My Childhood King

Good evening children and adults,

Due to wonderful weather, the beginning of summer here in Paris, I haven't been as motivated to follow up on my artfancies. It's just too beautiful outside to spend time at the museums...

With that said, there are other possibilities! For example the "Nuit européenne des musées". It is an event that happens in all the major cities in europe, at least the ones cool enough to participate! The big museeums and institutions keep their doors open until at least 23:00 at night - and you can visit them for free!! Plus it's at night, so you don't miss a beautiful sunny, warm, summery day.

Anyways, me and my friends chose a museum, we all hadn't visited before, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. But mostly we chose it for the current exhibition: "Les histoires de Babar". It was the clear choice, everyone knew who Babar was, eventhough we all grew up on different continents.

So, hooray, we saw a very cute and amazing exhibition about the famous elephant-king in the dashing green suit. I'm sure by now even your memory found the lovely emperor again.

It was fascinating to learn, how the story of Babr and his family evolved and got created in the first place.
One night in 1930, Cécile de Brunhoff, a mother like most, starts telling a story of a small  elephant who has to flee the jungle for the city after a hunter kills his mother. The children of Cécile were so fascinated by the story that they told it to their father, a painter, Jean de Brunhoff - the creator of Babar. The first edition of "Histoire de Babar" was published in 1931.

The exhibition carried alot of the original artwork for the books by Brunhoff, aswell as different letters, notes, sketches and objects of Babar-merchandise. The exhibition also showed how the story of Babar evolved through time, how the royal family grew and how the stories were adapted to new media and a new generation of children. Cartoons and computergames included. There was also a display of the first Babar-stuffed animal and the latest.

The exhibition was so lovely and it made me think back to those days were me and my sister used to cram infront of those colorful books and find out, what Babar and his family and animalfriends were up to now.

Let's get musical

Bonjour Mesdames, Messieurs,

Lately I've passed by the Opera of Paris, the Opera Garnier, several times. And the building always impressed me soo much and I always wondered how it must look like from the inside. Of course I know that Chagall painted the ceiling in the grand opera hall and that it must be one of the most beautiful things ever.

So once, I passed by the impressive building again and it just started to rain so I thought "Ok, so I'll check it out." I went in, paid my entryticket and headed to the main entrance. Magnificent. But that's not what I want to tell you about today...

The Opera also has exhibitionspaces and the current exhibition was on "La Belle époque de Massenet".

Jules Massenet was one of the most famous french composers and best known for his operas. During his lifetime (1842-1912) his works were very popular, since melodic music was very much in style. Massenet ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. He reached to create an unique combination between art and music, since he wasn't only in charge of the music but everything that needed to be created for an opera. Costumes, sets, scenery etc.

The exhibition tried to give an overview of everything that Massenet had created, an entire new way of how opera was made! Scripts, notes, costumes, jewellery, stages and much more were displayed in a wonderful way! I always like it when alot of differnt things are shown to give you a complete view of a perticular thing. And I'm also alwys blown away by a persons ability to write music. It is a thing that I can not understand but I think it's the most amazing thing when someone can actually imagine and then write down entire operas. Incredible.

Here some pictures of my favorite pieces. As a woman I was of course drawn to the jewels, tiaras, crowns and beautifully embroided costumes. They were truly beautiful!

These are all parts of costumes for operas by Massenet and belong to Inventory of the Bibliotheque-Musée of the Opera Garnier. Especially the last picture, showing the helmet of Bacchus, the mythological god of wine and drunkenness, of the opera with the same name left me standing in awe for a couple of moments. The detail of the carvings and the detail in the form was amazing. Massenets love for melody and harmony isn't only manifested in his musical works, but also in the detail of every other aspect in his operas. And I think the exhibition did a great job displaying that. I loved it, and I love Massenets music!

What art is.

Dearest art enthusiastics

One of the most asked questions in art probably is: What is art? Especially in the newer ages, where sometimes, let's face it, you can't really tell 100%. If you go into a contemporary art exhibition you will surely see people who stand infront of quite odd pieces with puzzled faces. And they assume, we assume, just because it's in a museum it must be art. Well, now I will try to explain or help people to go into these kinds of exhibition maybe a little more relaxed.

For contemporary art, I think, Tracy Emin, the famous artist, described it the best: "Art is a claim." Apparantly, all you have to do, is claim, that what you just made, is art. Sounds easy enough. But of course you have to have or give some sort of backgroundinformation. A good example for this theory is the rather well known installation by Tracy Emin. It's "just" her unmade bed, dirty sheets and all.

Emin stated: This is art. And everyone believed it, still believes it. Even I do, and I think its brilliant. Of course it doesn't always work, but just remember this when you stand infront of a really bizarre piece of "art" next time. It helps. And it also helps to understand the artist. But at some point you should draw the line. It shouldn't get ridiculous.

But now, I'll tell you, what best describes art for me. I once read this article on Kurt Tucholsky, a german writer, and his thoughts on art were perfect. To me.

"Art only has one criterion: goose-pimples"

To me, this hits the spot. It doesn't matter what ara the piece is from, who made it, what it's made from, the craftmanship, what it shows. Those aren't relevant points. What's relevant is, that it touches you in any form. If you instantly adore it or even hate it, it doesn't matter. As long as it creates some sort of reaction, it succeeded. Idealy of course, you love it and you actually get those tucholskyian "goos-pimples". The only real criterion with art should be, that it pleases you. And not by whom it's made or how much you spent on it. Tucholsky is totally right. A genius, he is.