Balthus, Thérése (1938), Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Currently on view through January 12, 2014 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the controversially titled show, Balthus: Cats and Girls – Paintings and Provocations.  Amassing 35 paintings and 40 never before displayed ink drawings, this thematic exhibition, curated by Sabine Rewald, flirts with the notorious ambiguity surrounding Balthus’ treatment of young girls, offering neither an overt accusation of erotic context, nor securing his innocence. (more…)

FIAC at the Grand Palais, via Grand Palais

Following close on the heels of last week’s blockbuster Frieze art fair in London, the French capital of Paris will take its turn in the art-world spotlight, opening the doors of the Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain (FIAC) for its 40th edition.  It’s a markedly different affair from the high-profile glitz of the comparatively younger Frieze franchise, but will nevertheless boast an impressive lineup of galleries, installations, performances and spotlights that place the fair among the top events of the contemporary art calendar.

Neo Rauch, Das Bannende, Neo Rauch, (2013), Courtesy Galerie Eigen+Art (more…)

Cy Twombly, Sunset (1957), Image Credit: Tom Powel Imaging / Courtesy Dominique Lévy, New York.

Twenty minutes of continuous, monotone sound, followed by twenty minutes of absolute silence; such is the premise for Yves Klein’s 1949 Monotone Symphony, a powerful piece considered to stand at the core of the artist’s pioneering conceptual ouevre and one that bore remarkable influence on fellow artists Cy Twombly and Lucio Fontana, each of which drove their own sense of dichotomous action on canvas and sculpture, defining the continued explorations of abstraction and concept in post-war art.

Yves Klein, Pluie Bleu (S 36) (1961), Image credit Tom Powel Imaging, © Yves Klein, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York ADAGP, Paris 2013.

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With the first career retrospective of artist Pierre Huyghe set to open at Centre Pompidou this week, the French artist sat down Art Newspaper to discuss his selection of works for the show, the act of exhibition, and the focus of his work.  “I look at how things change, are transformed, or metabolise. The word might not be perfectly appropriate and I might change it. But I am trying to find a word to say ‘something that is alive.'”  He says. (more…)

Tom Sachs, Barbie Slave Ship (2013), via Artist’s Website

The opening of the Lyon Biennale last week has garnished a considerable spotlight in the art world so far, thanks in part to artist Tom Sach’s challenging, monumental new sculpture, Barbie Slave Ship, which takes the iconic brand American dolls for a sinister twist.  Examining structures of control and exploitation, the enormous, scale-model ship is a chillingly bizarre “playset” of sorts, complete with pink flags and an onboard “grog” bar, complete with full-size liquor bottles.

Tom Sachs, Barbie Slave Ship (2013), via Artist’s Website (more…)

The rural home of Pablo Picasso in Mougins, France, where the artist spent the last 12 years of his life, is up for sale, with a momentous asking price of $220 million.  Originally purchased for $13 to $16 million by a Belgian art dealer, the asking price stands at well over 8 times its previous sale price. (more…)

Despite a vocal commitment to the return of Nazi-looted works to the proper owners by French culture minister Aurélie Filippetti, the French government has taken few steps towards a faster, more efficacious practices towards stolen works.  While over half of the over 100,000 works stolen from the country during the war have been recovered, a low percentage of works have found their way back to their original owners, which Filippetti blames on “the deaths of the victims and their direct descendants, and not because of a lack of will on the part of museums.” (more…)

A noble attempt at transnational harmony between France and Germany at the Venice Biennale has hit a stumbling block, the Wall Street Journal reports.  Exchanging exhibition pavilions in honor of the 1963 Franco-German reconciliation treaty, the two parties have complained of issues with their respective spaces and environments.  The awkward nature of Germany’s Nazi-commissioned pavilion has made for some gaffes in presentation, while Germany has complained of insufficient storage for some of its works.  “I’m looking forward to the next edition of the Biennale,” said Giulia de Manincor, a staff member at the French pavilion. “Hopefully France will be France again, and Germany Germany.” (more…)

The FIAC art fair, occurring late this October, will also serve as the ground for the first major exhibitions of work from the collection of François Pinault.  Titled Triple Locked: Works from the Pinault Collection, the exhibition will feature over 50 works from artists Michelangelo Pistoletto, Diana Thater, Bill Viola, Damien Hirst, Julie Mehretu and Chen Zhen, among many more.   (more…)

Nick van Woert, Haruspex (Installation View), Courtesy Yvon Lambert Gallery

The work of American artist Nick van Woert is currently on view at the Yvon Lambert Gallery in Paris.  Taking its name from a 2010 work, Haruspex refers to the practice of divination in Etruscan or Roman religious practice, called Haruspicy involving the interpretation of mens or predicting the future based on the entrails of animals. Inspired by the images of divination and dismemberment, the artist has constructed a series of pieces that approach modern economic and social conditions of the world through the deconstruction and application of material runoff.

