Back in the Saddle

After two weeks of being out of Paris, I jumped back into the fray on saturday, after taking friday off to get some japanese food and see "V pour Vendetta." I finally went over to see the very solid Dora Maar exhibit at the Musee Picasso. It chronicles her relationship with the painter through photos and memorabilia collected after her death in 1997, along with portraits of her by Picasso and plenty of his other works. One of the highlights, besides all the amazing candid shots of Picasso is the Guernica series, where she photographed him during the making of his masterpiece. So you see the evolution from the blank canvas to finished product in stages.

After that, I walked around the Marais for the afternoon, which is quite a sight on a beautiful saturday. The streets were packed with people, as were all the shops and cafes lining the narrow streets. A promenade around Paris is an experience on many levels. Besides the amazing coffee and food to be found, there's also the Parisiennes out for spring. That was followed by a barbeque out at Bois de Vincennes with some friends of Andrew's, then off to an apartment party over by Rue St. Maur.

Today was "Museum Day." Basically, I have this list of exhibitions I still need to see, and I figured today was a good time to cross off three of them. I started out by going to the Grand Palais to see the Henri Rousseau exhibit - Jungles in Paris. I kind of go back and forth on Rousseau, some of his stuff is really not skilled enough and comes off as childish. In other works, his simple style really comes through and helps the painting, especially with his jungle paintings which are the centerpiece of the exhibit. I'd reccomend it at the least just for the opportunity to see something a little different. Beware though, Grand Palais doesn't really take History of Art student cards for free admission, I had to pay 8 Euros, which I haven't had to do in a long time with that card.

I hopped across the street to the new Peru exhibit at the Petit Palais. It covers works such as pottery, metal, jewelry, and textiles on all of the separate pre-Spanish Peruvian empires. The highlight for me was the Moche who were a very aggressive empire, known for rather explicit or violent imagery. Their artifacts because especially famous after the discovery of the Lord of Sipan - which I studied in archaelogy last semester and is basically the King Tut of new world archaelogy. I'd highly reccoment this exhibit, it doesn't overwhelm you but provides lots of background information on all the successive empires and their artistic styles, geography, and history.

Since it was nice out, I took the walk down along the Seine to the Louvre, where I used my Louvre Card to bypass the ever-growing lines of spring. I went there specifically to see the new Islamic art exhibit called "From Cordoba to Samarquand" which is a small exhibit put on in conjunction with the under construction (and I.M. Pei-designed) Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha, Qatar. It's only a few pieces, no more than 50, but they're all unbelievable. Seeing the calligraphy got me really excited for my Arabic classes next year. After that, I did the complete circuit of all of the French and Northern School paintings, everything from Le Brun and Poussin to Vermeer, Van Dyck and Rembrandt. I am now officially all arted out. Until I go and see the Juergen Teller thing tomorrow at the Fondation Cartier.

My day was only spoiled by the rain, as was everyone else's as I sat outside of the Centre Pompidou eating a French excuse for a muffin from Starbucks. On a side note, it looks like the whole Tunisia thing is on the rocks this summer. It's probably not going to be a big wage-earning job, and eventually we all have to get around to that type of stuff. Off to the salt mines of Minneapolis it's looking like.