Page 114 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Paris

112  P ARIS AREA B Y AREA

Exploring the Pompidou’s Modern Art Collection

With over 60,000 works of art from over 5,000 artists, the nature into constructions of
Pompidou holds Europe’s largest collection of modern and colour and form. The museum
contemporary art. Classic disciplines – painting, sculpture, has a large collection of the
drawing and photography – are integrated with cinema, Russian painter’s works, of
which the Impressions
architecture, design, and audio-visual archives, to form a (Impressions V, Parc, 1911) mark
complete, chronological overview of modern and contem- the end of his Expressionist
porary art. The collections, however, keep changing. Works period before his plunge into
are often loaned out so some pieces may not be on show. Abstract art with Improvisations
XIV or Avec l’Arc Noir (With the
Black Arc) both dating from
1912 compositions.
The collection also shows the
groups and the movements on
which the history of modern art
is based, or by which it has
been affected, including Dada,
Abstract Art and Informal. A
pioneer of Informal art, Jean
Fautrier is represented in the
collections with Otages
(Hostages), a commemoration
of the suffering of the
resistance fighters.
At the heart of this chrono-
logical progression, various
thematic displays are a
revelation. One set shows non-
The Two Barges (1906) by André Derain figurative art from “Groupe
Espace and the Magazine”; a
1905–1960 Towards the end of his life, collaboration between painters,
Matisse made several collages sculptors, architects and
The “historical” collections bring from cut-up large sheets of engineers. Another room
together the great artistic gouache-painted paper. Among recreates the atmosphere of
movements of the first half of others, the museum possesses André Breton’s workshop in
the 20th century, from Fauvism Jazz (1943–7). With Homme à la which the works of his Surrealist
to Abstract Expressionism, to Guitare (Man with a Guitar), friends are also shown. Silent
the changing currents of the Braque demonstrates his pauses have also been allowed
1950s. The rich collection of command of the Cubist for: the room reserved for Miró
Cubist sculptures, of which the technique which he pioneered has vast, moody canvasses such
Cheval Majeur by Duchamp-Villon along with Picasso. Considered as La Sieste that give visitors
(1914–1916) is a fine example, is as one of the first, if not the first, reason to meditate on the
displayed, as well as examples Abstract painter, Kandinsky explosion and revolutions
of the great masters of the 20th transformed works inspired by of modern art.
century. Matisse, Picasso,
Braque, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Brancusi’s Studio
Léger, Miró, Giacometti and
Dubuffet command large areas The Atelier Brancusi, on the Rue Rambuteau
at the heart of the collection. side of the piazza, is a reconstruction of the
workshop of the Romanian-born artist
Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957), who lived
and worked in Paris from 1904. He bequeathed
his entire collection of works to the French state
on condition that his workshop be rebuilt as it
was on the day he died. The collection includes
sculptures and plinths, photographs and a selection
of his tools. Also featured are some of his more
personal items such as documents, pieces of
furniture and his book collection.

With the Black Arc (1912) by Miss Pogany (1919–20) by Constantin Brancusi
Vassily Kandinsky

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