For all the art fairs' goers, there is always a looming nightmare before an intense art week... where to go during an overlap of hundreds events all around the city? On the occasion of FIAC 2019 - ready in few hours to host around 200 exhibitors in the Grand Palais, from 17 to 20 October - here we are with the exhibitions guide dedicated to "14 Must-see during the Paris Art Week 2019"...
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PARIS ART WEEK 2019
1. FRANCIS BACON: BOOKS AND PAINTING
Centre Pompidou, Galerie 2 | 11 Sep. 2019 - 20 Jan. 2020
Centre Pompidou continues its re-examination of key 20th century works by devoting a major exhibition to Francis Bacon. The last major French exhibition of this artist’s work was held in 1996 at the Centre Pompidou. More than twenty years later, "Francis Bacon: Books and Painting" presents paintings dating from 1971, the year of the retrospective event at the national galleries of the Grand Palais, to his final works in 1992. Didier Ottinger is the curator of this innovative exploration of the influence of literature in Francis Bacon’s painting. The exhibition consists of sixty paintings (including 12 triptychs, in addition to a series of portraits and self-portraits) from major private and public collections.
2. PRIX MARCEL DUCHAMP
Centre Pompidou | 9 Oct. 2019 – 6 Jan. 2020
This year’s shortlist includes Eric Baudelaire, Katinka Bock (who also has a show on at Galeries Lafayettes), Marguerite Humeau, and collaborative duo Ida Tursic & Wilfried Mille.
3. FUTURE, FORMER, FUGITIVE. A FRENCH SCENE
Palais de Tokyo | 16 Oct. 2019 - 5 Jan. 2020
The exhibition Future, Former, Fugitive, devoted to “a French scene” is based on an open conception of territorial placement – bringing together artists born in France and abroad, living in France or elsewhere, linked provisionally or lastingly to this country – in particular it escapes from the effects of a tabula rasa dictating that one generation eclipses another. This exhibition is thus an opportunity to bring to mind that there is not just one French scene, but rather a number of communities, engagements and singularities. The curators are Franck Balland, Daria de Beauvais, Adélaïde Blanc, Claire Moulène; curatorial assistant Marilou Thiébault.
4. CHARLOTTE PERRIAND: INVENTING A NEW WORLD
Fondation Louis Vuitton | 2 Oct. 2019 - 24 Feb. 2020
To mark the twentieth anniversary of the passing of Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999), the Fondation pays tribute to her as an architect and visionary creator through an exhibition of her work exploring the links between art, architecture and design. The exhibition retraces the architectural work of Charlotte Perriand, whose creations presage current conversations about the roles of women and nature in our society. The Scientific Committee of the exhibition gathers five curators: Jacques Barsac, Sébastien Cherruet, Gladys Fabre, Sébastien Gokalp, Pernette Perriand; and Arthur Rüegg as a scientific advisor for restitutions.
Ph: Left/ Charlotte Perriand face à la vallée, vers 1930 © ADAGP, Paris 2019 © AChP Right/ Charlotte Perriand sur la « Chaise longue basculante, B306 » (1928-1929) – Le Corbusier, P. Jeanneret, C. Perriand, vers 1928 © F.L.C. / ADAGP, Paris 201
5. PETER HUJAR: SPEED OF TIME
Jeu de Paume | 15 Oct. 2019 - 19 Jan. 2020
The life and art of Peter Hujar (1934–1987) were rooted in downtown New York. Private by nature, combative in manner, well-read, and widely connected, Hujar inhabited a world of avant-garde dance, music, art, and drag performance. His mature career paralleled the public unfolding of gay life between the Stonewall uprising in 1969 and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. The curators are Joel Smith and Quentin Bajac.
Ph: Ethyl Eichelberger as Minnie the Maid,1981, Peter Hujar, Tirage gélatino-argentique, The Morgan Library & Museum, achat en 2013 grâce au Charina Endowment Fund © Peter Hujar Archive, LLC, courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
6. ZINEB SEDIRA: A BRIEF MOMENT
Jeu de Paume | 15 Oct. 2019 - 19 Jan. 2020
Zineb Sedira lives in London and works in Paris, London and Algiers. Her one-woman exhibition at the Jeu de Paume spans the period from 1998 to the present day and embraces such diverse media as video, film, installation and photography. The title reflects the consciousness of time that Sedira’s works portray. Assembling five multimedia installations and some photographic and film works, the show reveals different forms of change that occurred in the XXth Century. The curators are Zineb Sedira and Pia Viewing.
Ph: Standing Here Wondering Which Way to Go, 2019, Zineb Sedira, Installation en 4 scènes. Archives Cinémathèque d’Alger. Production: Jeu de Paume, IVAM, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Bildmuseet © Zineb Sedira/ ADAGP, Paris, 2019. Courtesy galeries kamel mennour, Paris/Londres et The Third Line, Dubaï
7. FÉLIX FÈNÈON: THE MODERN TIMES. FROM SEURAT TO MATISSE
The Musée de l’Orangerie | 16 Oct. 2019 - 27 Jan. 2020
No exhibition has yet paid homage to Félix Fénéon (1861-1944), an important figure in the artistic world in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Musée de l’Orangerie, in association with the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, is honouring this extraordinary man who remains unjustly unknown. The exhibition will demonstrate the different facets of this unusual character, with his Quaker-like appearance and deadpan humour, who combined an exemplary career as a civil servant with strong artistic and anarchist convictions. The exhibition will bring together an exceptional array of paintings and drawings by Seurat, Signac, Degas, Bonnard, Modigliani, Matisse, Derain, Severini, Balla, etc., pieces from Africa and Oceania, as well as documents and archives. Curators: Isabelle Cahn, chief curator at the Musée d’Orsay, Philippe Peltier, curator at the musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac.
