The Museum of Modern art occupies one half of a handsome classical building called Palais de Tokyo, which was constructed in 1937 for an international exposition.
The other half is home to a contemporary art gallery that we didn't tour.
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| Palais de Tokyo |
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| Art deco bas relief decoration |
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| Monumental nudes flank the entrance path. |
The collection tends to emphasize art made in Paris, though much of it was made by artists from other countries.
Some of the art was purchased by the museum, but much of it came from artists' heirs who couldn't pay the tax on their inheritance. The great strength of the museum is the capacity to display the work of certain artists in great depth.
Pierre Bonnard, 1867-1947
Pierre Bonnard, who began his art career in the 1890s and worked into the 1940s, generally painted intimate scenes of daily activities in his own home, often featuring his wife.
His obsession was color, and he was influenced by Gauguin's acidic contrasts and the wild colors of the Fauves.
His brushstrokes were loose, recalling the Impressionists, but his level of blurry vagueness is unique and gives his work a dreamlike quality.
These works come from his mature period.
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| Pierre Bonnard, 1867-1947 Nude in the Bath, 1936 |
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| Pierre Bonnard, 1867-1947 Lunch, 1932 |
Henri Matisse, 1869-1954
Henri Matisse was a dominant force in art all during the first half of the 20th century.
In America, his biggest collector was Albert Barnes, who founded the Barnes Museum in Merion, Pennsylvania, since re-located to Philadelphia.
When Matisse traveled to Merion to meet with Barnes in 1930, Barnes commissioned him to decorate the central hall in his new museum.
Matisse worked on the design in Paris for over a year before he discovered that his measurements were off by nearly a whole meter. He had to start all over again. The City of Paris Museum has the first canvas. The finished work was installed at the Barnes Museum, and it complements the building perfectly.
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| Henri Matisse, 1869-1954 The Dance, 1931-1933 |
Bart van der Leck, 1876-1958
Bart van der Leck was a Dutch painter who painted many crowd scenes. His stylized figures are anonymous, and they are crowded into a flat space to form a decorative design.
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| Bart van der Leck, 1876-1958 At the Market, 1913 |
Kees Van Dongen, 1877-1968
Kees Van Dongen was a Dutch artist who made his career in Paris. He was one of the original Fauvists around 1905. In the 1920s he became a popular portrait painter to upper class ladies.
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| Kees Van Dongen, 1877-1968 Maria Ricotti in “L’Enjôleuse”, 1921 |
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| Kees Van Dongen, 1877-1968 Portrait de Renée Maha, called Le Sphinx, 1920 |
Raoul Dufy, 1877-1953
Dufy's style is based on Fauvism's expressive manipulation of color.
He tended to reduce forms to mere outlines.
His great innovation was to separate form and color. In some of his paintings, outlines of forms are put down over arbitrary patches of color.
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| Raoul Dufy, 1877-1953 The Aperitif, 1908 |
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| Raoul Dufy, 1877-1953 Race course at Epsom, c. 1934 |
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| Raoul Dufy, 1877-1953 Maison et jardin, 1915 |
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| Raoul Dufy, 1877-1953 Trente ans ou La Vie en rose, 1931 |
André Derain, 1880-1954
Derain was a co-founder of Fauvism, with Henri Matisse, in 1904.
During the peak period of Cubism, he developed his own version of that style.
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| André Derain, 1880-1954 Nature morte à la table, 1910 |
Fernand Léger, 1881-1955
Fernand Léger was one of the original Cubists. His version emphasized the cylinder and the cone, and the sleek forms of the machine age.
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| Fernand Léger, 1881-1955 Contrast of forms, 1918 |
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| Fernand Léger, 1881-1955 The man with the pipe, 1920 |
Robert Delaunay, 1885-1941
Robert Delaunay got involved in Cubism around 1910. His version combined fragmented form with dynamic movement and vibrant color.
In this poster-like painting, he related the speed and energy of a game of football to the novelty of flight, the engineering marvel of the Eiffel tower, and the extravagance of a giant Ferris wheel, as symbols of modern life.
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| Robert Delaunay, 1885-1941 The Cardiff Team, 1913 |
In this example, luscious color dominates the design, and the objects tend to fade. This style was dubbed Orphism by the critics.
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| Robert Delaunay, 1885-1941 Symphony of Colors, 1917 |
Eventually Delaunay gave up subject matter and went completely abstract. This next painting is one of three murals that were commissioned to decorate the Salon des Tuileries.
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| Robert Delaunay, 1885-1941 Rhythm No. 3, decoration for the Salon des Tuileries, 1938 |
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| Robert Delaunay, 1885-1941 Rhythme No. 2, décoration pour le Salon des Tuileries, 1938 |
Marc Chagall, 1887-1985
Chagall's expressionist paintings depict dreams, memories, and feelings.
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| Marc Chagall, 1887-1985 The Dream, 1927 |
Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978
Giorgio de Chirico was an Italian painter who lived in Paris off and on throughout his career, alternating with Rome. In recognition of the artist's bond with his adopted city, in 2011 the de Chirico Foundation bequeathed 61 works from the last half of his career to the City of Paris, which had already acquired several of his paintings. It enhances your understanding of an artist to see a great number of his or her works at once.
De Chirico is most famous for what he called 'metaphysical' paintings. In these he aimed to express an idea, or perhaps a spiritual state, by depicting several symbolic objects in a symbolic space. His symbolism was private, so each viewer is free to spin his or her own story around the image. The style is hard-edge and flat. The mood tends to be isolation, loneliness, and disorientation.
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| Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978 Hermetic Melancholy, 1919 (artist age 31) |
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| Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978 White horse, c. 1930 |
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| Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978 Still life with apples and grapes, c. 1930 |
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| Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978 Nature morte dans un paysage champêtre, c. 1943 |
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| Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978 Horse and zebra, 1948 |
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| Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978 Metaphysical interior with landscape, house and fountain, 1955 |
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| Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978 Head of a white horse, 1958 |
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| Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978 The return of Hebdomeros, 1969 |
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| Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978 Metaphysical composition with head of Jupiter, 1970 |
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| Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978 Antique Idyll, c. 1970 |
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| Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978 The Return of Ulysses, 1973 |
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| Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978 Still life in a country landscape, c. 1943 |
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| Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978 Isa and Giorgio, undated |
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| Giorgio de Chirico, 1888-1978 Return to the castle, undated |
Dubuffet was always trying to shake things up. In a career that lasted from the mid-1940s to the mid-1980s, he sought to embrace lowly values—primitivism, ugliness, and insanity. For awhile he was interested in using lowly materials such as dirt to create an image. In this 'painting' the image is actually made of bark. You've probably noticed how attractive tree bark can be.
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| Jean Dubuffet, 1901-1985 Woody path, 1949 |
Take-aways from the City of Paris Museum
Artists we have met before:
- Matisse
- André Derain
- Léger
- Robert Delaunay
- Chagall
- Dubuffet
- Bonnard's work derived from Post-Impressionism, with acidic colors and blurry brushwork.
- Raoul Dufy's style derived from Fauvism, with strong emphasis on color.
- Dubuffet was a maverick who sometimes used natural materials in his work.
New Dutch Artists:
- Bart van der Leck had a theme of stylized crowd scenes.
- Kees Van Dongen was portrait artist to the fashionable set.
New Italian Artist:
- De Chirico depicted metaphysical ideas.
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