From Kuroda to Foujita Japanese painters in Paris at MCJP until Saturday, January 26, 2008

During the Meiji era (1868-1912), Japan renovation began. Artists are beginning to become familiar with new technologies, including oil painting. Drifting away from the pictorial tradition of the archipelago, these "Western-style" painters therefore increasingly traveled to Europe, particularly Paris, frantically studying modern painting. They'll play a crucial role in the modernization of Japanese art. This exhibition covers half a century of Western-style painting (yôga) in Japan. More than 50 paintings are presented, masterpieces by a dozen artists who stayed in Paris. A rare opportunity to discover these painters who still enjoy a huge reputation in Japan but are rather unknown in France, with the exception of Foujita.

The exhibition consists of four sections :

The meeting between Raphael Collin and Seiki Kuroda

On his first visit to France from 1884 to 1893, Kuroda Seiki studied oil painting with the academic painter Raphael Collin. This meeting has been crucial for the development of yôga painting in Japan. Displayed side by side, the works of both artists stress the considerable influence of the french painter on Kuroda. Upon his return to Japan, Kuroda took over as head of the department of Western painting at the Fine Art Academy in Tokyo. It allowed him to introduce not only the pictorial techniques of the Western academic, but also the enlighted style of naturalism represented by the Impressionists.

Japanese painters at the 1900's Paris Universal Exhibition

Over a century ago, Seiki Kuroda, Chû Asai, Eisaku Wada and Takeji Fujishima works were already shown in Paris, on the occasion of the 1900's Paris Universal Exhibition. The exhibition was a shock to these Japanese artists. Some of them took this opportunity to settle in France and create. Changes occurred then gradually in their styles: Kuroda looked toward Impressionism; his pupil Wada refined his academic style; Fujishima claimed an oriental aesthetic sense ; Asai for its part, shifted away from oil and headed towards decorative arts.

Yasui and Umehara, two painters from Kyôto

In the early twentieth century, Sôtarô Yasui and Ryûzaburô Umehara completed their painting training in Paris. Both were from Kyoto, a city steeped in ancient traditions. Amazed by the works of Renoir, Umehara embarked on a brightly colored style, in search of a daring originality. Yasui gradually mastered the technics of drawing, influenced by Pissarro then Cezanne. Together they'd create a purely Japanese occidentalized painting style.

Foujita and the Japanese painters in Paris during the interwar

Since 1918, the Japanese flocked again in France. Among them, five painters presented in this section are enthusiastic about their stay in the capital, tossed up in the whirlwind of avant-garde movements: Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism ... The best known is Tsuguharu Foujita (Leonard), emblematic of the Ecole de Paris. Vlaminck having strongly criticized his academic style, Yûzô Saeki moved towards representations of the slums of Paris. Hanjirô Sakamoto prefered to paint a landscape whose great modernity reveals a very personal style. Abandoning the academic style, Zenzaburô Kojima invented in the 20's a daring decorative style, "the merger between Western subject and Oriental spirit." Taro Okamoto marvels at the work of Picasso, joined the Abstraction - Création group before joining the surrealists. Upon their return they will have to face a problem peculiar to Japanese painters: translating Japanese identity to Western style.

From Kuroda to Foujita - Japanese painters in Paris
From Wednesday, October 24, 2007 to Saturday, January 26, 2008

Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris
www.mcjp.asso.fr
101 bis, quai Branly 75740 Paris Cedex 15
Tel: 01 44 37 95 00
Fax : 01 44 37 95 15

Tuesday to Saturday from 12 to 19 pm / Nocturne Thursday to 20h Closed holidays / Annual closure of Dec. 23 to Jan. 3
Admission 6 € / Reduced 4 € / Free for members MCJP, children under the age of 12
Tour group (20 people maximum) by reservation only (with or without Speaker)

Organization National University of Fine Arts and Music in Tokyo, Maison de la culture of Japan in Paris (Foundation of Japan), Association for the MCJP
With the assistance of The Society for International Cultural Exchange
With the support of Japan Airlines

N.B. During the exhibition at De Kuroda Foujita, you can go see the murals that adorn the House of the Japan International City University by Foujita, exceptionally open to the public. Horses and The arrival of Westerners in Japan, Heads - work done by Foujita in 1929, it was recently restored

House of Japan - International City University of Paris
From Oct. 24 to Jan. 26, Thursdays and Fridays from 14 to 18h
Closed on 27, 28 December 2007-3, January 4, 2008
Free entrance

Maison du Japon - Cité internationale universitaire de Paris
7c, bd Jourdan 75014 Paris
Du 24 octobre au 26 janvier, les jeudis et vendredis de 14h à 18h
Fermé les 27, 28 décembre 2007 - 3, 4 janvier 2008
Entrée libre

Chan Ky-Yut... Visible Voices at the Cernuschi Museum until December 30th, 2007

The Cernuschi Museum goes back to its tradition of openness to contemporary paintings and present the work of the Sino-Canadian painter Chan Ky-Yut(Chen Jieyi), born in Canton in 1940 and based in Canada since the 1970's.

