ALSACE
Modern Collections: Discovering a New Perspective
Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg
Strasbourg (Alsace)
October 16, 2014 to February 14, 2015
Website
There's a brand new way to appreciate the art at this museum. From Monet to Vallotton, Rodin to Kandinsky, and Picasso to Marcelle Cahn, more than 100 works of art constitute a way to take in the the greatest moments of 20th-century art history. Curated by architect Richard Klein, this new perspective spotlights the works of Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, especially their collaborative works created for the Salons de l’Aubette. Recent acquisitions also appear as part of this new arrangement.
Perahim, the Savage Parade
Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg
Strasbourg (Alsace)
November 15, 2014 to February 22, 2015
Website
Jules Perahim (1914-2008) is considered one of the great exponents of surrealism in Romania. To mark the centenary of his birth, this monographic exhibition of a set of graphic works highlights the unique world of this artist. It demonstrates how Perahim replaced a sense of history with a sense of enigma, updating the figures of ancient myths from Greek, Romanian and also African traditions.
Philippe Lepeut, Listen to the Quiet Voice
Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg
Strasbourg (Alsace)
April 11, 2015 to September 13, 2015
Website
Philip Lepeut is an artist, editor and teacher at the Haute École des Arts du Rhin. Since the 1990s he has been developing an artistic approach that eschews the hierarchy of genres. Originally a painter, he now works equally with drawing, photography or installations. “Listen to the Quiet Voice” is a reflection on language and its impossibilities, a journey through books and sounds. For it, Lepeut mixes disciplines by including artists working with sound, performance and film, as well as the visual arts.
Tristan Tzara
Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg
Strasbourg (Alsace)
April 11, 2015 to July 26, 2015
Website
This retrospective of unprecedented magnitude in France is the most sweeping presentation of the different facets of Tristan Tzara (1896-1963), founder of the Dada movement, poet, art critic, theorist and collector. The exhibition brings together over 500 works (paintings, drawings, archives, audio and audiovisual devices) from Tzara and his circle. Fifty years after Tzara's death, this exhibition proposes a multidisciplinary reading of artistic, literary and political revolt.
Brumath-Brocomagus, A Gallo-Roman Civitas Capital in Alsace
Musée archéologique de Strasbourg
Strasbourg (Alsace)
April 2015 to August 2016
Website
Land redevelopment in the Brumath area in recent decades has led to a new series of careful archaeological digs. As a result, a wealth of discoveries has made it possible to renew understanding of the evolution and history of the Brumath settlement from prehistory to the early Middle Ages. The spatial development of the ancient city is covered, as well as the many components of life in a Gallo-Roman civitas: urban topography, habitat and everyday actvities, production and trade, beliefs and religion, necropolises and funeral rites etc.
AQUITAINE
The Liberation of Bordeaux
Centre Jean Moulin
Bordeaux (Aquitaine)
August 12, 2014 to May 31, 2015
http://www.bordeaux.fr/p63906
Seventy years ago, on August 28, 1944, jubilation swept through the streets of a Bordeaux finally liberated after four long years of occupation. Now, 400 documents, photographs and objects will recollect those times. The exhibit specifically honors all who, by their courage and refusal to surrender, regained their stolen freedom and saved Bordeaux from its planned destruction.
Andrea Branzi, Pleased to Meet You
Espace Saint-Rémi
Bordeaux (Aquitaine)
October 10, 2014 to January 25, 2015
http://www.branzibordeaux.fr
This unprecedented exhibition brings together the life work of Andrea Branzi, the godfather of international design. One hundred and fifty items have been assembled from numerous institutions and collections to put in context the value his work as a designer and architect, as well as the primary role he played in influencing thinking. Branzi himself designed the show. Excited about the nobility and size of the Saint-Rémi exhibit space, he set up different areas that showcase the different qualities of the presented items.
Martine Bedin, Cheeky Objects
Musée des Arts décoratifs et du design
Bordeaux (Aquitaine)
October 30, 2014 to February 15, 2015
http://www.bordeaux.fr/p63910
This retrospective of Martine Bedin, a Bordeaux native and co-founder of the avant-garde Memphis group in 1981, showcases her playful, unmistakable and timeless design work. Everything on display previously existed only as drawings and was created especially for the exhibit.
Roger Bissière Retrospective
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux
Bordeaux (Aquitaine)
December 18, 2014 to February 15, 2015
http://www.musba-bordeaux.fr
This exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Aquitaine-native Roger Bissière (1886-1964), a highly-accomplished but little-known French artist and art teacher. Anchored around his paintings, a selection of nearly 90 works from public and private collections traces Bissière's career from his figurative and post-Cubist period in the 1920s to his non-figurative post-war work.
BURGUNDY
Zhu Hong, From One Salon to Another
Musée des beaux-arts de Dijon
Dijon (Burgundy)
November 7, 2014 to January 26, 2015
http://mba.dijon.fr
This project of the Zhu Hong, an artist originally from China, is in response to an invitation from the museum for the creation and showing of work connected to the museum's collections and building. 'D'un Salon à l'Autre' was inspired by the Salon Gaulin, a room decorated in the Louis XVI style reconstituted in 2000 from a private room in an old Dijon mansion.
