Modern Art Collection at Pompidou Centre on artrepublic.com

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This new hanging of the National Museum of Modern Art is composed of over 1300 works and almost 500 journals presented in a dense and diverse array. Making the best of the artists and works from the first half of the 20th century as well as highlighting the latest acquisitions in the collection.

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Started thanks to donations in the 1960s (from the artists or their families), the collections of artists works have grown considerably in the last 30 years (Kandinsky, Matisse, Picasso, Braque, Léger or Rouault to Giacometti, Miró, Dubuffet or Hantaï, among others). At the same time, the collections have been expanded, to include other areas, with the same objective of constituting the most complete and coherent collections possible: for example the rooms dedicated to Man Ray, Moholy Nagy or Brassaï, for photography, and to Chareau and Prouvé for architecture and design. 

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Organised in chronological order, rooms dedicated to a single artist (conceived of as snap shot or a small exhibition) alternate with rooms built around a range of boarder themes that include: a personality (e.g. André Breton, whose collection the Pompidou Centre has had the privilege of keeping exactly as he had displayed it on the wall of his workshop in rue Fontaine; or Jean Paulhan), a well-known journal (Cahiers d’art or Documents), a gallery (Maeght, Jean Fournier), a movement (Bauhaus) or an event (the Exhibition of 1937). These rooms, in contrast to the rooms dedicated to a single artist, help the viewer to discover the crossings, confrontations and regroupings that form the historical fabric of the fist half of the 20th Century.

Lastly, a third axis forms the subject of a specific tour: the thematic presentation of some 500 journals selected from the rich stock of the Kandinsky Library, periodicals section. Patiently constructed and developed over the 30-year history of the Pompidou Centre, this collection was recently enriched thanks to a part of the collection of Paul Destribats, acquired thanks to the Lagardère Group competition. The display, dating from the 1960s onward, focuses on the one hand on leading figures of the second half of the twentieth century, and on the other on young artists of today. It also offers an opportunity to view many recent acquisitions, notably the latest gifts of the Société des Amis du Musée National d’Art Moderne.

Image Captions:

Image 2: Henri Matisse Figure décorative sur fond ornemental, 1925 – 1926 130 cm x 98 cm

Image 3: Man Ray, Rayogramme, 1923 Rayogramme, épreuve gélatino-argentique sur papier mat, 26,8 cm x 21,4 cm