2019: Paris Musées exhibitions you mustn't miss!
What are the must-see exhibitions at City of Paris museums in 2019? Make a note of the dates!
This year will be filled with an abundance of exhibitions in the City of Paris museums!
In spite of renovation work in some museums (Carnavalet, Museum of the Liberation, Balzac, Palais Galliera) that will restore heritage items, renew the presentation of the collections and improve the visitor experience and quality of reception, programming remains ambitious!
Here’s a quick look at the exhibitions you can look forward to in this new year!
Romantic Paris (1815-1848)
(c) Musée Carnavalet/Roger Viollet
Eugène Lami (1800-1890) - Scène de Carnaval, place de la Concorde. 1834
At the Petit Palais and the Museum of the Romantics
May to September 2019
This major exhibition plunges visitors into the effervescence of Paris during the Romantic epoch, when the French capital was at the cultural crossroads of Europe.
Through exceptional loans and a spectacular scenography, the exhibition highlights fashion and dance along with Berlioz and Delacroix. It is presented as a stroll through the important sites of Romanticism in Paris, from the Palais Royal to La Nouvelle Athènes, from the Comédie Française to the Grands Boulevards.
Romantic Germany 1780-1850
(c) Klassik Stiftung Weimar
Drawings from the Weimar museums
At the Petit Palais
May to August 2019
For the first time, one hundred and fifty exceptional drawings chosen from Weimar Museums and never before presented publicly and will be shown. They offer a panorama of the Romantic period, which was the Golden Age of German drawing.
Luca Giordano (1634-1705)
Luca Giordano (1634-1705) San Gennaro intercede presso la Vergine, Cristo e il Padre
At the Petit Palais
October 2019 to January 2020
Luca Giordano, the grand master of Neapolitan painting in the seventeenth century, was a disciple of the painter José de Ribera, whose Tenebrist genius he reflected. However, his training, which took him from Rome to Florence and especially to Venice, also exposed him to Veronese's great Baroque decorative style and colors.
This solid heritage brought him glory in Europe, and, like Rubens, he was invited to the Spanish court.
For the first time in France, the Petit Palais presents a retrospective dedicated to this painter of Neapolitan Baroque.
VINCENZO GEMITO (1852-1929)
(c) Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte
Vincenzo Gemito, Pastore degli Abruzzi
At the Petit Palais
October 2019 to January 2020
Vincenzo Gemito was one of the strongest personalities in Italian art in the late nineteenth century.
Both a sculptor and a draftsman of celebrity portraits and scenes of the everyday life of local people, Gemito was very attached to Naples, his native city.
From his triumph at the Paris World's Fair in 1878 to his combat with the mental illness that tormented him, this exhibition—the first in France—retraces the pathway of this artist with an inimitable style blending virtuosity and realism.
For more information on the Vincenzo Gemito exhibition
Back in Fashion
(c) Françoise Cochennec / Galliera / Roger-Viollet
At the Bourdelle Museum
July to November 2019
Palais Galliera, the Museum of Fashion of the City of Paris, presents an outside exhibition at the Bourdelle Museum.
The Back in Fashion exhibition has a look at clothing as seen from the back, from the eighteenth century to today.
It also considers the perception we have of our back and the backs of others: the majesty of a royal train, the weight of a backpack, the sensuality of a low-cut gown and the constraint of a fastening.
The exhibition brings together a broad selection of haute couture and ready-to-wear silhouettes from the Palais Galliera collections.
Grandville and Balzac
(c) Maison de Balzac/Roger Viollet
Grandville- Grande course au clocher académique
At the House of Balzac
Summer 2019 to winter 2020
Famous for his animal caricatures and his critical observation of social life, J. J. Grandville drew for the newspapers that flourished at the end of the reign of Charles X.
This was where he met Balzac, who was working as a journalist at the time. The two men evolved in different directions politically, but they remained friends.
This exhibition highlights the complicity that existed between Balzac and Grandville, while underlining the theme of freedom of the satirical press.
For more information on the Grandville and Balzac exhibition
Generation in Revolution: French Drawings - Fabre Museum
(c) Musée Fabre, Montpellier, photo : Frédéric Jaulmes
François-Xavier Fabre (1766-1837)
Académies : R° : personnage nu saissant un cube de pierre, Ve : personnage avec point sur la hanche, appuyé sur un socle
At the Cognacq-Jay Museum
March to July 2019
When the French Revolution broke out, an entire generation of artists, most of them students of the famous painter David, experienced a profound change in their way of life and creating. Some chose to be inspired by Antiquity, while others dedicated themselves to representing intimate and picturesque scenes.
