The ParisSharing Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Paris Exhibitions’

Fall brings a new season of exhibitions to Paris museums.  Here is a list of the top five exhibits to see while visiting The City:

Grand Palais -  Of Toys and Men (September 14, 2011 – January 23, 2012)

Of Toys and Men is the history of toys in the western world and highlights the importance of toys in children’s education from birth.  The exhibit is possibly the largest toy exhibit ever featuring thousands of toys from Antiquity to modern day.

Centre Pompidou – Edvard Munch (September 21, 2011 – January 9, 2012)

The Centre Pompidou presents Edvard Munch, l’oeil moderne [Edvard Munch, the modern eye], a collection of eighty paintings, thirty drawings, fifty photographs and a film all shown for the first time in France.

Musee Maillol – Pompei (September 21, 2011 – February 12, 2012)

In 79AD, the city of Pompei was completely buried under lava and ash from the catastrophic eruption of the volcano Vesuvius.  However, the extremely well preserved ruins of Pompei rose from the ashes when they were discovered in the 1700’s.  The exhibit guides visitors through a typical Pompeian home, featuring over 200 artifacts including wall murals, vases and jewelry.

Musee du Louvre – La Cité Interdite – Forbidden City (September 26, 2011 – January 9, 2012)

The Louvre exhibit features 130 artifacts from China’s Forbidden City on loan from the ancient imperial palace museum.  Artifacts range from jade carvings, lacquerware, seals, porcelain and bronzes to personal items previously owned by Ming and Qing Dynasty emperors.

Les Arts Decoratifs – Goudemalion – Jean Paul Goude Retrospective (November 11, 2011 – March 18, 2012)

Les Arts Décoratifs welcomes this grand retrospective of Jean-Paul Goude, the French graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, director and art director. For over 40 years, Goude has been one of the advertising world’s leading “image makers”, who is best-known for his campaigns for such brands as Perrier, Citroën, Galeries Lafayette and Chanel.

Fall is one of the best times of the year to visit Paris, and it’s an excellent time to take advantage of some of ParisSharing’s wonderful apartments at special fall prices.

Musee d’Orsay: 5 April  – 3 July 2011

Yesterday, at the Musée d’Orsay opened the exhibition ‘Manet, the Man who Invented Modern Art,’ which focuses on French painter Edouard Manet’s  (1832-1883) later works of arts.  The exhibition features 143 of his paintings  and is the first major Manet exhibit in France since the 1983 exhibition at the Grand Palais.

Manet has been attributed to the transition from the Realism to Impressionism movement, which the exhibition explores not only through his works of art, but by highlighting the historical situation at the time Manet was painting.  The exhibit also looks at how Manet’s closest friends and contemporaries such as Baudelaire, Thomas Couture, Berthe Morisot, Eva Gonzalès, and Mallarmé impacted his work.  The expo shows how Manet constantly challenged current trends and how he refused to follow the main Impressionist movement.

If the success of the recent Monet exposition in Paris is any indication, the Manet retrospective should attract record-breaking visitors meaning you MUST buy tickets in advance.  See the museums website for more information on where to purchase tickets and this video for viewing of the paintings in the exhibition.

The Musée d’Orsay, located on the Left Bank was originally built in 1898 as a railway station for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. Today, it is not only an architectural masterpiece but features major French works of art from all disciplines dating between 1848 to 1915.  Visit the Musee d’Orsay’s website for further details on it’s collection.

Paris has much to boast when it comes to Monet. The Musée Marmottan features many of his works, the Nymphéas with their own rooms at l’Orangerie and of course Giverny, which is only an hour away by train. Beginning September 2010, Paris will be outdoing itself for Monet with the largest exhibition in thirty years, organized by the associated national museums and the musée d’Orsay.

The event will be hosted in the Grand Palais, as was the previous one in 1980. Since then much research has been done about the artist, bringing to light many lesser known aspects of his work. The exhibition will showcase Monet’s entire career which started in 1860 (60 years of painting!) and his evolution from a young, rather traditional artist to his emergence as an impressionist verging on the abstract.

The retrospective at the Grand Palais – containing nearly two hundred Monet pieces – juxtaposes famous and lesser known works, offering you a new take on Monet as an extraordinarily modern artist (after all, he died only 84 years ago!).

The Paris Claude Monet exhibition is held in the Galeries nationales at the Grand Palais from 22nd September – 24th January 2011. Open every day except Tuesdays and Xmas day from 9am – 8pm (last ticket). Admission 13€ / 9€. A joint ticket with the Orangerie is also available for 19€.
Guided visits (90 minutes, 9€) and kids workshops (2 hours in all, with a special guided visit, 10€) are also available.
Official Grand Palais site: www.grandpalais.fr