CONTEMPORARY COLLECTIONS FROM THE SIXTIES TO THE PRESENT DAY MUSÉE NATIONAL D’ART MODERNE

The Centre Pompidou renews its cinema are dedicated to chosen contemporary art collections every themes and monographies. two years. On level 4 a chronological At the centre of the itinerary, between itinerary spanning the 1960s to the rooms 17 and 25, a display entitled present day features many of the “Fruits de la passion” [Passion fruits] Museum’s recent acquisitions and comprises some thirty works acquired showcases leading contemporary by the Centre Pompidou in the last ten artists such as Joseph Beuys, Joan years as part of the “Projet pour l’art Mitchell, Pierre Soulages and Andy contemporain” supported by the Warhol. Société des amis du Musée national On display are the works of acclaimed d’art moderne. artists (Christian Boltanski, Marlene Dumas, Enzo Cucchi or Claude On level 5 the Museum’s modern art Rutault) as well as those of collections showcase the founding newcomers to the collections (Anri movements of modern art (fauvism, Sala, Alix Cléo Roubaud, Jorinde cubism, surrealism, abstraction) and Voigt). Art movements and trends major artists (Matisse, Picasso, such as minimalism and arte povera, Kandinsky, Brancusi) in a Supports Surfaces and Fluxus, are chronological sequence that ranges also represented. Architecture, from 1905 to the 1960s. design, photography, new media and

www.centrepompidou.fr MINIMALIST AND RADICAL “conscious minimalisation of our cultural ABSTRACTIONISM heritage”. This minimalisation enables us to reach the original truth of the body and its Modernist painting primarily seeks to reduce perceptions (rooms 11 and 13) . painting to its bare essentials (colour, form, accessories). Although none of the American CHALLENGES FACING artists presented in room 3 belong to the minimal art movement of the 1960s with its slogan “Less CONTEMPORARY PAINTING is more” that it appropriated from Mies van der Although regarded by some as an outdated mode Rohe, all these artists pursued the principle of of expression, painting as an art form has elementary abstractionism through their singular continued to survive and to defy its detractors. interpretation of the concept of minimalism. Visitors to the exhibition witness the many While the work of Robert Ryman has the capacity metamorphoses that the medium has undergone. to make visible and to decline the constituent In 1973, Claude Rutault (room 14 bis) took the parts of a canvas, Agnes Martin’s formal radical decision to paint his canvases in the same asceticism that the artist likens to a spiritual colour as the walls on which they are hung. As a exercise with far eastern references. Some result, painting no longer seeks to contrast with painters in France have pursued abstraction to the wall it is displayed on but rather to converge remove the subjectivity of the artist. Room 4 with and resemble it. Nor is it an intangible object contains the bomb paintings of artist Martin since it can change colour. Rutault empowers the Barré produced between 1963 and 1967 and that collector, exhibition organiser or curator to take constitute a new form of radical abstraction. This decisions which are not laid down by what he art form, which excludes all contact between the calls “definitions and methods”, documents which canvas and the hand of the artist, entails the use define the rules whereby works of art function. In of rapid gestures and rudimentary lines. 100 Years ago , 2001, Peter Doig (central aisle) depicts a person in a large canoe adrift in an ATTITUDES / COMMITMENTS infinite space that is both pictorial and temporal; he transposes the design on the sleeve of the disk At the end of the 1950s, the definition of a work of of the American rock band The Allman Brothers art evolved. Under the influence of John Cage and Band, famous in the 1970s, to a melancholic his musical experimentation, artists such as world similar to that depicted by the Norwegian George Brecht, Yoko Ono, Robert Filliou, Allan painter Edvard Munch. Kaprow or La Monte Young ceased to regard works of art as unique and fixed objects. Works of art could now also be modified, adapted and draw on external events: artists could be inspired and “nourished” by daily events and situations. A work of art no longer assumed a single form and or was fundamentally separate from daily life. These are two of the major changes undertaken by the avant-garde art movements of the Sixties. In the Sixties and Seventies, Italy, which was undergoing profound changes at that time, witnessed the rise of a provocative and disenchanted art movement that broke from previous frontiers and models. The common aim of young artists associated with the arte povera movement was to become totally liberated from existing forms of artistic creation and to question our relationship with nature and politics. “Paucity” must here be understood as what the critic Germano Celant calls the POLYCHROME ENVIRONMENTS INDUSTRIAL PROSPECTIVES In the immediate post-war years, design, a new Design and creation in the Netherlands are multi- field of creation, asserted itself in Europe, the US faceted and culturally diverse. The Demakersvan and Japan as a specific and autonomous tool to collective has teamed up with the Mud Office, express and shape the environment. The 1970s an Indian firm based in Bangalore to hybrid saw the emergence of a new generation of industrial manufacture and manual know-how. colorists, who systemized urban and territorial Architectural research, which is