Imagine being invited into the home of modernists living behind 17th- and 18th-century facades in the Saint Germain Quarter, behind 19th-century facades near the Opera, behind early 20th-century facades near the Bois de Boulogne, studying the cover of a vinyl record while listening, perhaps with stereophonic sound, to Duke Ellington or Gilbert Bécaud or Sydney Bechet, maybe Miles Davis playing on a three-track stereo tape,

or stretching out to read Jean-Paul Sartre or Albert Camus or Alain Robbe-Grillet or Elle.

Imagine sitting in the living room of certain members of the comfortable class of la bonne bourgeoisie, looking to break with the 18th-century originals and copies that signified sophistication in the homes of their parents, debating whether to open dad’s 1949 Burgundy or Bordeaux, and if the Bordeaux then the Chateau Latour or the Chateau Petrus,

or facing a television set in the living room tuned to the single channel of Télévision Française, or discussing the politics of the flailing Fourth Republic and then of Charles de Gaulle’s return from the desert to take the reins of the Fifth.

Pascal Cuisiner, owner of the Galerie Pascal Cuisinier, invites visitors to take a seat, or at least a view of a seat, in the lap of years 1951 to 1961 through an exceptional collection of 100 chairs, armchairs, sofas and other seating from what he calls “the first modern French designers.” He uses the term to refer to those born around 1925 and 1930 who were among the first to design furniture for mass production. Mass production for these designers during the hinge years 1951 to 1961 often meant production in small series, hence the uniqueness of Cuisinier’s collection.

The exhibition “100 sièges français” runs Sept. 6 to Oct. 15, 2014 at two locations: at Cuisinier’s namesake gallery in the 6th arrondissement and at the Jean-Michel Wilmotte Exhibition Space in the Marais, the larger, more attractive setting of the two.

During an interview at the latter, Cuisinier speaks of his role, as gallery owner, in “defending a concept, a designer, a style,” ensuring an expertise for his clientele of collectors, decorators and individuals in tune with the aesthetics of the period from 1951 to 1961.

That’s a period when aspects such as tubular metal legs, flat springs and the use of latex foam and elastic strapping were considered ultra-modern or avant-gardist.

“Taken together,” he notes, “they represent one of the most radical departures from tradition ever seen in the history of furniture design, both in France and the world over.”

Citing René-Jean Caillette, Genevieve Dangles and Christrian Defrance, Pierre Guariche, Joseph-André Motte, Pierre Paulin and designers from the Atelier de Recherches Plastiques (ARP), Cuisinier says that many of the designers whose work interests him would go on to become well-known in the 1960s and 1970s and to run major design agencies.

Residents of and visitors to Paris are likely familiar with the work, if not the name, of Motte (1925-2013), who designed the brightly colored molded chairs that began to replace the old wooden benches in many metro stations in 1973.

Cuisinier typically holds two 6-week exhibitions each year in his gallery while otherwise showing a sample of assorted furnishings from the period of his focus in his gallery.

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Wondering what to wear, Mesdemoiselles, Mesdames, while sitting your imagined chair on the Left Bank or on the Right? See this video about the exhibition about the “New Look” and the emergence of ready-to-wear at the Palais Galliera, the City of Paris’s Fashion Museum, running July 12 to Nov. 5, 2014.

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Galerie Pascale Cuisinier, 13 rue de Seine, 6th arr. Open Mon.-Sat. 10am-7pm. Tel. 07 43 54 34 61.

Jean-Michel Wilmotte Exhibition Space, 9 rue du Roi Doré, 3rd arr. Open Mon.-Sat. 10am-7pm.

Cuisiner also presents his gallery at PAD London, Design Basel and Design Miami.

Palais Galliera, 10 avenue Pierre 1er de Serbie, 16th arr. Open Tues.-Sun., 10am-6pm, until 9pm on Thurs.

© 2014, Gary Lee Kraut

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Chozo Yoshii’s original gallery in Tokyo (founded in 1965) and its latest branch in New York City (1990) are known for modern and contemporary Asian art. However, his Parisian gallery (1972) regularly showcases French masters like Roualt, Cézanne and Matisse, often paying special attention to multi-cultural artists like Kyoto-born Ryuzaburo Umehara who studied with Renoir.

In 1980, Chozo Yoshii’s eponymous foundation opened the Kiyoharo Art Colony near Mount Fuji, taking its architectural and spiritual inspiration from La Ruche, a Parisian artist’s haven established in 1902 by sculptor Alfred Boucher. La Ruche welcomed Marc Chagall, Fernand Léger and Guillaume Apollinaire, among others. Kiyoharo almuni include César, Olivier Debré, and Antoni Clavé.

