Well, there are lots of reasons for that. But a FB friend posted about an exhibit that I would really like to see, and when I sent him a message about it, he wrote back that Paris is loaded with seemingly great exhibitions at the moment, at both museums and galleries. So…
What initially caught my attention was The Caillebotte Brothers’ Private World, which opened today at the marvelous Jacquemart-Andre Museum. Of course we know about Gustave, whom I last saw in depth at the Brooklyn Museum’s 2009 exhibit. Even though his best works weren’t there, his innovation was obvious. The Paris exhibit includes his brother Martial, a composer, poet and photographer. New to me, and others:
…a recent study of Martial’s photographic collection has revealed a great awareness of the subjects represented in the paintings of his brother Gustave: the views of Paris, the sailing boats, the gardens and the river banks. This discovery has enabled the Jacquemart-André Museum to do what no other museum has done before: compare Martial’s photographs directly with Gustave’s works….…the exhibition reveals the underlying similarities between the Caillebotte brothers, by hanging 35 paintings alongside almost 150 modern prints…taken from Martial’s originals. Some of the paintings, which belong to private collections, have never been shown in public before.
That’s Gustave in the photo above.
What else would I see, in terms of temporary shows? The Louvre has a Messerschmidt show (I missed this one at the Neue Galerie) and drawings by Pietro da Cortona and Ciro Ferri. The Musee d’Orsay is about to open Manet, the Man Who Invented Modern Art, and has a show of British Pre-Raphaelite photography. Don’t forget the comprehensive Redon show at the Grand Palais (170 works!). And there’s so much more…
In fact, while I was looking up exhibitions, I discovered a new site, in beta, called ArtCalendr, which says it will include a global listing of 20,000+ art exhibitions in 40 countries. It still has some bugs — e.g., searching for Paris exhibitions between Mar. 25 and 31 brought up zero. I had to change the dates, to July 1, to get results. But it could be promising.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Jacquemart-Andre Museum