Paul McCarthy's giant "sex toy" inflatable Tree sculpture deflates in Paris

What's the difference between a work of art and an anal sex toy?

Well, according to some, only size - at least when it comes to the most recent work from American artist, Paul McCarthy.

"Tree" a temporary (very much so, as it turned out) 24-metre high inflatable green sculpture "adorned" the swanky Place Vendôme area of Paris last Thursday - but not for very long.

Paul McCarthy's "Tree" (screenshot AFP video report)

Even as it was being erected (no pun intended) "Tree" brought with it controversy as a passerby, clearly offended by its intended "ambiguity", slapped McCarthy in the face, saying that the 69-year-old artist's creation was "un-French" and "had no place on the square".

Organisers of La Foire internationale d’art contemporain (International Contemporary Art Fair , FIAC) set to run from October 23-26 and of which "Tree" was intended to be a part, leapt to McCarthy's defence.

"It's heartbreaking that an artist should be attacked in this manner," Jennifer Flay, the artistic director of FIAC told Le Monde.

"Of course this work is controversial, it plays on the ambiguity between a Christmas tree and sex toy: this is neither a surprise nor a secret," she continued.

"But there is no offence to the public, and enough ambiguity to not upset children. It has also received all the necessary approvals : from the préfecture of police of the city of Paris, the ministry of culture and the comité Vendôme, which represents the business owners on the square."

"What is art meant to be if not to disturb, ask questions and reveal society's flaws?"

Righty-ho. That's justification enough then.

Opponents though were having none of it.

And on the night of Friday to Saturday, a group of protesters cut through the cords holding the artwork in place.

FIAC decided to deflate it to prevent any damage being done, saying that McCarthy requesting them not to reinflate it because, "he was worried about potential trouble if the work was put back up."

"Instead of a profound reflection about objects as a mode of expression with multiple meanings, we have witnessed violent reactions," said the artist who had also admitted earlier that the idea "started with a joke".

"Originally, I thought that a butt plug had a shape similar to the sculptures of Romanian artist Constantin Brâncusi," he said.

"Afterwards, I realised that it looked like a Christmas tree. But it is an abstract work . People can be offended if they want to think of it as a plug, but for me it is more of an abstraction.”

For those of a more um...more timid temperent or delicate disposition among you who've no idea what an anal plug looks like, try typing those words into you search engine and then click on image.

You'll quickly get the picture...and what all the fuss was about.

Rainbathing at the Edward Hopper exhibition in Paris

If you're planning on making it along to the Edward Hopper retrospective at Le Grand Palais in Paris, here are a few things worth bearing in mind.

First up of course, buy your ticket in advance.

If you don't, the chances are you'll spend several hours queueing, or standing in line if you will, watching those who've had the foresight to book online pass in front of you.

That said, even if you have a ticket, there's no guarantee that you'll actually make it through the doors at the time stated.

The numbers allowed in are clearly limited by the space available, and that's perfectly reasonable, if only for security purposes.




Ah waiting!

This being Le Grand Palais, so completely unused to organising major exhibitions that have popular appeal (let the irony carry you away) there's a very French approach to "service".

Because the exhibition is running from October until January - the months when Paris offers the very best of weather - absolutely no thought seems to have been made by the wonderfully-named Strategic orientation council or those involved in running the whole shebang as to how visitors might comfortably spend their time outside, rainbathing.

Temporary shelter to protect those waiting from the "inclement" (don't you just love that word - very TV presenterish n'est-ce pas?)  weather?

Hah!

Not at all.

Instead, just as the masses who went to see the Monet exhibition a couple of years ago, you can take full advantage of whatever Mother Nature showers upon you.
 

Edward Hopper retrospective, Le Grand Palais, Paris - brolly parade

What about staff on duty to explain waiting times, deal with complaints from very patient (given the circumstances) often damp and probably cold visitors?

Oh yes...one solitary and decidedly miserable-looking attendant who sympathises with the predicament of those waiting, clearly doing his best, but cannot really deal with the situation.

Nor should he have to.

Ergo - take a brolly, wrap up warm and...hey, perhaps have a flask of something hot (or warming) to hand.

When that moment comes and you're allowed inside, be prepared to go shoulder-to-shoulder with other visitors desperate to get a glimpse of the works on display.

The atmosphere is decidedly one in which there's an intimate sharing of space as everyone politely pigeon-steps their way from room-to-room, painting to painting.

Edward Hopper retrospective, Le Grand Palais, Paris - through the doors and then what?

Oh and keep an eye out for the "professional" who has brought their own stool with them and will happily hog a prime location slap bang in front of the work THEY want to see.

