The height of a tourist’s mega $$$ art experience is the journey to the European odyssey for commercial art epicentre which of course is at Montmartre. Oui, monsieur, it is high-art for it is situated on a hill (130m high) in the north of Paris, at the Place du Tetre in the 18th arrondisement, Famous artists who had studios or worked within this colony included: Salvador Dalí, Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh. Later on came the arrival of Camille Pissarro and Erik Satie (who was a pianist at Le Chat Noir), who also lived in the area.

There is a great British Tony Hancock movie of the 1960s which takes the ‘mickey’ out of Parisian artist existentialist colonies called ‘The Rebel’ aka ‘Call Me Genius‘ (1961)   where, he chips away at his stonemasonry masterpiece ‘Aphrodite at the Waterhole‘ and ends up on a great existential art trip and stay in the 18th arrnondisemont living the life within the beatnik fraternity. (Love it, love it, love it) – This movie is  totally recommended. (It also stars John LeMesurier).

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“Is It Art?”