On Friday night at the Elysee Palace in Paris, dealers and artists in town for the annual Foire Internationale d`Art Contemporain—the fair known as FIAC, which opened to VIPs on Wednesday with 195 galleries from 27 countries, and closed Sunday night—attended a party where the guest of honor set to address them was no less of an eminence than French president Emmanuel Macron. No head of state in France had thrown such a party for the fair since 1985.
Before photographer Philippe Halsman and Surrealist Salvador Dali settled on the idea of tossing three cats into the air for the photograph Dali Atomicus (1948), the Spanish artist suggested they blow up a duck using dynamite. Considering it took 26 attempts to pull off the picture of a levitating Dali in a chaotic airborne scene, Halsman`s insistence against the first idea was decidedly the best course of action.
Expressionism emerged at the dawn of the 20th century in Europe as vanguard artists attempted to convey the isolation and anxiety of modern existence through bold colors and tense, powerful lines.