BRITTANY
Abstraction/Figuration: Artworks of the Centre National des Arts Plastiques
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes
Rennes (Brittany)
March 29 to December 31, 2014
http://www.mbar.org
Forty works of art will enrich the museum's collection following a gift from the National Centre for Visual Arts, whose mission since 1877 is to acquire work from living artists and place it in public institutions and museums. This newest ensemble adds depth to the modern and contemporary collections along lines already represented in the museum, such as kinetic art, geometric abstraction and constructed art, but also figurative painting.
The Eye Deceived
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest
Brest (Brittany)
January 20 to May 16, 2015
http://www.mbar.org
'L'Oeil Trompé' is program of exhibits and creations in the museum as well as in urban spaces that focuses on the theme illusions and trompe-l'oeil transformations. The curators recognize that, after having been a special technical skill of the old master painters, trompe-l'oeil is again today part of the urban landscape, appearing on the facades of major public buildings.
ILE-DE-FRANCE
One Hundred Versailles Masterpieces
Musées du Château de Versailles
Versailles (Ile de France)
September 27, 2014 to March 20, 2016
http://www.chateauversailles.fr
The Palace of Versailles proposes a trip into the pomp and splendor of the 17th and 18th centuries and the sources of the excellence of French knowhow through some 100 masterpieces in its collections. Six settings will successively evoke sites and periods at the royal residence, as well as the people who lived there: marble, bronze, gold and silver; panelling and marquetry; water and fountains; parks and forests; flowers and fields; and festivities and fireworks.
Charley's War: An English Presentation of World War I
Musée de la Grande Guerre
Meaux (Ile-de-France)
October 16, 2014 to January 4, 2015
http://www.museedelagrandeguerre.com
Considered one of the best wartime cartoon strips ever written, Charley’s War is being presented for the first time in France. Twenty of the original drawings now make up a show in an exhibit space dedicated to the United States and including a full-size model of an American military camp and a display about how an American expeditionary force was critical to final victory.
18th Century, the Origins of Design – Furniture Masterpieces, 1650 to 1790
Musées du Château de Versailles
Versailles (Ile de France)
October 28, 2014 to February 22, 2015
http://www.chateauversailles.fr/
This major thematic exhibition will present the masterpieces of furniture from 1650 to 1789, emblematic examples of the creative wealth of the period. Giving our contemporary viewpoint a look into yesterday’s genius, it will showcase the innovative, pioneering character of 18th-century furniture in terms of shapes, techniques, decoration and materials.
Charles de la Fosse
Musées du Château de Versailles
Versailles (Ile de France)
February 23 to May 24, 2015
http://www.chateauversailles.fr
This first one-man exhibition dedicated to painter Charles de la Fosse (1636-1716) pays tribute to one of the major creators of the Palace of Versailles' decor who worked on the Diane and Apollo Salons, the Grand Trianon and the Royal Chapel. It is an opportunity to showcase his main compositions, notably the Apollo Salon, currently under restoration. It presents some 40 paintings and as many drawings from French and foreign collections.
Sur les pas de Van Gogh 2015
Auvers-sur-Oise (Ile de France)
April to September 2015
http://www.surlespasdevangogh.fr
A restored version of Lust for Life is about to appear on the big screen and so the cultural team at Auvers-sur-Oise are celebrating the 125th anniversary of Van Gogh’s death through cinema. Over the summer, a public program brings something different to this village of artists (Château d’Auvers, Auberge Ravoux dite Maison de Van Gogh, Musée de l’Absinthe, Maison-atelier de Daubigny)
This cultural season is part of the exceptional European program entitled “Van Gogh 2015: 125 years of inspiration.”
The King Is Dead!
Musées du Château de Versailles
Versailles (Ile de France)
October 26, 2015 to February 21, 2016
http://www.chateauversailles.fr
In 2015, the Palace of Versailles is dedicating a major exhibition to the commemoration of the death of Louis XIV at Versailles 300 years ago, on 1 September 1715. The exhibition will reveal the secrets of the funeral ceremony and the very essence of how the Ancien Régime worked.
LANGUEDOC-ROUSILLON
Biographical Forms
Le Carré d'Art
Nîmes (Languedoc-Roussillon)
May 29 to September 20, 2015
http://carreartmusee.nimes.fr
The exhibition is a reflection on the construction and reconstruction of subjectivity. Experimental artistic activity is thought of as a biographical construct that often results in individual mythologies. This notion of "individual mythologies" originated in the literature of the late 19th century, only to reappear in artistic practices of the 1960s, when linear biographical narratives were exploded in favor of fractures, crises and multiple identities, without forgetting that subjectivity exists in a cultural and social context. This exhibition is inspired by the writings of Gerard de Nerval and Franz Kafka, and their echoes in the works of contemporary artists.
