Simple Joys of Everyday Life

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What the art students called “a ball”

There was a giant praying mantis sculpture inside the courtyard of the Hôtel de Sully. The rain had just started, and I imagined how magnificent the sculpture would look against the backdrop of the XVII-century castle-like building in the sun. Its surface had texture, and the color was a bronze green. Around me were other modern sculptures. I thought I had seen them before. It's the time of Art Basel here in Paris, and the city is full of unexpected discoveries that always push me to learn more about modern art.

The sculptures in front of me—now equally covered by the rain as I was—were pieces by Lynn Chadwick. If you've been to the Pompidou, MOMA, or the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, you've seen his art. This exhibition at Hôtel de Sully is part of an intriguing concept: art historian Mathieu Poirier (Galerie Perrotin) has organized a series of three Lynn Chadwick’s exhibitions across three continents. The first chapter, here in Paris, sho…