Ah, Paris. My trip a few weeks ago really could not have been better, in fact, it was rather perfect. The weather was glorious, everything was in bloom, the city didn’t feel overly crowded — Paris was certainly at its best. There were so many fantastic exhibitions on last month with a particular focus on fashion and photography. One such is a major Henri Cartier-Bresson show at the Pompidou Centre running through June 9. Friends in Paris warned me that the lines for admission were still quite long (it opened just a few weeks before my arrival) so I decided to conserve my time and skip it altogether. Although, I understand it is most definitely worth seeing. I did get to a tremendous exhibition at the Hotel de Ville, Brassaï: Pour l’Amour de Paris. The Hungarian-born Brassaï (1899-1984) was unquestionably one of the most important photographers to document Paris in the twentieth century. Not necessarily the obvious, but rather the less obvious, and perhaps the far more compelling and truthful — the city at night, nightlife, light and shadows and even the somewhat deviant — from his perspective within the artisic and intellectual avant-garde. This installation was significant, comprehensive and smart. I loved it. Brassaï: Pour l’Amour de Paris was set to close on March 29, however a beautiful catalog was produced, available here. And I had never actually been inside the Hotel de Ville, very nice!
Poet, writer, art critic and curator Frank O’Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) whose work in many ways so keenly defined his generation and a brilliant era of artistic collaboration and activity in New York City. Happy Birthday Frank. Photograph Harry Redl, 1958. www.nytimes.com
We are so happy to once again be participating in the New York Weddings Event. It is happening tonight from 5 – 8 p.m. at the Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street. We would love to see you, so please stop by and say hello! https://weddings.nymag.com/index.html
Charles Marville (1813-1879), Corner of rue de Bac and rue Saint-Dominique, Paris, ca. 1874. Photograph Musée Carnavalet, Paris.
I’m back from my beautiful trip to Paris, where I found spring(!) and about which I’ll be writing for the near future, no doubt. Before I left, I went to see a very interesting exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris. Commissioned by the city to photograph both pre- and post-Haussmann renovated Paris, Marville’s images are a tremendous documentation of this once medieval city transformed into one of the most grand in Europe. This installation of roughly one hundred images is fantastic and well worth a visit. While you’re there, make sure to take a look at Paris as Muse: Photography, 1840s-1930s in the adjacent Howard Gilman Gallery in the museum. Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris and Paris as Muse: Photography, 1840s-1930s both run through May 4.
I’ve got Paris on my mind this week (I’m heading there on Saturday!) and have been closely following Paris Fashion Week. The two collections that have spoken to me the most are Haider Ackermann and Valentino. Haider Ackermann presented an exquisite, quietly luxurious collection in the most gorgeous, relaxed fabrics and neutral color range. I swoon.
Valentino presented their collection today, which I watched via live stream this morning. By far my favorite work of Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli since they became the Creative Directors in 2008. At once modern and romantic, this collection feels exactly right. The cuts and palette as a whole are lovely, the capes and leather pieces are fantastic and the dresses, skirts and sweaters are just so beautiful.
The standout collection for me from Milan fashion week was, most definitely, Prada. Perfect dresses and coats in the most sublime colors. Definitely what I’ll be craving this fall.
I am going to cut right to the chase and tell you that I LOVED the exhibition, Capa in Color, at the International Center of Photography. Robert Capa (1913-1954) is certainly best known for his incomparable black-and-white war photography (he documented five wars during his short lifetime and was killed in the midst of First Indochina War) and for co-founding Magnum Photos (the first, and still foremost, international cooperative agency for freelance photographers.) But Capa had another body of work that included absolutely exquisite color images that appeared in magazines such as Life, The Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s and one of my personal favorites, the travel magazine Holiday, a fantastic publication known for working with the world’s finest photographers and writers. These images are perfectly evocative of their era and, especially for a postwar American audience, captured a world quite far and away. Capa in Color presents this body of work for the very first time and contains more than 100 photographs culled completely from ICP’s own collection. After all, Capa’s younger brother, the renowned photographer Cornell Capa, founded ICP to preserve and impart Robert Capa’s tremendous legacy. With this great show, they clearly continue to do so. Capa in Color runs through May 4. www.icp.org
What looks to be an amazing exhibition is opening today at the Guggenheim Museum. Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe is a major multidisciplinary installation including fine art, film, fashion, design, performance, architecture and the written word (to name a handful) from this tremendously influential, avant-garde movement that essentially revered the new — technology, speed, industry, youth, urbanism. The first show devoted to Italian futurism in the United States, it includes more than 300 works organized chronologically over its 35 year period, and is poised to be one of the standout exhibitions of the year. I know where I’ll be this weekend. Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe runs through September 1 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum www.guggenheim.org