Suzanne Lafont
Le Carré d'Art
Nîmes (Languedoc-Roussillon)
June 19 to September 20, 2015
http://carreartmusee.nimes.fr
Suzanne Lafont (born 1949) is one of the most important figures on the French art scene today, her broad photographic practice incorporating references to theatre, performance and cinema. This exhibition offers a perspective on her most recent works, based on image banks. Among other things, these pieces give a spatial dimension to the Rem Koolhas book Guide to Shopping, revisit General Idea’s Manipulating the Self and rethink the complex relation between image and language in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks series.
LOIRE VALLEY
Maquettes
Les Turbulences - FRAC Centre
Orléans (Loire Valley)
September 2014 to February 2015
http://www.frac-centre.fr
A major figure of the international art scene, Xavier Veilhan has developed an approach in line with both formal classicism and high technology. His works come in multiple forms (sculpture, photography, performance, video, environment, exhibition etc.) and question the way images are composed and presented. This is the first time that the featured models have been shown outside the artist’s studio or the sets of his films and performances.
In the Light of Impressionism: Edouard Debat-Ponsan
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours
Tours (Loire Valley)
October 18, 2014 to February 15, 2015
http://www.mba.tours.fr
The 80 works by academic painter Edouard Debat-Ponsan (1847-1913) will demonstrate that he was also an able landscape painter and portrait painter. His considerable output of outdoor scenes – rural scenes of his native Languedoc, family portraits and landscape studies in Paris, Brittany or Touraine – and his deft touch with light underscore how close he was to the Impressionist aesthetic.
The City as a Vision
Les Turbulences - FRAC Centre
Orléans (Loire Valley)
September to February 2015
http://www.frac-centre.fr
This tribute to historian and critic Michel Ragon is divided into two sections – one historical, the other prospective. Through six thematic sections, along with a hundred or so scale models, drawings and photomontages, the exhibition focuses on giving an overview of the search for new territories and urban configurations capable of welcoming future city-dwellers.
LORRAINE
Beacons
Centre Pompidou Metz
Metz (Lorraine)
February 14, 2014 to February 2016
http://www.centrepompidou-metz.com
Based entirely on loans from the collection at Centre Pompidou/Musée National d’Art Moderne, this exhibition is a selection of masterpieces rarely shown to the public due to their monumental size. With no specific chronological order, the exhibition's staging provides an overview of the primary movements in art since the start of the 20th century, from Pablo Picasso to Anish Kapoor including Sam Francis, Joseph Beuys and Dan Flavin.
1984-1999. The Decade.
Centre Pompidou Metz
Metz (Lorraine)
February 14, 2014 to February 2016
http://www.centrepompidou-metz.com
Since it tackles a decade that defies definition, this exhibition does not attempt to recreate an era, nor to sanctify an ideal and lost age, but instead seeks to bring up to date the forms and procedures that anticipated today's artistic creations. Beyond decennial retrospectives and compilations, it is a biographical space composed of objects, sounds, voices, images, reflections and sensations, as imagined by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, a major international artist.
Tania Mouraud
Centre Pompidou Metz
Metz (Lorraine)
March to October 2015
http://www.centrepompidou-metz.com
In her first major solo show, the self-taught French artist, Tania Mouraud, now very much part of the art scene, will be on exhibit in the wake of her several one-woman exhibitions focusing on major 20th-century art figures. Mouraud's work takes on many different forms by combining art, philosophy, social engagement and working with words in a variety of media (photography, sculpture, installation, mural).
Leiris & Co, Picasso, Miro, Giacometi, Bacon
Centre Pompidou Metz
Metz (Lorraine)
April 1 to September 15, 2015
http://www.centrepompidou-metz.com
This show devoted to Michel Leiris (1901-1990) rightly portrays him as a major player in the art of the 20th century. As a poet, autobiographical writer, ethnographer and close friend of great painters of his time (Miró, Masson, Giacometti, Picasso, Bacon), he certainly made a mark. Through nearly 350 works, the exhibition will draw the connection between literature, art and ethnography, teasing out the recurring themes: art, myth and reality, rituals, sacred and secret, and truth and lies, among others.
AURA: 2015-2016
Centre Pompidou Metz
Metz (Lorraine)
2015 to 2016
http://www.centrepompidou-metz.com
The special, international AURA exhibition will review the story of modern art from 1880 to the present with a special focus on the role of art in the transmission of thought, its future intangibility and telepathy. AURA will explore the relationship between art and the psychic sciences through nearly 200 works by major artists from 1882 to the present, including paintings, sculpture, installations, performance art, video and film.
MIDI-PYRENEES
Toulouse-Lautrec and Maurice Joyant: The Friend and the Collector
Musée Toulouse-Lautrec
Toulouse (Midi-Pyrénées)
October 25, 2014 to January 25, 2015
http://www.museetoulouselautrec.net
This exhibition marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), who owes a great deal of his posthumous fame to his friend Maurice Joyant (1864-1930). The exhibition features works from Joyant's personal collection and highlights the friendship between the two men. It also examines Lautrec's creative process through rare lithographs that Joyant retained.
