The Pompidou Center In Paris Welcomes Our Editor ~ Europe’s Premier Collection Of Modern & Contemporary Art

Written by Florence Greenhut Friday, 11 February 2011 23:49

The “Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou” (Pompidou Center) was the brainchild of President Georges Pompidou who wanted to create an original cultural institution in the heart of Paris, completely focused on modern and contemporary creations, where the visual arts would rub shoulders with theatre, music, cinema, literature and the spoken word. Housed in the centre of Paris, the Pompidou Center first opened its doors to the public in 1977. The competition to design the bulding was won by two young architects, the Italian Renzo Piano and British designer Richard Rogers (both of whom went on to design multiple, stunning buildings around the world and, both of whom have been recognized with Pritzker Prizes). Together, they had proposed a constraint-free architecture in the spirit of the 1960's. The supporting structure and movement and flow systems, such as the escalators, were relegated to the outside of the building, to free up interior space for museum and activity areas. Color-coded ducts are attached to the building's west façade, as a kind of wrapping for the structure, blue for air, green for fluids, yellow for electricity cables and red for movement and flow. The transparency of the west main façade allows people to see what is going on inside the centre from the piazza, a vast esplanade that the architects conceived of as an area of continuity, linking the city and the centre. Not without controversy, the New York Times noted that the design of the Centre "turned the architecture world upside down" and that "Mr. Rogers earned a reputation as a high-tech iconoclast with the completion of the 1977 Pompidou Centre, with its exposed skeleton of brightly colored tubes for mechanical systems.” The Pritzker jury said the Pompidou "revolutionized museums, transforming what had once been elite monuments into popular places of social and cultural exchange, woven into the heart of the city." The centre quickly fell victim to the unexpected scale of its success. With some seven million visitors per year (far more than ever expected or planned for), the building aged prematurely and had to close in October 1997 for 2 + years. During this time 70,000 m² were renovated and 8,000 m² added, mainly to display the growing collections. When it reopened on 1 January 2000, the centre was an immediate, overwhelming public success again, testifying to the public's attachment to the museum and its spirit. In a unique location under one roof, the Centre Pompidou houses one of the most important museums in the world, featuring a leading collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe, a vast public reference library with facilities for over 2,000 readers, ample documentation on 20th century art, a cinema and performance halls, a music research institute, educational activity areas, museum shops, a restaurant and a café. Unswerving in its interdisciplinary vocation and its core mission - to spread knowledge about all creative works from the 20th century and those heralding the new millennium - each year the Centre Pompidou holds thirty or so public exhibitions plus international events - cinema and documentary screenings, conferences and symposiums, concerts, dance and educational activities - many of which go on to other venues in both France and abroad. Visit the museum’s website at http://www.centrepompidou.fr

The National Museum of Modern Art (MNAM) existed before the Centre Georges Pompidou, and the Pompidou inherited the collections of the MNAM. Between the world wars, Paris was at the eye of the storm, artists including Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Chagall, and Brancusi were producing stunning new art, but there was nowhere in Paris dedicated to collecting or displaying it. The collection continued to grow, thanks to donations and acquisitions, and is now one of the largest collections of modern and contemporary art in the world with over 53,000 works, covering all areas of artistic endeavor including painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, film, new media and design. Even with such vast display spaces, only a fragment of the collection can ever be displayed at any time and the collection is rotated every few years. The 5th floor collection of 20th century modern art was rehung in 2010 with major changes made to the 1945-1960 section. Two whole floors of the Pompidou Center are dedicated to the permanent collection, the fifth floor showing modern art from 1905 to 1960, and the fourth floor exhibiting contemporary art since 1960. On each level, displays dedicated to specific artists alternate with themed selections of work. The fifth floor collection includes works by all the early 20th century masters, including Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Amadeo Modigliani, Georges Braque, Alberto Giacometti, Jackson Pollock, Vassily Kandinsky, Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Delaunay, Henri Matisse, André Masson, Marc Chagall, Vieira da Silva, René Magritte, Fred Mitchell, Jean Miro, Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet, Raoul Dufy, Constantin Brâncusi, Theo van Doesburg, Marcel Duchamp and Josef Albers. These masterpieces from the collection can be seen now in various galleries in the Pompidou Center. More contemporary works on the fourth floor include, Andy Warhol, Francis Alys, Tony Oursler, Mike Kelley, Niki de Saint-Phalle (who also designed the “Stravinsky Fountain” outside the museum), Bruce Nauman, Giuseppe Penone, Boltanski and Ugo Rondinone. The space for New Media offers a choice of over 950 videos, interactive CDs or audio works of noted artists.