Through May 17, the Galerie Yoshii hosts the work of by Paris-based artist Kojiro Akagi. Akagi doesn’t concentrate on the obvious architectural suspects like Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. He’s just as likely to set up his easel across from a peeling façade on the rue de Faubourg Saint Martin, a row of ancient warehouses at Bercy or the obscure 16th arrondissement apartment building where Maria Callas lived.

His delicate brushwork delivers gale force charm, all the more because the details that many artists would brush away are firmly anchored in Akagi’s vision of Paris, a vision that celebrates chipped sidewalk tessera and television antennas perched like storks upon slate rooftops. Red traffic lights resemble rubies, graffiti tags swirl into sinuous calligraphy, and green plastic trash-bags are transformed into diaphanous, wind-blown frocks that might have been styled by Dior.

Honorary Vice President of the French Salon national des Beaux Arts and winner of countless awards on two continents, including the Prix La Ruche of the Association Amicale Japonaise, Akaji presents his latest book of 100 water-colors with tri-lingual texts, Le Paris d’Akagi tome V (Editions Maria) in concert with this exhibition (100€ at the gallery, otherwise 160€ list price). His paintings also figure in the collections of the Musée Carnavalet.

© 2014, Corinne LaBalme

Galerie Yoshii. 8 rue Matignon, 75008. Tel: 01.43.59.73.46. Metro Miromesnil or Franklin Roosevelt.

The post Japanese Artist Kojiro Akagi Examines the Spirits of Paris appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Meanwhile, on the side streets and alleyways of Cairo and Alexandria, some of the surprising yet ordinary colors of the Egyptian night have gone unnoticed.

But they were there all along—the pastel greens, the magical blues, the luxuriant reds and the languid golden yellows, lit by street lamps and neon lights and bulbs in stairwells.

And they are now in Montmartre in an exhibition of the photographs by Thibault de Puyfontaine showing until March 27 at the Little Big Galerie.

Mr. de Puyfontaine’s night images look like dreamscapes but they are indeed real. His “Late Colors,” as he has entitled the series, are neither modified nor constructed but rather found, witnessed, perhaps awaited.

Mr. de Puyfontaine’s night are warm but not hot. His eye appears to be seeking an impassive idyll, far removed from raw emotion of the type we’ve witnessed on television these past few weeks.

Well lit by streetlamps or neon lights or bulbs in stairwells, there are few dark shadows in these scenes. The photographer’s framing is at times ominously silent yet one rarely senses danger or intrigue in these photographs. They are patient and nostalgic without melancholy. I am reminded in some of the images in the exhibition of timeless photographs of Montmartre at night, with Cairo’s green-red-blue in place of Paris’s yellow-gold-beige.

There are few people in these night images, yet the photographer is indeed examining the artifacts of the inhabitants: panels leaning against a wall, a fleeting view of a man by a pool table, a chair and an empty stand outside what might be a closed shop, handprints of blood from a sacrificed animal during the feast of Eid al-Adha (below). The photographer has muted the sounds of the city but I suspect that the inhabitants are still well awake and have simply gone inside for the night.

Born in 1980 in Clichy, a suburb of Paris, Thibault de Puyfontaine is just beginning to spread his wings as a photographer. Most of the photographs from “Late Colors” were taken over several years as he returned to Egypt for about one month every three months from 2007 to early 2010. During that time he became increasingly interested in photographing its cities by night.

Having discovered a passion for “Late Colors,” he now considers the work of the period represented in this exhibition as Chapter 1 of an international project to photograph cities at night. His most recent photo in the show was actually taken Mozambique. Below, he stands in front of that image, entitled “The Train of Blade Runner.”

Next stop, he says: Asia.

Late Colors by Thibault de Puyfontaine, Feb. 8 to March 27
Little Big Galerie, 45 rue Lepic, 18th arrondissement. http://www.littlebiggalerie.com/. Tel. 01 42 52 81 25. Open Tues.-Sun. 2:30pm-7:30pm, Sat. 11am-7:30pm. Little Big Galerie is exclusively devoted to photography. To continue the mood of colored alleys and discover a little-known piece of Montmartre, ask to visit the cul-de-sac behind the gallery.

(c) 2011, Gary Lee Kraut

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Centre Iris… pour la photographie is disconnected from the gallery landscape of Paris both for its situation north of the Pompidou Center and its exhibition space in a vaulted white-washed basement.

That’s a disconnect that makes it perfectly suited for the intense and haunting portraits by American photographer Quinn Jacobson in an exhibit of his work entitled “Glass Memories,” showing until June 19, 2010.

