Before we’d left, my friend Dan had recommended going to Museum Maillol, which had a show featuring one of Damien Hirst’s skulls.
One of just hundreds of museums in Paris. Whatever type of art you're interested in, you're bound to find a museum dedicated to it.
The show was called Vanités, and it featured a variety of artists on the theme of death. Lots of skulls and skeletons. The theme “Memento Mori” (Remember that you will die), served the show well.
Well, we saw the skull (not the diamond encrusted one – this one was black – the scorched skull?), saw the rest of the show, but you know, it just didn’t feel like Paris. And given that this was a themed show, it seemed like a lot of kitchy art was gathered to round out the show.
Most of the museums have interesting tickets with one of their paintings or sculptures depicted on them.
The more interesting part really was that Aristide Maillol himself was a well-known painter, sculptor and tapestry artist. Upstairs were rooms of his paintings, mostly of the female form, and mostly nudes. We only spent a few minutes there but I wish I had known more about him before going. Later, we saw a number of his sculptures in the gardens at the Louvre.
Here is a very interesting blog post with lots of photography on Maillol. It’s mostly about Dina Vierny, Maillol’s muse and finally the creator of his foundation. It’s written by Michael McNay, on Magda Vacariu’s blog.
It's stripes all around. Right up to the minute.
And with that, it was back out into the sunshine, thank you! The museum was just around the corner from the Saint-Sulpice church, so we decided to go there. This is a perfect walking neighbourhood (aren’t they all) with one interesting shop after another.
How many badgers were sacrificed here? Or are they all faux badgers?
Parisian window display artists seem to be more creative than those in other cities, so walking down a street like this can take time.
The last store was for him. Here's one for her. Where else but Paris would you see a window like this?
