Paris Museums, Paris Art

Paris was once the hometown of artists, regardless of their origin. It was where Gertrude Stein held court, where Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso agreed to disagree, where Man Ray and Lee Miller discovered solarization, and where Alexander Calder twisted the features of Josephine Baker and Joan Miró into wire sculptures. The lives and work of these people, and others who came before and after, have left Paris with a rich artistic history, as well as richly filled museums.  

The Essentials

If one were to draw a list of the museums not to miss while in Paris, the Louvre (rue de Rivoli, metro Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre) might very well appear near the top. The home of French royalty until the reign of Louis XIV, the Louvre is now the home of art. Adored pieces such as the “Mona Lisa,” “Venus de Milo” and the “Winged Victory of Samothrace” reside there in the good company of nearly 35,000 other works. Everyone has a different strategy for visiting the Louvre, because it’s as immense as it is dense, and rumor has it that to see everything, it would take three months of undivided attention.

On the Left Bank, a little farther west of the Louvre, lies the Musée d’Orsay (1 rue de la Légion d’Honneur, metro Assemblé Nationale), another museum that would surely make it on the list (and one that many visitors prefer over the Louvre). Formerly a train station, Orsay now pulls in millions of visitors each year. Aside from its special exhibits, the museum also houses a permanent collection that focuses on artists born in the 19th and 20th centuries, which is beautiful enough to make you dizzy.

It’s hard to miss the Centre Pompidou (Place Georges Pompidou, metro Rambuteau). At least that’s what everyone says when you’re new to Paris, the reason being that it is a ridiculously large and peculiar looking building, covered in tubes and grating, nestled in the city’s center. Despite its ostentatious appearance, the Pompidou shelters four floors of gallery space, which feature temporary exhibits, a permanent collection of art from 1905-1960 and the recently added elles@centrepompidou, a permanent display of work by female artists. The center also contains a cinema, children’s gallery, library and theater for “spectacles” or shows among other things.

 

• The Louvre draws visitors from around the world.

LWY

For those of us who learned as children that some impressionist paintings were a big old mess of colored dots up close, but a picture when viewed from a few steps back (pointillism), were probably taught this through Claude Monet’s works. This plays a small role as to why the Musée de l’Orangerie (Jardin des Tuileries, metro Concorde) is another place to put on the don’t-leave-Paris-without-seeing list. Not only does the Orangerie (yes, it was once a place where orange trees were grown) contain Monet’s water lily paintings, the “Nympheas,” but also a number of pieces by Cezanne, Renoir, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani and others.  

To Keep an Eye On

It’s worth just standing outside the Grand and Petit Palais (Avenue Winston Churchill, metro Franklin D. Roosevelt), if only to take in the magnificent architecture. Wrought from iron and paned with glass, these two structures look as though they belong to a fantasy world rather than the streets of Paris. Built for the World’s Fair held in Paris during 1900, the Grand and Petit Palais closed their doors for 12 years for an extensive restoration project. In late 2005, when the two buildings reopened, lines curled out the entrances and down the avenue.

The Grand Palais had transformed into a magnificent space, which hosts temporary art shows, fashion shows and events. The Petit Palais has taken on a permanent collection which displays art from the renaissance to the 20th century.

 

• Musée d’Orsay, a former train station, now houses a large collection of art from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Dimitry B

The Jeu de Paume (Concorde, 1 Place de la Concorde, metro Concorde; Hotel de Sully, 62 rue Saint-Antoine, metro Saint Paul) is definitely worth checking out. It regularly has provocative and thoughtful temporary exhibits in one of its two locations in Paris. Jeu de Paume has recently featured an array of notable photographers, such as Lee Miller, Robert Frank and Richard Avedon, but also carefully selects contemporary artists for collaboration.  

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