Art & Project Bulletin, Amsterdam, September 1968-November 1989
Les Abattoires – Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain
Toulouse (Midi- Pyrénées)
November 7, 2014 to January 31, 2015
http://www.lesabattoirs.org
Founded in Amsterdam in 1968 by Geert van Beijeren and Adriaan van Ravesteijn, Gallery Art & Project was closed in 2001. But it remains open, only without walls, through 156 bulletins published from September 1968 to November 1989. Through these, Art & Project proposed to artists to express themselves on a single sheet of A3 paper folded in half. These became newsletters that blur the lines between the traditional reading of art, information and dissemination. The full collection of these artists' books is presented here.
From Picasso to Jasper Johns, the Aldo Crommelynck Studio
Musée Soulages
Rodez (Midi- Pyrénées)
November 14, 2014 to March 8, 2015
http://musee-soulages.grand-rodez.com/museum-soulages
This temporary exhibition brings together the prints of international artists included in the donation to the French National Library made by master intaglio printmaker Aldo Crommelynck (1931-2008).
The Empire of Color, from Pompeii to the South of Gaul
Musée Saint-Raymond de Toulouse
Toulouse (Midi- Pyrénées)
November 14, 2014 to March 22, 2015
http://saintraymond.toulouse.fr
There has never been an antique fresco exhibit like this in Toulouse. The paintings on display hail from some of the greatest centers where wall-painting was practiced. From the decorations of southern Gaul, some even specially remounted or restored for this exhibit, to the Italian "models" on loan from major art and archeology museums, these works of art demonstrate the originality and spread knowledge of ornamental patters born in the ancient world's centers of power.
Aurélien Froment and Raphael Zarka
Les Abattoires – Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain
Toulouse (Midi-Pyrenees)
January 30 to May 3, 2015
http://www.lesabattoirs.org
This dual exhibition is dedicated to Aurélien Froment and Raphael Zarka. The two artists present for the first time a shared review of their work based on their solo efforts and collaborations. Through film, installations, sculpture, photographs, drawings and games, viewers will run a course through both time and space.
The Wind
Les Abattoires – Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain
Toulouse (Midi-Pyrenees)
October 1, 2015 to January 3, 2016
http://www.lesabattoirs.org
The issue of wind appears throughout the history of meteorology, medicine, engineering (fluid mechanics and aeronautics), mythology, travel and music, as well as visual arts. So too have questions about how artists from antiquity to the contemporary period have appropriated the theme of wind. Now, across three levels of the museum, this exhibition brings together all types of media (paintings, sculpture, photographs, drawings, installations) with a special place for film, and shows how, even while invisible, wind can be represented indirectly through its effects.
NORD-PAS-DE-CALAIS
La Galerie du Temps: A Unique Journey Through the History of Time
Le Louvre-Lens
Lens (Nord-Pas de Calais)
2012 to 2017
http://www.louvrelens.fr
Unlike other museums, the Louvre-Lens does not maintain its own collection. The Galerie du Temps will therefore exhibit masterpieces from the Louvre in chronological order for five years. All civilizations and working techniques will be represented in the 390-feet-long gallery, from the birth of writing around 3500 BC through the mid 19th century, taking in the full geographical scope of the Louvre's collections. The Galerie du Temps will be divided into three major periods: 70 works from Antiquity, 45 works from the Middle Ages and 90 for the modern period.
The Other in Art
Musée d’Art Moderne de Lille
Lille (Nord-Pas de Calais)
October 3, 2014 to November 1, 2015
http://www.musee-lam.fr
Visitors to "L'autre de l'art" are asked to ponder a new understanding of the creative process through consideration of art created outside of the usual contexts (in the street, hospitals, prisons) or by autodidacts or children, and how it has helped redefine a sense of the "other" in art. With 400 works of 20th-century art divided into five themes, this is the first exhibition to tackle all three of the museum's specialties - modern art, contemporary art and art brut - in a cross-disciplinary approach encompassing art, literature, ethnology, psychoanalysis, music and cinema.
Animals and Pharaohs: The Animal Kingdom in Ancient Egypt
Le Louvre-Lens
Lens (Nord-Pas de Calais)
December 4, 2014 to March 9, 2015
http://www.louvrelens.fr
Animals had a central role in ancient Egyptian civilization. Whether wild or domesticated, animals were so ubiquitous and symbolically important that they were encoded into language, thought and art. To provide the public with a step-by-step understanding of the place of the animal figure in Pharaonic civilization, more than 400 works assembled from major collections demonstrate the progression from the perception of real creatures in their natural environments to the transposition of their likenesses into the codified language of Egyptian religious, political and funeral thought.
