Expo Jardins, Grand Palais

A new, enormous exposition, Jardins has opened at the Grand Palais, on till July 24th. A giant gold flowerpot sits in the waterfountain. To quote the notes, Jardins is a modest attempt to echo the words of Foucault, "The garden is the smallest part of the world and the whole world at the same time". Its essential definition: an enclosure, a delimited area within a territory, an orchestrated area that is a window to the world. 

Two floors of historic and current artworks (mostly French though this fresco is Pompeian), videos, paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, environments with sound and smell, photography, scrapbooks.

A detail of Cezanne's flower pots.

My favorite were these grand landscape overviews of chateaux with tiny red-coated gardeners at work in the foreground.

Another with rustic workers in the foreground while aristocrats romp in the manicured gardens.

All manner of garden tools for manicuring those gardens, beautiful objects in their own right.

Rooms are darkened so the artworks act as windows you can escape into.

Even humorous old bits of film.

The elegiac garden photographs of Eugene Atget.

Karl Blossfeldt's unigue plant photography.

Of course books of exquisite botanical illustrations.

Contrast with wild Matisse paper cutouts filling an entire wall.

Monet's Sunday afternoon garden party

Samples of earth colors.

Paris earth along the Seine is not yet fully green but Parisiens don't mind a bit. I dug up some of my first Springy Paris letters. Do check out the Newest Anniversary special set and other Paris maps and watercolors on Etsy. I hope the snow melts quickly for those of you house-bound.