MINISTÈRE DES AFFAIRES ÉTRANGÈRES ET EUROPEENNES
No. 21 – July 2011
France’s major summer exhibitions in 2011
This summer in France the programme of
cultural exhibitions is particularly varied. With
Courbet in Ornans, Miró in Paris, Cézanne in Aix-enProvence and Delacroix in Marseille, there is a full
palette on offer. From contemporary art to classical
painting, through sculpture and photography, you will
find something to suit all tastes. Mexico, Guatemala,
India and Africa are also being showcased. Here is a
selection of the most outstanding of the many
exhibitions being held, each as attractive as the last.
In Paris, the temporary exhibitions at the major
museums and monuments offer opportunities to make new
discoveries and enrich your cultural landscape. The city is
exhibiting in the open air too. Sculptures and unusual
objects are popping up on the Champs Elysées, the banks
of the Seine or the Champ de Mars. Throughout 2011
France is celebrating Mexico, making it the focus of
several major exhibitions, including La scène artistique
mexicaine contemporaine [The Contemporary Mexican Art
Scene] at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, with artworks
by Hector Zamora and Natalia Almada.
Opened in June 2006, the Musée d'Arts et de Civilisations du Quai Branly in Paris is celebrating
its fifth anniversary with a sensational exhibition Maya, de l'aube au crépuscule [Maya, from Dawn to
Dusk], until 2 October. The distinctive feature of this exhibition is that nearly all of the 150 objects
exhibited (painted ceramics, stele, cut semi-precious stones, architectural remains, ornaments, etc.)
have never before left their home country, Guatemala. This extraordinary exhibition, which highlights
the most recent major archaeological finds, retraces the development of the Mayan civilisation, its
height and its decline following the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in 1524 AD.
Joan Miró became renowned as one of the leading proponents of Surrealism. The Musée Maillol
has chosen to show his sculptures, which have not been exhibited in Paris for over forty years. For this
event the museum has brought together 99 sculptures, 22 ceramics and 20 works on paper. Some
strange encounters are to be experienced here: a young girl with a tap on her head and long red legs
seems about to make her escape; an upturned chair is transformed into Women and Birds. Woman,
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bird, moon and the constellations are infinite sources of inspiration for the artist, who had a passion for
space and a taste for metaphor.
Indian contemporary art in all its forms is on display at the Centre Pompidou until 19 September,
with Paris-Delhi-Bombay. What visions do French and Indian artists have of the world? You will find
the answer in this unusual exhibition in which painting, sculpture, but also design, film and fashion are
approached as different ways of looking at aspects of society such as happiness, sexuality or violence.
It is always a thrilling and pleasurable prospect to see African voodoo art. The Fondation Cartier
in Paris is showing for the first time in France, at the initiative of collector Jacques Kerchache and
leading Italian designer Enzo Mari, an exceptional group of traditional sculptures from West Africa.
At the foot of the cliffs of the Loue Valley, the Musée Gustave Courbet in Ornans, FrancheComté, reopened on 2 July 2011 after three years work. Housed in the building in which the painter
was born, the new museum now offers for times the floor area, in a resolutely modern design that
opens wide onto the landscapes and water that so inspired the master of realism. In this new
configuration, Parisian architect Christine Edeikins has conserved the historical and intimate nature of
the buildings and their environment, with their period woodwork and flooring, and a garden with a
19th-century spirit… The permanent exhibition, which contains 75 artworks, 45 of them by Courbet,
describes the artist’s life, from Ornans to Paris, his political commitments, his views on life and on
people, and the bohemian circles in which he mixed, which included the poets Baudelaire and Nerval,
and the painters Daubigny, Rousseau and Dupré. The first temporary exhibition is devoted to
Courbet’s friendship with the sculptor Clésinger, both of them driven by the same fascination for
woman and nature.
Brittany has inspired a great many artists since the end of the 19th century: Romantics, Realists,
Naturalists, Impressionists… The beautiful exhibition De Turner à Monet, la Bretagne des paysagistes
[From Turner to Monet, the Discovery of Brittany by Landscape] at the Musée des Beaux Arts in
Quimper, illustrates this reality. The exhibition brings together over 80 paintings, drawings and
engravings from the United States, Great Britain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany and the
major French museums.
The exhibition L'orientalisme en Europe: de Delacroix à Matisse [Orientalism in Europe: from
Delacroix to Matisse] has arrived in Marseille, France’s second largest city, after having touched down
in Brussels and Munich. The event is being held in La Vieille Charité museum and consists of 120
paintings and sculptures by European artists from leading international institutions and private
collections. This flagship exhibition, which offers a vast panorama of Orientalism in Europe - between
Bonaparte’s Egypt campaign (1798-1801) and the period spent by painter Matisse in North Africa
(1906) - prefigures the major art events Marseille is planning to hold in the context of being designated
European Capital of Culture in 2013.
Photography has become one of the major arts of our times and the Rencontres d'Arles an
essential international event. For its 42nd session, the Rencontres d'Arles Photography Festival is
showcasing Mexico. Thanks to a programme that is both rigorous and aimed at the general public, 47
photography exhibitions are being held, ranging from photo reports to portrait photography, through
installations or major collections. Among the most striking events we must mention the Chris Marker
retrospective, which is showing over 300 works created between 1957 and 2010.
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The Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence is exhibiting the Collection Planque, l'exemple de
Cézanne [The Planque Collection, the Example of Cezanne] until 2 October. A friend of painters, Jean
Planque collected over 300 artworks in the course of his life, from meetings with artists and the special
selections he made. The collection is on loan to the city of Aix for fifteen years. Among the 120
paintings, drawings and sculptures selected here you can see works by artists from the late 19th
century with the Impressionists and the Post-Impressionists, Renoir, Monet, Van-Gogh and Gauguin,
and by the major painters of the 20th century such as Picasso, Braque, Dufy, Klee, Léger, de Staël and
Dubuffet.
Annik Bianchini
Websites:
www.quaibranly.fr: Musée du Quai Branly
www.museemaillol.com: Musée Maillol
www.mam.paris.fr: Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
www.centrepompidou.fr: Musée du Centre Pompidou
www.musee-courbet.fr: Musée Courbet
www.rmn.fr/francais: Centre de la Vieille Charité
www.museegranet-aixenprovence.fr: Musée Granet
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