French-with-Art’s
Exhibition Report
from Paris
Suzanne Valadon at the Centre George Pompidou from 1/15/25 to 5/26/25
Suzanne Valadon The Blue Room
I recently showed The Blue Room in my January classes, which led to some lively discussions. The consensus seemed to be that Suzanne Valadon, whose self-portrait this is, was an independent woman unafraid to follow her own mind. So, I was thrilled to discover, just this week, that there is an extensive retrospective of this wonderful artist work currently taking place at the Centre George Pompidou in Paris.
Suzanne Valadon was a significant figure of modern art and the story of her trajectory into the Parisian art world of the 20th century is a fascinating one. After having started out as a circus performer, she became one of the most sought after models for many of the top painters of the time such as Pierre Auguste Renoir and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. And it was while she was posing for such artists in their atelier, that she decided to pick up brushes and palette herself and become, pourquoi pas, a painter!
Suzanne Valadon (1865–1938) was one of the first women to carve out a place for herself in the art world at the turn of the 20th century. According to the organizers, this exhibition pays tribute to her with a selection of her most iconic works, including paintings, drawings, and rare archival materials. Valadon stood out for her bold approach and her refusal to adhere to the dominant artistic trends of her time, such as Cubism and Abstract Art.
Instead of following conventions, she painted what she observed in the world around her, focusing particularly on the human nude—both male and female—with neither artifice nor voyeurism. The exhibition is organized around five distinct sections that help visitors understand the complexity and richness of her art while offering unique insights into the evolution of painting and drawing through the eyes of a daring woman artist. The show also features works by her contemporaries, such as Juliette Roche, Georgette Agutte, and Jacqueline Marval, providing context for Valadon's work within the artistic landscape of her era.
Suzanne Valadon as painted by Pierre Auguste Renoir when she worked as a model
Gustave Caillebotte at the Orsay Museum from 10/8/24 to 1/19/25
Gustave Caillebotte/The Floor Scrapers
I’m a huge fan of Gustave Caillebotte, so I was thrilled to learn of the exhibition taking place at the Orsay museum this fall and running until January 19. One of my favorite works of Caillebotte is the Floor Scrapers, which I’ve shown in several of my classes. It's one of the first artworks of the period depicting urban laborers in a Parisian scene. However, Gustave Caillebotte wasn't only a pioneer when it came to subject matter, his compositions, inspired by photography and Japanese prints, were also highly innovative.
The Orsay Museum exhibition was inspired by the recent acquisition of two of Caillebotte's major works, by the J.Paul Getty Museum (Young Man at His Window) and the Musée d’Orsay (A Boating Party), and centers around a masterpiece from this artist, Paris Street; Rainy Day, on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition, which presents around 70 pieces, includes Caillebotte's most important paintings of people, as well as pastels, sketches, photographs, and documents.
According to the museum, the desire to produce a new, authentic form of art, Caillebotte took his subjects from his surroundings (Haussmann's Paris, the country houses around the capital), his male acquaintances (his brothers, the workers employed by his family, his boating friends), and ultimately from his own life. In response to the realist movement, he introduced new figures into his paintings: an urban worker, a man on a balcony, a sportsman, and even an intimate portrait of a male nude at his 'toilette'. In an era when virility and republican fraternity prevailed, but traditional masculinity was also in crisis for the first time, these new, powerful images challenged the established order, both social and sexual. Beyond his own identity - that of a young rich Parisian bachelor - Caillebotte also brought profound questions into the male condition at the heart of Impressionism and Modernism.
Monet - Mitchell at the
Fondation Louis Vuitton
from 5/10/22 to 2/27/23
Above: Claude Monet/Water Lilies
Below: Joan Mitchell/Sale Neige
The exhibitions "Monet - Mitchell" creates an unprecedented "dialogue" between the works of two exceptional artists, Claude Monet (1840-1926) and Joan Mitchell (1925-1992).
I love the work of American abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell, so when I learned about the exhibition Monet-Mitchell at the Louis Vuitton art space in Paris, I was thrilled.
The juxtaposition is an astute one as both Monet and Mitchell are masters at handling an exquisite array of vibrant colors with striking purples, pinks, greens, and yellows animating their canvases. But there’s more too.
Mitchell actually moved to France in 1968 and settled in Vétheuil in a house close to where Monet had lived between 1878-81. Both artists were then faced with some of the same landscapes namely the banks of the Seine.
Monet aimed at conveying sensation, Mitchell, a memory or a feeling response to her subject. A highly gestural approach marked both of their works, and in the case of Monet, one which was further asserted when he embarked on his sumptuous Water Lily series.
The exhibition comprises some 60 works which will provide you with an immersion in a joyful and sensuous (re)discovery of these two giants of art.
For a further feel of the exhibition, here is a short video from the Fondation Louis Vuitton:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ8l44S3Whc&t=28s
Kimono at Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac from 11/22/23 to 5/26/23
I'm a huge fan of Japanese art and fashion so I wanted to share some information regarding the Kimono exhibition currently taking place in Paris. In this show, you'll find curators underlining the influence Japanese fashion had on couturiers in Europe and France. I think it's also an interesting entry point to examine the profound impact that Japan had, not only in terms of fashion, but also in regards to art in France. Consider, for instance, the way van Gogh and Monet were looking towards Japan for renewed inspiration.
An excerpt from the Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac:
The kimono – literally what is worn – appeared more than a thousand years ago and is a representation of their national culture and sensitivity for the Japanese.
At the beginning of the Edo era (1603-1868), it became the traditional garment par excellence, worn by all Japanese, regardless of social status or gender. A golden age that saw the extraordinary development of its production and the birh of a fashion culture, thanks to the infatuation of the entertainment world. Celebrities and trendsetters of the time – kabuki actors in particular – became the first Japanese fashion icons.
Although it timidly reached European shores at the end of the 17th century, it was in the 1850s, with the opening of Japan to foreign trade, that the kimono was exported to the West, fascinated by its exotic character.
The enthusiasm generated by its shape and fabrics profoundly and radically transformed fashion on the continent a few decades later. It subsequently surpassed its status as a symbol and lost none of its beauty in the hands of the world's greatest designers (such as John Galliano or Alexander McQueen) or in the streets of the archipelago, revisited in innovative and sometimes subversive ways by the young Japanese.
The exhibition designed by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London revisits this history, that of an iconic garment, intimately linked to Japan. The kimono from every angle, or the portrait of a resolutely modern garment, across the centuries and continents.
Video of the exhibition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nErsGTcLlAY