 | French billionaire Francois Pinault owns well over 2,000 works of art, and he regularly puts the hot-ticket items on show. Example: Jeff Koons's Hanging Heart - seen at Pinault's Punta della Dogana in Venice, and now welcoming visitors to a new show of works from his collection at Monaco's Grimaldi Forum. |
'Art Lovers' is a first-rate exhibition (with a cheesy title) where the curating and design are almost better than the art. Curator Martin Bethenod (who used to
co-run the Fiac) has picked out works that are all, in some way, an hommage to past masters - inspiration, emulation, duplication. Instead of a helter-skelter show of works (which is what collector exhibitions tend to be) this has a very clear thread.
Here is Subodh Gupta's Very Hungry God (2006) parked outside the venue:
co-run the Fiac) has picked out works that are all, in some way, an hommage to past masters - inspiration, emulation, duplication. Instead of a helter-skelter show of works (which is what collector exhibitions tend to be) this has a very clear thread.
Here is Subodh Gupta's Very Hungry God (2006) parked outside the venue:
 Pinault has some great Maurizio Cattelans, I have to say, example: this wax effigy of Pablo. | The Pinault show is well timed: It comes just three months before his archrival Bernard Arnault opens the Fondation Louis Vuitton, designed by Frank Gehry, in Paris. Vuitton promises to be *the* art opening of the fall, and come October, Pinault will start to feel a little left out. So the Monaco show is not a bad way for him to stay in the public eye... |
On the whole, the Pinault collection seems strong on sculpture - in Monaco, that first room of sculptures is a knockout. It contains a wax replica by Urs Fischer of Giambologna's monumental marble group Rape of the Sabine Women which will melt slowly over the course of the exhibition (it's basically a very large candle).
If this exhibition were just a case of another collector showing off, I'd say skip it. In fact it's what all contemporary art shows should be: well chosen, meticulously thought through, well presented, and never random. The exhibition ends Sept. 7 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco: http://www.grimaldiforum.com/.
If this exhibition were just a case of another collector showing off, I'd say skip it. In fact it's what all contemporary art shows should be: well chosen, meticulously thought through, well presented, and never random. The exhibition ends Sept. 7 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco: http://www.grimaldiforum.com/.
