Museums in Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou #4 (Part 2 of 2)

Our visit to the well-air conditioned Pompidou continues.  

The other temporary exhibition we visited was a Dora Maar retrospective.  Dora Maar is most famous for her long, troubled relationship with Pablo Picasso.  The retrospective covers that period of her artistic life, as well as earlier and later periods.  Because we knew little about Dora Maar's life as a photographer and painter, we did not know what to expect.  She was a talented artist who deserves to be famous for her own work instead of mostly being famous as Picasso's mistress. We enjoyed seeing the extensive collection of her work.   

Dora Maar photographed Picasso's creation in 1937 of the famous painting Guernica.  We were intrigued by how the painting evolved.  Below are a few of the early photographs. 

The finished Guernica appears below.

Guernica by Pablo Picasso (1937)

Greg especially liked the still life pictured below.  It reminded him of early cubist works and Paul Cézanne's still life paintings.   

Thanks for again visiting the Pompidou with us.  We hope you were cool and comfortable during the visit.  

Museums in Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou #4 (Part 1 of 2)

During a stroll on a recent hot afternoon, we were near the Pompidou and wondered if the Pompidou's air conditioning was good.

So, we ventured in and viewed two temporary exhibitions.  The first was Prehistory--A modern enigma.  The exhibition is a collection of (1) ancient artifacts--bones, tools and art--from before recorded history and (2)  modern art about ancient places and themes.  

What was especially interesting about the Miró painting pictured above is the study that Miró created (pictured below).  If you compare the two images, you can see how Miró transformed figurative images into abstract images.  

(Carnac is a prehistoric site in in western France and its thousands
of aligned stones resemble Stonehenge in England.) 

When we walked out of the exhibition, we agreed that the theme of the exhibition did not make much sense to us.  Still, we were happy to see a wonderful collection of modern art.  

Next Up:  Dora Maar

P.S.  The Pompidou has excellent air conditioning.

Summertime in Paris #1

Summer has arrived in Paris.  We know that because the calendar tells us so.  If we didn't have a calendar, we would still know Summer is here, because of the heat.  

Because Paris is in northern Europe, summers in Paris are variable.  Some are cool and rainy, others are warm and pleasant, others are hot or very hot.  

So far, this Summer is bordering on very hot.  Daytime high temperatures have approached 100 with high humidity.  In fact, the French government has issued heatwave warnings on television and on electronic street signs.  The French now take heatwaves (canicules) very seriously following the terrible European heatwave of 2003.  France was not accustomed to a sustained heatwave and residential air conditioning was (and is) uncommon.  Tragically, thousands of people in France died due to the 2003 heatwave.   

There is no need to worry about us.  We are taking the canicule warnings seriously.  We do not have air conditioning in our apartment.  However, we have electric fans, we drink lots of water, and we know where to cool off -- in movie theaters and shopping malls, just like when we were young.  

We still take long walks, perhaps moving a bit more slowly than usual.  We have honed our shade-finding skills.  We especially like walking in the nearby Tuileries garden.  The garden has tree-lined walkways providing cool shade from the sun.  The garden's designer, André Le Nôtre, made sure in 1664 that visitors could enjoy shaded walks in the garden.  Thanks, André. 

The other day, we took a long walk in the Tuileries garden.  The sun was hot and bright, but a welcome breeze and the shaded walkways made the stroll enjoyable.  Plus, we enjoyed seeing Summer flowers that are thriving in the hot sun.    

In the photograph below, the wildflowers represent Paradise.

The wildflowers are planted around the beehives in the garden.  So, if you are a bee, you are in heaven.  

Thanks for sharing Summer in Paris with us.