Chambord is a 500-year-old castle in the Loire Valley, South of Paris. Magic operates when a contemporary artist is permitted to use its historic walls and grandiose park for his artworks! This spring and throughout the summer, the castle is opened for visitors to come and enjoy its premises with a touch of grace: that…
ART HISTORY. The Luxembourg museum, close to the artists quarters of Saint Germain, in Paris, is situated in a lush park. Its opening exhibition shows women painters, a rarity in those days.
ART. This is a somewhat equivocal title for this spring’s exhibition of the painter Anders Zorn (1860 – 1920), showing at our National Museum in Stockholm. It’s true that he was well-known, but for some, he’s outdated. I tried to find out what such a traditional painter can offer a contemporary viewer.
ART. Museums are currently closed in Paris because of the pandemic but, since a few years, certain department stores have exhibited artists. Le Bon Marché – one of the more elegant ones – situated in the centre of Paris, has exhibited world-famous artists, such as Ai Weiwei and Joana Vasconcelos, among others.
DEMOCRACY. The book The Tribalization of Europe. A Defense of Our Liberal Values by Marlene Wind is a welcomed contribution to discussions about Europe’s future. Wind’s message is that historical lessons are important to act against opportunism and populism.
ART. There’s an interesting exhibition about Sámi contemporary art in Stockholm this winter. It’s entitled Behind the corner, the wind’s yoik. We discover what that means at Sven-Harry’s art museum. By Anne Edelstam.
OPENNESS. In his recent book Open – The Story of Human Progress, liberal intellectual Johan Norberg writes about the importance of openness concerning our behaviours and institutions. One of the books main messages is that through history, the most successful civilisations and polities have been based on willingness to cooperate, tolerate and include more individuals…
CULTURE. Luxes, this winter’s exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, in Paris, isn’t only about travels though. It explores perceptions of luxury throughout the ages and from all corners of the world.
From Kino-e-no-komatsu Collection, 1826. Translation of the inscription by: James Heaton and Toyoshima Mizuho. Published in the Kyoto Journal, No. 18, 1992 STORY. Japan closed its borders to the world for 250 years, between 1603 and 1853. No one, foreign or Japanese, could enter or leave Japan under pain of death. All European foreigners were…
