Collections contemporaines du Centre Pompidou — Des années 1960 à nos jours — Centre Georges Pompidou — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Ongoing exhibition

On 6 April 2011 the Centre Pompidou unveils the new presentation of its contemporary collections, which occupies the whole of Level 4. Following “elles@centrepompidou” (May 2009-April 2011), a thematic hang that looked at modern and contemporary art through the work of women artists, this new presentation explores a very fecund period in the history of 20th and 21st century art, the years from 1960 to the present. The display, which brings together a selection of almost 600 works by some 200 artists, gives special emphasis to the Centre’s recent acquisitions in the fields of visual art, architecture and design, photography and new media. A significant number of these will be on display to the public for the first time.

Cy Twombly, Sans titre, 2005 Sculpture. Bronze — 368,3 × 89 × 34,3 cm Photo : Philippe Migeat, Centre Pompidou 
Documentation des Collections du Mnam (diffusion RMN) Collection Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne © Cy Twombly

Punctuated by thematic displays, the chronological presentation is anchored by the work of key figures of contemporary art from the 1960s onward: Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Louise Bourgeois, Simon Hantaï, Carla Accardi, Joan Mitchell, Pierre Soulages, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol… The major movements of contemporary art also have their place: Minimalism (Robert Ryman, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin), Arte Povera (Mario Merz, Gilberto Zorio), Supports-Surface (Claude Viallat), Fluxus (George Brecht, Robert Filliou) and more.

Important works recently acquired are to be shown for the first time here at the Museum, among them Allan Kaprow’s Rearrangeable Panels (1957-1959), a historic piece that forms a link between Abstract Expressionism and the Happening; a half-Op, half-Psychedelic painting by André Cadere of 1969, one of the last he painted before turning to his round wooden bars; Emma Dance, 1977, a metal sculpture by one of the great modernist sculptors, Anthony Caro; Plastische Rede, a work of 1983 by Franz Erhard Walther, one of the very first artists to experiment with interactivity; After Atget, 1997, an important series of 60 photographs by Sherrie Levine, one of the key figures of postmodernism; an untitled garland of light from 1993, by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, one of the major artists of his generation; and a vast installation combining sound and mirrors by Cerith Wyn Evans, 2008.

André Cadere, Sans titre, 1968 — 1969, 0 Huile sur toile — 129,5 × 195 cm © Documentation des Collections du Mnam (diffusion RMN) Photo : Georges Meguerditchian, Centre Pompidou 
Collection Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne
Don de la Société des Amis du Musée national d’art moderne, 2011
 — Droits réservés

Certain other works acquired longer ago are also being shown for the first time, as for example Jiri Georg Dokoupil’s Auction at Christie’s, 1989.

Conceived as a chronological tour through the collection, the display in the Museum’s central gallery consists of works selected as waymarks through the years between 1960 and the present: Andy Warhol, Ten Lizes, 1963; Pierre Soulages, Peinture 14 mai 1968; Robert Rauschenberg, Hoarfrost, 1974; Gérard Garouste, Orion le Classique, Orion l’Indien, 1981; Julian Schnabel, Portrait of J.S. in Hakodate, 1983; Gerhard Richter, Juni n°527, 1987; Peter Doig, 100 Years Ago, 2001; photographs from Jean-Marc Bustamante’s “Cyprès” series, 1990-1991; Thomas Hirschhorn, Outgrowth, 2005; Bernard Frize, Oma, 2007; Katharina Grosse, Untitled, 2006; Jeff Wall, Knife Throw, 2008; Fabrice Hyber, Peinture homéopathique n°26, 2008… This display concludes on a spectacular, very recent acquisition, Carsten Höller’s monumental sculpture Giant Triple Mushroom, 2010, a gift of the Société des Amis du Musée National d’Art Moderne.

Jimmie Durham, Pirogenetico pirogenetico, 2009 Installation composée de deux tables en métal sur lesquelles sont présentés trois blocs d’obsidienne et leurs moulages Documentation des Collections du Mnam (diffusion RMN) Collection Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne

Certain key installations are again on display, among them Jean Dubuffet’s Jardin d’Hiver, 1968-1970; Agam’s Salon for the Elysée Palace, 1972-1974; and Joseph Beuys’s Plight, 1985.

Allan Kaprow, Rearrangeable Panels, 1957 — 1959, 0 Œuvre en 3 dimensions, assemblage
Bois, miroir, peinture, feuilles de chêne, aluminium, textile, bitume, lampes électriques — 243 × 150 × 149 cm © Don de la Clarence Westbury Foundation, 2006 Documentation des Collections du Mnam (diffusion RMN) Photo : Georges Meguerditchian, Centre Pompidou 
Collection Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne — Droits réservés

Thematic displays of sometimes previously unseen works look at architecture, design, photography and new media. Highlighting the role of photography in the diffusion of design, a room is devoted to the design photography of Carol-Marc Lavrillier from 1950 to 1975. A display on the theme of “The Origin of the Object” brings together selected pieces by Maarten Van Severen, Jasper Morrison and Martin Szekely, investigating the roots of form, while a highly distinctive installation, Amateur Workshop, 2009, a metaphor for shared space, makes visible the process of production of a work in constant development.

Verner Panton, Siège Living Sculpture, 1970-1971, 0 Sofa, matériaux divers — 275  × 510 × 430 cm © Documentation des Collections du Mnam (diffusion RMN) Photo : Jean-Claude Planchet, Centre Pompidou Collection Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne — Droits réservés

Looking at architecture and design from the end of the War to the 1970s, a room devoted to “Polychrome Environments” testifies to the emergence of colour as a specific and autonomous element in the construction of the built environment. The architectural design of the future is investigated in two rooms focussing on the digital and environmental problematics explored by contemporary artists: the monumental installation y* Struc/Surf, 2010 by Marc Fornes (founder of architectural practice Theverymany) and a model of the British Pavilion for Shanghai’s Expo 2010, the work of the Heatherwick Studio.

Finally, displayed here and there throughout, photography is represented by series and substantial groups of works, mostly recent acquisitions: a series by Italian photographer Ugo Mulas, sharing a room with the experimental Italian art of the 1970s; the photographic work of American artist Robert Gober, 1978-2000; works by the Lebanese artist Akram Zaatari in the room “Portraits of the Middle East”; and more…

As well as the many videos shown in the Espace Nouveaux Médias, the New Media Collection also offers two recent acquisitions: Francis Alÿs’s Cuentos Patrioticos, 1997, and Rineke Dijkstra’s The Weeping Woman, Tate Liverpool, the latter shown alongside the video France tour détour deux enfants (Pouvoir/ musique), 1980, by Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville.