Paris

First Lady on canvas: The father of French President Nicolas Sarkozy has rented the elite Pierre Cardin gallery for a one-man show of his paintings. Pal Sarkozy, 82, produces kitschy, splashy surrealist works, mostly of naked women; they are routinely panned by critics. The highlight of the new show will be a huge canvas of Carla Bruni, the supermodel-singer his son married in 2008. She is pictured clothed, strumming a guitar while sitting on a piano painted with an image of the French president at his desk. The gallery made a point of saying that it does not endorse the show, which opens in April. “We hire out part of our space for private shows,” said a spokesman. “We don’t have a choice.” Sarkozy said his son’s position has helped his painting career “enormously.”

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