Day 6:
Paris
Quote of the Day: The Bacon was very good, and only the
second best exhibit on the 6th floor
Weather: 60s to mid-70s in late afternoon, no humidity
though in the forecast (by DJT?)
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| Can't tell in this pic, the bus is packed |
Slow start (THB sleeps past 7, very unusual), light breakfast
of leftovers and melon, a bit of strategizing the day around our 11am tickets
for Bacon show at Pompidou. Not sure how much we’ll accomplish today. And,
Metro, buses and intra-city trains are all running at major reduced levels
because of a general one-day strike (called months ago, apparently).
MB and DB had an 8:47am train to the Dordogne this morning.
Their hotel is about 1 mile from station and their day started out with a taxi
that never showed. Then they walked backwards (with their bags) to Bastille to
catch a taxi and ended up making their train by 4 minutes. YOWZAH!!
Easy walk to Pompidou: a good thing because we can see the
buses that are running are jam-packed at 10:40. In fact, we walk everywhere
today and nothing further than 1K in any direction. Still, we’re tired by end
of the day (maybe THB should start counting his steps). Security slows entry to
the Pompidou by a few minutes and we’re in the first group at the Francis Bacon
show. It’s a very good review of his later work (for THB, he’s very good no
matter what period). If you didn’t know better, instead of the work being done
in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, you’d have thought they were painted in Berlin in
the early 1930s. Rough and murky, that’s our Francis.
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| Maquette of Bacon's studio; he was famous for working in squalor |
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| One of few non-figurative pieces, there's a car in upper right |
There’s also a great (maybe even better) show also on the 6th
floor: showing how artists interpreted the findings that proved there was life
(human and animals) before Biblical times. Fascinating! Extremely well curated
and arranged, and of course we knew a lot of the artists selected (most pretty
famous).
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| Michael Heiser |
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| Oldenburg: Certified ray guns |
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| Carl Andre |
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| Richard Long |
Lunch at Georges on the top floor with great views of Paris.
Club sandwich with potato chips, chicken Caesar salad, eau sans gas, Schweppes
tonic water, $62.
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| Le view from our table |
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| This "napkin" was the size of a lap rug (good think, it was a bit cool outside at noon) |
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| Le restroom, hardly "restful" |
Refueled and refreshed, we explore the contemporary art floor:
more interesting work, some we remember
from our 2015 visit. Of note: very few political pieces on display. THB wonders
if the Pompidou is making an anti-political statement, is that possible? Hmmmm…you
should visit the 21C hotels for lots of political art, all from 2001 or later.
You don’t even have to stay there, the hotel exhibits are open all day long
(and sometimes at night).
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| Tony Cragg, "Autoportrait" |
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| Maybe made with beach trash |
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| Fred Loudiner, "Gap shirts" |
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| What to do with THB's baseball stadium tees??? |
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| Daniel Buren, he of the Palais Royal pillars |
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| Guiseppe Penone, he of the bronze tree in the Tuileries |
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| Another Penone, a room made of blocks of leaves |
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| Maya Dunietz, is it a chandelier? It's a sound installation |
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| Made of thousands of ear buds |
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| Sarah Lucas |
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| Louise Bourgeois |
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| Fritsch did her piece below well after Klein did his imprint of a dying friend |
Time for some shopping and galleries: eyeglasses, gelato, craft
and design viewing, a rest up at the apartment and then 3 more galleries very
nearby, with a bit of supplementing for dinner (one giant beer, some tomato salad,
$10).
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| Part of a party of four trying on glasses and speaking at least 3 languages |
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| $10 for a small and medium size cup |
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| He of the glass Metro entrance next to Palais Royal |
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| Large beaded necklace in an upscale gallery near apartment |
Exhausted and in for the night.
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