Le Modèle Noir de Géricault à Matisse

(Musee d’Orsay, 12 July 2019)

Focus on the future. Do not waste the time rewriting the past (and, perhaps, the future generations will be less ruthless in overwriting you).

The blacks used to be exotic to the Western eye. Soon it will be Europeans' turn to look quaint and exotic in the eyes of the newly rising civilisations. Perhaps, they already do, at Lapin Agile; not yet in London.

Catastrophes, such as wars, take people outside their comfort zone, shake up social hierarchies, spur creativity, bolster solidarity, which helps cooperate. A kinder, more humane catastrophe is capitalism with a healthy measure of democratic folly every now and then.