A Man for All Seasons, Especially Spring: David Lynch in Paris

Nadav Kander’s photo of David Lynch which appeared in the NYTimes in Style story A Moving Canvas (waiting to post!)
Not to be missed: You need to visit Nadav Kander’s site www.Nadav Kander.com. My favorite series is the Night series.

You might think of David Lynch first and foremost as a film director. His films tend to stick with you – like Blue Velvet and Elephant Man, indelible images, indelible music, indelible, but the Air is on Fire – currently on exhibition at the Fondation Cartier in the 14th Arrond. is his ‘at ease’ standing-still medium.

It’s thanks to Holly Brubach’s A Moving Canvas interview with David Lynch in NYTimes Style Magazine (Feb 25 ’07) that I didn’t want to miss this show. I’m not sure which I love more –Brubach’s prose – or the opportunity to tag along right behind Director Lynch – as he shows us his ‘tableaux’. (Be sure to click on the What’s On icon at the Fondation Cartier website to view David Lynch’s personal tour of the show! I tried to do a direct link for you but it didn’t link through).

Every film director should be so lucky as to have an interviewer like Brubach “Lynch paints with darkness the way other filmmakers slather on the sunbeams and fluorescent glare. The images unfold- breathtaking, perplexing – and we watch, in the grip of beauty and fear.” She writes.

To accompany Brubach’s story, photographer Nadav Kandar chooses a stark white background against which the director’s gray hair sweeps into a Van Gogh brushstroke. His electric blue eyes scan a horizon – that has absolutely nothing to do with the here and now. (I think this portrait is an homage to Van Gogh – which was a brilliant decision on Kandar’s part. A lesser photographer might have settled for a blue velvet backdrop.)

If you plan on making this pilgrimage to view Air is on Fire, you’ll also have the opportunity to admire Jean Nouvel’s architecture. Built in 1994. over a decade before the recently opened Musee du Quai Branly, you’ll have the opportunity to judge how his work has evolved over the past decades. The effect of glass dividers between gardens, interior and the street traffic is very democratic – rather than hide away gardens from pedestrians, we can enjoy the view – even if we don’t get around to stopping inside.

It also is a good tribute to the idea of “thinking outside the box”. For those of us who remember the squat walls marking off the old American Center – the emergence of Le Nouvel’s also marked the end of an era – the funky, hippy, dippy days of jazz-dance classes, etc. the scruffy but somewhat endearing garden speckled with sculpture . . . Nowadays, Chateaubriand’s Lebanon cedar tree is carefully swallowed in a glass sarcophagus, like a modern day Snow White - things change.

As long as art continues to find its place in space – all is well with the world.
Enjoy the show.

Musee du Fondation Carter
261 Blvd. Raspail
Metro: Raspail or Denfert Rocereau
Closed Mondays
11 am to 10 pm Tuesdays.
11 am to 8 pm Wed - Sunday