COMMUNICATION AND PARTNERSHIP DEPARTMENT

PRESS KIT

NEW HANG OF THEMODERN COLLECTIONS 1905 - 1965

NEW HANG OF THEMODERN COLLECTIONS1905 – 1965

NEW HANG OF THEMODERN COLLECTIONS1905 – 1965

CONTENTS

1. PRESS RELEASE PAGE 3

2. PLAN OF THE MUSEUM, LEVEL 5 PAGE 5

3. THE NEW HANG OF THE MODERN COLLECTIONS PAGE 6

• INTRODUCTION

• A HISTORICAL NARRATIVE PAGE 7

• A SELECTION OF ROOMS PAGE 9

• DOSSIER DISPLAYS PAGE 15

• A SPACE FOR AD HOC EXHIBITIONS PAGE 21

4. VISUALS FOR THE PRESS PAGE 22

5. PRACTICAL INFORMATION PAGE 30

19 May 2015

communication andpartnership department75191 Paris cedex 04

directorBenoit Parayretelephone00 33 (0)1 44 78 12 87mailbenoit.parayre@centrepompidou.fr

press officerAnne-Marie Pereiratelephone00 33 (0)1 44 78 40 69mailanne-marie.pereira@centrepompidou.fr

www.centrepompidou.fr

21 avril 2015 PRESS RELEASENEW PRESENTATION OF THE MODERN COLLECTIONS1905-1965STARTING 27 MAY 2015 MUSEUM, LEVEL 5

Starting on 27 May 2015, the Centre Pompidou is exhibiting a new presentation of its modern collection from 1905 to 1965, with a circuit featuring major milestones in the collection together with exhibition-dossiers (renewed every six months). The first stage in a major refurbishment project, this presentation now invites visitors to enter the museum via level 5 of the building, and explore the history of art from the modern to the contemporary periodes. « A new presentation of the museum’s modern collection is always an event, which highlights the

importance and incomparable diversity of the Centre Pompidou’s well-stocked collection,» says

the institution’s chairman, Serge Lasvignes. We have decided to focus on the major landmarks

in the history of modern art from 1905 to the 1960s, and its significant turning points. Visitors will

thus have all the keys to understanding how the spark of modernity appeared and set alight the

entire world of art in the first half of the 20th century.»

A presentation highlighting great milestones in the collectionThe result of a joint endeavour between all the museum’s teams coordinated by Bernard Blistène,

director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, this circuit reveals the succession of figures, works

and movements that structured modern art. «We wanted this presentation to be clear and easy

to grasp, with a touch of the educational. This new hang takes visitors on a journey through modern

art in terms of the mainstream visual and multidisciplinary aspects, while also doing justice to

areas of creativity that are too often ignored,» says Bernard Blistène.

communication andpartnership department75191 Paris cedex 04

directorBenoit Parayretelephone00 33 (0)1 44 78 12 87mailbenoit.parayre@centrepompidou.fr

press officerAnne-Marie Pereiratelephone00 33 (0)1 44 78 40 69mailanne-marie.pereira@centrepompidou.fr

www.centrepompidou.fr

Bart van der Leck : Compositie n°3, 1916,

Don de la Clarence Westbury Foundation

en l’honneur d’Alfred Pacquement, 2013,

mnam/cci / Dist. RMN-GP, photo : Ph. Migeat

© Adagp, Paris 2015

4

There are several ways for the public to learn about the great moments in modern art, in all their

complexity and variety, from Fauvism, Cubism and Surrealism to lyric and geometric abstraction. Large

monographic sections are dedicated to the collection’s iconic artists: Henri Matisse,

Georges Rouault, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Sonia and Robert Delaunay, Fernand Léger, Vassily

Kandinsky, František Kupka, André Breton, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Dubuffet and many others.

Exhibition-dossiers at the heart of the circuitBut the circuit also makes room for a series of exhibition-dossiers in different formats, renewed every

six months, drawing on the remarkable documentary collections of the Bibliothèque Kandinsky. The first

will be devoted to the great «go-betweens» who helped to write the history of modernity – theorists,

historians, critics, enlightened art lovers and thinkers of the time. «The circuit puts the spotlight on what

we call the «go-betweens», who did so much in terms of highlighting and interpreting modern works,»

says Bernard Blistène. «We are setting the ball rolling with Georges Duthuit, Guillaume Apollinaire,

Georges Bataille, André Breton, Michel Ragon and Pierre Restany. These exhibition-dossiers will give

viewers a clearer picture of the decisive role played by various major intellectual figures, and shed light

on the history of art and the people who contributed to it.»

