Acquisitions récentes — D’Antonin Artaud à Tatiana Trouvé — Centre Georges Pompidou — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: June 29 → September 12, 2011

This exhibition of recent acquisitions by the Museum’s Department of Graphic Art offers an opportunity to discover a number of exceptional works on paper newly added to the collection.

Extending from Antonin Artaud to Tatiana Trouvé, the chronological display brings together some hundred works from among the 546 acquired since 2006. Eclectically marshalling together works of different periods, styles and techniques, it illustrates the manifold possibilities offered by drawing — a medium in which the artist’s presence is particularly marked — without regard to material, and from the simplest marks on paper to examples of extreme sophistication.

Tomasz Kowalski, Sans titre, 2010 © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/ Bertrand Prévost/ Dist.RMN-GP

Among these new acquisitions, a number add to the Museum’s holdings of Dada (Francis Picabia and Hans Richter) and Surrealist artists (Victor Brauner, Nadja, Raymond Queneau and Yves Tanguy). More isolated but equally important works by Derain, Klee and Baumeister also join the collection. As regards the period that follows the Second World War, alongside works by René Duvillier, Etienne-Martin, Jean-Paul Riopelle and Léon Zack, two drawings by Antonin Artaud represent a major acquisition. A substantial donation has brought into the collection twenty-four drawings by Carl-Henning Pedersen, two of which are shown here together with works by other artists associated with the Cobra group, such as Asger Jorn and Christian Dotremont. American art is represented by rare one-off prints by Jackson Pollock and drawings by David Smith and Philip Guston acquired thanks to the Centre Pompidou Foundation.

Acquisitions by the Department focus just as much on the contemporary period, bringing in highly innovative work in the field of drawing. Here the French scene is extensively represented, with works by Gilles Barbier, Jean-Charles Blais, Gilgian Gelzer, Michel Paysant and Alain Séchas, as well as Damien Deroubaix, Tatiana Trouvé and Jean-Luc Verna.

Nor is the international scene neglected: two works by Bridget Riley represent the Museum’s first acquisitions of this British artist; two charcoals by Sean Scully complement paintings by him already acquired; and works by Marc Bauer, Callum Innes, Andreas Hofer and Alain Huck have also joined the collection. Present too are the winners of the biennial prize for contemporary drawing awarded by the Fondation Daniel et Florence Guerlain: Sylvia Bächli, Sandra Vasquez de la Horra and Catharina van Eetvelde.

The occasion also offers an opportunity to pay tribute to the many donors who support and complement the acquisitions policy of the Department of Graphic Art: living artists (Marlene Dumas, Errò, Elsworth Kelly, Rosemarie Trockel, Vladimir Velickovic and Troels Wörsel), the heirs or friends of artists (Sidsel Ramson, Claudine Papillon, Pierre and Micky Alechinsky), the Amis du Musée National d’Art Moderne (through the Projet pour l’Art Contemporain), the Société Kandinsky, the Clarence Westbury Foundation, the Centre Pompidou Foundation and the Fondation d’Art Contemporain Daniel et Florence Guerlain.