PARIS — Art Basel Paris may have closed prematurely due to fears of violent protests in Paris, but art lovers still managed to cram in a full schedule of exhibitions and events staged around the contemporary art fair and its sister event, Design Miami Paris.
Art Basel opened to the public on Friday after three days of previews, but organizers canceled its Saturday and Sunday sessions, citing security concerns.
Several other events were canceled or postponed amid fears of a repeat of the riots and looting that followed largely peaceful demonstrations nationwide on Oct. 17. Those art events that went ahead drew big crowds and plenty of buzz.
The art week culminated with the sale at Sotheby’s Paris on Thursday of Claude Monet’s “Iris” painting for 50 million euros, making it the most expensive artwork ever to go under the hammer in France.
Artists and designers took over storied venues, with Kennedy Yanko showing sculptures amid the historic plaster casts at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, while Tracey Emin planted three monumental sculptures on the Trocadero esplanade opposite the Eiffel Tower.
After performances at the Louvre museum and the Venice Biennale, Jordan Roth presented his first installation at the 18th-century Hôtel de Guise, in partnership with Design Miami and Salon 94 Design. Titled “To Think of the Tranquil Life of Things,” it featured furniture draped in slipcovers printed with photographs of Roth, in a layout inspired by his former West Village apartment in Manhattan.
Architect Aline Asmar d’Amman took over the Palais Garnier for a residency marking the 150th anniversary of the building ahead of major renovations starting next year. The public exhibition will remain open until Oct. 30, while the 12 contemporary artworks on show will go on sale at Sotheby’s on Dec. 3.
On the food front, We Are Ona presented pop-up restaurant Dalad’s, in collaboration with Thai-American chef Dalad Kambhu and artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, in a secret location near Place de l’Étoile in Paris.
Interior architect and furniture designer Harry Nuriev took over Le Dalí, the restaurant at hotel Le Meurice, with a silver table installation dubbed “The Stage.” Seating 24 guests, the six-day pop-up offered a black-and-white menu concocted by Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse and executive chef Amaury Bouhours, paired with Dom Pérignon Champagne.
Here, WWD reviews some of the week’s key events.
Maison Perrier-Jouët and Iris Van Herpen Host Banquet of Nature
Perrier-Jouët hosted a dinner at The Peninsula Paris where it unveiled its collaboration with Iris Van Herpen, the winner of the inaugural Perrier-Jouët Design for Nature Award.
The Dutch couturier headed to the Champagne maker’s vineyards, where she and her partner, a sound artist, recorded the subtle rhythms of plant life.
“I’m often trying to visualize the invisible organisms and structures within nature,” Van Herpen told WWD. “I heard from a scientist once that when a soil is really healthy, it creates soundscapes, so it produces all these sounds through the organisms that are basically preparing the new plants to grow.”
Back in her studio, she used cymatics, the science of sound made visible, to translate those sound vibrations into bubble-like organic chain motifs.
Crafted from recycled 22-karat gold, the delicate structures swirled among white silk drapery around a jeroboam of Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque 1988, available as a one-off collector’s piece, as well as a limited edition of 10 magnums of Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque 1999.
The pattern was also printed on the packaging of a limited-release Dedicated Cuvée by Iris Van Herpen, which the designer developed in collaboration with cellar master Séverine Frerson.
“I had my first tasting with her, and I had never experienced anything like it: each time I would get a Champagne, and with that specific Champagne, she would give me a flower in which the petal would have the same texture as the wine that I was tasting,” Ven Herpen recalled.
“I would close my eyes, I would feel the textures, and also taste the Champagne,” she said. “It was very synesthetic and I felt really inspired.”
The designer also had a special trick up her sleeve: as attendees enjoyed a menu concocted by two-Michelin-starred chef David Bizet, a model appeared in a laser-cut dress, which she proceeded to tear into strips that she invited guests to taste.
It turned out Van Herpen, who once grew a couture dress from bioluminiscent algae, created the look from fruit leather, composed of mango, pear and citrus.
Yasmin Mansour Designs Uniforms for Qatar Lounge
If the Qatar Lounge at Art Basel Paris felt like an oasis of calm, it was in part due to the soothing effect of the uniforms worn by attendants, who proferred small cups of traditional Arabic coffee infused with cardamom.
“It’s the color of the desert,” said Yasmin Mansour, the designer who created the beige pantsuits made from cotton canvas. “People work every day and for long hours, and you need to make sure that you’re making something creative but practical.”
Mansour said the shawl collar of the jacket, made with her signature fabric layering technique, was inspired by the bisht, a traditional robe worn by men for weddings and formal events. “I wanted females and males to be equal in the place,” she said.
The winner of the 2024 edition of the Fashion Trust Arabia Prize in the eveningwear category, the designer started during the pandemic using deadstock fabric traditionally used for Qatari tents in a quest for more sustainable materials.
She used the same fabric to create a line of limited-edition giveaways including a tote bag, pouch and notebook. Serving light bites developed with chef Noof Al Marri, the Qatar Lounge acted as a prelude to the second edition of Art Basel Qatar in January.
“Paris seems the obvious place to be able to do a fashion-forward moment,” said Kirstin Mearns, chief executive officer of cultural strategy and experience group QC+, a semi-private entity attached to Qatar Museums.
