To sign up for classes please  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  or call + 33 (0) 686 58 98 09 

 

     

Paris Special Exhibitions, March – April 2019

 

Thursday 14 March 10:30 – 12 noon - The Courtauld Institute of Art Collection at Fondation Vuitton.

Slide lecture on the exhibition at Fondation Vuitton (20 Feb. - 17 June 2019) with Chris Boïcos

 

The collection of the British entrepreneur and art patron Samuel Courtauld was last shown in Paris 60 years ago. It is the finest collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting in the UK.  110 works - paintings and works on paper - are on show at the Fondation Vuitton including Manet’s last masterpiece  "Un Bar aux Folies Bergère" (1882) "La Jeune Femme se poudrant" by Seurat (1889-90), “The Cardplayers”  by Cézanne (1892-96), "Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear" by Van Gogh (1889), "Nevermore" by Gauguin (1897), as well as a set of ten watercolors by  J.M.W. Turner which belonged to Samuel Courtauld’s brother, Sir Stephen Courtauld. The exhibition of the Courtauld Collection embodies the Fondation Vuitton’s aim to showcase the role of emblematic collectors from the history of art, and their unique visions. 

 

Place: Chris Boïcos apartment. 14, boulevard Saint-Martin 75010 Paris. 6th floor (building code: 69168)

Métros: Strasbourg-Saint Denis, exit 3: Porte Saint-Martin (lines 4, 8, 9) or République exit 6: rue René Boulanger (lines 8, 9 - fewer steps). 

Time: 10 am for coffee and tea, lecture begins promptly at 10:30 am.

Fee: 27€ (or reduced fee for 5, 6, or 7 sessions, please see below)

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

Thursday 21 March 11:30 am – 1 pm – Hammershøi, a Master of Danish Painting

Visit to the exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André (14 March – 22 July 2019) with Chris Boïcos

 

Hammershøi is undoubtedly the most subtle and also most mysterious Danish painter of the end of the 19^thcentury. His paintings were last shown in Paris at the Musée d’Orsay in 1997. A withdrawn and quiet individual, Hammershøi spent all of his life in a small circle of family and friends, who constantly featured in his paintings: his mother, sister, brother, and brother-in-law all posed for him, as did several close friends. He also painted his wife, Ida, who is often seen from the back in many of the works that have made him famous. The Musée Jacquemart-André will display Hammershøi’s art from a fresh perspective by illustrating his links with the artists in his circle. For the first time, this retrospective will compare Hammershøi’s works with paintings executed by his brother Svend Hammershøi, his brother-in-law Peter Ilsted, and his friend Carl Holsøe. This comparative approach will highlight their affinities, differences, and the unique genius of Vilhelm Hammershøi, a great  artist of solitude, silence, and light. The exhibition will include exceptional  loans from private collections as well as from major Danish and Swedish museums and London’s Tate Gallery.

                                                  

Place: Musée Jacquemart-André, 158 boulevard Haussmann 75008. Meet outside main entrance. 

Métro:Miromesnil (lines 9, 13).

Time: Meet 10:15 for10:30 am entry. Please bring 14,50 € in for exhibition ticket and 2 € for the headphones (16,50 €  total) in exact change.

Fee: 27€ (or reduced fee for 5, 6, or 7 sessions, please see below)

________________________________________________________________________________

 

Monday 25 March 6 – 7 :30 pm –   The Nabis and Decoration

Visit to the exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg (13 March – 13 June 2019) with Chris Boïcos

 

Veritable pioneers of modern decoration, Bonnard, Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Sérusier and Ranson, brought for the first time into decoration the subjects of contemporary daily life. From the very beginning of their movement 1889 they insisted on the flat and decorative nature of painting and design, rebelling against the Academic and Realist currents of the 19th century. This is the first major exhibition in France exclusively centered on the the Nabi decorations commissioned for their Paris homes and country villas by the modern-minded entrepreneurs and wealthy bourgeois of the Belle Epoque. A hundred paintings, drawings, prints and objets d’artusing the supple, fluid rhythms of Art Nouveau and much inspired by Japanese prints illustrate one of the richest and possibly least known styles of French decorative art.

 

Place: Outside entrance of Musée du Luxembourg  – 19 rue de Vaugirard 75006. 

Métro : St Sulpice (line 4) or Odéon (lines 4 and 6).

Time: 5:45 for 6 pm entry. Please bring 13 € for the exhibition ticket and 2€ for the headphones (15 € total) in exact change.

