Photos

Leaving the Louvre, after crossing rue de Rivoli and place du Palais Royal, behind the temple of French classical theather, the Comédie Française, you will enter into the gardens of Palais Royal ("jardins du Palais Royal"), a square court and a rectangular garden surroundered by buildings of classical style. At ground level, beneath the arcades of Gallerie de Montpensier and Gallerie de Valois, a few shops, themselves a conservatory of old commerces: I remember a pipes seller, one displaying military and civilian decorations and orders and so forth. In some of the buildings is located the Conseil d'Etat, the French supreme administrative juridiction.

The first court (behind the columns and barrier on the right of the picture) was the object of another artistical controversy some years ago when the truncated, black and white columns of the artist Buren were installed there. Again people have got used to it and the contrast between ancient and modern is now accepted. The columns of Buren are mainly used now as goal markers for children paying football.

The garden itself is now used for exhibitions, usually modern art. At the time of my visit, there was one called "Two Americans in Paris", with works of sculptors George Rickey and Kenneth Snelson.

The sculpture in the foreground on is from Kenneth Snelson, "Indexer", 2000, a structure of stainless steel tubes and wire. I tried to combine the geometrical structure with the buildings and gallery in the background.

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