Despite the valiant – some might say defiant - burst of summer weather we’ve been enjoying in Paris over the last few days, it feels like Autumn is upon us with a vengeance at last today. Morning has been taking its time to dawn for weeks now, a cool northerly wind accompanied the sun when it eventually arrived and the shock of the evening closing quickly in – all undeniably autumnal characteristics.
The Grands Boulevards were the starting point for my cultural excursion today – savoured a little shopping alongside the spectacle of the Opéra building, before heading back to Beaubourg. Enjoyed the small but perfectly formed Rachel Whiteread Sculpture show at Galerie Nelson-Freeman; casts of small everyday objects in gelato-coloured pigments and resins.
Upstairs she had created an ‘icy’ blue dolls-house and framed her quirky postcards, featuring gouache and polka-dots (loved the way they were delicately mounted too so you could enjoy the shadows from the cut-outs). Couldn’t help but notice some very obvious and unattractive sets of plugs in the otherwise pristine, minimal room – I thought how fitting it would have been if she had cast them too!
A small Nancy Spero retrospective from their permanent collection started at the Centre Pompidou today and was worth a look too. I’ve always been a fan of her work, not least of all because she uses paper, but also her eclectic collage style and the unusual composition of her drawings also appeals to me. (Although not strictly a bicycle, I also snapped today's two-wheeled contender for today's 'velo du jour' tethered outside the museum with a bright pink bike lock.)
Finally visited the Atelier Brancusi today. It’s seriously stunning. To see all those well-known pieces in one place, alongside and in relation to one another and in that gorgeous light-filled space.
Since I’ve been in Paris, I’ve been so preoccupied with whites (rather than – for those who know my work – my beloved blacks and greys!), which is no surprise, given the light that bounces off the white stone of the city’s architecture, but it was fantastic to see Brancusi’s pristine (there’s that word again) whites and immaculate surfaces.
Even his tools were so beautifully arranged. Had to spend quite a while there absorbing it all – or was that resting after all the shopping?