Fee: 27€ (or reduced fee for 5, 6, or 7 sessions, please see below)

__________________________________________________________________________________

 

Thursday 28 March 10:30 – 12 noon– The Emil Bührle Collection from Zurich

Visit to the exhibition at the Musée Maillol (20 March – 21 July 2019)with Chris Boïcos

 

The Bührle Collection in Zurich is one of the most prestigious private collections in the world. Exhibited for the first time in France, this ensemble, which was assembled between 1936 and 1956 by the German manufacturer Emil Georg Bührle boasts an exceptional range of French art from the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. It is currently on an international tour while a new extension of the Kunsthaus in Zurich, is being built for its permanent exhibition. Fifty major works from the collection will be on show representing the Impressionists – Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Degas, Renoir, Sisley – the Post-Impressionists – Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec – the Nabis – Bonnard and Vuillard – the Fauves – Braque, Derain, Vlaminck – and lastly Modigliani and Picasso. 

 

Place: Meet at group entrance of Musée Maillol - 61, rue de Grenelle 75007 (Metro Rue du Bac, line12)

Métro:(Rue du Bac, line 12)

Time: 10 for 10:15 am entry. Please bring 13,50 € for the exhibition ticket and 2 € for the headphones (total of15,50 €)

Fee: 27€ (or reduced fee for 5, 6, or 7 sessions, please see below)

______________________________________________________________________________

 

Thursday 4 April 11 am - 12:45 pm – Red: Art and Utopia in the Land of the Soviets

Visit to the exhibition at the Grand Palais (21 March – 1 July 2019)with Chris Boïcos

Most modern artists in Russia welcomed with great enthusiasm the October revolutionof 1917 committing themselves to the Communist cause and the ideal of building a new society in the wake of the great poet Mayakovsky. An artistic revolution already in progress during WWI followed the social and political revolution instituting Constructivism as the style of the Utopian future. The Russian political and artistic experiments were closely followed by artists and intellectuals in the Capitalist countries leading to frequent artistic exchanges with heroic young Soviet Russia, seen as the true «fatherland of Socialism». Yet from the end of the 1920s freedom and experimentation in the arts fell afoul of the increasingly repressive policies of the Stalinist regime. Socialist Realismwas imposed in the 1930s as the only permissible style for the Soviet Union. The current exhibition with major loansfrom all Russian museums traces the evolution of Soviet art in this fascinating period juxtaposing some of the great figures of Russian modern art like Rodchenko, Malevich and Tatlin with the lesser-known in the West Realist and neo-academic artists of the 1920s and 1930s. We will examine how these unlucky painters navigated the fine and often dangerous line between official propaganda and personal expression.

Place: Group and cardholders entrance outside exhibition at the Grand Palais.

Métro:Champs-Elysées Clémenceau (lines 1 and 13).

Time: 10:45 for 11 am entry. Please bring 15 € for the exhibition ticket and 2 € for the earphones (17€ in total) in exact change.

Fee: 27€ (or reduced fee for 5, 6, or 7 sessions, please see below)

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

Thursday 11 April 10:30 – 12 noon – Franz Marc and Auguste Macke, the Adventure of the Blue Rider 

Slide lecture onthe exhibition at the Orangerie (27 Feb. - 17 June 2019) with Chris Boïcos

This exhibition presents two major figures of German Expressionismand the Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) movement, Franz Marc (1880-1916) and August Macke (1887-1914). These artists forged a friendship in 1910 based on their shared love of modern French art - Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin - and the exciting new Fauves whom they discovered during their trips to Paris.Their paintings took on a more radical turn when they met Vassily Kandinskyin 1911 with whom they founded Der Blaue Reiter Almanach- The Blue Rider Almanac. Franz Marc started painting his famous blue horses which inspired the title of the almanac. They both helped organize the great international avant-garde exhibitions of the pre-war years in Germany, in Cologne and in Berlin. Franz Marc turned to abstract art in 1913 under the influence of the Italian Futurists and Robert Delaunay. Macke, for his part, moved away from Kandinsky’s intellectual spirituality and towards a crisper, more humanist art developed in his travels with Paul Kleein Tunisia.Drafted in 1914, both artists were killed in combat. Their brightly colored, luminous paintings of animals, contemporary figures and nature are a moving testimony to the enthusiasm and hopes of the generation of German artists brought to a sudden and tragic end by the Great War.

 

Place: Chris Boïcos apartment. 14, boulevard Saint-Martin 75010 Paris. 6th floor (building code: 69168)

Métros: Strasbourg-Saint Denis, exit 3: Porte Saint-Martin (lines 4, 8, 9) or République exit 6: rue René Boulanger (lines 8, 9 - fewer steps). 

Time: 10 am for coffee and tea, lecture begins promptly at 10:30 am.

