Jeu de Paume, Paris
The peerless chronicler of everyday absurdity did not live to see this exhibition, but it is a dazzling final chapter, showing his irresistible good humour growing darker
I didn’t know Martin Parr very well, but the last time I spoke with him, two months before he died in December last year, he told me about his forthcoming exhibition at Jeu de Paume. He wasn’t subtle in adding that the Guardian never reviewed his exhibitions. I wonder now if he knew that the exhibition, titled Global Warning, would be his swansong. I wonder whether he knew he’d never get to see it.
Parr was always popular in France. It might be because the French loved his ability to mock the English, but in the end Parr mocked everyone, including himself. When his work was criticised in the UK as classist or sneering, Parr could cross the channel and seek refuge in a nation where no one seemed to read his work that way. The show at Jeu de Paume is set to be the museum’s most visited on record.
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Jeu de Paume, Paris The peerless chronicler of everyday absurdity did not live to see this exhibition, but it is a dazzling final chapter, showing his irresistible good humour growing darkerI didn’t know Martin Parr v...
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