In the fusion of gesture and spirit, Shan Ky-Yut creates a new pictorial form, and performs a dazzling symbiosis between traditional Chinese painting and current contemporary painting. With ink, color and paper, he renew a significant relationship with his origins, and, in the wake of past years in the West, he deepens the color. His work as a creator, nor figurative, not abstract, painted a nameless universe, fleeting, and only a few formal benchmarks reveal the origin proper to Chinese aesthetics.
One of the original slopes of Chan Ky-Yut's labor emanates from his collaboration with poets and writers, like Paul Eluard, Claire and Yvan Goll, Michel Butor, Andrée Chédid, Jean Simeon, Lorand Gaspar, Adonis, Salah Stétié and Francois Cheng Arrabal for France, as well as many writers of international fame. As a poet himself, the singularity of his books and artist manuscripts, animated by a more intimate production, revives the poetry, painting and calligraphy trilogy, emblematic of pictorial creation from ancient China.

From childhood Shan Ky-Yut learn calligraphy with his grandfather and it begins in late adolescence studying classical Chinese. In this vein, he learns the ways of Tao, Confucius and Buddha.

Chan Ky-Yut... Voix visibles (Visible Voices)
From September 20 to December 30, 2007.

Musée Cernuschi, musée des arts de l’Asie de la Ville de Paris
www.cernuschi.paris.fr
7 avenue Vélasquez
75008 Paris
Tel : 01.53.96.21.50

Hours : from 10am to 06pm
Metro : Villiers

Last chance - GUILLAUME BRESSON at the Galerie LACEN until November 4th, 2007

It was only a week ago that I discovered Guillaume Bresson's work for the first time at "Slick 07" and I was so impressed and seduced by his mature approach to modern painting that I decided to present his latest exhibition at Gallerie Lacen despite the fact that it is nearly finished. The mix between classical composition of urban landscapes and the "clair-obscur" impeccable technique combined to the darkness and the violence of the situation it represents is just stunning.


Like Le Caravage with mythical heroes in his own times, Bresson seems to be the voice of a forgotten surburban youth, fighting to create their own heroes in parking lots and empty halls. In a two tone and over-contrasted environment, Bresson re-invent the "Historical" painting style where gladiators are fighting choregraphic battles in black & white. Fight club energy and adrenalin are pumping through his work.
Well, I guess you got my point, I love is work and I'm looking forward discovering his new work which seems to be more colourful.

GUILLAUME BRESSON
Until November 4th, 2007

Galerie LACEN
http://www.lacengalerie.com/
57 rue de bretagne
75003 Paris
Tél +33 1 76 56 34 39
Fax +33 1 42 77 34 39
Tuesday-Saturday 11am to 07pm
info@lacengalerie.com

Lee Bul, On Every New Shadowat The Fondation Cartier from November 16, 2007 to January 27, 2008

Lee Bul, one of the leading Korean artists of her generation, will present an ambitious new sculptural installation at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris.


Variously suspended in mid-air or anchored to the floor, the sculptures constitute a singular environment that engages with the surrounding Jean Nouvel architecture, inhabiting and elaborating on its physical and conceptual frameworks. Complex and sensuous, the artist’s installation manifests the disintegration of utopian aspirations that continue to haunt the collective imagination in a darkly seductive space of glittering ruins and vestiges.

The Fondation Cartier pour l´art contemporain
http://fondation.cartier.com/
261, boulevard Raspail
75014 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 42 18 56 50
Fax: +33 (0)1 42 18 56 52

Access:
Métro: lines 4 et 6, stations Raspail ou Denfert-Rochereau
Bus: 38, 68
RER: Denfert-Rochereau
Parking: Disabled parking available at 2 rue Victor Schoelcher

The exhibitions
Open every day, except Monday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Open Tuesday evenings until 10 p.m.

