Joaquin Sorolla

La Nuit Espagnole

Flamenco, avant-garde et culture populaire

Petit Palais

avenue du Président Wilson à PARIS

05.07.2008 – 31.08.2008

A beautiful building, even though it is not intuitive to navigate. Be sure to look at the mosaic floors, painted ceilings, and all over ornamental finishings. The show is in two parts, on two levels, and you have to exit back through the second half of the exhibit and walk through part of the museum to find your way back to the exit of the building and librarie.

This show is everything you would expect from a museum exhibition. Expansive collection of painting, some sculpture, video and wardrobe all on the topic of Flamenco. As it is a museum, the presentation of such a passionate subject becomes statically palatable. This is a great exhibit for the general public, or an aficiado of the subject and/or era. For those of you hoping for more of an engaging exposition, you might be satisfied with the rare videos or afternoon performances which are still rather static.

This exhibition DOES highlight some of lesser-known information about Flamenco and this time period and they have available videos that you can not easily find. It was a treat to see.

In support of the exposition, there is a complementary showing of Flamenco inspired Christian Lacroix gowns that would make anyone stop and look twice – even if you can’t get that close to them.