As for the exhibition itself, well it's a delight as Hopper's work is accessible and his Realism - because that's what it is - is something your mother would probably approve of as "proper painting".

Plus it provides a great insight into the man often described as an iconic American artist.

If you hire the audio handset to guide you through the exhibition, be sure to return it to the unmarked little plastic basket, almost hidden,  as you leave.

Otherwise you could end up taking it home because the woman responsible for collecting headsets for groups will refuse to take it with a jobsworth, "No you cannot leave it here."

Alternatively of course you might decide to go it alone and instead simply enjoy what you see, including the influence Paris had on his style (here's a pretty good piece on that) with the occasional and inevitable pontificator happily sharing their "knowledge" and "understanding" of Hopper with anyone who doesn't really want to listen.

There's always (at least) one - isn't there?

Finally, for those of you who take the...er...more shall we call it the "French and Saunders" approach to any sort of exhibition...well the coffee's all right.



The Edward Hopper retrospective runs at Le Grand Palais until January 28, 2013

Yahoo France's artistic spelling boo-boo

Isn't there just something a little disconcerting when the headline of a piece dealing with the subject of optical illusions appears inadvertently to have that very effect on the reader?

That's exactly what Yahoo France managed to do recently when it ran a feature piece on American artist Kurt Wenner.

Yahoo "tompe-l'œil" (screenshot from Yahoo)

The former designer for NASA has built up something of a reputation for an art form he invented in 1984, according to his official website, anamorphic or
3D pavement art.

Kurt Wenner anamorphic or 3D pavement art (screenshot from YouTube video)

In his own words Wenner, "Invented a new geometry to create compositions that appear to rise from, or fall into the ground."

And the results are - well, staggering.

That was clearly what Yahoo was trying to get across but the headline which used the French expression "trompe l'œil" to make its point.

Only that's not quite what appeared in the headline, with an "r" in "trompe" sadly missing rendering the sentence meaningless.

Admittedly when you click on the link the spelling is tidied up, but still...great to see Yahoo sub editors well and truly on the ball.

The tale of a forgotten Boldini painting sold for €2.1 million

"It was a magical moment, you could see that the buyer really liked the painting and paid the price of passion," art expert Marc Ottavi told the French news agency AFP after a painting by the Italian artist Giovanni Boldini recently went under the hammer for €2.1 million.

Image: Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) from Wikipedia

And it's probably not difficult to understand his delight as the painting was only discovered in June this year, having spent 70 years in a forgotten Parisian apartment.

The painting was of Marthe de Florian, a former muse of the artist, and had belonged to her granddaughter who died earlier this year at the age of 91.

She had maintained the charges on the apartment but had not actually lived there for decades.

It was when the deceased woman's family asked auctioneer Olivier Choppin-Janvry to make an inventory of everything she had left behind that the masterpiece was found.

Because among the treasures and under the dust was what he discovered to be "the portrait of an actress of exceptional beauty who went by the name of Marthe de Florian enshrouded in a pale pink mousseline evening dress."

The only problem was apparently that to begin with Choppin-Janvry wasn't 100 percent certain of its provenance: there was no proof that it had been painted by Boldini and had never been listed among any works by the painter.

After Ottavi was called in, the real investigation began. It soon yielded results.

One of the artist's visiting cards was found with a scribbled message clearly indicating that Boldini had been one of de Florian's lovers.

And then lo and behold, a mention of the portrait was discovered in a book from 1951 by the painter's widow; a mention which was proof positive that the portrait had been painted in 1898 when de Florian was 24 years old.

Armed with that information, the painting went to auction where, from a starting price of €300,000, it was finally sold for a world record for the artist of €2.1 million.

François Pinault - The loss of Paris is the gain of Venice

When French billionaire François Pinault gave up his attempts to build a museum on L'île Seguin, an island on the river Seine in the suburbs of the French capital which was once the site of a Renault factory, he chose the Palazzo Grassi in the Italian city of Venice as the best place to share with the rest of the world his vast collection of modern art.

The decision in 2004 not to go ahead with Paris option was down to Pinault's frustration at the administrative red tape involved in getting the necessary planning permission, and even though Palazzo Grassi isn't big enough to hold all his works in one go, a visit has to be a "must" on any visitor's list of "things to do and places to see" no matter how short a stay might be planned in "the Queen of the Adriatic".

That has been especially true since June 2009 when after months of renovation work at the Punta della Dogana, a new art centre for Pinault's foundation (yes the French capital really did lose out BIG time) the exhibition "Mapping the studio", opened at both venues.

It is in the words of the official website an exhibition aimed at "conveying the sense of vitality and discovery that has been an integral part of the François Pinault Collection over the years."