Aloïse Corbaz in Constellation
Musée d’Art Moderne de Lille
Lille (Nord-Pas de Calais)
February 13 to May 17, 2015
http://www.musee-lam.fr
Aloïse Corbaz (1886-1964) was a Swiss outsider (aka art brut) artist. About 100 of her drawings and poems dating from 1920 to 1960 will be on display alongside her major work, Le Cloisonné de Théâtre, a 46-foot-long work on paper. Her fascination with love, opera, painting and alchemy will come to light, as will the inspiration she found in many historical figures and artists. This is the first Corbaz retrospective in France since 1989.
Paris, Florence, Sienna: 1250-1320
Le Louvre-Lens
Lens (Nord-Pas de Calais)
May 27 to September 28, 2015
http://www.louvrelens.fr
More than 200 works - architectural elements, sculptures, paintings, jewelry, artwork, stained glass - borrowed from major French, Italian and English collections address the artistic relationship between 13th- and 14th-century France and Italy. This exhibition will seek, for the first time, to highlight the links between the artists of Gothic Rayonnant period in France and those working in Italy at the end of Duecento.
Thirty Years of Acquisitions in Nord-Pas de Calais
Le Louvre-Lens
Lens (Nord-Pas de Calais)
May 28 to June 1, 2015
http://www.louvrelens.fr
The sense and logic of art acquisitions by museums in Nord-Pas de Calais will be on display at the Louvre-Lens. The exhibition features 17 purchases made over the last 30 years, revealing the dynamism, diversity and wealth of museums in the region, as well as the how the artworks satisfy requirements for a connection with the region and the desire for encyclopedic coverage.
The agnès b. Collection
Musée d’Art Moderne de Lille
Lille (Nord-Pas de Calais)
June 13 to August 23, 2015
http://www.musee-lam.fr
Designer, gallery owner, editor, director and producer, agnès b. marked the French cultural scene starting in the mid-1970s. The collection she built up over the years is a reflection of her insatiable curiosity and clever eye. This exhibition presents the most emblematic works and reveals her attention to the emergence of pictorial styles in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Joie de Vivre
Palais des Beaux Arts de Lille
Lille (Nord-Pas de Calais)
September 26, 2015 to January 24, 2016
http://www.palaisdesbeauxarts.fr
An entire museum devoted to happiness, games, get-togethers, friendship, family, jubilation, festivals, physical exultation, sensuality and laughter? Yes! From the entrance hall to the basement exhibition room, this first themed presentation of the Palais des Beaux Arts will be devoted to art, movies and music from all periods - antiquity through to the present - devoted to making people feel good. It will be a reminder that, despite hard times, we still have reason to be happy.
PARIS
Hokusai Exhibit
Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais
Paris
October 1, 2014 to January 18, 2015
http://www.grandpalais.fr
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. His exceptional paintings on silk and paper and his prints will be on display, divided into two phases to protect the most fragile works, with about a hundred of them to be replaced over the course of the exhibition.
Frank Gehry Exhibition
Centre Pompidou - Galerie sud
Paris
October 8, 2014 to January 26, 2015
http://www.centrepompidou.fr
This retrospective traces the "lines of force" in the career of Frank Gehry, one of the key figures of contemporary architecture and urban planning in the second half of the 20th century. For the first time in Europe, more than 60 models and nearly 220 original drawings examine the full scope of Gehry's work.
De Sade: Attacking the Sun
Musée d'Orsay
Paris
October 14, 2014 to January 25, 2015
http://www.musee-orsay.fr
Alphonse Donatien de Sade (1740–1814) completely transformed the history of both literature and the arts, first as an underground writer, and later by becoming a legend in his lifetime. This exhibition will focus on the revolution of representation opened up by the author's writings.
Paul Durand-Ruel Exhibit
Musée du Luxembourg
Paris
October 15, 2014 to February 8, 2015
http://en.museeduluxembourg.fr
This is the first exhibit devoted solely to Paul Durand-Ruel (1831–1922), discoverer of Impressionism, inventor of the modern art market and one of the greatest art dealers of the 19th century. Through some 80 paintings, drawings, photographs and documents, the exhibition will recount a crucial time when an artistic avant-garde gained international recognition driven by this enterprising and inventive dealer.
Jeff Koons Exhibition
Centre Pompidou - Galerie 1
Paris
November 26, 2014 to April 27, 2015
http://www.centrepompidou.fr
Jeff Koons is one of the most famous and controversial artists in the contemporary art scene. Asserting its iconic and symbolic value, his work has constantly defied good judgement and taste. This retrospective takes stock of his unquestionably great body of work, now inseparable from the man who created it.
David Bowie is...
Philharmonie de Paris
Paris
March 3 to May 31, 2015
http://www.philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/a-flagship-exhibition-david-bowie-is
After its astounding success at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Philharmonie de Paris will host the David Bowie is exhibition. The first international retrospective of the extraordinary career of one of the most innovative and influential contemporary artists, this exhibition presents over 300 objects, including: manuscripts, original costumes; photographs, scenery, album covers; and exceptional stage props.