A new area for tributes and the current scene The circuit ends with a room marking a transition to the «Contemporary» floor, where there will be

regular spotlights on works in the collection, some of which have been recently acquired. The idea is to

take stock of works by major artistic figures within a decidedly multidisciplinary collection, including

Barnett Newman, Gil J. Wolman and Vittorio Gregotti...

Media partner

5

2. PLAN OF THE MUSEUM, LEVEL 5

To L

evel

4

plan

DP

3330

35

3431

37

36

28

29

32

26

27

40

39

38

20

23

22

25

24

18

17

16

15

14

13

1012

11

19

9 6

4 3 2 1

8 5 7

Terr

ace

Entr

ance

Terr

ace

Terr

ace

21

Ad

Hoc

Ex

hibi

tions

Expr

essi

onis

m

Rou

ault

Mat

isse

Bra

que

and

Pic

asso

Pic

asso

Kup

kaD

ada

De

Stijl

Flux

usK

inet

ic A

rt

Bal

thus

Der

ain

Klo

ssow

ski

Kan

dins

kyD

ucha

mp

Man

Ray

P

icab

ia

Bau

haus

Dub

uffe

tN

ouve

au

Réa

lism

e

Mat

ter

as C

once

ptP

rouv

éSp

atia

lism

esK

elly

et M

orel

let

Que

stio

ns

de p

eint

ure

Pop

Art

Abs

trac

tE

xpre

ssio

nism

Gia

com

etti

Del

auna

yC

onst

ruct

ivis

mC

oBrA

Lett

rism

Ges

tura

l A

bstr

actio

n

Cub

ism

Lége

r

Mat

isse

Fauv

ism

Dut

huit

Apo

llin

aire

Bre

ton

Bat

aille

Rag

onR

esta

ny

Cendrars

Cocteau

Grohmann

Aragon

Paulhan

Ragon Bloc

6

THE NEW HANG OF THE MODERN COLLECTIONS  

INTRODUCTION Educational and informative in its very conception, intended to communicate to the widest public the

elements indispensable for an understanding, the new hang retraces the history of modern art as it

is reflected in the iconic ensembles held by the Centre Pompidou. Organised in a number of major

sequences, it begins with 1905 and ends on 1965.

Set along the visitor’s path through the new hang are a series of “dossier displays”, of varying format but

on a single theme, that will enrich the experience of the visit, sharing the pedagogical ambitions of the

main display but offering a more intensive and specialised approach.

Reorganised SpacesThe new hang of the modern collection takes advantage of a space reorganised so as to offer optimal

clarity. Visitors now enter the Museum via Level 5 and follow the course of art history from the modern to

the contemporary on Level 4, where a new hang of the Centre’s contemporary collections in Spring 2016

will follow on directly, establishing an unambiguous historical continuity between the two floors.

Certain rooms on Level 5 have been reconfigured to ensure a more fluid circulation of visitors and a

stronger sense of a distinct space. The new hang also sees the installation within the exhibition of a

visitor study space.

A hang organised around major ensemblesAmong the forty different rooms, the great, landmark ensembles in the Centre Pompidou’s collection

as ever form the backbone, highlighting the achievements of artists and movements of inescapable

importance. Organised in a number of major sequences, the display opens with Fauvism and Henri

Matisse and gradually works its way to Sixties Abstraction, where the art begins to verge upon the

contemporary in its concerns.

On either side of each of these major sequences, interpolations in the main narrative offering different

perspectives, spaces have been devoted to more idiosyncratic but nonetheless crucial artists and

movements. Thus, for the first time in the history of the Museum, a whole room has been devoted

to Lettrism, a key avant-garde movement in post-war Paris, while not very far away one will find the

structural elements of Jean Prouvé’s prefabricated buildings.

