Inside at the Palais de Tokyo

The Palais de Toyko is huge and I mean enormous. It must be the biggest space for contemporary art in the city, so Thursday night and with my daughter in tow I finally made it there to Inside, which is a group show of wonderful work.

As you can expect, it's a little mixed too. Some of it will leave you with eye ache, such as the room of white sculptures, some will entrance, like the many wonderful videos, and some of it will leave you surprised and some unmoved.

But if you want to crawl inside an installation made entirely of Scotch tape, walk thorough a destroyed house, watch it raining inside and see a lot of beautiful drawing including street art down the staircase, then here are many, many things to enjoy.

It's not cheap at 12 Euros, but it kept us talking. laughing and asking questions for three hours, which is probably the point. Enjoy!

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at L'Orangerie

No cafe at the Orangerie! Why have I not noticed this before? It is a serious problem when you have been queuing for a couple of hours in the rain on a grey Paris day to get into this must see exhibit and all you want is to cup your hands around a mug of something hot. Eventually we thawed out, but it wasn't until we were half way round that we took off our coats. So be warned, dress warmly, bring your own refreshments.

Physical (dis)comfort aside, it's a cracker. The exhibition is all about creative partnership and the chiming of work: Rivera's monumental murals (reproductions of parts of, together with film footage and sketches) and portraits with Kahlo's paintings (portraits and self-portraits). Inevitably some well known works and particular favourites were not there. But it wasn't trying to collect everything into two retrospectives, there wouldn't have been space. What is there is very representative of both artists and turned up some surprises for me, who thought she knew their work.

Rivera's early Cubist and Post-Impressionist work from his time in Europe was a surprise, especially the Zapatista Landscape, a striking and brightly coloured Cubist piece of gun, blanket and landscape with volcanoes, and the Fountain at Toledo with its stunning red horse.

Kahlo's very auto-biographical works are well placed in a central room, appropriately womb-like. I find it very difficult to look at the paintings of her in hospital after her miscarriages and accident, especially The Broken Column with its nails and shroud, and her Self-portrait with a Monkey. They are so moving. I wept. Her beautiful velvet portraits of herself and Alicia Galant are perfect in their classicism. I wanted to take them both home.

There is a wide selection of drawings, photographs and film footage and a crash course in twentieth century Mexican history. It's well worth the wait, the cold and the crowd. Ten euros and you get the Monets and the rest of the permanent collection thrown in. A great way to shelter from the weather. It's on until the end of January.

Dali at the Pompidou

The metamorphosis of Narcissus

Huge block buster of a show - allow at least two hours if you don't want to watch the films and much, much longer if you do. I recommend a comfort break before you go in. There wasn't much of a queue when I went last Sunday. I had not booked tickets in advance and only had to stand around for about half an hour to get in. The good thing about waiting for an exhibition on a cold day at the Pompidou is that there's a great view of Paris to be had and when you are bored with that read your book (you always carry one of those don't you?) or the exhibition leaflet that the staff helpfully hand out to the line. It's available in French and English, so just ask.

What of the exhibition itself? Well, it's Dali, no introduction needed and it's all of Dali: a massive retrospective of over a hundred canvasses, as well as sketches, books, sculpture and films. There was a lot of work that I had never seen before. If it isn't from London or New York that will always be the case for me. So, I enjoyed discovering the white lobster phone (above) as I've only ever seen the red one in Tate Modern, plus all the paintings on the horrors of war (Spanish civil and World), which make for unsettling viewing. And there's all the usual stuff - dripping clocks, ants, narcissi.

The most annoying moment was provided by some rather young people (not that it is their fault they are young) whose inane comments about it all being 'cool and dreamy' (no, really?) got right up my nose. Still...call me old, intolerant, whatever.

Macbeth - detail of one of the witches (typical of me to chose that!)

It was good to see Dali's theatre sets and those film collaborations with Brunel. I even enjoyed making my own surreal photo from a cunningly put together set. This was not just for the kiddies. (Note: you can take some photographs of some of the work). And by the way, I'm not sure I'd want to answer the kind of questions children ask when confronted with rather graphic work.