Jeanne Lanvin Exhibit
Palais Galliera
Paris
March 7 to August 23, 2015
http://www.palaisgalliera.paris.fr
Jeanne Lanvin (1867-1946), founder of the oldest haute-couture house still active today, ranks highly among the greatest French fashion designers. This first retrospective exhibition in Paris dedicated to Lanvin presents an exceptional collection, including pieces held by the Palais Galliera and others conserved by Patrimoine Lanvin alongside sets created in close collaboration with Alber Elbaz, artistic director of Lanvin.
The Tudors
Musée du Luxembourg
Paris
March 15 to July 19, 2015
http://en.museeduluxembourg.fr
The Tudor family is a royal dynasty that gave its name to the period of English history from 1485 to 1603, or roughly that of the English Renaissance. The Tudor era covers the reigns of five monarchs who helped establish England as a major European power: Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. This exhibit reveals the true face of the Tudors through portraits, archival documents and personal objects.
Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia
Musée d'Orsay
Paris
March 17 to July 19, 2015
http://www.musee-orsay.fr
Pierre Bonnard's painting, drawing, prints, decorative art, sculpture and photography demonstrated his decorative esthetic, fueled by sharp, humorous observations drawn from his immediate surroundings. This exhibition, which pulls from all of Bonnard's creative periods, reveals an instinctive and supremely sensitive artist who favored bright and luminous colors.
Velazquez and the Triumph of Spanish Painting
Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais
Paris
March 23 to July 13, 2015
http://www.grandpalais.fr
Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) is without contest the most famous painter from the Spanish Golden Age. This exhibition places his canvases in context, surrounded by the art of contemporaries he knew, admired and influenced. It takes a close look at his variations in style and subject matter, but strength in all of them.
The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk
Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais
Paris
April 1 to August 3, 2015
http://www.grandpalais.fr
This exhibit is a phenomenon that has wowed over a million visitors on its international tour. In its 10th stop here in Paris, after Montréal, Dallas, San Francisco, Madrid, Rotterdam, Stockholm, Brooklyn, London and Australia, the show is a high point in Jean Paul Gaultier's career.
Churchill - De Gaulle
Musée de l'Armée
Paris
April 3 to July 26, 2015
http://www.musee-armee.fr
The Musée de l'Armée and Fondation Charles de Gaulle will present an exhibit to commemorate 50 years since the death of Winston Churchill and 75 years since the end of World War II.
Masterpieces from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais
Paris
April 6 to June 22, 2015
http://www.grandpalais.fr
While the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is undergoing a renovation, its most famous works will be on display at the Grand Palais alongside others from the Fisher collection (assembled by the founders of the Gap), one of the most important private collections of modern and contemporary art in the world.
Piaf. J’m’en fous pas mal ! (Piaf. I don’t care not one bit!) (Title pending)
BNF - Site François Mitterand - Grande Galerie
Paris
April 14 to August 31, 2015
http://www.bnf.fr
2015 is the centenary year of the birth of Edith Piaf. An essential figure in the history of French popular songs and culture, her look and her voice are part of a nation’s collective memory and her songs are still sung by many.
The exhibition rediscovers the important faces and moments in the life of the small street singer who became an international star, as well as her famous little black dress. To better understand her career and her legend, hundreds of documents are on display: photos, letters, posters, records and sound recordings, film clips, magazines, objects...
Le Corbusier
Centre Pompidou
Paris
April 29 August 3, 2015
http://www.centrepompidou.fr/en
Fifty years after his death, this brand new retrospective pays tribute to the famous architect and urbanist without forgetting his career as a painter and designer. A key player in modernism, Le Corbusier revolutionised the architecture of the 20th century theorising in particular the concept of the “living unit”, the result of research into collective housing and the relationship between the individual and their home. The exhibition captures the comprehension and expression of space and shape throughout Le Corbusier’s work with a focus on the importance of the body as it becomes a unit of measure for homes and furniture.
Poussin Exhibit
Musée du Louvre
Paris
Spring 2015
http://www.louvre.fr
Fifty-five years since the last great Poussin exhibit, this Poussin retrospective will display the religious paintings of Nicolas Poussin, of which the Louvre possesses an excellent collection. Poussin (1594-1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style.
The Inca and the Conquistador
Musée du Quai Branly
Paris
June 23 to September 20, 2015
http://www.quaibranly.fr
This exhibition puts the conquest of Peru on center stage through the epic story of Inca Atahualpa, the conquistador Francisco Pizarro and the clash of worlds that ensued when they met. Tackling the years from the 1520s through Pizarro's assassination in 1541, it traces the key historical moments in South America through accounts, objects, paintings and engravings providing very different perspectives on major events.
Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842). Les séductions de la peinture
Grand Palais, Galeries nationales
September 21, 2015 to January 11, 2016
http://www.grandpalais.fr
Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun is one of the greatest portrait artists of her time, an equal of Quentin de La Tour or Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Born into the petty bourgeoisie, she imposed herself with the ruling classes in the French kingdom, particularly the king and his family. She became the official painter to Queen Marie-Antoinette. This first French retrospective dedicated to the artist presents nearly 130 of her paintings. The exhibition offers a complete retrospective of a major body of work which also illustrates a great moment in European history.