Architect Gae Aulenti’s ‘street’ still acts as a central visual axis, along which are placed key works from

the collection, from Francis Picabia to Frank Stella, interacting with an architecture now more open to

the exterior, the outside terraces that overlook the city regaining importance with the alterations that

coincided with the rehanging.

Dossier displaysA major innovation introduced with this new hang, intended to offer the opportunity for closer study,

these displays are left to the initiative and imagination of departmental staff and their eventual academic

partners. Punctuating the principal narrative, each will offer a contribution on a common theme.

Changing every six months, they will bring a new vitality to the display of the collection.

Programmed for the second semester of 2015 and the first semester of 2016, the two first series of

dossier displays take as their theme the great “communicators” who have championed modern art,

conveying its importance and making it accessible to a wider public: art critics and art historians, writers

and thinkers engaged with their times, or self-educated lovers of art and life. The third series will look

at more political issues, taking these as the theme for an exploration of the Museum’s collections and of

the documentary holdings of the Bibliothèque Kandinsky.

7

A room for ad hoc exhibitionsA space of 120 square metres has been set aside at a key location – the point of transition between the

modern and contemporary collections – to house the Museum’s programme of short-term displays

(usually of some 2 months duration) paying special tribute to individual artists or taking a closer look at

works of particular contemporary interest.

New acquisitionsThe Centre Pompidou’s collections are constantly growing, and the new hang of the modern collections

has sought to give a special place to recent acquisitions. Integrated into the main run of the display, they

are nonetheless identified by distinctive signage.

For the earlier periods, such acquisitions are obviously less frequent, but recent notable recent additions

are Raoul Hausmann’s Portrait of Hanna Höch (1916), as well as gifts such as Gil J Wolman’s Un Homme

saoul en vaut deux (1952) and Salvador Dali’s Objet surréaliste (1936). Among recently acquired post-War

works are Ettore Sottsass’s Maquette spatiale [Spatial Model] (1946), Dadamaino’s Volume (1959), Michel

Parmentier’s Peinture n°6 [Painting No. 6] (1963), Ernst Wilhelm Nay’s Inferno Halleluja (1964) and Roland

Sabatier’s Sculpture filiforme supertemporelle (1964).

A HISTORICAL NARRATIVEEducational and informative in its very conception, intended to communicate to the widest public the

elements indispensable for an understanding, the new hang retraces the history of modern art from 1905

to the mid-1960s, where there occurs the shift from the modern to the contemporary analysed by figures

as different as Theodor Adorno and Arthur Danto.

Of course, any museum display and any history of art it purports to represent will be will dependent on

the nature of the collection in question. The collections of the Centre Pompidou have a distinctive history

of their own, the historic national holdings of modern art and contemporary art being supplemented

by new acquisitions, either by purchase or by gift, more especially thanks to major donations by artists

or their estates, to whom the Museum owes so much. It is no surprise then that the new hang of the

modern collections should draw on the admirable depth of the Museum’s holdings of Matisse, Picasso,

Kandinsky, Delaunay, Laurens, Kupka, Duchamp, Picabia, Breton and Dubuffet, among many others; that

it should also exploit the wealth of its photographic and filmic holdings – with Brancusi, Brassaï Man

Ray… – displaying these works alongside the paintings and sculptures; or that it should offer a glimpse of

the invaluable architecture and design collection that is owed to the determination of Dominique Bozo – a

collection that will soon be shown to its best advantage in a dedicated gallery on Level -1.

The fruit of this distinctive history, the collections are extraordinary in their scope and depth, making it

possible to represent the key moments of modern art while reflecting its whole complexity. This is the

goal that has guided the development of the new hang, organised in sequences that seek to bring out its

genealogies, with the transitions, hybridizations and intersections that characterize its development.

Major historical sequences punctuated by singular works Each sequence is organised in terms of the major concerns shared by the artists presented together;

a first grouping, taking in the Fauves and the Expressionists, includes masterpieces by Matisse from

the Museum’s collection, while the second, Cubist ensemble features works by Braque, Picasso and

Léger. This is followed by early Abstraction (including the Constructivists), highlighting Kandinsky, the

Delaunays, De Stijl and the Bauhaus; then Dada and Surrealism, with rooms devoted – among others – to

Marcel Duchamp and André Breton, whose famous “wall” is supplemented and recontextualised thanks

recent long-term loans received by the Museum; here too one finds the quirky Realism of Balthus and

Klossowski.

