All Eyes on Kees van Dongen in Paris

The exhibition "Van Dongen: Fauve, anarchist, socialite" at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris presents the work of a painter who was once called "The Idol of Paris" at the height of his fame. Known for his portraits of Parisian socialites, this prolific painter was also the driving force behind Fauvism. Van Dongen was born in Rotterdam in 1877 and died in Monaco at the age of 91.

Kees van Dongen was only twenty years old when he moved to Paris. Anxious to conceal his beginnings as a draughtsman, he cultivated the myth of a meteoric rise to fame as an artist. In fact, he was quite calculated in his approach to his career by befriending art critics and society patrons with regular salon and studio parties. Included in his circle of influential friends was the couturier Paul Poiret and the eccentric Italian muse Marchesa Luisa Casati. Although van Dongen also painted Paris landscapes, interiors, circus performers and other works, I was most captivated by his society portraits.  Slightly abstracted and stylized, these portraits beautifully document the fashions of the 1920s and 1930s.

The exhibition includes approximately 90 paintings and drawings, as well as ceramics, dating from 1895 to the early 1930s. Designed in association with the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, this exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris runs until July 17, 2011. The exhibition catalogue called All Eyes on Kees van Dongen (available in both French and English) provides a comprehensive history of the artist's work and life.

Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
11 avenue du President Wilson
75116 Paris
www.mam.paris.fr

Book Review: Lunch in Paris

This is one of the books I packed on my recent trip to Paris. When I travel overseas, I seem to want to sleep when I should be awake and am awake when I should be sleeping, so packing a good book is a must. Lunch in Paris, A Love Story with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard, captivated and entertained me during several nights of jet-lag induced insomnia.

Although the book is a memoir, it reads a little bit like romantic fiction. The story is about a girl that takes a break from her studies in London, goes to Paris for a weekend, meets a handsome Frenchman -- and marries him. Uprooting herself and her ambitions for the sake of love, she fills her days by visiting the markets and conjuring up dishes like Duck Breasts with Blackberries (page 101) on the hotplate in their tiny apartment. Her husband is blissfully happy while she struggles with her ambitions to be more than a wife. The tale is charming from beginning to end and the sixty recipes included in the book seem to be both mouth-watering and manageable.

This is the perfect book for either a lazy summer afternoon when you wish you were in Paris or a late night when you are in Paris and cannot sleep.  And when you are done, you can find out what happened after the book by visiting the author's blog at www.elizabethbard.com.

Title: Lunch in Paris, A Love Story with Recipes
Author: Elizabeth Bard
Publisher: Back Bay Books, Little Brown and Company, New York. 2010
Category: Memoir
Number of Pages: 326 plus reading group guide

Fur stoles, Paris

Anna Dello Russo

Giovanna Battaglia

Evelina Khromtchenko

Paris Fashion Week Fall Winter 2011-2012