Paris: Gallery 3

January 14, 2012, Saturday

Train travel:  ~300 miles x 2 London St Pancras <-> Paris Gare du Nord
Train time:  4h 49 min = 2h 23 min + 2h 26 min
Arrived:  3:47 pm at Paris Gare du Nord
Left:  Eurostar 8:13 pm for London St Pancras

As soon as I boarded the train for Paris, I regretted leaving my bag at St Pancras.  The left luggage office closed at 10 pm, 21 minutes after I was due back in London.  A delay would be troublesome.

I rushed to Gagosian once I got off the train.  I walked down rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, past Élysée Palace, past some Christmas lights that were still on at Place Vendôme, to various shops in Paris I always visit when I am there -- Colette, for the latest photobooks; JP Hévin, for exquisite chocolates and agnès b., for essential couture.

While agnès b. was panned in the New York Times for shirts "that would probably cost one-third as much at Uniqlo," I remain a loyal customer.  Although prices have ballooned frighteningly (certainly outpacing the rate of inflation) since I bought my first shirt in Amsterdam in 2001, they are still affordable during the giddy Paris soldes and still hard to pass up with VAT refunds.   The size 36 shirt is a nearly perfect cut for me, whereas American cuts are probably made for twice my size.

A stop at Gagosian meant that I had very little time for Fondation Cartier (designed by Jean Nouvel).  Still I spent twenty minutes there, which was far too short to appreciate properly the Mathematics:  A Beautiful Elsewhere exhibition.   The show was a collaboration among artists and mathematicians, who included Fields Medalists, such as a 2010 medalist Cédric Villani.

Fondation Cartier, courtesy of galinsky.com

Mathematics: A Beautiful Elsewhere, courtesy of Fondation Cartier

The most striking artwork I found was a sculpture by Hiroshi Sugimoto, renowned for his minimalist photographs of black-and-white seascapes, long-exposure photographs of theaters and blurry photographs of iconic modernist architecture.  From the bookshop I picked up a second copy of his monograph Conceptual Forms, which has become impossible to find in the USA.

Hiroshi Sugimoto's "Conceptual Form 011: Surface of Revolution with Constant Negative Curvature" in the Fondation Cartier exhibition, courtesy of Wallpaper.com

Cover of Sugimoto's Conceptual Forms, courtesy of Barnes & Noble

Did I just stamp your passport twice, asked an incredulous immigration officer at Gare du Nord

Dinner was a salmon tart, which I ate on the train.  My seat mate was watching La Règle du Jeu on his DVD player, which he said he watched regularly. Renoir's brilliant portrayal of aristocratic dysfunction at the eve of World War II is a masterpiece.

Le plus terrible dans ce monde c'est que chacun à ses raisons. Drop terrible and this famous line from the movie explains why anyone even takes up the Spot Challenge.

I had no trouble retrieving my bag at St Pancras.

Previous Gagosian gallery visit: Cy Twombly + Jean Prouvé, Nov 27, 2010
Train tickets: $227