equally approaches. Polychrome projects gradually innovative, combines with digital encryption. changed scale and were included in programme This makes it possible to renew design and to build new towns, large road or industrial manufacturing methods and impacts the way infrastructures, shopping centres and public architecture is conceived and perceived spaces. While the function and role of the colorist (room 28-29) . was fully identified and integrated into the industrial design chain, colour became a POSTMODERNISM hallmark of the post-modern town (room 16) . In the 1980, many artists abandoned the illusions held by the avant-garde artists of former decades. RENZO PIANO WORKSHOP Artists no longer claimed novelty and originality. Renzo Piano is one of the architects that designed Quotation, remakes and art for art sake spread. and built the Centre Pompidou. He was recently The certainty that a work of art differs in nature entrusted a project near a building that from daily objects disappeared. The relationship symbolizes the history of architecture: with commerce, culture (cultural artefacts), Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp Chapel built in media and communication was perceived as 1950-1955. Piano teamed up with landscape inevitable. A form of aesthetic relativism began to architect Michel Corajoud to rehabilitate the area spread. The demise of these illusions, which led surrounding the chapel. The approach to the to the postmodernism in art, was a time of monastery and porter’s lodge is low-profile and bereavement but also of liberation. Today, this non-assuming. It buries the constructions on the post-modern decade is richer and less confined hill to with they cling. The porter’s lodge which to a single meaning and interpretation that it marks the entrance to the site, is located behind seemed to have at that time: the end of a story, screen walls that rise from the terrain and the not of the story, the beginning of another vegetation. The monastery is separate from the (room 34) . other buildings, while the buildings do not resemble buildings at all, revealing only their glazed and gently sloping flat roofs (room 27). FRUITS DE LA PASSION decorative objects, the importance of the world of childhood and a passion for photography in which The new work displayed in the Museum entitled light interplays with shadows. “Fruits de la passion” [Passion Fruits] (rooms 17 to 25) introduces visitors to a series of Ann Veronica Janssens’s works (room 21 bis) works that the Centre Pompidou has acquired incorporate different media, including sculpture under the “Projet pour l’art contemporain”. This and environments. Her preferred materials are project, launched and supported by the Société artificial light and mist with which she explores des amis du Musée national d’art moderne, has the nature of sensorial experience and the added to the Centre Pompidou some one relationship between the body and space. Light hundred works which hitherto were missing from for Ann Veronica Janssen is no longer an its collection. Seventy-two new artists, very often instrument or a condition but becomes diffuse at the start of their careers and who have and ephemeral matter that forms the very become important figures on the art scene, have subject of her work. “Dazzling light, vertigo and been incorporated into the collection. Some have visual instability” are central to her art. Rose is featured in monographic exhibitions at the Centre part of a series of sculptures that she has been Pompidou, others have been nominated for the working on since 2006. These bright, star-shaped Marcel Duchamp Prize. Many have featured in and almost intangible sculptures remind us of major international exhibitions. the astronomical principle that stars only exist The originality of this initiative lies in its unique through the light they radiate. mode of operation. It is often said, quite rightly, that contemporary art collectors are risk takers, Ernesto Neto, Brazil’s leading stage artist, is that they intuitively sense an artist’s potential. celebrated worldwide for his imposing sculptures Their quick reactions often guide museums. with their olfactory and tactile elements. Collectors who are members of the Société des His entire work is an invitation to participate in amis du Musée national d’art moderne have a sensorial experience. We Stopped Just Here At volunteered to participate in this project and to The Time (central aile) comprises a painting fixed contribute to it financially. They suggest the to the ceiling of soft and transparent fabric in works of artists to be purchased, discuss them which some parts are filled with spices in warm with curators and other decision-makers. colours and which hang like bunches of grapes. Decisions are taken following detailed visits and The various spices (cloves, cumin, pepper and passionate debate. The Museum rubber stamps curcuma) fill and structure the forms of the such decisions, they are also taken by collectors sculpture, giving it a multi-sensorial dimension. and art lovers who are members of this group These voluptuous shapes, vivid colours and and who also donate works. fragrances arouse the senses of sight and smell. They invite the visitor to transcend perceptual “Fruits de la passion” spans recent research hierarchy which traditionally gives top priority undertaken by artists on the French and to sight. international art scene in different art media. Of the 31 works presented, three installations are described below.

