After an exhibition at Musée Maillol, we were enjoying an aperitif outside a bar
but we weren’t expecting a spontaneous lesson in slang.
The bar was at a small crossroads in the 7th arrondissement, the embassy district. A squad of armed police appeared on the corner, and started directing traffic.
As a motorcyclist disobeyed his command and drove off, one of the officers shouted –
‘Putain!’
If you’re a fan of the French TV cop show ‘Spiral’ you’ll recognise the word, it peppers the dialogue liberally, but it was the first time I’ve heard it used in real life.
It means everything from an expression of mild irritation to the F Word; probably the latter on this occasion.
In due course the officers stopped all traffic to allow an SUV with blacked out windows to pass at speed unimpeded, escorted by police motorbikes and unmarked cars with blue lights flashing and sirens blaring.
Musée Maillol for some street culture
Musée Maillol is a good gallery to watch for photography exhibitions. We were there to see ‘Instants Données’ (‘Given Moments’), a retrospective of the work of Robert Doisneau.
‘The marvels of daily life are so exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street’.
Robert Doisneau, 1912 – 1994.
If you don’t recognise the photographer’s name, you’ll know his style. Starting in the 1930s by capturing the street life of children at school and at play, he went on to portray the hardship of workers in the Renault factory, portraits of artists and writers (famously Picasso and de Beauvoir) and downtrodden drinkers in the bars of Paris, reminiscent of the paintings of Toulouse Lautrec.
The exhibition continues until 12th October 2025.
https://museemaillol.com/expositions/robert-doisneau-instants-donnes/
Hockney 25
Earlier in the week we went on an expedition to the extraordinary, ship-shaped Louis Vuitton Foundation in Bois de Boulogne to see the retrospective that David Hockney regards as the most significant of his career.
Curated by the artist himself, he called in favours from collections around the world to loan significant works.
I had seen two Hockney shows before. In 2019 his works were hung alongside pictures by Van Gogh in Amsterdam; he memorably corrected our impression of Van Gogh as a depressive – ‘if you look at his paintings they’re full of joy’.
Then in 2021 came the exhibition of his iPad paintings at the Royal Academy.
In Paris the story begins with a portrait of the artist’s father, painted when Hockney was just 19, then a room of his early works that reflect his sexuality, still illegal at the time. Hockney is still producing work in his eighties, still innovating, and he’s clearly happiest when he’s working.
There’s his largest work to date, painted in the open air: ‘Bigger Trees near Warter’.
It was made of fifty canvas sections small enough to be transported by car, the oil paint still wet.
In 2019 Covid restrictions stranded Hockney at his home in Normandy. He started producing works every day to send to friends by email.
He was there partly to revisit the Bayeux Tapestry, which influenced his mural of the Norman countryside. The Vuitton Gallery is something of a space age warren, and sadly I missed that room altogether, although with over 400 works to view, it wasn’t a disaster…..
The exhibition closes with his collage of photographs of artworks from the 1400s to the present. They illustrate Hockney’s research that led him to the controversial theory that throughout the history of western art, painters have used optical devices to help them produce work. He applied his practitioner’s eye to reach a convincing conclusion.
Catch Hockney 25 until 31st August 2025:
https://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/en/events/david-hockney-25
Postscript from Paris
A feature of the city streets is the engraved plaques commemorating resistance fighters, often unidentified, who were killed in street battles to achieve the liberation of their city in August 1944.
In this anniversary year of Victory in Europe, this poignant memorial in a quiet street in the 7th caught my eye, on my way to the local wine shop.
‘A tribute to Lilian Vera Rolfe.
Born in this building in 1914 and executed in Ravensbrück in 1945.
A radio operator in the service of the British Special Operations Executive, formed in 1940 to support the resistance movements in Europe and to prepare for the landings on 6th June 1944′.