I could start with a small Renoir. Emil Bührle collection at the Maillol museum. 2019. Claude Monet in his workshop at Giverny. The workshop has remained very much the same. The paintings have been replaced by – very good – copies. Most of the originals are at Orsay I believe. “Love your world”. Latin quarter,…
Angkor Vat means, in Khmer: “the capital that became a Buddhist monastery”. The temples of Angkor are a blend between Hinduism and Buddhism. The faces carved out everywhere? I am not sure whether they represent Brahma or Buddha. Or one then the other. A good example of Asian capacity of “Fusion”. The jungle reclaims the…
This is not a virus. It is an alebrije. Mexico City. Around February when one could still go to a restaurant for a family lunch. 🍺 Machu Picchu, 1976. (c) my wife. Before we met. Machu Picchu is still on my bucket list. Found these old slides in a box this summer. Bought a new…
Dora Maar by Dora Maar. Paris. Mid 30’s. Amazing expo at Pompidou, July 2019. Dora Maar, born Henriette Dora Markowitch in Paris in 1907, was a French photographer and artist who rose to fame in the 30’s. She knew only the best players of the time. Unfairly “catalogued” as “just one” of Picasso’s many lovers,…
Andiamo. Let’s go. “Andiamo” is possibly the first Italian word I ever learnt… Italian is a bit of a mystery to me. Never took a single class. Never lived in Italy. My parents had a few Italian friends in West Africa. I remember Ambassador Sciascia. Who spoke perfect French. Did I pick Italian in the…
Lev Davidovitch Bronstein (1879-1940), “nom de guerre” Trotsky, was a Soviet revolutionary, the founder of the Red Army, assassinated by orders of Stalin in 1940. His museum in Mexico city is privately run by his descendants, grandson and great-granddaughters. (Photo: (c)ourtesy the Trostky museum, Mexico city. The back of Trostky’s last house is, strangely enough,…
Sir Stamford Raffles (1786-1821). National Singapore Museum. Raffles founded the city and harbour of Singapore in the early 1800’s, negotiating a deal with the local Sultan. The strategy was to create a British stronghold to balance the Dutch domination of Indonesia. Raffles was born on a ship off the coast of Jamaica. A “colonial” of…
We will walk the streets again sooner or later. Pont Alexandre III, Paris. Musée de la porte dorée. “Golden gate museum”. Not in San Francisco. In Paris. The building, an Art Nouveau jewel was the Ministry of the colonies. Pont Alexandre III. One of the prettiest bridges in Paris. Children will play on the bridges…
A look at tango. (Una mirada al tango). By Ernesto the Monkey Cabral, 1926. We’ve seen Cabral before. One of the great Mexican illustrators of the 20th century. A master of line and elegance… Think how daring – and codified – Tango was in 1926… Monet’s garden at Giverny during Emil Bührle’s visit in 1951.…
Leon Trotsky, aka Lev Davidovitch Bronstein (above) and Pablo Ruiz Picasso (below) never met. One was born in Russia and assassinated in Mexico in 1940. The other, born in Spain, spent most of his adult life in France, where he died in 1973. They never met, yet there is an uncanny connection. Picasso by Dora…
