More Wandering, Tamara de Lempicka

We woke up to a bit of rain on Saturday June 29, but by the time we headed out, it had cleared and the sun came out.  We went for a long walk checking out a number of stores we wanted to stop at--- Le Bon Marche's Le Grand Epicerie (the amazing food store); Pierre Marcolini (for some chocolate covered marshmallows); DSqaured (Alain looked for some jeans, but didn't buy); Maison Martin Margiela's M6 store (Toby looked but didn't buy); Uniqlo (Japanese) near L'Opera (Alain got a top for running).  It was so nice to be walking in the sun.

This Bistro is around the corner from us and a shot of it was in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris

We walked across the Seine- always so serene.

The Seine on a clear day

We passed by the ferris wheel in the Tuileries.  

Ferris Wheel at the Tuileries

On the way back to the apartment, we saw lots of people hanging out by the Seine, enjoying the sun for the first time in days.

Summer hangout on the Seine

It was also a perfect day for the Gay Pride March in Paris.  The parade was in the Bastille area, which we didn't visit this year, but we did see a group of Pride celebrators heading down the Seine in a party boat.

We headed back to the apartment for a late afternoon rest and then ended up going for dinner at a small bistro nearby on Ile St. Louis, called C'est Mon Plaisir.

Sign on a building on I'le St. Louis-- dating to 1645

Alain had chicken and Shirley and I had lamb.  We stopped afterwards at Berthillon for some wonderful sorbets/glace.

Beautiful building across from restaurant on I'le St. Louis

 C'est mon plaisir

Inside the restaurant

Alain and Toby- window seat at the restaurant


My salmon tartare appy

Our lamb with zucchini

Alain's poulet

On the way back across the Seine, Notre Dame was beautifully lit.

Sunday June 30 was a beautiful, sunny, warm day.  Alain went for a 8.6 km run in le Jardins des Plantes.  We decided to walk to the Pinacotheque in the Place de Madeleine on the right bank to see the Tamara de Lempicka exhibit.  We passed Shakespeare and Company, the famous english language bookstore and then crossed the Seine at another bridge with locks.

Outside of Shakespeare and Company

We also stopped at Laduree on Rue Royale, where Alain and Shirley 

bought pain au chocolat pistachio.

Crossing the Seine

Shirley making her purchase at Laduree

Alain and Shirley with their fresh pain au chocolat pistache

We finally reached our destination- Tamara de Lempicka: la Reine de l'art deco (the Queen of Art Deco) at the Pinacotheque near Place de la Madeleine.

Poster for the exhibit

Tamara de Lempicka was born Tamara Rosalia Gurwik-Gorska in 1898 (birth date not entirely certain) in either Warsaw, St. Petersburg or Moscow (also uncertain).  Her mother was Polish of French origin, her father was Russian.  She married Tadeusz Lampicki, a Polish lawyer, born into the nobility, in 1916.  They left Russia in 1918 and moved to Paris.  Tamara had many affairs, with both men and women.  She travelled to Italy a number of times and had a major exhibit in Milan in November 1925.  In 1928, she and Tadeusz divorced and Tamara began an affair with Baron Raoul Kuffner, a collector of her works, whom she later married.  

She travelled to the US in 1929, where she was a great success, exhibiting in the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh.  Tamara also exhibited in the Salon of Modern Women Artists in Paris from 1932-38.  Starting in 1932, she had symptoms of depression that would reoccur throughout her life.  In 1939, she and her husband moved to the United States.  She had a number of successful exhibits in the 1940s and again in the mid 1970s, when she was rediscovered as a protagonist of the Art Deco movement.  Baron Kuffner died in 1961 on a boat returning to the US from Europe (Tamara had flown back to New York City). Tamara died in Mexico in 1980.  

There was one room of the exhibit dealing with her relationship with the Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio.  They had met at her 1925 exhibit in Milan.  As an ambitious thirty year old, she wanted to paint his portrait.  He, at 60, was interested in seducing her.  According to the exhibit, she turned him down.

The show at the Pinacotheque was excellent.  It was curated by Gioia Mori, a renowed specialist of Tamara de Lempicka.  Ms. Mori describes Tamara as decorative, international and modern, the characteristics of the Art Deco movement that began in the 1920s.  A fascinating woman, a pioneer, and a self-promoter.

Portrait of Prince Eristoff 1925 (shown at first solo show in Milan)

Irene and her Sister (1925)  These were the artist's cousins

Portrait of Baron Kuffner 1928

Portrait of Louisanne Kuffner 1940 (daughter of Baron Kuffner  who was born in 1925 and lived until 2009)

Portrait of Kizette Adult I 1955 (Tamara would visit her daughter Kizette who lived in Houston once a year)

Young Girl with Pansies 1945 (after Girl with a Pearl Earring (Vermeer 1665)

Saint-Moritz 1929

Cover of Die Dame 1929

The Blue Scarf 1930 (liked by the critics- picture of a modern women, wearing a beret, in the manner of Lempicka's favourite actresses, Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo

Leaning Nude 1925 (not shown since the 1925 exhibit)

Portrait of Arlette Boucard 1928  (12 year old daughter of Doctor Pierre Boucard,
one of  the richest men in France at that time (owner of a pharmaceutical company)

Tamara modelling (all part of her image creation)

We next stopped at Galeries Lafayette.  The department store is not usually open on Sundays but this was an "exceptionale" opening of many stores today, as it was the first Sunday after the official sales started on Wednesday.  It was crazy busy, so we didn't spend much time there.  However, the ceiling and balconies were amazing.  The whole of Paris was out today either shopping or hanging out in the cafes.

