May 05 2006
Travels With Dad: Paris, May 1984
I really could call these entries “Obsessed with Food & Snobby about Art”!
May 10, 1984
Went by the Eiffel Tower (still a yucchy color).
Dad, Meg and I climbed to the roof of Notre Dame. Meg and Dad climbed to the bell tower, but I couldn’t bear to climb it – it’s all wood & terribly old & you can see right down to the ground. The gargoyles are very wonderful.
We then went to the Musee d’Art et d’Essai. It’s very new, and the collection is beautiful: Lautrec, Seurat, Monet, impressionists and post-impressionists. Several of the paintings are from the Jeu de Paume & are part of the eventual collection at the Musee D’Orsay. The space is bright and airy, and the paintings show to good advantage against the white background. This is apparently to be the eventual presentation at the Musee d’Orsay, where the collection from the Jeu de Paume will be housed.
Discovered that the Musee de la Mode et du Costume was closed, contrary to all indications. There was supposed to be an exhibit called “Indispensable Accessories” & I was very disappointed not to see it.
May 11, 1984
Mom and I went to see an exhibit at the Grand Palais called “La Rime et la Raison” (Dad, of course, would not waste his time on Art Moderne). It was a partial collection of the Menil family of Texas, who must be very wealthy and discriminating, because it was a really wonderful exhibit, and just what I would have chosen myself, given money and opportunity. I bought the catalogue, which was book-sized. [I still have it.] There were all my favorites: Warhol, Rauschenberg, Calder, Johns, Rothko, etc.
I wish we had had more time, but we had to go and meet Meg and Dad, who had climbed to the very top of the Eiffel Tower. Took a boat ride down the Seine and took pictures of the graffiti series of little white men dancing round the banks of the river.
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