Springtime in Paris with the Galleries of the Carré Rive Gauche by Carolin C. Young / May 23, 2013.

​

The Carré Rive Gauche celebrates springtime in Paris on May 30th with simultaneous openings at its myriad top-quality member galleries located in arty and elegant Saint-Germain-des-Prés. This annual happening lends a touch of casual, street-festival jubilance to the more studied act of perusing high caliber art and antiques.  The sponsored champagne is nothing less than Ruinart. But attendees can carry glasses from one venue to the next, linger on the sidewalk for a chat, or simply soak in the aesthetic pleasures of the urbane yet tranquil surroundings. Normally hushed and somewhat intimidating galleries feel as welcoming to the casual passerby as to the eminent collector. 

What is the Carré Rive Gauche ? A dealer association made up of vetted members from the dense cluster of galleries located in a geographic square (carré) on the Left Bank (rive gauche) that encompasses the Quai Voltaire and the rues Saint-Pères, Université, Bac, Beaune, Verneuil, and Lille and that straddles the 6th and 7th arrondissements.

Now in its 36th edition, the event and the association behind it have continued to evolve, reflecting an influx of younger dealers. This year, the theme is “Carrément audacieux,” which can be literally translated as “Squarely Audacious,” in a play on their name, but more metaphorically “Completely Audacious.”  

Carré Rive Gauche’s members interpret the theme as diversely as the objects and art they specialize in.  Galerie Alb Antiques features a diminutive but bold powder compact in the form of an old-fashioned telephone dial, which Salvador Dali created for Elsa Schiaparelli in 1935. Galerie Sismann evokes Baroque ecstasy with a multi-sensory mise-en-scène installation replete with music in tribute to Bernini’s famed chapel of Santa Teresa that will showcase fifteen masterworks, including a highly emotive, mid-sixteenth northern Italian marble bust of a woman. More discreetly, Galerie Arcanes, a specialist in decorative arts from 1920 through the mid-1970s, displays a new line of boldly linear furniture commissioned from the young designer Pierre-Rémi Chauveau.

From antiquities to contemporary art, and from Asian artworks to Primitive objects, not to mention European fine and decorative art, the breadth of the range covered within a few small streets is breathtaking. Those wishing to focus their viewing can choose from one of seven specialist itineraries suggested on the Carré Rive Gauche website. But the majority of visitors approach the event as more of a springtime frolic, unleashing their curiosity wherever their eyes lead them.