Ph: Paul Signac (1863-1935), Opus 217. Sur l'émail d'un fond rythmique des mesures et d'angles, de tons et des teintes, portrait de M. Félix Fénéon en 1890 Huile sur toile. 29 x 36 1/2 in. he Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David Rockefeller. © Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence
8. NIL YALTER: TRANS/HUMANCE
Mac Val | 5 Oct. 2019 - 9 Feb. 2020
“TRANS/HUMANCE” is the first major museum exhibition devoted to Yalter’s works, an artist internationally recognised for the engagement and “multistylistic” nature of her art, ranging from video to painting, from collage to photography, from performance to installation. Of this militant artist born in 1938, art critic Georges Boudaille wrote in 1979: “Nil Yalter sees herself as an instrument, an amplifier, in favour of almost obsessional themes: the situation of all immigrant workers and the position of women in all societies.” The exhibition is curated by Fabienne Dumont and Frank Lamy; assisted by Ninon Duhamel and Julien Blanpied.
Ph: Installation view, Nil Yalter: Exile Is a Hard Job, Museum Ludwig, Cologne 2019. © Nil Yalter. Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, Cologne / Jonas Klein.
9. KATINA BOCK
Lafayette Anticipations | 9 Oct. 2019 - 5 Jan. 2020
Katinka Bock's sculptures, performances and installations result from her investigation of the physical and material conditions of a given place, and an exploration of its historical, social and political charge. As such, they are all connected to her experience of that place. Her interest in place and dimension is reflected in the hypotheses she formulates prior to the sculpting process, and by her questioning of our preconception of a place, its persistence in time or how it becomes altered through use. Her work has been shown worldwide but – surprisingly, considering this has been her home for many years – never in Paris. Restoration of a building in Hanover has provided an unexpected opportunity to develop, with the artist, an original and spectacular project with elements in every part of Lafayette Anticipations. The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover.
10. GLENN BROWN
Musée National Eugène Delacroix | 9 Oct. 2019 – 9 Dec. 2020
In the continuity of FIAC Hors les Murs in the Jardin des Tuileries, the Musée National Eugène Delacroix opens to FIAC visitors, in collaboration with the Musée du Louvre. The museum setting will feature works by Glenn Brown, in collaboration with Max Hetzler (Berlin, Paris, London). Born in 1966 in Hexham, Glenn Brown is one of Britain’s most revered contemporary artists. For his exhibition at the Musée Delacroix, the artist presents new works, with an emphasis on drawing, as well as a large sculpture, inspired by Delacroix, among other artists. Sharing a dedication for draughtsmanship with Delacroix, Glenn Brown has been pursuing drawing as an autonomous form of expression since 2013.
11. TONY OURSLER: ECLIPSE
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain | 15 Oct. 2019 – 20 Oct. 2019
*With the presence of Tony Oursler on Tuesday, October 15th at 7pm.
Pioneer in video art, the American artist Tony Oursler exhibits his ingenious devices—part sculpture, installation and performance—around the world. For the exhibition Trees, he creates "Eclipse", a video installation placed in the garden of the Fondation Cartier, where the trees are used to create images with video projection. When night falls, come and see Tony Oursler’s Lost Garden, a place between the known and the unimaginable, where utopic dreams still live on.
12. KIKI SMITH
Monnaie de Paris | 18 Oct. 2019 – 9 Feb. 9 2020
The 11 Conti – Monnaie de Paris is proud to present the first solo show of the American artist Kiki Smith (born 1954, living in New York) by a French public institution. This unique collection of exceptional breadth will bring together almost one hundred works from the 1980s to the present day. Visitors will be greeted by two sculptures in the exterior courtyards of Monnaie de Paris and the exhibition itself will be held on two floors, covering more than 1000m2, notably within the historic salons facing the Seine. The exhibition will cover the major themes of the artist’s oeuvre, including the human body, the female figure and the symbiotic relationship with nature, all of which are recurring motifs. The works to be presented at the Monnaie de Paris will reflect the great diversity of Kiki Smith’s practice, and the wide variety of media she has explored: bronze, plaster, glass, porcelain, tapestry, paper and wax.
Ph: Kiki Smith, Rapture, 2001 Bronze, 170,8 x 157,5 x 66 cm Photo Richard Max-Tremblay © Kiki Smith. Courtesy Pace Gallery
13. SABIH & TAUS MAKHACHEVA: THE SUPERHERO SIGHTING SOCIETY
Kadist | 27 Sep. 2019 - 22 Dec. 2019
Kadist is pleased to host the first presentation by the "Superhero Sighting Society", a project formed during Taus Makhacheva and Sabih Ahmed's residency in 2019. The exhibition brings together eyewitness reports of appearances of Superhero coming from all over the world, and presents scenography by Super Taus. Wishing to preserve the anonymity of its members, the aim of the Society is to collate reports of Superhero sightings from across the globe. In this way, the Society wishes to draw attention to and promote discussion of new representations of power emerging from global geopolitical strife in the twenty -first century.