G A O B R O T H E R S until November 24th, 2007 @ Albert Benamou Gallerie

Photographs - Sculptures
Exhibition from October 25th to thursday November 24th, 2007


For more than 20 years, the Gao Brothers - Gao Zhen & Gao Qiang - team up to form a brilliant artistic couple which work is attempting to describe all over mutating China's paradoxes. Born in Jinan, in the province of Shandong, located in the north of China, both of them studied Art and together, they produce for the international an ensemble of virtuoso multimedia including video, photography, theatre, performance, painting and sculpture not to mention numerous critical essays and their mentoring of other artist's exhibitions.
True leaders, and despite repeated censorship from their fellow authorities, their are the over conscious observers of all transformations and turmoil happening in their country.

The Gao brothers stay away from any judgement or form of cynism. They watch mankind like scientist stare at viruses through a microscope. They reproduce human behaviours with a touch of choregraphy.

Galerie Albert Benamou
www.benamou.net
24 rue de Penthièvre. 75008 Paris
Metro: Miromesnil
Opening hours 06:00pm - 09:00pm
Tel: 01 45 63 12 21
Email: albertbenamou@gmail.com

Free entrance
The exhibition will be presented until november 24th,2007.

INVOCATIONS * BKRW * SEBASTIEN PONS until the 23rd of November

BKRW is starting the celebration of its first anniversary by an exhibition of the artist behind BKRW's world. the fingers and the brain behind all BKRW logo, artworks, and graphical world: SEBASTIEN PONS.

INVOCATIONS is the work of a french artist with rare and original style, his latest artworks are mixing sweet pop colors, primitives and asian arts, imaginary world and characters, colorfull demons.
This exhibition will take place in the new GALERIE x CONCEPT SHOP x KIDS ATELIER x STUDIO: called L'ISSUE, a 180 square meters place located in front of CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU aka BEAUBOURG, deep downtown. A brand new exhibition place we've fall in love for : because of its architecture, its concept, and its kids programs with the artists of the gallery.

INVOCATIONS
www.bkrw.com
to the 23rd of NOVEMBER

L'ISSUE
http://www.lissue.com
38 RUE QUINCAMPOIX
75004 PARIS
Opening hours: Wedenesday to friday - 12 Noon to 09:30pm; Saturday & Sunday 11:00am to 08:00pm
Metro: Etienne Marcel / Rambuteau

Bernard Frize "Long Lines (Often Closed)" at the gallerie Perrotin until December 08th, 2007

Exhibition at the gallerie Perrotin until 08/12/2007

It was in the mid 1970’s, at a time when the medium of painting was regarded by many of his contemporaries as being obsolete, that Bernard Frize began to focus his attention exclusively on the act of painting. With his profound knowledge of Western art history he consciously chose to subvert the act of painting by stripping the medium from its traditional layers of art historical context and, instead, reducing it to its most basic elements: the canvas and the paint. Frize followed the footsteps of great painters like Piet Mondrian and Barnett Newman as he reconsidered the medium’s potential by starting from scratch.


In his paintings it is not the artist’s expressive mood or a narrative he wants to convey, but solely the method of painting. This ‘method of painting’ determines the outcome of his works. The artist regards himself merely as a labourer and his paintings as ‘ready-mades’ that are produced by exploring the possibilities by conjoining pre-existent products (the paint, the paint-brush and the canvas). However, when we examine the ever-expanding oeuvre of Frize’s art we are not only confronted with a plethora of variations that that medium has to offer but also its seductive tactility and lyrical simplicity.

In his latest body of work, complex webs of colour interlace to echo the weave of the canvas itself. The unsettling palette, where pale pinks and blues combine with browns, greens and mustard yellows, underlined with black, unbalances the eye and destroys the continuity of the single line tracing a pattern on the surface. In high contrast to the rough texture of the canvas, each painting is coated with a smooth layer of resin, lending a plasticity and sense of completion to each painting.



www.galerieperrotin.com
10, impasse Saint Claude
75003 Paris
tel: +33 1 42 16 79 79
fax: +33 1 42 16 79 74
contact: info-paris@galerieperrotin.com
Tuesday - Saturday 11am - 7pm

Valerio Adami "Jusqu’ici" from Saturday October 27th to December 29th, 2007

Exhibition: Saturday October 27th to December 29th, 2007

Valerio Adami, the "Frenchier" Italian painter is coming back at the Daniel Templon gallerie with a new serie of painting made between 2006 and 2007. Entitled "Jusqu'ici" (up to here), the exhibition offer a filling past of themes dear to Valerio Adami's heart for the last 50 years: litterature, travel, relationship between poetry, music and painting.

After being absent for nearly 10 years, Valerio Adami did a spectacular come back with his 2004 first exhibition @ the Templon gallerie. we rediscovered his famous solid colors and his thick dark outlines reminding us the clear line of comic strips.