A passionate collector since childhood, Hans-Peter Feldmann (room 20) has collected thousands of banal or kitsch archive images and has assembled numerous collections of objects and toys. Shadow Play , an installation that exists in different versions, summarizes in a playful, spectacular and poetical form, most of the artist’s concerns: the desire to collect, a taste for MUSEUM TOURS AND EVENTS INFORMATION

CONTEMPORARY TOURS 01 44 78 12 33 COLLECTIONS Walking tours www.centrepompidou.fr Free tours with the “Museum CURATOR & exhibitions” pass. OPENING HOURS Jonas Storsve Every Sunday, except the first Every day, from 11 am to 9 pm. Curator at the Musée national d’art Sunday of the month. Closed on Tuesdays. moderne 4 pm / Museum, level 4. Entrance on level 4. Ticket office closed at 8pm. ASSOCIATED CURATORS The first Sunday of every month Quentin Bajac “Favorite” works, simulated ADMISSIONS Olivier Cinqualbre battles, animation, dance, role- Entry with the "Museum and Michel Gauthier playing: moderators enable visitors exhibitions" pass. Valérie Guillaume to approach the Museum’s from Price: 13 ¤, concessions 10 ¤. Emma Lavigne new angles and perspectives. Valid for same day and single entry Aurélien Lemonier 3.30 pm. to the Museum, to all exhibitions Cloé Pitiot Free visit and access and to the panoramic viewing Christine Van Assche to the Museum. balcony (single entry to each area). Curator at the Musée national d’art Free for pass holders and for under moderne AUDIO GUIDES 18 year-olds. Languages: French, English, EXHIBITION DESIGN Spanish, Italian, German. ON-LINE TICKET PURCHASES Pascal Rodriguez The audio guides highlight 70 works AND PRINTING Jasmin Oezcebi in the collections of the Musée (Full price only) Nationl d’Art moderne and provide www.centrepompidou.fr/billetterie PRODUCTION information to “find out more” about Keith Cheng exhibits. Museum and panoramic viewing Rania Moussa A special commentary for 6 to balcony 10 year olds enables children to visit Free for 18-25 years olds who are The “Projet pour l’art contemporain” the Museum with their families. nationals or residents of the EU, [“Contemporary art project”] Also available: commentary Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland. is supported by the Société des amis on the Museum’s building and its Free on the first Sunday of each du Musée national d’art moderne. history and commentary on major month. exhibitions on level 6. Price 5 ¤ / concessions 4 ¤ / Free for © Centre Pompidou, Direction des publics, Service de l’information des under 13 year-olds. Audio guides can be hired publics et de la médiation, 2012 at the ticketing counters, level 0 Graphic design (collect on presentation of ticket c-album at the audio guides area, level 0) PUBLICATION Printing Friedling Graphique, Rixheim, 2012 “Collection Art contemporain” In the series “La collection du Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne” Bound, 19 x 24 cm, 504 p Price: 49.90 ¤