Posts Tagged ‘Francois Boucher’

The Future of Art

Friday, March 1st, 1991

It is art that acknowl­edges the strug­gle of its own mak­ing, and con­veys a sense of life as com­posed of frag­ments, where not every­thing is leg­i­ble, and some things are irrev­o­ca­bly ruined or lost. The past haunts and enrich­es the present. Mem­o­ry and imag­i­na­tion are inter­twined. It is a mir­ror of the soul.

Read the full article »

Madame de Pompadour

Friday, June 1st, 1990

Madame de Pom­padour always man­aged to look grace­ful, even in the most con­strict­ing clothes — corsets, bus­tles, and stays. Like Madon­na, she cre­at­ed a Look that was supreme­ly arti­fi­cial — the pow­dered hair, the heav­i­ly applied make-up, the elab­o­rate gowns. Like Madon­na in her John-Paul Gaulti­er bustiers, La Pom­padour in her negligée proud­ly dis­played her sex­u­al­i­ty as the source of her power. 

Read the full article »

Textile Masterpieces

Thursday, February 8th, 1990

Rugs and blan­kets, shrouds and shawls: tex­tiles touched the lives of the peo­ple who lived with them. Slum­ber­ing in store­rooms, rolled up and pro­tect­ed from light, these tex­tile mas­ter­pieces have kept their vibrant col­ors and some­thing of their human warmth. Now, unfurled, they look like mag­ic car­pets, poised to rise.

Read the full article »

The Grand Tour

Sunday, January 28th, 1990

Light as a whis­per, these ele­gant images, in the del­i­cate style known as ROCOCO, con­vey the “sweet­ness of life” before the Rev­o­lu­tion. Some­thing of the warmth of the artist’s hand still lingers in all the lit­tle jabs and touch­es of chalk or ink that make up these deli­cious lit­tle 18th cen­tu­ry draw­ings and prints.

Read the full article »