FIAC - Paris's International Contemporary Art Fair

The International Contemporary Art Fair (or FIAC) is an art event that takes place every year in Paris in October.

The 2014 edition was spread between the Grand Palais, Cité de la Mode et du Design, Jardin des Tuileries and Jardin des Plantes. Anyway, I'll leave it there and jump straight to the pics...

Studio Ghibli Layout Designs - Understanding the secrets of Takahata and Miyazaki animation

Miyazaki and Takahata...pure genius. This exhibitions presents over 1300 layout drawings from the 30 year history of Studio Ghibli, founded in part by Miyazaki and Takahata.

Think Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Grave of the Fireflies, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, The Cat Returns, Howl's Moving Castle, Ponyo, Arrietty and many, many more.

And if you've not seen any of the films, then it's worth doing before visiting the exhibition. In fact, it's worth doing full stop.

Highlights include layouts paired with their corresponding movie snippets; and translations of humorous comments written by Miyazaki and Takahata to the artists.

Winter expositions at the Grand Palais

An overview of the winter exhibitions at the Grand Palais - all are worthy of a visit. For general information regarding the Grand Palais, refer to my Grand Palais guide.

1.  Hokusai - One of my favourite artists, and with a huge and varied collection on display, this exposition certainly delivers. It follows a chronological order, generally broken up according to the different aliases that Hokusai used throughout his life. It includes some of his famous Thirty-six views of Mt Fuji series, and my personal favourite, painting instruction manuals created during his Taitō period.

••  Runs 1 Oct 2014 - 20 Nov 2014 & 1 Dec 2014 - 18 Jan 2015 (Clemenceau entrance)

Paul McCarthy - Chocolate Factory

Paul McCarthy's exhibition originally consisted of two parts - the Chocolate Factory exposition, and a public sculpture in Place Vendôme.

In case you missed the news, the public sculpture was a 24 meter high green inflatable "Tree" in the shape of a butt plug. It lasted two days before being vandalised by closed-minded Parisians and consequently removed.

But the Chocolate Factory is still here, displaying McCarthy's distinctive works and ideas. The Chocolate Factory consists of a functioning kitchen creating the chocolates, and an immersive 8 room experience - based on the ideas of Christmas, consumption, commodity, capitalism, Western and American culture. Upon entering you become surrounded by flickering lights, ambiguous moaning, crazy-man scribbles and xmas chocolates. Let's just say you'll feel a little different when leaving compared to when you entered!

Raw Vision - 25 ans d’Art Brut (final week)

An exposition celebrating the 25th anniversary of Raw Vision - a London magazine based around non-conventional contemporary folk art or "outsider art". This outsider art concept is what makes the exposition, with most works tapping directly into the deep subconscious place from where the most innovative and creative art comes from.

Small blurbs throughout the exhibit provide insights into the outsider artists - artists that have experienced illnesses, disabilities, different states of mental health, persecution, imprisonment etc etc. Freedoms that have been taken away from the artists, but inadvertently allowed them to achieve creativity that many can only dream of.

Lucio Fontana - Retrospective

Lucio Fontana is an Italian artist, best known for founding the art movement of spatialism...or spazialismo as the Italians would say, at the top of their voice, and with their arms waving around excessively.

The best description is always the art itself, but if I was to put it into words, Fontana's approach was an attempt to break away from traditional art forms, and to create art that projected into the space beyond the artwork itself, and to explore the use of space itself in his artworks.

Fontana explored spatialism in several ways, all of which are on display at the exposition:

••  Early sculptures and ceramics - Fontana's early sculptures were abstract and figurative but you can see a uniqueness in his works which was evidently the beginnings of his spatialist concepts.

Tatoueurs, Tatoués - Exposition at Quai Branly

Tatoueurs, Tatoués (Tattooists, Tattooed) - an exposition exploring the history of tattoo artists and tattoos, as you may have guessed, from their origins through to current times.

The exposition starts with the origins of tattooing, which is said to date back to 3350 - 3100 BC. It looks at the reasoning behind tattoos in these earlier cultures - a mark of initiation rituals, an indicator of marginalisation, a mark of social prestige, a mark of punishment. In general, a sign of belonging or not belonging to a group.

It then continues on with tattoo history - circus sideshows, tattoos in Japan, tattoos in North America, and tattoos in Europe. Each has an interesting past of tattoos growing and falling in popularity, interplaying with historical events.