Fee: 27€ (or reduced fee for 5, 6, or 7 sessions, please see below)

____________________________________________________________________

 

Monday 15 April 2:30 – 4 pm – The Black Model in Art, from Géricault to Matisse

Slide lecture onthe exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay (27 Feb. - 17 June 2019) with Chris Boïcos

 

Taking a multi-disciplinary approach that combines the history of art and the history of ideas, this exhibition explores aesthetic, political, social and racial issuesthrough the representation of black figures in the visual arts, from the abolition of slavery in France (1794) to the modern era. Designed to provide a long-term perspective, the exhibition looks more particularly at three key periods: the era of abolition(1794-1848), the Impressionist eraup to Matisse, the early 20th century and the Harlem Renaissanceof the 1920s ending with successive generations of post-war and contemporary artists. The exhibition primarily focuses on the theme of the model and therefore the dialogue between the artist who paints, sculpts, engraves or photographs and the model who poses. This is the most complete exploration to date of black subjects in major works of modern Western art by Théodore Géricault, Charles Cordier, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Edouard Manet, Paul Cézanneand Henri Matisse, as well as in the photographs of Nadar and Carjat.

 

Place: Chris Boïcos apartment. 14, boulevard Saint-Martin 75010 Paris. 6th floor (building code: 69168)

Métros: Strasbourg-Saint Denis, exit 3: Porte Saint-Martin (lines 4, 8, 9) or République exit 6: rue René Boulanger (lines 8, 9 - fewer steps). 

Time: 2 pm for coffee and tea, lecture begins promptly at 2:30 pm.

Fee: 27€ (or reduced fee for 5, 6, or 7 sessions, please see below)

____________________________________________________________________

 

Course Fee:  161 € for 7 sessions, 144 € for 6 sessions, 125 € for 5 sessions or 27 € per session.

Museum fees are additional to course fees. The fee reductions are only for the bimonthly series and cannot be applied to future programs.

You can sign up for individual sessions or a series by sending an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

or by calling Chris Boïcos on +33 (0) 686 58 98 09 and by sending a check made out to “Chris Boïcos” to Chris Boïcos, 14 boulevard Saint-Martin 75010 Paris. Museum fees are additional to course fees.

Please register for classes in advance to ensure that group visits are not full.

_________________________________________________________________________________

 

The History of Paris – Architecture, Urbanism, Society

Part 12: Part 4: Early Modern Paris, 1900 - 1940

 

At the opening of the 20^thcentury Paris was in many ways the capital of the Western world. The French Empire wasat the height of its power and the “city of light” has just been consecrated by the largest world’s fair to date. From 1900 to 1914 Paris will also witness the birth of the first modern “avant gardes”: the Fauves, theCubists, the Futurists, the Russian ballet. World War I will largely spare the city, though France itself entered into a decline that will be sealed by the Second World War. Through the ‘20’s and ‘30’s Paris will remain a thriving Modernist center – Art Decois the great architectural and decorative style of this period, challenged by the more radical and Purist style of Le Corbusierand Mallet-Stevens. Café life and Bohemia move from Montmartre to Montparnasse where the first “dancings américains” and Josephine Baker inaugurate the jazz age. Classicism will return in the conservative 1930’s through the architecture of the 1937 World’s fair at Chaillot and the colonial museum at the Porte Dorée. In the arts Surrealism will prevail by the late 1920’s whereas in literature Paris becomes the great center for the Anglo-American expatriatesfrom Gertrude Stein to Hemingway, Sylvia Beech and James Joyce. 

 

Coffee and tea served at home sessions between 2 and 2:30 pm. 

Wed. 13 March 2:30 - 4pm – Slide lecture –Modernist Paris, art and architecture 1900-1914.

Tuesday 19 March at 2 – 3:30 pm – Visit and city walk - Le Corbusier foundation and modern architecture in Auteuil.Meet at exit of Metro Jasmin (line 9) at 1:45 for a 2pm start. This program is limited to 15 participants.

Please bring 10 € in exact changefor the museum ticket.

Wed. 27 March 2:30 - 4pm– Slide lecture – Paris of les années folles: the Anglo-Americans and Art Deco.

Wed. 3 April 2:30 - 4pm – Slide lecture – The 1930s: Modernism versus Classicism and Fascism.

Wed. 10 April 2:30 - 4pm– City walk: Modern architecture in Chaillot: Perret and the 1937 World’s Fair.Meet 25bis rue Franklin 75016 at 2:15 for 2:30pm start. Closest metro: Trocadéro (lines 9, 6).

Tuesday 16 April at 2:30 – 4 pm – Visit - Museum of the 1930s in Boulogne. 

Meet in museum lobby at 2:15 fro a 2:30 start – Espace Landowski, 28 Avenue André Morizet, 92100 Boulogne-Billancourt.Metro: Marcel Sembat (line 9).Please bring 6,50 € in exact change for the museum ticket.

 

Course Fee: 138 € for 6 sessions, 125 € for 5 sessions or 27 € per session. 

Museum fees are additional to course fees. The fee reductions are only for the bimonthly series and cannot be applied to future programs.

You can sign up for individual sessions or a series by sending an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

or by calling Chris Boïcos on +33 (0) 686 58 98 09 and by sending a check made out to “Chris Boïcos” to

Chris Boïcos, 14 boulevard Saint-Martin 75010 Paris. Museum fees are additional to course fees.

Please register for classes in advance to ensure that group visits are not full.