It might be difficult to appreciate fully the intent behind many of the artists' work and they can surely appear obscure and often nonsensical.

But that's where the audio guide kicks in, offering explanations which visitors can accept or ignore as they wish.

Such as why Piotr Uklański's "Dancing Nazis", which combines his work of 166 film stills and poster images of US and European actors who've played the parts of Nazis in films, with a dance floor intermittently illuminated in fluorescent colours, has a meaning which "lies not within itself but within the mind of the spectator."

When you wander into a darkened room to see Bruce Nauman's film "Test Tape Fat Chance John Cage", a film he made by leaving the camera running in his studio overnight recording...well not a lot really...the audio guide once again helpfully sheds some light.

It spells out how the film is the inspiration for the whole theme of the exhibition "Mapping the studio" and has been described in reviews as "pushing the limits" and "showing everything and nothing."

It's perhaps statements like that which might alienate many from sitting down and pondering the whole thing in the first place.

But it's also worth bearing in mind that works which might often puzzle and leave the visitor floundering don't always appear to be what they initially seem.

Thank goodness for that thought as the guide assures you that Cady Noland's installation piece "Bloody Mess" is far from quite literally being, as the name suggests, a work of junk thrown together in no apparent form on the exhibition floor.

Or Cy Twombly's "Ilium" is in no way just lot of indiscriminate scribbling (is there any other sort) but is brought into context when you're told just how important an influence his overall work has been on other artists.



There is of course more, much more to Pinault's collection than the briefest of resumés allows. There are works from established artists such as Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman and Barbara Kruger, to name just a few.

And then there are pieces from emerging talents such as Adel Abdessemed, Nate Lowman and of course Rob Pruitt, whose "101 art ideas you can do yourself" starting off with "Putting googly eyes on things" through (should you feel the need to pop along to the men's room) "Sit on the toilet backwards", and the other 99 suggestions that accompany you during your visit, are guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

Even if at times it's hard to fathom out what some of the artists' intentions actually were or are, there's not denying that what's on display is thought-provoking and it's never dull.

And maybe the best advice is to bear in mind as you wander through the exhibition is not necessarily to try looking for meaning and simply enjoy.

Kandinsky in Paris - battling the crowds

Art lovers will probably be very well aware that there's a major retrospective of the life and works of the Russian-born painter and art theorist, Wassily Kandinsky, showing in the French capital at the moment.

After its huge success at Munich’s Lenbachhaus museum, the exhibition is nearing the end of its run at the Centre Pompidou, where it has been since April 8.

Visitors get the chance to follow chronologically the artist's life in an exhibition which brings together around 100 paintings on loan from "three of the largest public holdings of Kandinsky's work": the Centre Pompidou itself, along with the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich and New York's Solomon R Guggenheim museum.



As with any major retrospective - and especially one that has been heavily marketed (there are umpteen special travel offers available for tourists to "come and admire") - it is something of a victim of its own success.

The exhibition has of course been "packing 'em in" and it's hard to choose a moment when you might really be able to appreciate it as you might perhaps wish.

For those hoping to spend time admiring Kandinsky's work in relative peace and quiet - forget it. You won't be alone - or probably anywhere near it.

The crowds seem to be enormous, no matter which day of the week you choose, and Sunday mornings especially would appear to be a time to be avoided at all costs.

That seems to be the occasion when young couples, complete with pushchairs and less-than-appreciative infants descend on the place, and even listening to explanations on rented headsets can be a little difficult over the background noise of wailing babies and parents "hushing" rather loudly.

Oh yes and a word on those headsets perhaps.

They are undoubtedly a great way for the lazier, ill-informed or time-pressed visitor to get up to speed quickly on the artist's intent and to put everything into its historical context and "meaning".

They're a common (and welcome?) addition to many a museum.

But as always they should come with a warning. Don't become a slave to them, no matter how convenient they might be.

At the Kandinsky exhibition the numbering sometimes seems a little haywire so you could, for instance, start off the whole tour inadvertently pressing a particular button and discover that you haven't actually begun at the beginning and there other recordings offering descriptions and explanations of earlier works.

It's an easy mistake to make, but fear not. A little wander around will put you on the right track and with a bit of luck, a deal of perseverance and patience, you'll be able to leave the exhibition more informed than when you arrived.

And there's no doubt that should you have managed to shut out all the unwelcome extraneous distractions and immersed yourself in Kandinsky's search for abstraction, you'll have spent a privileged couple of hours in the company of an undeniable master of his genre.

The Kandinsky exhibition runs at the Centre Pompidou in Paris until August 10.