My overwhelming impression was of two things - just how great a technician Dali was - his landscapes are perfect in their geomorphological detail - really look at the rocks and you'll see what I mean; and deconstruction of the body and its reconstruction into another image - quite brilliant. Check for yourself. If you think surrealism is a license to be silly, you're missing the point. 13 Euros well spent and I am glad I ignored all the nay-sayers who simply don't get Dali.

For more go here before 25 March.

Museum of European Photography

Sometimes I amaze myself at how slow I am to actually go and see things in Paris that are literally on my door step, especially if they are things I am really interested in, like photography. This Museum is in St Paul, 4eme (i.e my 'hood) is in a lovely building which combines 18th century and modern architecture. The front court yard has a gorgeous Zen gravel garden of black and white raked gravel with a lovely glass sculpture.

On at the moment is a huge survey exhibition of French photography from the last fifty years: many iconic images and much of them familiar, but worthy of close inspection  Do visit if snapping is your thing.

Costs 7 Euros plein tariff. No queues. Well stocked book shop. Check it out.

Details here: http://www.mep-fr.org/us/

Hair - Musee de Quai de Branly

A rather eclectic exhibition, meaning wide ranging and somewhat illogical, but nonetheless interesting. Of special note are the Nazca mummies, which I have never seen before and the shrunken heads. Not exactly for the faint hearted.

However the most shocking and moving things were the tonsuring of so-called women collaborators at the end of the war. I like to think they had done nothing more heinous than fallen in love. Capa's photographs were familiar, but the film footage was truly shocking: laughing crowds including children, women being beaten and one with blood running down her face where she had clearly been punched. Shameful stuff that needs to be seen.

Islamic Art Galleries, The Louvre

Opened by Francois Hollande on 18 September, the new galleries are seriously well worth a visit.

Candelabra beaten from a single sheet of metal

Arranged chronologically, the art works are mainly ceramics, glass, metalwork and calligraphy on all kinds of surfaces. I love art that is basically a celebration of the word.

There is an impressive selection of mediaeval Persian carpets and the mosaic tiles are all fab.

Moghul jewelry and jewel-encrusted daggers could have found their way home in my pocket, along with the odd sanctuary lamp, rock crystal ewer and lustre-glazed bowl.

Worth the price of admission to the Museum alone. Try to pick a less crowded day - public holidays are probably not the best choice.

Gerhard Richter, Pompidou Centre

I tried, honestly I did, but I simply didn't enjoy this one. Now in Paris after London and Berlin, Panorama is a survey exhibition of his work since 1962 (when he destroyed all previous work) starting with his paintings from photographs (as in the portrait of his daughter, above).

I think my single biggest problem is that I found his abstract painting building up paint in layers generally unappealing for to its colour palate - yellow and green are just not for me.  Only one of these did I enjoy - Forest - which was mainly blues. I've been wondering about why this is. What makes the brain favour one set of hues over others? How does this get wired in? Answers on a postcard please.

Grey is a key colour for Richter and there is a whole room dedicated to such, but it lacks conviction for me being neither light (white) or its absence (black). The purpose of the huge mirror and most of the glass pieces either baffled me or struck me a pretty banal. At least the kids had fun making faces.

The series entitled 18 October 1977 about the Bader Meinhof was interesting and I do say yes to the triptych of Ulrike Meinhof portraits from newspaper photographs. Other political work includes a portrait of his Nazi uncle and a surprising small painting of September 2001. The chromatic pieces are OK, but not exactly ground breaking. 

The most recent work is from 2010, Aladin, a series of six paintings on glass which was for me the best in the show. Go if you must spend 13 Euros (gasp). It's on until 26 September. 

http://www.gerhard-richter.com/

http://www.centrepompidou.fr/Pompidou/Manifs.nsf/AllExpositions/685A3BA543D440FFC125795F0049FA85?OpenDocument&sessionM=2.2.1&L=1

Musee du Quai de Branly

Sunday (last) and the museums are free. So, it would be remiss to fail to take advantage of such an offer.

