News
Four Cartoonists Among 12 Dead in Attack on French Satirical Magazine
Four of France's most highly regarded cartoonists are among the 12 people murdered in an attack at the Paris office of the magazine Charlie Hebdo on the morning of January 7.
Paris
Art
The Oulipo Group's Generative Word Games
PARIS — Members of the Oulipo movement play with generative poetic combinations and permutations. Their interests lie at the conceptual nexus of algorithmic art software and remix culture at large, combining all forms of hypertext hybrids, experimental word swarms, and shared authorship projects.
In Brief
Jeff Koons Accused of Plagiarism in Paris, Again
A second sculpture by Jeff Koons is conspicuously absent from his retrospective at the Centre Pompidou after a photographer's widow complained to the art star and the museum's administration that "Naked" (1988) constituted copyright infringement.
Art
On His 100th Birthday, a Conference Considers William Burroughs's Humanist Legacy
PARIS — With determined indeterminacy, young Mathilde Louette initiated a perplexing but hip four-hour English-language celebration of William S. Burroughs’s 100th birthday on December 12 in Paris, where the writer lived, on and off, between 1958 and 1966.
Art
Bertus Jonkers, Sculptor of Mini Metropolises
One of the strange, miniature cityscapes that Dutch artist Bertus Jonkers spent much of his life building is among the star attractions in Sous le vent de l'art brut 2: De Stadshof, an outsider art exhibition in Paris.
News
French Manuscript Museum Raided over Murky Investment Scheme
Paris's Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits (MLM), an institution devoted to ancient manuscripts and historic letters, was raided by French authorities on Tuesday for its apparent role in a fraudulent investment scheme masterminded by the museum's founder, financier Gérard Lhéritier.
News
Paris Festival Censors Photo of Mother-Daughter Embrace
A photograph of a mother and her young daughter embracing has been removed from a gallery exhibition in Paris after seven anonymous letters prompted the gallerist and the director of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) to censor the work.
News
Affordable Housing Plan Threatens Parisian Street Art Haven
The tiny, two-block-long Rue Dénoyez in Paris's 20th arrondissement has been one of the French capital's foremost street art venues for years, but two subsidized housing projects could spell the end for this plein air gallery.
Art
How To Talk About Paul McCarthy
What, I ask you, should one expect if one asks artist Paul McCarthy to create a Christmas tree for the place of honor at a renowned, must-attend art fair? Well, it’s Paul McCarthy, so there are only two possible outcomes: a turd or a butt plug.
News
The Eiffel Tower Gets a Facelift
“I ought to be jealous,” engineer Gustave Eiffel said, after his 1,070-foot iron lattice tower was erected in late-19th-century Paris. “She is more famous than I am.”
Interview
Midcentury Expressionist Drama, Novelized
PARIS — I recently met in my studio the writer Jake Lamar, a New York ex-pat living in Paris, and spoke to him about his new novel, Postérité (The original English title is "Posthumous"), that will be published today in French by Rivages.
Art
The Mystery of the Orient Express Resurfaces at a Paris Museum
PARIS — In forming an exhibition on the Orient Express, the railroad line most steeped in myth, it was wise to bring in the body of the train itself.