200 MoMA works from New York made the Parisian trip, illuminating the setting of the Vuitton Foundation with their modernity (translated from French by Alexandre Plateaux).
The amazing building designed by Frank Gehry to house the Vuitton Foundation in the Bois de Boulogne adapts to all formats, all works, currents and painters: he is a chameleon of art. Since mid-November the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York has put 200 of his works from its collections, tracing any history since its inception in 1929.
“Being modern: the MoMA in Paris”, title of the exhibition, shows all the graphic arts, paintings, sculptures, videos and films, installations, photographs, posters or various objects. As the rooms progress, the classics Paul Cézanne and Paul Signac interact with Edward Hopper, Marcel Duchamp, Walker Evans, Gustave Klimt, Magritte, Ernst Kirchner, Andy Warhol, Max Beckmann and Frank Stella.
This immersion in the world of MoMA is a kind of summary of the history of the New York museum, witnessing the complex evolution of the arts of his time, since the end of the 19th century, and over the decades. Constantin Brancusi’s “L’Oiseau”, alongside the enigmatic painting “Le Baigneur” by Paul Cézanne, in which the young man adept in baths in the nature, does a disconcerting marvel: no joy, no pleasure emerges from this major work of the painter (Photo credits: Sylvie Roman).
“House by Rail” by Edward Hopper, a past also the Atlantic. First acquisition of the MoMA in 1930, only 5 years after its realization, this painting reflects a certain melancholy, witness of a sleeping America. Bourgeois house on the edge of a railway line, where no trains have been going for days, perhaps weeks, as well as the house, empty of its own occupants. This table of Hopper is a snapshot of a given time. And that’s where he gets his strength.
Several industrial objects, witnesses of their time too, are displayed, staged like true works of art: an outboard propeller, or a ball bearing… Global upheavals and jolts in the exhibition of the Vuitton Foundation, through the exhibition of Soviet propaganda issues, Walt Disney films, or the work of Jackson Pollock (Echo: number 25) and Willem de Kooning (Woman I), or the astonishing and moving triptych of Max Beckmann, The Departure, realized in the years 1932-1935, marriage of love, torture, movement, death, hope, travel and the promised land.
The Pop Art and Minimalism Movements are of course represented, with Andy Warhol’s iconic “Campbell’s Soup Cansd’Andy” exhibited for the first time in France, as well as “New Jersey” by Diane Arbus or “USA Today” by Felix Gonzalez-Torres.
Videos, special audio or luminous effects occupy a large part of the space, in a minimalist scenography to the extreme, implementing better the works in relief.
The walk to the Vuitton Foundation ends with a pilgrimage on the various cascading terraces, and along the basins with mirrors… a magical place, undoubtedly among the few buildings the most accomplished of the beginning of the 21st century in Paris.
Vuitton Foundation, Bois de Boulogne, Paris, metro L1 station Porte Maillot
Until March 5, 2018
