My husband and I spent a long weekend in Paris and much to our disappointment the sun didn’t shine and the birds didn’t sing, so what does one do when you cannot promenade along the Seine, you hide in the many museums Paris has on offer. Our feet pounded the many rooms in the Louvre and the Musee d’orsay and inspired we went on to take in Lucian Freud at the Pompidou and Yves Saint Laurent in the Petit Palasis. And, as is always the case for Paris, not only do you get to see some great art, but it is also exhibited in some great buildings, oozing history and tradition.
Lucien Freud: L’Atelier (the studio) is as Jonathan Jones wrote in the Guardian, not a chronological retrospective but much more poignant, it is an examination of Freud the master at work. From the striking banners that lavish the exterior shafts and girders to the beautifully hung paintings in this spacious contemporary space the viewers feels as though they are part of Paris celebrating a living master. It felt like we were being exposed to the painters inner sole, as we progressed through the gallery we kept asking ourselves, whilst there is no doubt of his painterly ability, can we love his oversized challenging nudes? And the answer can only be categorically, yes. The textual beauty of the densely worked and scraped surface draws attention to itself as just that – painting as material presence.. Or as the master says, ‘I want paint to work as flesh. As far as I am concerned the paint is the person’.
The display is divided into four themed rooms – Interior/Exterior (workshop interiors/countryside and townscapes), Reflection (self portraits), Reprisals (Freud’s re-interpretations of the Masters) and As Flesh (portraiture). It is the last room which I was overwhelmed by. These powerful yet enigmatic paintings of key models I took to be Freud’s own history paintings.
This is without doubt a city in love with our great master. And I have to confess I am too.
Tags: Exhibitions in Paris, Laura Colonnese Blog, Louvre, Lucian Freud at Pompidou, Lucien Freud L'Atelier, Lucien Freud Paintings, Luxury Leather Goods, Luxury Silver Goods, Museums in Paris, Mussee d'orsay, Paris for Art Lovers, Recommended Galleries in Paris, Thomas Lyte, Thomas Lyte Blog, Thomas Lyte Recommends, Yves Saint Laurent in Petit Palasis