Fragonard amoureux
Musée du Luxembourg
Paris
October 1, 2015 to January 1, 2016
http://en.museeduluxembourg.fr
The work of Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) is clearly marked by love, often echoing the transformations and preoccupations of his time. The exhibition explores the different variations of the artist around the theme of sentiment and the impulse of love. After his initial pastoral works that inherited the gallant 17th century tradition, Fragonard painted amorous allegories, neo-classical pieces steeped in mysticism, until the end of his career.
Shadows d’Andy Warhol
Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris
Paris
October 2, 2015 to February 7, 2016
http://www.mam.paris.fr/en
This exceptional exhibition presents the monumental series of Shadows for the first time outside of the United States. Andy Warhol’s greatest ever creation, Shadows covers some 135 linear metres in the museum’s curved galleries. This disproportionate installation made of 102 panels representing the same motif in 17 different colours reflects our world made up of an accumulation and flow of images. To illustrate the work of this major artist and visionary of the 20th century, the experience focuses also on his late works. A selection of his most impacting films is shown, some in 16mm in their original format with the characteristic jumps and noises.
Martin Scorsese, l’exposition
La Cinémathèque française
Paris
October 7, 2015 to January 24, 2016
http://www.cinematheque.fr
This first grand exhibition dedicated to Martin Scorsese focuses mainly on his private collection as well as that of Robert de Niro and Paul Schrader. It pays tribute to the artistic work of the director and also to his commitment to protect international film heritage and history. A grand stylist of the silver screen, through his films Martin Scorsese tells the story of the people and conflicts of his country. The exhibition illustrates how his artistic approach to storytelling has shaped modern American cinema. His sources of inspiration and particular working methods are also presented.
Le portrait florentin au XVIe siècle (Title pending)
Musée Jacquemart-André
Paris
http://musee-jacquemart-andre.com/en/home
Autumn 2015
The exhibition offers a panoramic view of Florentine portrait art in the 16th century. Its grand themes and major stylistic mutations develop in parallel with the cultural and religious changes in Cinquecento. Austere portraits of the Republican period are followed by heroic representations of soldiers, symbolic of the conflicts that enabled the Medicis to take over the city in 1530. Then followed the rich and elegant portraits of courtesans and then artists, illustrating the interest painters had in other forms of art such as poetry and music. The second half of the century is marked by monumental pieces offering an allegorical representation of the subject, returning to a certain simplicity in the illustration of sentiment.
PAYS DE LA LOIRE
The Unrepresentable, with Jean-Jacques Lebel, Alain Fleischer and Danielle Shirman
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes
Nantes (Loire)
November 28, 2014 to February 22, 2015
http://www.museedesbeauxarts.nantes.fr
French artist, poet, publisher, political activist and scholar, Jean-Jacques Lebel, dishes up on a theme dear to him: the unrepresentable and the responsibility of the artist in the contemporary world. He asks the question "How do you represent wars, torture, sex and death?" The exhibition will include works by Lebel, Alain Fleischer and Danielle Schirman.
Claude Viallat
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes
Nantes (Loire)
February 20 to May 17, 2015
http://www.museedesbeauxarts.nantes.fr
In the 1960s, Claude Viallat, a founding member of Supports/Surfaces, settled on his signature method of painting. The artist gave up stretched canvases for free painting, often on found objects. He then systematically filled these surfaces with the same shape, believing that it freed him from all symbolic constraints. This retrospective traces his career, from his early works to today.
The Flemish and Dutch Collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes: Château des Ducs de Bretagne, Brueghel, Rubens etc
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes
Nantes (Loire)
May 29 to August 31, 2015
http://www.museedesbeauxarts.nantes.fr
Fifty masterpieces by Flemish and Dutch painters, from Jan Brueghel to Rubens, fill out this remarkable collection. Mythological and religious paintings, portraits, landscapes, seascapes and still lifes reveal the exceptional skill of the Dutch during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Charles de la Fosse: The Gods' Lovers
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes
Nantes (Loire)
June 19 to September 20, 2015
http://www.museedesbeauxarts.nantes.fr
Following a show of the works of Charles de la Fosse (1636-1716) at the Palace of Versailles, this exhibit focuses more specifically on his mythological paintings, like his enigmatic Vénus demandant à Vulcain des armes pour Enée and Déification d'Enée. Twenty canvases and 15 drawings will demonstrate how La Fosse was a prelude to a long line of artists that ended with Fragonard.
PROVENCE-ALPS-COTE D’AZUR
FOOD – Produce, Eat, Consume
Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée
Marseille (Provence-Alps-Côte d'Azur)
October 29, 2014 to February 23, 2015
http://www.mucem.org
Hailing from five continents, 37 artists are presenting the fruit of their reflections on the issues and challenges related to food: the impact of climate change, the poisoning of agricultural products, food-distribution premiums, soil conservation, food choice, kitchens and table rituals. The overall result is a multidisciplinary dialogue integrating historical and contemporary artworks as well as everyday objects.
