Vicente Wolf

Paris was wonderful! Especially after all the advice I received from the kind readers of this blog. Thank you so much.

The ten days sped by – partly because of me trying to manage a hectic schedule. There’s some wonderful shows at the Pompidou, including a retrospective of Kandinsky’s early work and Caulder’s toys – which you may remember I saw in New York at the Whitney, but it was great seeing it again. Kandinsky was interesting because of the coloration in his earlier paintings, which were very soft and, to me, very appealing.  Though I don’t love the Pompidou building per se, it’s an incredible experience to go up in the elevator and float up above the clouds of Paris.

At the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris (Paris’ MoMA) across from the Japanese Pavilion there was a show on de Chirico who did these classic paintings and it offered an enlightening look at the fact that he kept repeating certain paintings over and over again. They said it was to improve the paintings. I say, if one sold well, let’s sell five of them! I love his paintings, the neo-classic quality and the surrealness of it.

The Musée Picasso is going through some renovations, but, as always, they have wonderful installations. My favorite was of this sheet of mirror that starts at the courtyard, cuts through the building and ends up in the garden in the back, which creates a really interesting illusion of one sheet of mirror – playing agains the classic building that the museum is in.

Then at the Louvre, they had a great exhibition on the after-life in Egypt called ‘The Gates of Heaven. Visions of the World in Ancient Egypt’, with all sorts of objects found in tombs to assist during the travel to the afterlife. After wandering through that exhibition I  went to say hello to the Mona Lisa and saw the private quarters of Napoleon the third, which are impressive to say the least. And at the Museum of Decorative Arts there was an exhibition on art deco jewelery, which consisted mainly of silver and gemstones. (I had hoped for more bling but there were some very good ideas on display.)

Neither me nor my friend Tim Corrigan, who spends a good amount of time in Paris and the South of France, had ever been to Château de Chantilly outside Paris so we decided to make a day trip out of it. The stables were magnificent and of such an incredible scale. I loved the grounds – particularly the Oriental garden which is truly beautiful – and it made for a great outdoor outing outside Paris.

I was invited by my friend the Parisian textile designer Philippe David to visit the apartment of this lady who had decorated her apartment in the middle 60’s and has not changed a thing since. The husband was a big game hunter and her apartment in the 16th Arrondissement was quite spacious with a beautiful garden. But let me tell you that the interiors came from a time warp; a geometric carpet, classic mid-century furniture, Italian lamps from the 60’s – what an interesting experience! I really admired the fact that, as much as it was dated, it still had a design relevance to it. Obviously the space was very much inspired by David Hicks – who is my greatest design inspiration.

Having the apartment at Ile  St Louis was slightly out of the way, but very comfortable. It was a 16th Century building with all modern conveniences and very beautiful. I went to two dinner parties and went out for dinner twice – both times I ended up eating Chinese! Aside from walking everywhere, I went to the stationery shops and bought a wonderful calligraphy pen and ink to use in my notes. The flea markets were quite low in materials to buy as business there has been very poor, but I was able to buy a few pieces of furniture at the Drouot auction that will be in the VW Home soon – on that front it was a very successful trip.

I always love Paris – but I love it especially in the Spring time.