Finally, temperatures are warming up. It becomes pleasant to stroll through the sunny streets of Paris, while passing a glance in its pointed galleries. In any case, this is what Vogue France is offering you to do this month of May. From the American’s first solo exhibition in France Gwen O’Neil passing through the unforgettable works of the painter Marc Chagallthe editorial team has selected the exhibitions not to be missed in Paris.
6 exhibitions not to be missed in May, in Paris (and elsewhere in France)
Hernan Bas at the Perrotin gallery
Originally from Miami, Florida, Hernan Bas is an intriguing portraitist, whose solitary male figures populate canvases that are both peaceful and slightly disturbing. His characters find themselves, as always, filled with doubt, at the heart of deep introspection. As if the painter had captured them on the spot, without their knowledge, for a short moment of rare intimacy. A suspended moment. Asked about these men, stuck in their solitude, Down likes to say that these are artists who never existed, as if to bring them an unsuspected quality, a zest of mystery. In any case, this is the idea behind the genesis of his most famous series, entitled The Conceptualists. But at the Perrotin gallery, it is another of his favorite subjects that the artist decided to present.
Graduated from the New World School of the Arts in Miami in 1996, Hernan Bas, like many other painters before him, and after him, is closely interested in the border that separates reality from fantasy. In The First and the Last, his exhibition at the Perrotin gallery, he therefore offers new portraits, this time crossed by extraordinary references, where reality is twisted to his will. The starting point of his reflection? The time a tourist was caught carving his name on the Colosseum in Rome. “Although this act was far from admirable, it reminded me of the kinds of places people feel the need to attach their names to (sometimes literally).declares Down in a press release. This is an act of attempting immortality on a minor scale”. From the Tower of Pisa to Guernica of Picasso, the painter’s imaginary characters are therefore confronted with History, in atmospheres that are both strange and delicate. Until June 1, 2024.
