JACK-PARIS-Pompidou Contemporary Collection and Brancusi pavillon
Jack
Loire, Belgium, Amsterdam, Venice and Normandy posts are visible with
pictures on http://www.jack-travel.com/
PARIS 3RD ARR. The Contemporary Collection, Brancusi and place
Stravinsky- Copyright ©
Begin of the 70's the American weekly "Time" announced on its cover
story that Paris had nothing more to offer on the cultural scene.
Museums disappeared under the dust, painters exiled to other
countries, for theatre and music London and New York were THE places.
We are now 30 years later and things have changed dramatically that
the problem seems to have turned other ways. Paris has been cleaned
and dusted off so thoroughly, artistic past is elevated to economical
factors, that the question arises if the French capital didn't turn
into one gigantic museum where they don't "innovate" anymore, but
"renovate" in name of glorious past. I don't think that this is the
case since France grew out to the fourth industrial power on earth
thanks to "innovations".
But in the 70's the "Time" statement was correct and the French
reacted as being stung by a wasp.
A good example is the contemporary section (4th floor accessible only
through the 5th with a down going escalator) the English-Saxon
tendency of the 60's denounces the new society of spending, opulent
and conformist. It's called New Realism, trying to integrate real life
to art by incorporating common objects in "art works" like brooms,
rusted nails, and dinner leftovers….(see pictures on my web site)
Did I mention Chagall, Balthus, and Jasper Johns, the most expensive
living painter of the whole world?
The contemporary collections open with an homage to Jean Tinguely.
Several grand ensembles illustrate artitistic life from the 60's to
nowadays. : pop' art with Warhol, Claus Oldenburg, Robert
Rauschenberg, New Realism with Arman, Cesar, the posters shredders,
op'art and cinetism with Albers, Agam, Soto, Vasarely, the arte povera
with Mario Merz, Penone, Kounellis, conceptual art with Dan Graham.
Not to forget the new tendencies of figurative and abstract painting
punctuated by Dubuffet, Kienholz, Neuys, Raynaud….(see pictures)
To resume it all, the contemporary creations are presented in all its
diversity: plastic arts, video installations, cinema, architecture,
design. A very important place is reserved for recent creations, three
galleries are dedicated to design and architectural history, one for
the new media.
Let's finish this overview by visiting the new atelier "BRANCUSI", set
(see pictures on my web site) up following the wished of the artists
deceased in 1956. His atelier is housed now in front of the centre
Pompidou, imagined by Renzo Piano. It's at 11, impasse Ronsin that
Brancusi, the most genial sculptor of this century had his atelier
where he exposed all his works. It's that atelier where everything was
built with Brancusi's own hands that was bequeathed to the French
state in 1956.
The visit is imagined as a loitering among the essential works of the
artist: l'Oiseau dans l'espace (Bird in Space), Leda, la Colonne sans
Fin (Endless Column), La Muse Endormie (the Sleeping Muse). All
genuine masterpieces, even if modern sculptures don't appeal to you. .
You can also see some projects, soles, moulds and mouldings.
Before leaving the plateau of Beaubourg have a look at the Place Igor
Stravinsky, with a Tinguely and Nikki de Sainte-Phalle fountain .(see
pictures on my site) Themes of the composer's works like "the
Firebird" and "Pulcinella, "Petrousjka " and the "Rite of Spring" come
here to life in the joyful and cheering looking mobiles and
sculptures, turning with the wind. To see especially at night, when
the projectors flash on explosive colours!!
Bibliography:
--Vie et histoire des arrondissements de Paris, ed.Hervas
(1985-1988--Nouvelle Histoire de Paris, ed.Hachette--Le Pieton de
Paris, by L.P.Fargue, ed.Gallimard -Paris, 2000 d'histoire, by
J.Favier, ed.Fayard 199--Paris 19eme siecle, l'immeuble et la rue, by
F.Loyer, ed.Hazan, 1994-Historique des rues de Paris, 'Soc.Contact
Communication, Paris), Beaubourg, l'esprit du lieu, by Philippe
Bidaine (Ed.Scala , Paris), " Complexity and Contradiction in modern
architecture and Painting ", by Robert Venturi.(Abrams, New-York).
Jack
My Paris,daytrips from Paris, Provence, Cote d'Azur, valley of the
Loire,Normandy, Belgium, Amsterdam and Venice essays are on
http://www.jack-travel.com WITH pictures
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