Paris gets arty and controversial

Winter's finally come and with it enough art exhibitions to see us through to January. We have set our clocks back and are once again familiarising ourselves with the shorter days and longer nights. This is not my favourite season but I am approaching it with a positive attitude and  a fuller appreciation of what it can also offer.

Paris has been abuzz with all things art this last week. The annual contemporary art fair,  FIAC came to and end yesterday. American artist Paul McCarthy's controversial installation at Place Vendôme met its demise swiftly after Parisians decided that it had no place there, given its form - a view that was not supported by the artist, who defended it as... art, of course.


The long awaited re-opening of the Picasso Museum, whose five year renovation finally came to end, was this past Saturday. I will wait until the crowds wane before I go and see that one.

Source: www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr

The Louis Vuitton Foundation inaugurated it's grand, spaceship-like building  that is nestled in Bois du Boulogne in the 16th this past week. It officially opened it to the public yesterday. The building, designed by Frank Gehry, will house the Foundation's extensive contemporary art collection, with its aim being to 'promote and encourage artistic creation.'
The building will, until January 2015, be kept relatively empty barring some selected works, to fully display its architectural marvel.

The ubiquitous image that has come to define Hokusai's work

And finally, I saw the Hokusai exhibition at the Grand Palais recently. More famous for his wood-block prints, most notably the very ubiquitous image of his Great Wave, the Master of Reinvention's work is on full display until mid-January 2015.
The work is curated across the years of his career, marked by the different schools that influenced his work and by the use of the various names he adopted during those periods: They range from the Shunro period (1778-1794) to the Sori period 1794-1805) to the Katsushika Hokusai period (1805-1810). They include drawings he did from 1814 to 1878, when he produced a prolific amount of work known as Hokusai Manga. The Taito period was from 1810 to 1819, Iitsu (1820-1834) and the Gayko Rojin Manji period from 1834 to his death in 1849.
If you are interested in seeing the whole range of the artist's work, do go. I do caution though that it was quite frustrating to fully appreciate the tiny drawings of some of his works, given how crowded it was. It was still enjoyable nonetheless.

Gigantic print that displays the scale on which he sometimes worked

Some of the Thirty-six views of Mt.Fuji images from the series of work he was known for

Red Mount Fuji

Under the Great Wave (circa 1880)

 A very blurry Self Portrait of the artist.