Ceiling at Galeries Lafayette

We walked back into the Marais and stopped at La Terrasse des Archives on Rue Archives.  We sat outside and Shirley had a beer and Alain and I had mojitos, which seem to be very big in Paris.

Alain with his Mojito

Toby with her Mojito

We walked back across the Seine to our ancient street. 

Shirley walking up Rue de Bievre

We had appetizers and a delicious steak dinner cooked by Shirley.  We were finishing our dinner at 10:00 p.m. and it was still light out.  Shirley leaves very early tomorrow morning.  It will be our last full day in Paris.

Keith Haring at Musee d'Art Moderne

Friday June 27 was another cloudy day with a few drizzles of rain thrown in.  Our main destination for the day was the Keith Haring: The Political Line exhibit at the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

First, I took a photo of Shirley on the bridge over the Seine nearest to our apartment for Kaliyana, the Toronto store where she bought her suit.

Shirley on bridge over the Seine

We took the Metro to the Musee d'Art Modern.  Just as we got close, we noticed a number of photographers hanging outside the front of the Palais de Tokyo, the contemporary art museum that is next door to the Modern Art museum.  A number of fashionable folks were also hanging out.  We figured that there must be an event from Men's Fashion Week happening at the Palais.


                                    Very cool socks and shoes

                       Pretty Cool

  Photographer with Style

We went next door to the Keith Haring exhibit.  The focus of the exhibit was the political dimension of Haring's work.  There were 230 pieces of work.  We hadn't realized how politically engaged Haring was.  He donated posters to the anti-aparheid and anti nuclear movements.  His work had a lot more depth than the marketing.  His works targeted racism, homophobia, social injustice and environmental issues.  

Haring was born in 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania and started drawing when he was four years old.  His father also drew.  He was influenced early in his career by Jean Dubuffet and Pierre Alechinsky.  We learned that when he was young, he often drew comics and storyboards. He was a compulsive drawer.  He used unbroken black lines and many symbols including a Radiant Baby, barking dog and flying saucer.  He studied both art and symbiotics in New York City and started by doing subway art from 1980-1985.  He collaborated with LA11, a graffiti artist in the early 1980s.  He became an overnight sensation at 24, with an exhibit of tarps from the back of trucks at Tony Shafrazi's gallery in New York City in 1982.

Haring died of AIDs at age 31 in 1990.  The exhibit was a real eye-opener and we all have a better appreciation of what Haring was trying to accomplish with his work.  Most of his work was untitled as he wanted the viewer to come to their own conclusions about the works.

                                1984- done for the Musee d'Art Moderne

Everybody knows where meat comes from. It comes from the store- 1978

1982

                Breaking the baton of oppression

The following work was done shortly after John Lennon was murdered.  Haring had a dream about Lennon and produced this painting, picturing a man with dogs leaping through his stomach.

                                                  1982

1980

                                                                    1981 (with exploding head)

The following picture features a monkey, with people slavishly obeying him.  Haring wanted to show how people would follow others without thinking.  He also made many pieces of art dealing with the perils of blind religiosity, railing against organized religion, which he distinguished from faith.

 1985

                                                                            1982  Untitled (a recurring theme was the individual against the State)

Andy Mouse-New Coke 1985

Andy Mouse was Andy Warhol

Anti US/Capitalism painting

Crack is Wack  (Haring is pictured in the foreground).

It is ironic that I recently saw a poster with Crack is Wack in a small gallery on Queen West with a reference to Mayor Rob Ford.  I had forgotten that Keith Haring had used that slogan in his anti crack paintings.   

Haring also painted on huge vases and other medium for his art, such as this bust below.

While we were at the museum we saw a few groups of school children going through the exhibit. 

School kids at exhibit

                                                                                  Very strong anti capitalist piece 1984

                                                                                Andy Mouse Bill 1986

1984 Poster done for Anti-Apartheid movement- with black man breaking his chains

Showing the destruction of the planet 1989

A Pile of Crowns for Jean-Michel Basquiat 1988

                                                                              Untitled (Self-Portrait) 1985
                                                                   
Haring was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1988 and became heavily involved with Act Up (the activist group) and produced many works in the last few years of his life dealing with the AIDS epidemic.

Silence = Death 1988  (black and white images to the left referenced the work of James Ensor)   

Toby in front of 1984 work

Unfinished picture 1989

For Haring, drawing was a political act and during the last months of his life, an act of resistance against death.  The audio guide and commentary revealed a Keith Haring, that was far, far more complex and politically engaged than the colourful graphics.

After the exhibit, we took some pictures on the nearby bridge with the Eiffel Tower in the background.  More fashion shots of Shirley.

Alain and Toby

Shirley in front of Tour Eiffel

We walked up Rue Montaigne where the Canadian Embassy is located, and then walked up the Champs d'Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe.  Too many big box stores but since we were in the neighbourhood, we checked it out.

Dior window

Alain in front of Laduree

                                                                             Louie Vuitton window-- the Skeleton ate my Bag

We took the Metro back to the apartment and took a picture of the new street sign alongside the ancient sign of the street where our apartment is located.  It is great staying on such an old street with a sense of history.

                                                           Rue de Bievre-- our street

                                                       

Shirley made us a sausage dinner with French beans.  Alain made the salad and we had treats for dessert.   I'm finishing the post on Saturday June 29.  It was raining earlier this morning, but seems to be clearing.