This artistic reaction led to a rethinking of genres and stylistic movements that oscillated between Neoclassicism and pre-Romanticism.
For more information on the Generation in Revolution exhibition
Portrait of a House
(c) Maison de Victor Hugo
At the Victor Hugo Home
February 7, 2019 to April 15, 2019
To accompany the restoration and reopening of Hauteville House, a house decorated entirely by Victor Hugo on the Island of Guernsey, the Victor Hugo House in Paris has organized an exhibition presenting it as one of the writer’s most beautiful creations.
The exhibition will reveal the house through a large selection of works and documents, including drawings by Victor Hugo, photos, paintings, objects and archives. It will highlight the singularity of the design and creation of interior decorations by Victor Hugo, which make up a veritable self-portrait.
The Forest Dreamer
(c) Musée Zadkine / Françoise Cochennec / Roger-Viollet/Adagp
At the Zadkine Museum
September 2019 to February 2020
Inspired by Zadkine’s Forest Dreamer (1943-44), the exhibition has a look at our contradictory fascination with the forest from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to the contemporary era, which is marked by unprecedented ecological upheaval.
A refuge for what is living, wild and sacred, the forest represents the forces that escape human efforts to domesticate and rationalize.
THOMAS HOUSEAGO - ALMOST HUMAN
Thomas Houseago, Serpent, 2008, Tuf-Cal, chanvre, barre de fer, Oilbar, mine de plomb, bois 244 x 155 x 120 cm Collection Baron Guillaume Kervyn de Volkaersbeke © Thomas Houseago. Photo : Fredrik Nilsen Studio
AU MUSEE D'ART MODERNE DE LA VILLE DE PARIS
Du 15 mars au 14 juillet 2019
Le Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris présente la première monographie dans une grande institution parisienne, de l'artiste Thomas Houseago.
Né à Leeds (Grande-Bretagne) en 1972, Thomas Houseago vit et travaille à Los Angeles depuis 2003. il est l'un des rares sculpteurs de sa génération et depuis quelques temps l'un des plus reconnus.
L'exposition retrace les différentes phases de l'évolution de l'artiste, de ses œuvres des années 1990 jusqu'à ses dernières réalisations, dont une installation inédite produite spécifiquement pour l'occasion. Le parcours, principalement chronologique, s'articule autour de quatre salles, qui croisent à la fois les grandes étapes géographiques de la vie de l'artiste, mais aussi son rapport intrinsèque aux matériaux.
THOMAS HOUSEAGO - ALMOST HUMAN
At the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris
From March 15 to July 14, 2019
Born in Leeds (United Kingdom) in 1972, Thomas Houseago has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 2003. He is one of the few sculptors of his generation, and for some time now one of the most well-known. Using materials such as wood, plaster, metal, concrete or bronze, he would seem to be following in the footsteps of sculptors like Henry Moore and Georg Baselitz, who have focused on a vivid representation of the human body in space. His often massive sculptures retain traces of the manufacturing process, which makes them seem to oscillate between strength and fragility.
The exhibition of the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris traces the different phases of his development as an artist, from his 1990s works to his latest creations, which include a completely new installation produced specifically for the occasion. The exhibition, which is mainly chronological, is organised around four rooms, which cover the main geographical stages of the artist's life as well as his intrinsic relationship to his materials.
The exhibition is presented in the vast rooms that hold the museum's collections. For Thomas Houseago, they are an integral part of the scenography. The exterior architecture, the bas-reliefs of the forecourt, the presence of trees and plants and the surrounding historical monuments act as an anchor for the artist's work at the museum.
HANS HARTUNG - RETROSPECTIVE
At the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris
October 2019 to February 2020
A major twentieth-century artist, Hans Hartung (1904-1989) placed experimentation at the core of his work.
This exhibition will take a new look at Hartung's work and his essential role as a precursor in the history of abstraction. The exhibition will highlight the great diversity of materials Hartung used, his varied execution, the wealth of his technical innovation and the broad range of tools he used.
WORKS FROM THE LAFAYETTE ANTICIPATIONS COLLECTION
At the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris
October 2019 to February 2020
The museum presents a selection of work by French and international contemporary artists from the 330 items in the Lafayette Anticipations Collection – Moulin Family Endowment Fund.
For the first time, part of the Lafayette Anticipations Collection will be shown in the museum. Featuring some forty major works, the exhibition, which is organized around installations (sculptures, videos, performances) acquired by the Fund since 2005, presents a panorama of the latest artistic trends.