The Musee du Quai de Branly sits on the left bank near the Effiel Tower. It houses the most wondeful collection of ethnographic works from four continents, arranged by geography and theme. The building itself and the lovely garden is worth the trip alone (bar the piped birdsong - why?).

Imagine if you had to redesign the Pitts Rivers Museum in Oxford for the 21st century and this might be what you'd come up with.

The current and very scary Shamanic exhibition is good value too if you're into voodoo altars, skulls, feathers and fetishes of all kinds. Gothic run riot around the world.

My personal favourites were the Australian aboriginal paintings and Amazonian feather head dresses, but there's too much to choose from really.

Details here: http://www.quaibranly.fr/

On the Road

The first film I have actually managed to go and see in France - and a mass Spoken Word outing.  It was much anticipated and had me engaged in all kinds of pre-reading - namely both the scroll and the published version of the novel in the last few weeks. Beat that!

Enjoyable, but less about the journeys, more about the partying and the vast American landscape was zipped through in seconds. I would have liked to have seen more of it and heard more from the novel in the narration, especially the wonderful descriptive passages about America. I don't understand why the script was based on the scroll, but names were from the novel. What drove this choice? We all know who's who, why not just call them by their real names? It's an almost impossible task to make a film from this book, so, fair effort and well worth going to see. Some of the French press I've read hate it, but ignore that and make up your own mind.

If you want more you can visit the scroll itself at the Museum of Books and Manuscripts where it will reside until 19 August. For details go here: http://www.museedeslettres.fr/public/

Paris Museums - First Sunday

Just a little reminder, more in the form of note to self, that all the Museums in Paris are free to visit on the first Sunday of every month. For someone from the UK, paying to visit museums is a bit hard to get used to as we can walk in for free any time we like. It's the mark of a civilised society I think - access to all regardless of pocket. No-one should be barred from our culture and heritage. But this is France, and this time I took a visitor to the Pompidiou, which is one of my favourites and walking distance from my apartment. We were a bit tired so this piece sums up what we both needed.

Musee Rodin

Excellent collection of all your favourites: large castings, marquettes, marbles all jumbled around inside and in the grounds of a beautiful 18th century house at the back of Les Invalides. A cosy and intimate setting for works I've only ever seen in portentous places like the Cantor in Northern California, or at special exhibitions at the Royal Academy. Lovely garden too.

Very enjoyable and not expensive to visit - 10 Euros for two adults for everything including the current exhibition of 300 drawings (some racy enough to make Tracey Emin look tame), kids free, EU students under 25 free - so bit of a bargain for a family from one of France's non-state funded museums. Merci beaucoup.

http://www.musee-rodin.fr/

Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris

or Musee de l'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, has a wonderful representative collection of the last hundred or so years of mainly French art, especially good on Cubism, such as this Braque: 

It mounts special exhibitions (Georg Baserlitz at present), but the permanent collection is free to view. It is housed in the Palais de Tokyo which was built of the 1937 International Exhibition, a favourite haunt of skateboards of all ages; so if you hate art you can grab a coffee and watch the free entertainment  - middle-aged men practising tricks and teenagers laughing at them. 

An excellent way to spend a few hours on a Sunday and there was hardly anyone there today, unlike the super-crowded Pompidiou. A few more images to give you a feel for what's there:

http://www.mam.paris.fr/

Musee Carnavalet, Paris

Also known as the Museum of the History of Paris is in the 4th, on rue de Sevigne, right in the heart of the Marais. Plenty of room recreations, paintings, revolutionary memorabilia, stones from the Bastille, Proust's bedroom and a lovely parterre. My favourite on this visit was the Fouquet Bijouterie designed by Mucha - Art Nouveau at its highest. most sinuous and most gorgeous. Free entry means I will be back time and again as it's literally five minutes from my apartment. Lovely.

http://carnavalet.paris.fr/