Jacobson used the photographic technique known as the wet plate collodion process in creating the images for the show. Most are on glass (ambrotype), with several on metal (ferrotype).

Wet plate collodion photography, developed in the 1850s, is fairly primitive in photographic term. It competed with daguerreotype and other technical developments of the time, and by the 1880s it had all but disappeared in favor of dry plates.

The process gives a brownish-gray coloring that has the immediate mark of memory. In using it Jacobson stays clear of nostalgia in favor of an accentuated present, a kind of what-was-still-is or what-is-harkens-to-what-was. The fact that the sitter must remain still for several seconds or more while being photographed using this process give an intensity to their otherwise flat expressions, as though he or she is trying to stay still and unflinching while blood is being drawn. To help the sitter remain still, an eerie head-support is sometimes used during the shooting, making it appear as those individuals were part of an experiment.

Jacobson has written: “Collodion’s unique esthetic gives a half-remembered dream quality evoking the feeling of memory. It’s hauntingly beautiful and reveals deep, poignant qualities about the people I photograph. It also allows me to interact with the sitter in ways traditional photography doesn’t. Because of the commitment (time, complexity and stubbornness) of the process, I feel that the sitter co-creates the image with me.”

The exhibit focuses on two subjects/locations. The first, entitled “The Portraits of Madison Avenue,” introduces us residents of a low-income neighborhood in Ogden, Utah. The second, “Vergangenheitsbewaltïgung,” examines the relation of the present to the past in Germany relative to Kristallnacht and the Holocaust. Jacobson was born in 1964 in Ogden, Utah. A descendant on his father’s side of European Jews, he now lives in Germany.

The Portraits of Madison Avenue

Jacobson’s Madison Avenue is far removed from New York’s Madison Avenue. It is a street in Ogden where his father owned a low-income apartment complex. In creating this series of portrait he visits his own memories of traveling there with his father in the early 1970s by photographing individuals who live there today. These were and are people who, he notes, live “on the fringes of society. They fascinated me then and have deeply affected me to this day.”

Here are Kayla, an African American Jehova Witness, Dale, a paranoid Schizophrenic, Tim and Gale, day laborers, Dusty, a convicted sex offender, Keith, a biker, Merrym, who lost her leg to a flesh eating bateria, and others.

Reading those tag lines, which are actually titles, one might imagine that the images show individuals on the down and out. Yet this is not an exhibit of afflictions but rather of acceptance, fate, and of individual gazes. There are several frightening images (e.g. a man holding a gun to his head), but we are not repulsed by these individuals; instead we are drawn to them, we want to meet them. They invite reflections on the humanity of our own Madison Avenues.

Jacobson considers his use of wet plate collodion for these portraits “as a metaphor as it relates to abandonment. The process was abandoned and forgotten, just as most marginalized people are by the mainstream. I also embrace it for its imperfections; echoing our human imperfections.”

You can view many of the images from that part of the exhibition here.

Vergangenheitsbewaltïgung

The tangled German title of the second half of the exhibition means “Struggling with coming to terms with the past.” As Jacobson explains, “My project deals with the tension between the memory of these events and the idea of ‘the other’ today in Germany.” The project is also an exploration of the photographer’s own Jewish roots and the Holocaust through people and place in Germany today. Jacobson has a series of Stars of David tattooed on his arm. He now lives in Germany.

These portraits, along with some landscapes and settings where he’s “felt a certain kind of ‘presence’ of the past, offer a more personal vision than Madison Avenue. Here, Jacobson is searching for some understanding and/or connection while pursuing the watchwords, “Never Forget.”

There are a couple of attractively ghostly landscapes in this series, a superb portrait entitled “Nordic Man” (the photographic technique and the stillness of the subjects produces portraits whose intense gaze is accentuated in lighter-color eyes), and a power self-portrait entitled “Jewish DNA,” though on the whole I find these images less telling than Madison Avenue. Unlike the Madison Avenue portraits, where the photographer is like a nurse drawing blood, there is a distance between the photographer and his German subjects.

You can view some images from that part of the exhibition here.

Together, the two parts of the exhibit make for a worthwhile detour to a gallery to watching.

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“Glass Memories” by Quinn Jacobson, March 10 to June 19 at the Centre Iris… pour la photographie, 238 rue Saint-Martin, 3rd arrondissement. Metro Arts et Métiers. www.centre-iris.fr/. Open Tues.-Sat. 2-7 p.m.

Here’s a video in which the photographer explains and demonstrates the process.

Jacobson refers to works using this process as “handmade artifacts.” Each image is unique. Prices of these single-sample works run from 600 to 3000 euros.

© 2010, Gary Lee Kraut

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