Tag: paris

Postcard from France: Saint Phalle battled outside wrongs and monsters within

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A colorful 1992 French stamp featuring a stylized figure by Niki de Saint Phalle, surrounded by stars and a crescent moon.

Above: Detail of “Monster Crocodile,” a 1964 assemblage by Niki de Saint Phalle.

I wanted [the fountain] to have charm, with the colors of Niki…. I wanted sculptures like street performers, a little bit like a circus, which was at the heart of Stravinsky’s style itself when in 1914 he had his first encounter with jazz….”

Jean Tinguely (1925-1991)

With bright primary colors twirling around squirting water in all different directions, the 1983 “Stravinsky Fountain” by Niki de Saint Phalle and husband Jean Tinguely ignited a public space between the Pompidou Center, housing the National Museum of Modern Art, and the Gothic-style Church of Saint-Merri. Viewing the flamboyant fountain evokes a childlike joyful feeling in even the most jaded adults.

Above: “Stravinsky Fountain,” Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely, Paris, France, 1983.

That whimsical, playful exuberance bubbling up in the fountain and her jubilant plump “Nanas,” with figures resembling my own, meant I failed to take a serious look at her art. I must have been in a teenage trance to miss the media coverage when she exhibited a giant Nana “Hon” with an entryway for attendees between her widespread legs.

Underestimating Saint Phalle’s talents for decades was a mistake. An exhibition this spring at the Caumont Center for Art in Aix-en-Provence altered my misconceptions.

A quotation by Niki de Saint Phalle in French and English, expressing her love for monsters, displayed in a colorful and artistic font.
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Postcard from Europe: Home’s where the boat floats

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Colorful stamp depicting boats on water, with artistic brush strokes and a sunny backdrop.

Above: Houseboats docked along a London canal

Tensions have been rising between the managers of Britain’s canals, others who use them, and the nomadic narrowboaters, revered by some as bohemian travelers and disdained by others as maritime squatters.”

“Britain’s Canalboat Nomads Fear New Rules Will Sink Their Way of Life,” Steve Hendrix, The Washington Post, August 29. 2025

I had seen canalboats before, yet London was the first place I became fascinated with the lifestyle of those who operated them. Clueless as to how the system worked.

Now I know, there are boats with permanent berths, and then there are “travelers,” wanderers required to shove off after two weeks in one spot. Many of these are not short-term vacationers but long-term residents who rove about the canals tying up their houses fortnightly.

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Postcard from Paris, France: Purging art to ‘cleanse’ culture

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French stamp depicting a figure being restrained by two soldiers, symbolizing resistance.

Above: “The Pinch of Snuff (Rabbi),” Marc Chagall (1887-1985), mid-1920s

This painting, in which a rabbi sells his soul to Satan for a pinch of tobacco, was acquired by the Mannheim Kunsthalle in 1928. In 1933, Mannheim became the scene of an intense campaign of purge and defamation of modern art orchestrated by the Nazis…. the painting was dragged through the streets of the city with the message: ‘You who pay taxes should know where your money is being spent.'”

“‘Degenerate’ Art: Modern Art on Trial under the Nazis,” Curator Notes, Musee Picasso Paris, 2025

One evening at the end of May, we were fortunate to slip into a last remaining timeslot for viewing “‘Degenerate’ Art: Modern Art on Trial under the Nazis” at Musee Picasso Paris. It was packed with procrastinators, rendering the air-conditioning incapable of keeping the day’s lingering heat at bay. Yet, we all found ourselves crowding close to the artwork in an attempt to devour every word of the informative curator notes.

Most of the featured art had been included in a major exhibition of 600 works mounted by the Nazi regime in Munich in 1937. The purpose of this was not to shine light on exemplary art; instead, it was designed to condemn entartete kunst, or degenerate art, and the evil artists who spawned it.

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