Friday before last in Paris (how time flies!) we visited the Musée du quai Branly to take in the architecture*, but I found the collection of art from non-western backgrounds much more interesting.

The exhibits were vital and exciting. Unsettling too. There were short films by anthropologists as recent as the seventies, capturing some of the costume and objects in use. I had forgotten the French’s fascination for ‘primitive’. Walking around I saw Picasso here, Gaugin and Rousseau there, JP Goude and Gaultier too.  Indigenous life in their colonies seemed to infiltrate art and visual culture from the very beginning. Seeing the ‘bambara’ collection at the YSL exhibition in the afternoon just cemented the connections…

*Jean Nouvel’s architecture wasn’t as great. I loved the colours, I loved Patrick Blanc’s plant wall and the landscaping and planting. The museum itself seemed to have so much circulation space - the walk from entry to the exhibits was about ten minutes! My architect buddies felt it was badly detailed, but fortunately I don’t notice - I’m a broad brush stroke girl.

An exhibition of Rachel Whiteread drawings accompanies a new monograph by Prestel.  Alongside the drawings are some pretty beguiling collections of objects.

Piet Hein Eek via Thomas Mayer via Erie Basin

Not Conran, but Moshe Safdie.

I saw this beautiful girl on Backyard Bill…

and remembered that she was also on the Selby with this great array of shoes on painted white floors.

This shot has been living in my “white floors” image folder, which sits between my “black floors” folder and my “natural floors” folder. Which will win??? Today white is in front by a whisker…

Really enjoyed seeing these William English photographs exhibited at Maggs last week. William took several photographs of Vivienne Westwood in the Sex shop in early 1975 when he was a budding film student, eager to get into a London school. The idea backfired when he produced the portfolio, as the entrance examiners assumed he was only interested in making pornography.

Mr G interviewed William last week.

Photos from Terence Conran’s The House Book courtesy JB Taylor’s blog.

The Achille Castiglionni light in the final image is amazing, but is cropped. You will just have to buy your own copy…

One of my favorite shopfronts, in one of my favorite streets, from one of my favorite blogs.

Robyn Glaser’s city apartment…

And country house…