In this new exhibition, drawing still plays a fundamental role. For Adami, the outline, and notably the closed shapes, are tighly connected to language and words. Numerous literary references are appearing between the lines: Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Claudel… Like poems of an intimate atmosphere, the paintings develop memories of childhoods, theatre stages, vision of orient and hotel's rooms. Despite the richness of colours, the tone of the exhibition is somehow more introspective and gloom seems to haunt the painting's characters.

Valerio Adami "Jusqu'ici"
Press release (french)

Galerie Daniel Templon
www.danieltemplon.com
30 rue Beaubourg (at the back)
75003 Paris
Tel : 33 (0) 1 42 72 14 10
Fax : 33 (0) 1 42 77 45 36
e-mail :info@danieltemplon.com



Open: monday through saturday from 10:00am to 07:00pm
Press Contact: Anne-Claudie Coric 01 42 72 14 10
Metro: Line 11 - Rambuteau
Line 4 - Etienne Marcel ou les Halles
Line 1 - Hotel de ville

ART SHOPPING at the LOUVRE's CARROUSEL October 27 & 28th, 2007

No need to be filthy rich to become a contemporary art collector! Enough with the lame stamps or mini cars collection, you now can afford to become a serious art amateur... Art Shopping breaks down the "for the rich and famous only" art ghetto and create the first really open art show in the world @ le Louvre's Carrousel with, for less than 5000€, your personal ticket to the world of contemporary art collectors.

Over a hundred artists and galleries are displaying their best work and most up-to-date creations.

Good to know! For any purchase of an art piece your admission ticket will be reimboursed !

ART SHOPPING SHOW
Carrousel du Louvre - Paris
99, Rue de Rivoli - 75001 Paris – Ile de France
Opens from :10:00am to 06:00pm – admission fee:5 euros (money back atfer first purchase).
Ticket reservation: France Billet and Fnac.com
Tel : 33 (0)1 46 02 61 51
Web + infos :
www.salon-artshopping.com
Metro : Louvre-Rivoli (line 1)

KENDELL GEERS Kannibale @ YVON LAMBERT PARIS until decembre 8, 2007

Kannibale is Kendell Geers’ first solo exhibition at the YVON LAMBERT gallery.

In 1928, the Brazilian poet Oswald de Andrade (1890–1954) announced his “Manifesto Antropófago”: “Only Cannibalism unites us. Socially. Economically. Philosophically”. In this Cannibal Manifesto, Cannibalism is a powerful metaphor for the cultural incorporation of the values of “what’s not mine”, what’s stranger to me; as well as a radical vision for extremes of violence.

Kendell Geers uses Andrade’s “Manifesto Antropófago” and takes cannibalism as a symbolic practice, a metaphor for violent acts that occur in societies, risen from excess of power, domination (especially colonialism and class structure), economic exploitation, emotional impulses and traumas. This cannibalism makes no attempt to strive towards a reduction of tensions. However, its instinct focuses on what is positive; the creative flows, life drives, eroticism and cultural exchange.
The exhibition is equally a tribute to Francis Picabia's dada review ‘Cannibale’ in which he states his Dada Cannibal Manifesto:

"like your idols: nothing.
like your politicians: nothing.
like your heroes: nothing.
like your artists: nothing.
like your religions: nothing"

Geers consistently explores the collapse of belief systems and ideologies, using all possible media.


This exhibition will feature for instance razormesh phallic towers, symbols of the Cannibalist architecture. "Razormesh" is a razor blade security fence now exported globally to the prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq or Palestine. This particular fencing featured in Geers sculptures was developed in South Africa during Apartheid. It is highly symbolic in the sense that it is different from barbed wire, in his words "barbed wire is for cattle but razormesh is for humans and is the universal
symbol of the twenty first century".
A replica of the “Nike of Samothrace” will preside over the show just as the one in Samothrace. The original sculpture has been in the Louvre since 1884, cannibalized by another society.

KENDELL GEERS Kannibale
october 18 – decembre 8, 2007
Opening, thursday, octobre 18, 2007

YVON LAMBERT PARIS
www.yvon-lambert.com
108, rue Vieille du Temple F-75003 Paris
T 01 42 71 09 33 – Fax 01 42 71 87 47

FIAC, PARIS, FRANCE : STAND B-26

BETTER KNOWN AS BROOKLYN @ THE LAZY DOGAn Exhibition of new work of Razauno feat. Grotesk

RAZAUNO & GROTESK @ The Lazy Dog Until November 10th, 2007
Another very good exhibition from the famous and so good bookshop "THE LAZY DOG". RAZAUNO and GROTESK give respect to their childhood neighborhood BROOKLYN and threw some impressives artworks.



