Letter From Paris: Beautiful Minds

A great season of exhibitions is upon us.  It is a coming together of beautiful minds being offered up to the citizens and visitors of Paris. 

We always have great shows, of course, but I find this to be a line-up that ranges across cultures, time, and sensibilities that especially appeal to me.  These are artists who have used their brains and talent to (have) evoke(d) potent images that run deep in our consciousness as well as unconscious.  Who better than Lucien Freud (grandson of Sigmund; painting above) to symbolize this artistically?  See list below.

Throughout time, artists have produced the work that compelled them despite the pressures to repeat the status quo.  This is how society pressures us—instead of encouraging us to stand out as our authentic selves.  As I said in my piece on Friday, the real luxury moving forward today is handcrafted people (not stamped with Like Everyone Else) with their own ideas and designs that they are contributing to their cultures and consciousness, and with a solid community behind them.

These are the shows I will definitely see:

1.  Edvard Munch at the Pinacothèque de Paris:  February 19th, and until July 18th, 2010. Munch is one of the most mythical artists but also one of the most mysterious of the end of the 19th-century and early 20th-century.

Death in the Sickroom by Edvard Munch

 2.  “From El Greco to Dalí: the great Spanish masters from the Pérez Simón collection” at the Musée Jacquemart-André.  12 March to 1 August 2010. 

View of Toledo by El Greco

3.   Lucien Freud at the Centre Pompidou:  10 March to 19 July 2010.

4.  The endlessly fascinating (and promoted) Yves Saint Laurent at the Petit Palais:  11 March to 29 August 2010.

5.  Sainte Russie at the Louvre:  5 March to 24 May.

There are beautiful minds in all endeavors--people who see a light at the end of their individual tunnels, and don't let others prevent them from getting there.

TED: Ideas Worth Spreading celebrates the incredible work people are doing in every field imaginable, including some you probably didn’t even know existed.  I'm including a video about a remarkable woman named Temple Grandin, who is promoting the notion that the world needs all kinds of minds. 

From Ted.com:

Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works -- sharing her ability to "think in pictures," which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids.

It takes about 20 minutes to watch it, but it's worth your time.

Take another few minutes to read about her here, too.  This woman could've been thrown away.  Instead, she was supported and excelled.  Something to think about.

How boring would life be if we all were like everyone else?  What would be the point in living such a factory existence?

                                                                     ---Beth Arnold in Paris