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SPRINT IN COLOURS
Reviewed by ANDRE BEAUMONT
Racing and art go well together in my view.
Art sells better in association with racing. Racecourses can give a venue for lower priced art to sell quickly and galleries in racing towns and nearby can get discerning visitors willing to pay more. Racing in turn draws in more people who often do not mind a turn at the local museums as well.
The last two times I came to the hippodrome at Cagnes-sur-Mer it was chariot racing, first an evening meeting, the second time an afternoon one but neither offered flat racing due to the temperature.
So seeing the winter schedule did offer flat racing days, a February visit was on the cards. Spoilt by the luxury of a four decades connection with Newmarket, I thought I knew a bit about flat racing but the first race I saw was on fine sand. Then the turf races followed which was a treat. The light is so flattering, the colours vibrant.
The racing invitation injunction was to dare to live your life in colour - okay - the one to the Valentine celebrations in the boulevard d'Aguillon, Antibes, to wear pink and red - somewhat harder.
Nevertheless, I am complying by choosing photos in those colours and a few more.
Like in Newmarket, everyone more or less knows everyone by sight.
It must be said I neither wander through multiple art works nor gallop at racecourses so let us call it a sprint in colours.
Sundara winning on fine sand
Never thought of it - borrow racing colours!
.... and something for a masked ball
Now you two are doing proud
.... and you two are going to win
.... in the right colours
Alinka looks not even tired in the winners' enclosure
The Fist, the winner of the next
An arch from the boulevard d'Aguillon
..... where we find ourselves in a different world for Valentine celebrations the next day
As it was her opening day, first up was professional photographer Ester Berenger Vales whose work really does have an extensive focus on Antibes.
I am always reluctant to even photograph a photographer's work as the reproduction will be an order of magnitude inferior but for those who know Jaume Plensa's Nomade, this is an imaginative take on it.
In terms of favourite exhibits, the Australian opal of Yann Pidoux ranks high, all reasonably priced, and at the top end of the market the vitreous enamel on copper, mounted on Plexiglas, of Katarina Milliart.
Love in Motion, 2025
The porcelain of Babara Schull and the blown glass of Didier Saba are liked by all.
To conclude the Balade en Couleurs, a brief visit to the Les Arcades exhibition space, also in boulevard d'Aguillon, to see the work of 85-year old perennial pop artist from Nice, Ester Morisse.
