JACK-PARIS-The new Centre Pompidou dissected.
Jack
Loire, Belgium, Amsterdam, Venice and Normandy posts are visible with
pictures on http://www.jack-travel.com/
PARIS 3RD ARR/ The new Centre Pompidou dissected!-Copyright ©
By creating a vast esplanade in front of Centre Pompidou, the
architects had the clear intention to integrate the Centre into the
city. The piazza became the kingdom of street performers: fire-eaters,
jugglers, musicians, cartoonists, and narrators entertain the by
passers and plunge the Centre Pompidou in a playful atmosphere. Very
lively spot, Beaubourg exploits this situation and built the esplanade
in slight declivity towards the entrance of the Centre. (see picture)
It's for the first time that all forms of modern culture are reunited
in the same spot and extraordinarily accessible. By entering the
Centre, millions of people enter a museum of modern art for the first
time (and even any sort of museum). No more heavy concepts of
classical exhibition places, psychological blockages against culture
with a big "C". It's one of the miracles of the Centre Pompidou.
Since it's opening in 1977 the Centre had an immense success. About 8
million a year visitors came to discover this new Mecca dedicated to
modern and contemporary culture. In an atypical architecture, I
concede, but prodigiously interesting. It is now one of the most
visited sites in France (beats the Louvre), one of the most visited
cultural places in the world.
As you all know, the Centre was closed for almost three years. (See
picture)The building yard was enormous: the external architecture was
redone but not modified, still looking as a big refinery. But the
interior spaces have been completely changed. The principal
beneficiary is the MNAM (Musee National d'Art Moderne), now on two
levels and more than 14,000 square meters which enables it to expose
more than 1400 works (instead of 800 before) With its new displays of
paintings and sculptures, judicious restorations, spectacular
acquisitions, the Centre Pompidou can be considered today as one of
the first museum in the world in his category: modern and contemporary
art.
With its reopening the Centre loses nothing of its welcoming quality,
the museum is (like before) divided between level 4 and 5. From 1900
to 1960 at level 5, from 1960 until today on level 4. It gained 4,500
square meters superficies. At level 5, nine hundred works retrace and
tell art history of the first half of the 20th century, from fauvism
to American abstract expressionism, insisting on the strong points of
the collection: the ensemble of cubist sculptures, works of the great
gurus of art, very well represented: Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky,
Miro, Ernst, Giacometti, etc... or insisting on the important schools
and movements like surrealism, abstraction, informal art.
Level 4 houses the contemporary. Opening with a work of Jean Tinguely,
grand ensembles illustrate artistic life from 1960 until today. Pop
art with Roy Liechtenstein, Oldenburg, Rauschenberg, new realism of
Arman, Cesar, Nikki de Saint-Phalle, op art and cinetism with Albers,
Agam, Vasarely and not to forget the Arte Povera and conceptual art
ending with the new tendency to figurative painting. (see the Miro
paintings pictures)
The collections of the museum are composed by 44,000 works of which
1400 will be exposed at the reopening. But the works will be replaced
every 18 months for the moderns, every year for the contemporary.
At level six the new cafeteria was designed by Costes, now a trendy
meeting place.
Cost of this formidable lifting: 576 millions FF of which 40 come from
private maecenas (Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint-Laurent, Pernod Ricard and
others). It's the indispensable price of a reorganisation when the
MOMA of New York and the TATE gallery of London are reorganising and
increasing their surfaces. Beaubourg, by excellence the passage
between the 20th and 21st century couldn't stay and watch.
Next post a more detailed visit of the Art Museum with a lot of
pictures.
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
Barbara Hunt
Merci beaucoups for the review of the Centre Pompidou. I was there in
1995 I think it was, and saw the Brancusi exhibit which I enjoyed tremedously.
I've read that Brancusi's studio has been reconstructed at the Centre -
is that correct and if so what do you think of it? I'm planning to visit
Paris in August, 2001 and I'm looking forward to seeing it.
Regards,
Barbara
In article dnprns03p9quamdpm...@4ax.com, Jack <ja...@skynet.be> writes:
> Paris, daytrips from Paris, Provence, Cote d'Azur, valley of the
> Loire, Belgium, Amsterdam, Venice and Normandy posts are visible with
> pictures on http://www.jack-travel.com/
>
> PARIS 3RD ARR/ The new Centre Pompidou dissected!-Copyright ©
>
> By creating a vast esplanade in front of Centre Pompidou, the
> architects had the clear intention to integrate the Centre into the
> city. The piazza became the kingdom of street performers: fire-eaters,
> jugglers, musicians, cartoonists, and narrators entertain the by
> passers and plunge the Centre Pompidou in a playful atmosphere. Very
> lively spot, Beaubourg exploits this situation and built the esplanade
> in slight declivity towards the entrance of the Centre. (see picture)
TEXT DELETED
Jack
part of it. But it has a separate entrance and a separate building. I
will describe it in my usual irrespective way (I 'm a big big fan of
Brancusi, for me certainly the most pure nd authentic contemporary
sculptor). Wait until I finish the Centre Pompidou for staring the
Brancusi pavilion.
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
Copyright ©