Temporary exhibitions, whether using artworks from the permanent collection which would otherwise not be displayed, or using loan pieces from other institutions, play a key role in the success of the Pompidou Centre. Major restrospectives and themed exhibitions have featured since it first opened, and have proven extremely popular. Until March 21st, 2011, a new exhibition, “Mondrian and De Stijl” studies the interwoven progress of the De Stijl (neoplasticism) artistic movement and Piet Mondrian, its leading figure. This important retrospective is the first in France to shed light on this key moment in the history of 20th century art. The De Stijl, literally translated as “the style” was an art movement founded by architect by architect and painter Theo van Deosburg in 1917 in Leiden. Other founders of the group included the sculptor Vantongerloo, architect JJP Oud, designer Rietveld, and the painter Mondrian. The group was intent on finding a new aesthetic of art and principles. The movement spread through town planning, fine arts, applied arts and philosophy. The De Stijl movement also published a magazine between 1917 and 1932 and provided and overview of the movement’s works and theories. In the magazine Mondrian comments that the “pure plastic vision should build a new society, in the same way that in art it has built a new plasticism”. Artists of the De Stijl movement saw art as a collective approach, and as a language that went beyond culture, geography and politics. The artwork created by the De Stijl movement artists gave off a depersonalized, anonymous feel. It was felt that the artist’s personality should take a back seat in the artwork. The key to creating art within the movement’s views was to follow the theory of scaling down formal components of art – using only primary colors and straight lines. A painting was created from the features on the surface and many De Stijl paintings convey elements of nature – expressed abstractly. Mondrian followed the principles of new-plasticism whereas Van Doesburg attempted to broaden the movement’s research projects in architechture – he wanted to recreate the entire living space within a home. De Stijl paintings usually represented parts of larger spaces like interiors spaces within houses. De Stijl forms were often geometric, and made up of primary colors. The main views of the De Stijl movement greatly influenced the Bauhaus movement in Germany in the 1920’s.

Until February 21st 2011, the fourth floor is hosting “Women Artists in the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art”, dedicated to women artists, and bringing together a selection of 350 works by 150 artists from the early 20th century to today. Changing over time, the exhibition currently focuses on new acquisitions and works which had been in storage. This is an opportunity for the institution to forcefully demonstrate its commitment to women artists in all disciplines and from all nationalities, and to the creative contributions they have made to the history of modern and contemporary art in the 20th and the 21st centuries. Amongst the recent acquisitions on show are artists such as the acclaimed Iranian artists Shadi Ghadirian and Sara Rahbar, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, a Chilean artist and winner of the 2009 Foundation for Contemporary Art & Daniel Florence Guerlain Prize for Drawing. The French art scene is particularly well represented, with young artists such as the visual works of Loutz Frédérique and Lili Reynaud Dewar. The entry of two leading figures from the Young British Artists, Tracey Emin and Angela Bulloch is noteworthy, as well as that of their compatriot, Lucy Skaer, winner of the Turner Prize in 2009. In addition to the new artists, US artists including Adrian Piper, Susan Hiller, Jenny Holzer are featured shoing their influence on the development of contemporary and feminist art. The Afro-American artist Adrian Piper, strongly marked by minimalism and conceptual art, was one of the first to address issues of race, gender and social class in the 1970s. An anthropologist by training, Susan Hiller uses various media to deconstruct the everyday. A third exhibition is aimed at younger visitors, “Play it Yourself” is the first space dedicated to adolescents in a major arts institution and features until March 23rd 2011. Featuring artists in all genres, workshop events and interactive works with strong music and computer game themes, this exhibition is designed to introduce contemporary art in all its varied forms to younger visitors.