Nick van Woert, Untitled (2013), courtesy of the Artist (more…)

Xavier Veilhan, Mobiles (Installation View), via Galerie Perrotin

Galerie Perrotin in Hong Kong is currently presenting a solo exhibition by French sculptor, photographer and painter Xavier Veilhan, the first exhibition by the artist to focus exclusively on his mobiles.  Combining a selection of past work with a series of new installations created specifically for the exhibition, Veilhan explores the mobile as a fluid continuation of his work on the intersections of geometric form and three dimensional space. (more…)

The inaugural Nouvelles Vagues exhibition in Paris this month will showcase the innovative and increasingly spectacular work of 53 international, freelance curators selected from a pool of 1,600. The state-funded Palais de Tokyo and 31 independent Parisian galleries are holding the event through to September 9th. Among the highly anticipated pavilions are Catalan artist Marti Anson’s house built in the Palais de Tokyo, curated by France’s Marie Griffay, and the exhibitions at Galerie 1900-2000 on the Left Bank, curated by French artist Laurent Grasso.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal

Controversially held for centuries outside of China, two bronze zodiac statues looted from Beijing’s summer palace were returned by François-Henri Pinault on Friday.  The Christie’s owner first promised to return the heads in April, during a visit to the country by president Hollande and a number of ranking French businessmen.  “This donation is a token of our family’s appreciation for China as well as our passion for the preservation of art and cultural heritage,” Mr. Pinault said in a statement. (more…)

Giuseppe Penone, Le Corps D’Un Jardin (Installation View), via Marian Goodman

Leading up to a major installation of sculptures at the Chateau de Versailles in Paris, Giuseppe Penone and Marian Goodman Gallery are presenting a selection of past works by the artist, exhibiting a selection of works playing on themes of nature, flux, space and texture.  Consisting of large sculptures and wall-mounted works, Penone explores the interplay of  gesture and movement within the relatively static forms of the artistic practice, and the elegant exchange between nature and man’s depictions of it.

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Henri Labrouste, Bibliothèque Sainte‐Geneviève, Paris, (1838‐1850) View of the reading room, Photograph Michel Nguyen © Bibliothèque Sainte‐Geneviève Michel Nguyen, courtesy of MoMA

Moving beyond mere architectural details, The Museum of Modern Art’s current exhibition, Henri Labrouste: Structure Brought to Light,is not simply a survey of the French architect’s (1801-1875) work and influence, but also something of a meditation and retrospective on the library’s role in society.  As information continues its march from papers to servers, and books are routinely traded in digital form, Labrouste’s vision of the library as a central mechanism for the dissemination of knowledge offers an intriguing meditation on the significance, symbolism and vitality of the library today.  The show is also apropos here in New York as the city’s Central Public Library, in response to these changes, prepares for a potentially devastating renovation.

Henri Labrouste, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, (1838-1850) Southwest corner elevation and section (Late 1850), Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris

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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, The Englishman at the Moulin Rouge (1892), courtesy The Frick Collection

The Frick Collection is currently displaying a series of nineteenth-century French drawings and prints by a variety of Realist, Impressionist, and Post-impressionist masters, made possible by the Florence Gould Foundation.  Exploring the varying approaches of figuration, depiction and ornamentation throughout 19th century drawing and prints, the exhibition is on view through June 16th.

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Alexander Calder, Calder After the War (Installation View), courtesy of Pace London

Currently on view at Pace Gallery London, from April 19th through June 7th, is an exhibition of over fifty works by Alexander Calder, created between 1945 and 1949, one of his most well-known periods during which he pioneered many of his sculptural abstractions through movement in three dimensions, particularly via his mobiles and stabiles.

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A drawing stored in a locked cupboard at the University of Reading has been rediscovered as an original work by 17th century artist Peter Paul Rubens.  The work, a depiction of Queen Marie de’ Medici of France, was originally thought to have been made by a follower of Rubens, until a conservation effort revealed telltale signs that the work was made by the Renaissance master.  “It was bought as a so-called Rubens, attributed to Rubens,” said Reading professor Anna Gruetzner Robins. “But we didn’t take it seriously.” (more…)

The Louvre was forced to close on Wednesday, after 200 guards and surveillance agents went on strike to protest the growing number of often violent pickpockets at the museum.  “For more than a year, pickpockets have come here every day,” Thierry Choquet, a member of the main union at the Louvre, said. “They threaten guards by telling them that they know where they live.” (more…)

Artist Cyprien Gaillard is featured in the New York Times’ T Magazine, talking about his practice, inspiration, and development as an artist, as well as his viewpoints on the cultural processes that inform his work. “For me, decay is a starting point. I don’t just record it or picture it. What I’m interested in is creating a form of equilibrium within the decay.”  He says. (more…)

Ugo Rondinone, Pure Moonlight (Installation View), via Almine Rech

Almine Rech Gallery Paris is currently hosting its 7th installation of work by the Swiss-born Ugo Rondinone, exploring the interplay of time and creative practice on the artist.  Titled Pure Moonlight, the show consists of a series of Rondinone’s concentric “date paintings,” as well another set of small-scale candle sculptures.

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French President François Hollande has announced Jean-Luc Martinez as the new director-president of the Louvre.  Martinez, who previously served as head of the Greco-Roman antiquities department, will take over in the wake of a 7.5% cutback in the national cultural budget, and will also be responsible for finalizing loans for the construction of the Louvre’s new location in Abu Dhabi. (more…)

The New York Times has published a profile on art forger Guy Ribes, whose remarkably accurate forgeries of works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir are being used in the biographical film exploring the life of the late artist (Watch Trailer).  Ribes, who served several years in prison for forging works by renowned artists and selling them to a criminal art ring, was brought in to recreate works by Renoir, as well as works the artist may have painted.  “It’s funny, isn’t it,” Says writer Jean-Baptiste Péretié, “that the same thing that led to his conviction is what he’s being paid legally to do?” (more…)

The Guardian has posted a video interview with French artist Laure Prouvost, discussing her winning of the Max Mara Award for Women, and her immersive video work Swallow, exploring the raw emotion of sensation, now on view at Whitechapel Gallery.  “It’s this idea of what’s real and what’s not, expressed in video and bricolage.”  She says.
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