We’ve been used to seeing Marilyn Monroe under the spotlights of Hollwood projectors. With a smile on her lips and flirtatious eyes, she still fascinates us today and will always be the absolute incarnation of American glamour.

On the famous icon’s birthday, Maurice and Stéfanie Renoma pay homage to her in an exhibit with an evocative title : « Alone ». A desire to show a new face – what remains when the glamorous mask falls – of a woman who was timid, touching, troubling and often alone. The other Marilyn, marvelously incarnated by Michele Williams in Simon Curtis’ film « My Week with Marilyn ». Following the film’s example, the exhibit unveils the myth with her relaxed modernity, presenting never-before-seen photos by Bernard of Hollywood – who immortalized crucial moments in her life – in the Renoma boutique that also welcomes the work of photographer Yury Toropstov and his series « Marilyn and I ».

Marilyn Monroe seule chez Renoma par adelap

Exhibit from May 11 to July 25, 2012

Boutique :
129 bis, rue de la Pompe
Paris 16e
Tel : 01 44 05 38 25

Woman bared …

For the first time in France since the artist’s death (1920-2004), the Grand Palais dedicates a retrospective to the man considered the father of “porno chic”. This is the ideal occasion to take a new look at his daring, provocative works which marked and influenced their era and are today more present than ever in our collective imagination.

© Affiche Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais

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Currently closed for renovations, the Musée Galliera is pursuing its “extramural” programming with a double exhibition signaling the reopening of the Docks de Seine. One is devoted to designer Cristobal Balenciaga and his popular Spanish folkloric inspirations, while the other is a conceptual installation presenting the Spring-Summer 2012 collection of Rei Kawakubo.

… In the footsteps of Cristobal Balenciaga

The Musée Galliera, with the support of the maison Balenciaga, presents a tribute to the designer and collector who left us 40 years ago already. A sublime collection of fashion assembled by Cristobal Balenciaga throughout his life, generously lent by his family for our sheer delight.

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White is the color of Thomas Gleb’s tapestries. It is the carnal evocation of white matter, the union of every color that metamorphoses into white, a white observed or invented by man. White is the color that the Passage de Retz proposes to those artists whose compositions in white create a movement opening the way towards great freedom of expression.

« Thomas Gleb was one of the greatest poets of tapestry this century has seen. A bard of wool who played on yarns and weaves as one plays the strings of a harp. Like King David’s harp, that he offered like a white elevation, a prayer woven between heaven and earth, textile and tactile tool, from where the music linking the material and the spiritual is born (…) »

Charles Dobzynski

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The Rabouan Moussion gallery is presenting the exhibition “The Dark Side” – an artistic account of an intense, somber, very personal story – until 28 April 2012.

Erwin Olaf is renowned for his fashion photos that upset the codes of contemporary photography, with their provocative esthetics tinged by a slight obsession for nudity, and which never leave the viewer indifferent.

This exhibit however invites us to discover another facet of the artist. It will present six series of his photographs and videos.

Unforgettable are Dusk ;

Dusk – The Mother (more…)

The centre of culture and arts in Istanbulhosts another exceptional exhibition : The Van Gogh Alive Digital Art Exhibition will remain open until May 15^th 2012 and is exhibited at Antrepo No3 in Karaköy.

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When « mega » brands enter a new era of consumption, their codes are reworked and their roles modified. Creative directors become true icons, even muses of their own empires. And when a New Yorker finds himself at the creative head of one of France’s biggest luxury companies, the legendary creative explosion makes a strong impact and becomes the subject of an exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

Tribal woman, dominatrix, bourgeois lady, retro-disco chick … Louis Vuitton’s ideal entity advances from season to season, revealing the infinite facets of her feminine identity. With Marc Jacobs, women are not stereotyped by repetitive, creative codes but evolve constantly.

This exhibition parallels Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton. We travel through the brand’s period accessories or iconic trunks and pass from Marcel Duchamp’s “Mona Lisa”-with-mustache to a plethora of fur bags and graffiti by Steven Sprouse. We rediscover the company’s classic, noteworthy beginnings at a time when Baron Haussmann was restructuring the French capital and move to the contemporary era where models had animal heads and walls were inspirational. There’s even a wink at the muses who played a role in the Louis Vuitton ad campaigns. In a word, the fascinating evolution of a fashion super-power … we are seduced.

Du 9 mars au 16 septembre 2012

107 rue de Rivoli,

75001 Paris.

Exactly a century ago in 1912, Georges Claude perfected the very first neon tube. Today Maison Rouge is presenting a retrospective of the place of the neon in art from the 1940s to today.

Joseph Kosuth, Neon 1965

A hundred or so historical and never before seen works showcase the importance of the often under-estimated neon when considered as an artistic medium in its own right.
From pioneers Gyula Kosice and Lucio Fontana in the early 1940s and 50s, to François Morellet, Bruce Nauman, Stephen Antonakos and Mario Merz in the 60s, as well as such artists as Jason Rhoades, Claude Lévêque, Sylvie Fleury and so many others today.

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Outer space tourists, printed organs, puncture-proof tires, domestic robots … who knows what the future will hold ? The Gaîté Lyrique plunges us into the future with a temporary 2-month voyage that begins today !

Between experiments and conferences, exhibitions and projections, rediscover the saga of progress in science, the arts and the industrial revolution : a way to recollect the past in the present in order to imagine innovations for the future …

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Presented in collaboration with La Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and the Scientific Institute for Advanced Studies (IHÉS), the « Mathematics, a Sudden Change of Scenery » exhibit wears its name well. With surprise and a certain fascination, we discover an often-misinterpreted universe …

Au Bonheur des Maths / Photo © Olivier Ouadah – La Fondation Cartier

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