Paris -3rd arrondissement-Beaubourg-Contemporary collection-Brancusi atelier-Place Stravinsky

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Introduction

The new Centre

Modern Art collection

Contemporary collection-Brancusi atelier-Place Stravinsky

Francis Bacon

 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,  theatre and music moved to London and New York and were THE places. We are now 30 years later and things have changed so 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. 

Jackson Pollock

 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…. l
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….
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.

Brancusi

Let’s finish this overview by visiting the new atelier “BRANCUSI”, set up following the wishes 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 and 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 . 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:

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).

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