Barack Obama in Paris!

(Posted by Globespotters Urban Advice from Reporters who live there)

“Yes We Can” by Cyril Angelidis. (photo by Erin Edwards)

By Charly Wilder, IHT Paris

No, he hasn’t ducked the swing states for the city of light, but in the final weeks before the U.S. election, a quaint art gallery in the Bastille neighborhood has become an unlikely hub for the intense interest Barack Obama’s candidacy has inspired in France. ‘‘Barack Obama in Paris,’’ on display at Dorothy’s Gallery until Nov. 17th — or later if Obama wins the election — is an energetic melange of paintings, photographs, illustrations and sculpture inspired by the American Democratic nominee. MAP

Most of the featured artists are French, and the exhibition is a great chance to take in the range of ways Obama has captured Gallic hearts and minds. Many works are earnest tributes, like ‘‘Obama for President,’’ a mixed media piece by the Parisian photographic artist Emmanuelle Fevre, who superimposed a photograph of Obama’s face over snapshots of the nominee’s family and catchphrases from the campaign. Another French artist, Raymond Quai, designed color-coated chrome light boxes emblazoned with the faces of Obama and Martin Luther King Jr. He called the work, ‘‘Hope/Progress/Yes we can.’’

Okay, so maybe parts of the exhibition verge on the credulous. Somehow I couldn’t help imagining one of those red state ‘‘Sarah dudes’’ shaking his head woefully at all this French Obama-mania. Then again, right around the corner at the Place de la Bastille, the Colonne de Juillet, a massive bronze and gold column built to honor the ascension of monarch Louis-Phillipe, serves as a reminder that hyperbolic hero worship is not a new artistic conceit.

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The best pieces in the exhibition buck the reverential and the maudlin for a more humorous slant on the campaign. There are caricatures and political cartoons by some of the illustrators from French satirical newspapers Canard Enchainé and Charlie Hebdo, as well as several pieces by Ed Koren, an American cartoonist and frequent contributor to The New Yorker. An oil recreation of Cezanne’s ‘‘The Card Players’’ substitutes the Clintons, Al Gore and Obama for the deep-hued 17th century peasants pictured in the original, and in one illustration, a well-coifed, bespectacled Sarah Palin leans on a bear pelt in full cavewoman regalia, club in hand. The Greek-French painter Cyril Angelidis, whose oversized Obama portrait is the signature work of the exposition, told us he decided to paint Obama because he’s tall, charismatic, and ‘‘looks like he should lead a state.’’ He added, referring to President Nicolas Sarkozy, ‘‘not like the short, nervous one we have over here.’’

With the exception of a few less-than-flattering cameos, John McCain is conspicuously absent from the exhibition. Though according to Dorothy Polley, the owner of the gallery and an American expatriot, any partisan leaning arose naturally from the project. ‘‘Quite frankly,’’ she said, ‘‘if McCain had inspired a lot of art, I would have been willing to show also some of the art inspired by him.’’

In addition to the over 60 original works, Dorothy’s Gallery will host a number of events, including a roundtable discussion led by representatives from Democrats Abroad and the French Support Committee for Barack Obama, public screenings, and an Obama-inspired musical concert. Last week, Globespotters attended a fundraiser-cocktail party at the gallery, where we spoke to Polley, as well as several artists, guest-speakers and of course, French Obama-fanatics.

Helen, our favorite French Obama fan, wore a veritable Elizabethan collar constructed out of campaign buttons, skipped work to watch all of the debates, and spent two nights in train cars to hear Obama speak in Berlin. See more photos from the exhibition and listen to the interviews here.

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