Raymond Depardon, A Wonderful Moment
Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée
Marseille (Provence-Alps-Côte d'Azur)
October 29, 2014 to March 2, 2015
http://www.mucem.org
There has always been color in the photographs of Raymond Depardon. It was there when he was 16 years old and has been with him ever since: the years of discovering photography, the first trips to Africa, cover stories and more. This exhibition features 137 color photographs, from the late 1950s until today, on a stroll through the life and work of the artist.
Change of Ownership
Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée
Marseille (Provence-Alps-Côte d'Azur)
May 17, 2014 to May 17, 2015
http://www.mucem.org
This exhibition stems from architect and exhibition curator Patrick Bouchain's desire to work on something related to stories. In this case it focuses on Michka, written by Marie Colmont and first published in 1941 with illustrations by Feodor Rojankovsky. The kaleidoscopic results illustrate the tale through specially-created project drawings, objects from the museum's collections and a book designed by Philippe Millot.
RHONE-ALPS
Ten Years of Acquisitions
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon
Lyon (Rhone-Alps)
May 29, 2014 to September 22, 2015
http://www.mba-lyon.fr/mba
The artistic diversity and the dynamic of constant enrichment of the museum's collections are on display in this exceptional exhibit highlighting the acquisitions made over the past decade.
Erró Retrospective
Musée d’Art Contemporain
Lyon (Rhone-Alps)
October 2, 2014 to February 22, 2015
http://www.mac-lyon.com/mac
Anticipating the flux of information and images that flows around digital networks, Iceland-born postmodern artist Erró has always been interested in a profusion of images and invented new narrative forms through which to share it. Three floors of over 400 collages, performances, films, watercolors, paintings and drawings reveal the innovative forms and aspects of his work.
Giuseppe Penone
Musée de Grenoble
Grenoble (Rhone-Alps)
November 22, 2014 to February 22, 2015
http://www.museedegrenoble.fr
Giuseppe Penone (born 1947) is an Italian artist concerned with establishing a deep and lasting ties between man and nature. This show of his work - his first in a French museum since 2004 - draws the viewer into Penone's universe. The non-chronological exhibit combines old and very new works, sculptures and murals, monumental pieces and intimate constructions.
Raymond Grandjean
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon
Lyon (Rhone-Alps)
November 27, 2014 to March 30, 2015
http://www.mba-lyon.fr/mba
Raymond Grandjean (1929-2006) was a colorful personality, self-taught painter and nonconformist who, while in constant dialogue with many masters and contemporary movements, always stayed true to himself. The humor and poetry of his works comes through his urban landscapes, Pop art, abstract dabblings and Surrealism-inspired collages, not to mention his self-published journals full of aphorisms, copied images and puns.
The Treasures of Guimet
Musée des Confluences
Lyon (Rhone-Alps)
December 2014 to July 2015
http://www.museedesconfluences.fr
To build a profile of Émile Guimet, the founder of the Musée des Confluences, this exhibit has selected items formerly collected by him but dispersed throughout the 20th century. It focuses on his trip to Japan, the crucial experience in his conception of the museum of religions that he founded in Lyon in 1879 and then in Paris.
In the Cabinet of Curiosities
Musée des Confluences
Lyon (Rhone-Alps)
December 2014 to July 2015
http://www.museedesconfluences.fr
This exhibition tackles the world of the 'cabinet of curiosities,' exploring exactly what it means to be a collector. In this case, 21st-century visitors can steep themselves in the atmosphere and spirit of a time when people roamed the world to collect and then share their thirst for knowledge with their contemporaries.
The Race to the South Pole
Musée des Confluences
Lyon (Rhone-Alps)
February 1 to June 28, 2015
http://www.museedesconfluences.fr
An unexplored continent, an unexpected race between nations with different strategies and goals. This exhibition recounts the race for the last great geographical prize on Earth at the beginning of the 20th century: to be the first to reach the South Pole.
Open Sea
Musée d’Art Contemporain
Lyon (Rhone-Alps)
April 17 to July 12, 2015
http://www.mac-lyon.com/mac
Open Sea illustrates the contemporary psyche, aesthetics and inter-connectedness of Southeast Asia through a collective presentation of existing and newly commissioned artworks and performance-art pieces by 30 artists. The works embody the region’s multifaceted local and social landscapes, where methods and sensibilities are rooted within increasingly hybrid cultures and practices.
Biennial of Lyon
Lyon (Rhone-Alps)
2015
http://www.labiennaledelyon.com/fr/bac
The next Biennale de Lyon, in 2015, will be the first of a six-year cycle of three editions focusing on a word believed to sum up what is happening in art today: Modern. Modern is not modernism, nor is it modernity; but it can contain them, grab them, express them. Today, everything is modern. The Biennale will endeavor to clarify today's global modern age's diffractions, measure and pinpoint the rifts and bumps that it encounters.