Martial Raysse - Retrospective 1960-2014

An exposition following the chronology of French artist Martial Raysse. It starts with his early works: pop art; fluorescent colours; assemblies of consumer objects; and neon tube art.

The exposition then follows Raysse as he moves away from pop art and develops new styles: paintings separated into fragments and then rearranged; film and video; small paper mache sculptures; paintings inspired by mythology; figurines made of scrap materials; large sculptures; and large pictorial fresco paintings.

Raysse's variety of styles and mediums is what makes the exposition - Raysse injects originality throughout them all. I won't say more, you'll just have to check it out yourself.

Motion Factory - the secrets of stop motion animation

This exposition explores the work and methods behind stop motion animation. It presents a selection of short films, alongside making-of videos, alongside displays of the storyboards and miniature figurines, models and sets. The short films are also played in a cinema on the big screen.

Around 20 films are given this treatment, including my new favourite - Panique au Village (A Town Called Panic). (If you're not familiar, check it out - it's a comedy based on the adventures of Cowboy, Indian and Horse, who live together under some strange sharehouse arrangement. You'll have to trust me. There is a feature length movie and several shorts, many of which can be found on YouTube.)

Le Mur: La Collection Antoine de Galbert - review

Le Mur (The Wall) is an exhibition of contemporary artworks currently showing at La Maison Rouge. It celebrates the 10th anniversary of the art gallery, and presents the personal collection of Antoine de Galbert, who founded La Maison Rouge.

It is a random selection from his huge collection and hence is a mixture of various styles and artists. The most important factor in an exhibition like this is the individual taste of the private collector - and in this case, I can definitely say I like his taste. Moreover, the variety on display should ensure most will enjoy.

In addition to this, the exhibition also plays on a few interesting concepts.

Fields of Battle - Terres de Paix 14-18 (Jardin du Luxembourg)

Le Jardin du Luxembourg is one of the best gardens in Paris, and so it's worth visiting in it's own right. However, over the next few months you can also see a photo exhibition on display at the gardens, by photographer Michael St Maur Sheil. The exhibition takes a look at World War I, through photos of what remains in todays landscapes.

To give you an idea...photos include what remains of trenches, weapons, forts, mine craters, and of course, the cemeteries. Some stunning photography, and it's free.

There is also a giant walk-on map that gives you a quick history lesson on the movements of the World War I front lines.

Current exhibitions at the Grand Palais - review

Monumenta 2014

These are my picks for the current exhibitions at the Grand Palais. There are others, and more coming soon, so you can check the official website for more options. And you can check out my post on the Grand Palais for for general info on the site.

1.  Monumenta 2014 - this is an exhibition that is held every year where a different artist is invited to do their thing in the vast main hall of the Grand Palais. This year it's a Russian duo - Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Strange City.

The artists have attempted to transform the Grand Palais into a fantasy world, like something out of a comic book. As you move through each room, you learn something new about the fantasy world, and slowly immerse yourself into the "strange city". The layout is like a labyrinth, which lends itself to disorientating the viewer, and is very effective at pushing the viewer to become even further immersed in the fantasy world.

Spring exhibitions at Musée d'Orsay - review

There are two temporary exhibition treats to enjoy at d'Orsay this spring.

1.  Gustave Doré: Master of Imagination - This one was a nice surprise, as I went in knowing very little about Doré...so much so that the gallery staff felt sorry for my ignorance, and she gave me the audio guide for free!

The exhibition covers Doré's life works, from his early caricatures, his illustrations (his strongest body of work), his paintings, as well as other things he dabbled in such as sculpture.

Some of the highlights include the creative illustrations he did for the bible, his illustrations of Shakespeare's plays, and his landscape paintings (my personal favourite). You'll also see how his works have had a sizable influence on the comic book world, and the cinema world.

Exhibitions for your inner geek - DC, Marvel & Star Wars!

Crisis on Infinite Earths - A storyline from 1985, allowing writers to
reboot the DC universe, which over 50 years had become a mess of
continuity errors 

Paris has three offerings at the moment for the nerd inside all of us (you know you have one).

1.  Super-Héros: l’Art d’Alex Ross - This is the smallest of the exhibits on my list but well worth the visit. It follows the works of Alex Ross, who (for the nerds that are not yet nerdy enough) is one of the most recognised comic book artists of recent times. The exhibition spans from his scribbly childhood drawings through to his works for both DC Comics and Marvel. The overall focus is on the DC Comics universe; think Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash and all other things Justice League. 

••  Runs 5 Mar - 15 Jun at the Mona Bismarck American Center for art & culture (16e).