Heidi Ellison
Man Ray and Fashion
Rag Trade to Riches
Man Ray was Surrealism’s jokester and jack-of-all-arts. The impish-looking American was a painter (not a very successful one, though he saw it as his primary talent), photographer (known for his pioneering photograms, or “rayograms,” and many iconic images, such as … Read More
Paris Update Press Review
This Week's Good Reads about Paris and France
Christmas in Paris France 24 shows us Galeries Lafayette‘s fabulous Christmas tree and explains how Covid has affected holiday shopping in Paris. French cuisine A marshmallow made by a good French chef is a work of art, nothing like those … Read More
Tobey or Not To Be
The American Picasso
I rarely review gallery shows on Paris Update because there are just so many of them in the city that it would be outside the scope of the site, but every once in a while an exhibition goes beyond the … Read More
Paris Update Press Review
Light at the End of the Tunnel?
A compendium of good reads about Paris and France in English. Illuminations The Christmas lights went on as usual on the Champs-Élysées on Sunday, but with fewer shoppers on hand since lockdown will not be eased and most stores won’t … Read More
Sarah Moon: PasséPrésent
Time Past and Time Future
I have to admit that, not knowing much about her and having a vague memory of fuzzy, romanticized fashion photos, I was not expecting much from the exhibition “Sarah Moon: PasséPrésent” at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de … Read More
Paris Update Press Review
Auctions, Commemorations and Restorations
A compendium of good reads about Paris and France in English. One tattered shoe: only $50,000 A well-worn white slipper with a spool heel was auctioned off in France on Sunday for $50,000. What was the appeal? It belonged to … Read More
Body and Soul: Italian Renaissance Sculpture from Donatello to Michelangelo
Antiquity Reinterpreted
“Body and Soul: Italian Renaissance Sculpture from Donatello to Michelangelo,” another major exhibition at the Louvre (along with “Albrecht Altdorfer: Master of the German Renaissance”), looks at developments in Italian sculpture in the late 15th and early 16th century. The … Read More
Paris Update Press Review
Painters, Philosophers and Heroes
A compendium of good reads about Paris and France in English. French art In Hyperallergic, David Anfam, a curator and art writer, reviews the catalog for the exhibition Cézanne: The Rock and Quarry Paintings (shown at the Princeton University Art Museum … Read More
Voyage sur la Route du Kisokaidō
Floating Along the Kisokaidō Road
Back at the beginning of Japan’s Tokugawa shogunate, its founder, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), had five roads built to connect the capital of Edo (now Tokyo) to the rest of the country. A couple of centuries later, two ukiyo-e (“images of … Read More
Chez Michel Restaurant
Lunch on Lockdown Eve
Chez Michel, one of Paris’s beloved bistros, has a new chef/owner, but not to worry, it is just as good, if not better, than it ever was. Longtime owner Thierry Breton has sold the place to his former sous-chef Masahiro … Read More