“Our mandate though is to always support a Qatari artist, and obviously Yasmin is an artist in the work that she does,” she added. “She’s Qatari, but she’s a progressive designer on the world stage.”
Rocco Ritchie is “Back on the Brush”
For Art Basel Paris, furniture and interior design house Pierre Augustin Rose presented “Back on the Brush,” an exhibition of eight paintings and three sculptures by Rocco Ritchie.
All made in 2026, the works featured expressionistic brushwork in often moody palettes. In “Blue,” a large-scale self-portrait, Ritchie depicted himself at the easel, while “Floating in Patmos” showed the artist in the sea.
Ritchie has been spending time in Spain, drawing inspiration and sourcing materials from across Southern Europe. The sculptures showed his newer exploration of three-dimensional work, including a black-marble bas-relief and a contemporary bust in portoro marble titled “Beeswax Head.”
The exhibition grew out of a personal connection with Nina Rose, one of the house’s cofounders along with Pierre Bénard and Augustin Deleuze. Rose, who previously worked for Rick Owens, met Ritchie’s mother, Madonna, through mutual friends in New York City.
Known more for its furniture and interiors, the gallery made its pieces integral to the presentation. The monumental canvases occupied the central, natural-light-filled hall, while smaller paintings hung above white velvet sofas in an intimate, living-room-like space, offering a cozy counterpoint to Ritchie’s work.
The exhibition runs until Nov. 7.
Sotheby’s Hosts Private Selling Exhibition and Pop-up Restaurant
Arguably the hardest table to score in Paris this week was Chez Sotheby’s.
Located in a Parisian apartment decorated with nearly $150 million of art available for private sale, including works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Gerhard Richter, the pop-up restaurant served a menu developed by Marseille-based chef Erika Blu, who paired classic Italian dishes with French desserts.
Open for six days only, the space on Rue de Rivoli was the brainchild of David Rothschild, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art private sales in the U.K. and global lead for private sales exhibitions, and Valerio Polimeno, head of creative consultancy Polimeno.
The design of the apartment was inspired by the homes of renowned collectors and socialites such as Marie-Laure de Noailles and Jacqueline de Ribes, while the bar section, presided over by former Ritz bartender Colin Field, nodded to nightclubs like Le Mathis.
“There is something about sharing an ordinary moment of everyday life, such as a meal, surrounded by beauty and culture: it stimulates conversation, meetings and curiosity,” Polimeno said. “It’s a very simple menu, an Italian menu, because in a setting like this, you need nothing more than pasta.”
Indeed, it would be hard for any dish to rival the Francis Bacon painting hanging above a table for two glued to one of the radiators.
Polimeno said it was a nod to the Picasso table at the Kronenhalle restaurant in Zurich, which is also tucked away in a corner. “In reality, it would be the worst table, but because there is a Picasso, it becomes the best table,” he said.
The Bacon table at Chez Sotheby’s may not have benefited from a view onto the Tuileries gardens or cozy banquette seating, but it faced a wall chockablock with museum-grade paintings that looked like they glowed from within.
“In a way, we have subverted the usual seating rules to show how the presence of art can truly redefine all familiar codes,” Polimeno said.
Apple and Design Miami Paris ‘Designers of Tomorrow’ Showcases Four Emerging Talents
Apple’s Designers of Tomorrow showcase returned to Paris for the second time, bringing together four emerging designers with this year’s theme as “presence.”
Presented in collaboration with Design Miami Paris at popular fashion week show spot (and Karl Lagerfeld’s former home) Hôtel de Maisons, the exhibition was curated by former Design Miami creative director Rodman Primack to explore how objects can command attention in an increasingly distracted world.
“The theme was born from an honest recognition of just how busy our lives have become,” said Primack. “In answering it, our designers demonstrate the power of objects to shape our physical environments and transform the human experiences that are possible within them.”
Finalists were selected by a jury of eight leading designers and curators from France, Mexico, Nigeria, South Korea and the U.S.
The showcase featured Salem S. Charabi, Isabel Rower, Yoonjeong Lee and Mexican design duo Genki Matsumura and Sebastián Zorrilla, working together as Parafernalia.
Egyptian-Danish designer Charabi’s “The Emergence of Light” lamp paired a limestone base with a delicate framework of date palm fronds and a veil of banana paper, using traditional craftsmanship.
Brooklyn-based Rower’s “Padded Chair 1860” was inspired by a piece she saw at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs and reimagined historical papier-mâché furniture through exaggerated proportions, a glossy black finish and ceramic-beaded fringe that swooshes when brushed.
Seoul-based Lee’s “New Form” transforms worn-down pencils into structural elements for a lamp and table, using repetition and overlooked materials to encourage a closer look. Layers of pencil have been transformed into plywood in curving and minimalist forms.
Meanwhile, Parafernalia created a sculptural stainless-steel landscape work that opens into a functional table and stool set, revealing an intimate space for conversation or a game of chess with a hand-carved board and pieces.
Short films shot on iPhones were running on iPads, showing how Apple’s tech is used in the artists’ workflows, such as early sketches and 3D modeling to adding finishing touches across continents.