11) To learn more about that exhibition, go here: Welcome to the Whimsical World of Les Lalanne or here for a slide show: Les Lalanne at Versailles . Othoniel’s pieces are also on display on the ground floor of the museum. Blocks of opaque colored glass with lights behind them, lakes of blue glass bricks and a hut of silver glass make up this enchanted space. For the past fifteen years, Othoniel has been working with a Mexican mathematician whose research on wild knots and reflections take visual form with Othoniel’s work. (Figure 12) As the artist recounts, through this collaboration, two worlds come together - mathematics and contemporary art, the rational and the intuitive. I’ll be writing more about this exhibition soon, to be sure not to miss it, click here.

Figure 7. Palais Royale Metro Stop, Paris, Jean-Michel Othoniel

Figure 8. Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Jean-Michel Othoniel

Figure 9. Sleep, Gustave Courbet, 1866, Petit Palais, Paris

Figure 10. Jean-Michel Othoniel in Garden at Petit Palais

Figure 11. Les Lalanne in and around the Trianon, Versailles, 2021.

Figure 12. Wild Knots, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Petit Palais

4. I love 19th century Russian novels. I love that they are long and complicated and filled with people who have such improbable names that trying to keep track of them is mostly a losing battle. I also like 19th century classical Russian music. But Russian paintings, except for Byzantine icons, which I find comforting in their repetition, are a different story. There is a painting called the The Russian Bride’s Attire by Konstantin Makovsky at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. (Figure 13) Which many people like. But not me. The exhibition of paintings by Makovsky’s contemporary, Ilya Repin, presents a body of work by a very skilled and accomplished painter who was passionate about his country and his countrymen. I mostly appreciated the portraits, especially those of his daughters and wife and mistress which show the influence of French impressionism. (Figure 14) A few paintings reminded me of Makovsky’s The Russian Bride’s Attire. As for example, Cossacks Writing a Letter to the Sultan (Figure 15). It is ribald and amusing and informative. People have loved this exhibition, maybe you will, too. But however you feel about the paintings, I can promise you that you will learn a lot, as for example how Tolstoy tried to come to terms with his money and his morals. The exhibition design is beautiful, with strong yellows and reds. And take time to read the labels, very informative and not too long!

Figure 13. The Russian Bride, Konstantin Makovsky, 1889, Legion of Honor, San Francisco

Figure 14. Portrait of Nadia Repina, Ilya Repin, 1881

Figure 15. The Cossacks Writing a Letter to the Sultan, Ilya Repin, 1880-1891

Copyright © 2021 Beverly Held, Ph.D. All rights reserved

Dear Reader, I hope you enjoyed reading this article. Please click here or sign up below to receive more articles plus other original content from me, Dr. B. Merci!

And, if you enjoyed reading this review, please consider writing a comment. Thank you