Any other business

A few years ago (I don't remember if it was just before COVID or just after), at any dinner in Paris you could be sure you'd find someone looking into moving to Arles or Marseille. The professionals and gallery people were buying flats or opening Airbnbs or boutique hotels in Arles, while the hard-up artists were drawn to cheap housing and studios in a sunny, messy place by the sea: Marseille. I used to spend some time in Provence every year in the 80s, staying at Les Baux during summer holidays in France. Arles, I knew from that time, is one of the nicest towns in the area. My acquaintance with Marseille was more limited: basically, I knew the station and the Old Port, and that was it. But both towns have undergone quite a renaissance since then, in terms both of trendiness and of contemporary art. The phenomena are, I suppose, linked. I'd been on the odd business visit, or passed through Marseille on the way to somewhere else, but I hadn't even visited the MUCEM muse...

Three years ago, I posted about a trip to Madrid to hear Händel's Solomon  with Ann Hallenberg and Miah Persson , taking in the big local art fair, ARCO, and a big exhibition of Leonora Carrington's work, while I was there. I actually imagined, without looking for more accurate information, that the Paris exhibition, at the Musée du Luxembourg , would be the one I saw in Madrid, now travelling to France. It wasn't. This was a much smaller show. But, though I don't have an ounce of magic or spirituality or alchemy in me, I love Leonora Carrington's work - she's probably the only artist labelled 'surrealist' I like so much. So any Laura Carrington event is an important one to me, and along I went, on a hot and sunny spring day. I've nothing more to say about it, other than that, though small, it otherwise didn't disappoint. Here, I'm just posting a few of my photos, including one of a piece by Remedios Varo, and another of one by Max Ernst, wi...