Despite a really small and tiny exhibition space, the artwork of the two artists RAZAUNO and GROTESK on different materials is really great. They've work on wood, on paper, on tee shirts, on boards, or on patent... But it's really a refreshing work, with nice ilustrations, good taste of colors, and a real carefullness about details. A special ELEGANCE award for their laser work on the wood.
And even the tee shirts they've made for SIXPACK is worth a good look, one good classical all-over and two nice "fonty" one, don't forget to check the GROTESK hoodie.

THE LAZY DOG
www.thelazydog.fr/
2 Passage Thiéré, 75011 PARIS
Contact

JACQUES VILLEGLÉ - "La Lettre Lacérée" 1954-1992 until November 8th

Jacques Villeglé starts in Paris, as soon as 1949, with his friend Raymond Hains, to gather material and ripped a serie of lacerated posters, which shall only be shown at the Colette Allendyune gallerie in 1957.

Jacques Villeglé, born Jacques Mahé de la Villeglé (1926, Quimper, Brittany) is a French mixed-media artist famous for his ripped or lacerated posters (a poster in which one has been placed over another or others, and the top poster or posters have been ripped, revealing to a greater or lesser degree the poster or posters underneath) and for being a member of the New Realism art group (1960-1963). His work has primarily focused on the anonymous and on the marginal remains of civilization.

He first started producing art in 1947 in Saint-Malo by collecting found objects (steel wires, bricks from Saint-Malo's Atlantic retaining war). In December 1949, he concentrated his work on ripped advertising posters from the street. Working with fellow artist Raymond Hains, Villeglé began to use collage and found/ripped posters from street advertisements in creating Ultra-Lettrist psychogeographical hypergraphics in the 1950s, and in June 1953, he published Hepérile Éclaté, a phonetic poem by Camille Bryen, which was made unreadable when read through strips of grooved glass made by Hains. In February 1954, Villeglé and Hains met the Lettrism poet François Dufrêne, and this latter introduced them to Yves Klein, Pierre Restany and Jean Tinguely. In 1958, Villeglé published an overview of his work on ripped posters, Des Réalités collectives, which is to a certain degree a prefiguration of the manifesto of the New Realism group (1960) which he joined at its inception.

the new realism movement include 13 artists:

Arman >
César >
Christo
Gérard Deschamps >
François Dufrêne
Raymond Hains >
Yves Klein
Martial Raysse >
Mimmo Rotella
Niki de Saint Phalle
Daniel Spoerri >
Jean Tinguely
Jacques Villeglé > www.villegle.fr





"La Lettre Lacérée" - Affiches lacérées 1954-1992
Until November 8th, 2007
à la Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois
36 rue de Seine, 75006 Paris
Tel. +33 (0)1 46 34 61 07
Fax +33 (0)1 43 25 18 80

http://www.galerie-vallois.com
Lundi - Samedi
10h30-13h / 14h-19h

FETISH by DAVID LYNCH with CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN (Shoes, 2007)until November 3rd, 2007

Last week, I missed the opening preview night for one of the most interesting and exciting artistic collaboration : the FETISH exhibition by David LYNCH and Christian LOUBOUTIN (the famous women's shoemaker).
A mix of amazing pictures and extraordinary shoes.

The work of Mr LOUBOUTIN is based upon the fetishism and the sexual myth surrounding women shoes. He started to collab with Mr LYNCH for his FONDATION CARTIER exhibition, and then he asked to the famous director to take pictures of his latest creation. The meeting of those two genius is the purpose of FETISH.

LOUBOUTIN says about shoes "People sees only shoes as walking or running items... But there are shoes that are made for sex. Women shoes are the ultimate sexual tool, even without heel..."

Each picture of Mr LYNCH will be made at only 5 ex. signed and numeroted, sold at 12000 euros. And each shoes by Mr LOUBOUTIN will also be sold at 12000 euros, and made at 5 ex by pair.

FETISH / PIERRE PASSEBON
Exhibition until November 3rd, 2007

GALERIE DU PASSAGE
wwww.galeriedupassage.com
20-26, Galerie Véro Dodat
75001 Paris

« David Lynch m’avait demandé de dessiner des souliers pour son exposition à la Fondation Cartier. Il peignit certains d’entre eux pour les montrer dans une cage. A mon tour, j’ai voulu lui demander d’en photographier d’autres, que j’aurai conçus dans ce but."
Christian Louboutin
Juillet 2007