51�Թ�

A stiletto-heeled, stiletto-tongued persona who might well have been the spawn of a ménage à quatre involving Oscar Wilde, Salvador Dalí, Auntie Mame and Miss Piggy, Dame Edna was not so much a character as a cultural phenomenon, a force of nature trafficking in wicked, sequined commentary on the nature of fame.

“Qui incarne le mieux Paris qu’Invader?” interroge Nicolas Laugero Lasserre, spécialiste en art urbain et l’un des quatre commissaires de l’exposition à l’Hôtel de Ville.

While visiting the Musée d’Orsay, the sculpture “Les Quatre Parties du monde soutenant la sphère céleste” by the 19th century artist Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux transfixes me.

Bouchardon created sculptures for the gardens of the Palace of Versailles, the former home of French royalty, and also made the Fontaine des Quatre Saisons in rue de Grenelle, Paris.

Audiences loved “The Four Moons,” but some critics stumbled over its convergence of Native American themes and classical ballet, seemingly surprised by a traditional pas de quatre instead of a “corn dance or sun dance,” as The Saturday Review put it.