As we approach the autumn season, it’s time to wave goodbye to summer. But there’s no need to fret, as the arts calendar in Paris is full to the brim with a plethora of fantastic exhibitions, featuring big hitters like Vincent Van Gogh, Agnès Varda and Amedeo Modigliani. Here are all the city’s most eagerly awaited exhibitions for this upcoming season – start planning that art trip now…
Nicolas de Staël at the Museum of Modern Art
Need a pick-me-up? The Museum of Modern Art is set to lighten up your day with this huge exhibition dedicated to Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955). A heavyweight of the postwar French art scene, this is the first solo exhibition in Paris for de Staël since his show at the Pompidou in 2003. The collection includes some 200 paintings, drawings, engravings, and notebooks from public and private catalogues, which are set to make a marvellously colourful show. It’s an opportunity to observe the chronology of de Staël’s career, whose landscapes dance the line of abstract art.
September 15–January 21 2024.
‘Amedeo Modigliani: A Painter and his Dealer’ at the Musée de l’Orangerie
Exploring a painter’s relationship with his or her art dealer has become a bit of a trend in recent years, and the next show to take up the challenge focuses on Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) and his dealer Paul Guillaume. This thematic exhibition looks back at the platonic and artistic intricacies of the relationship between the painter and the collector. Guillaume is rumoured to have had nearly 150 Modigliani paintings in his repertoire, and the revolutionary artist enjoyed support from Guillaume until his death. In fact, the collector was the subject of Modigliani’s iconic painting ‘Paul Guillaume, Novo Pilota’.
September 20–January 15 2024.
‘Van Gogh at Auvers-sur-Oise: The Last Months’ at the Musée d’Orsay
This exhibition delves into the work completed by Van Gogh in his two years living in Auvers-sur-Oise, a notably fruitful period of the artist’s life. In just 61 days, he completed 74 paintings and 33 drawings – and this show offers exceptional evidence for the creative revival Van Gogh experienced near the end of his life, with the iconic creation of paintings such as ‘The Church at Auvers-sur-Oise’ and ‘Wheat Field with Crows’.
October 3–February 4 2024.
‘Chagall at Work’ at the Centre Pompidou
After stealing the immersive show at the Atelier des Lumières, Marc Chagall is due to take over the Centre Pompidou for an extensive exhibition. This impressive collection will explore Chagall’s relationship wih music and the world of entertainment, taking us behind the scenes of the creation of some of his finest stage productions. A collection of ceramics, collages and sculptures from between the 1950s and early ’70s will be on display, as well as the legendary costumes and sets for Igor Stravinsky’s ‘The Firebird’ (performed by the New York Theatre Ballet in 1945) and the 1962 commission of the ceiling of the Opéra Garnier.
October 4–February 26 2024
‘Julia Margaret Cameron: Capturing Beauty’ at the Jeu de Paume
This show dedicated to British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) traces the career of a portrait photography pioneer via more than 100 photographs. From early experiments to emblematic compositions, Julia Margaret Cameron’s photographs are among the first artistic photos in which blur, error and imperfection help to create a sensitive and ultra-personal gallery.
October 10–January 28 2024
‘Viva Varda!’ at the French Cinémathèque
A world-famous cinema institution is bringing together nearly 250 works for this gigantic retrospective: the largest collection ever assembled to evaluate Agnès Varda (1928-2019). Organised thematically, the exhibition looks back over the 70-year career of the greatest female figure of the French New Wave, as well as her commitments, her extensive travels and her love of the arts and animals. Film extracts, never-before-seen objects, accessories from her personal collection, photos, archive documents… this covers absolutely everything you could ever want to know about the legendary Varda.
October 11–January 28 2024
Mark Rothko at the Louis Vuitton Foundation
The Louis Vuitton Foundation is bringing together around 100 works from major public and private collections to celebrate Mark Rothko (1903-1970), the king of paintbrushes. Paintings have been sourced from the artist’s family, the Tate in London and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Curated chronologically, this immense exhibition is set to unfold throughout the Foundation, which promises to do justice to the grandiose formats of the definitive abstract painter.
October 18– April 2 2024
‘Picasso: Drawing to Infinity’ at the Centre Pompidou
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Picasso (1881-1973), the Centre Pompidou is staging a huge exhibition focusing on the Spaniard’s talent as a draughtsman, with a collection of almost 1,000 works. Notebooks, drawings and engravings – most of which come from the Musée Picasso-Paris collection — offer a glimpse into Picasso’s graphic world, and reveal a little more about the artist.
October 18–January 15 2024
‘Viviane Sassen: Art & Fashion’ at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie
The MEP will, this autumn, be hosting the first ever French exhibition of Viviane Sassen’s work – and it’s long overdue. The work of this queen of colour and composition, the darling of the media and fashion world, will be showcased at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, proving her not just to being a fantastic photographer but a bona fide artist. The 200 works will demonstrate her skill at shooting and printing, painting, collage and video. It’s high time this multitalented creator was celebrated.
October 18–February 11 2024
Iris Van Herpen at MAD
How about a little fashion show to round off 2023? MAD is bringing the year to a close with an immersive exhibition devoted to Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen. Her avant-garde style, which fuses clothing, science and art, manifests itself in architectural and poetic forms. The exhibition brings together around one hundred Van Herpen dresses, harmonising with contemporary works of art, installations, videos and photographs. Proof, for those who still doubt it, that fashion is indeed an art form.
November 28–April 28 2024
Did you see you can soon take a sleeper train from Paris to Berlin?
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