8

The next grouping brings together the gestural and matterist abstractions of the post-War years,

organised around Jean Dubuffet, Cobra and International Abstraction; this is then followed by the last

major grouping, devoted to the neo-avant-gardes, with the French Nouveaux Réalistes, Pop Art, Fluxus

Azimuth / Groupe Zéro. Then, on the other side of the central “street”, the display continues in four

rooms at the western end of the building, two devoted to architecture and design, while two others offer a

look at the abstraction of the late 1950s, in its “hot” and “cold” manifestations.

Appropriately integrated into the historical sequence are rooms devoted to idiosyncratic yet crucial

artists. Thus, for the first time in the history of the Museum, a whole room has been devoted to Lettrism,

a key avant-garde movement in post-War Paris, while not very far away one will find the structural

elements of Jean Prouvé’s prefabricated buildings.

Continued attention to the globalThe preceding hang, “Plural Modernities”, had the great merit of bringing attention to hitherto

unexplored areas of the collection while revealing at the same time how poorly represented in them were

many distinctive modernisms from across the world. The new hang has sought to learn the lessons of

this experience by including in its narrative works by such artists as Vicente do Rego Monteiro and Tarsila

do Amaral, rediscovered through “Plural Modernities”.

Both of them are part of a distinctive history of modernity, that of Paris as “capital of the arts” , a

history made by artists and designers attracted there from all over the world. In this respect at least,

an international dimension to the collections can be seen throughout the display, in the rooms devoted

to Cubism, Constructivism, Dada and Surrealism, Kinetic Art, Informal Art, and in the Sixties art that

foretells the great tabula rasa to come.

9

ROOM 5 - FAUVISM

Installation view, Henri MatisseLuxe, calme et volupté, 1904 photo : Philippe Migeat, Centre Pompidou

Part of the collection of the Musée National d’Art Moderne but on long-term loan to the Musée d’Orsay

since 1985, this emblematic work by Henri Matisse here takes its place in the Fauvist room, the first to be

entered in this new hang of the modern collections,

The Salon d’Automne of 1905 opened on a scandal, the paintings of Henri Matisse, André Derain, Maurice

de Vlaminck and their friends being described as “wild beasts” (fauves) by the critic Louis Vauxcelles,

outraged, like the wider public, by the violence of colour. The bright, unmixed colours were unrealistic,

forms were schematized, perspective distorted, the expressive, spontaneous brushstrokes clearly visible.

Taking an unprecedented distance from the imitation of the real, these painters were expressing their

feelings in response to landscape.

The early 20th century thus saw painting win greater autonomy, painters no longer thinking of it simply

as a means of representing a subject, but also as an end in itself, interesting themselves above all in its

material aspects.

A SELECTION OF ROOMS FROM THE NEW HANG

10

ROOM 21 - ANDRÉ BRETON, 1896-1966

André BretonObjet à fonctionnement symbolique, 1931Photo : Georges Meguerditchian, Centre Pompidou

The display of 255 of the objects and artworks collected by André Breton that formerly adorned the wall

of his studio in the second room of his apartment at 42, rue Fontaine in Paris, itself represents a work of

“total” art. Arranged in random proximity were works of fine art (Picasso, Picabia, Miró, Duchamp, Matta,

all very important to him, and a very few Surrealist objects by Breton himself), a substantial collection of

“primitive” art (Oceanic, Pre-Columbian and North American masks or objects) as well as miscellaneous

other pieces (found objects, popular art, stones, stuffed birds etc.).

In accordance with the wishes of Aube Elléouët-Breton, we are now able to present Breton’s

desk together with the objects that stood on it, among them an impressive Papuan sculpture, a

representation of an ancestral figure that featured in uli rites.

This invaluable inheritance recalls one of the most important sites of 20th-century intellectual creativity,

testifying as well to the importance of the object to Surrealist activity..

11

ROOM 22 - REALISM

Installation viewPhoto : Philippe Migeat, Centre Pompidou

Paris between the wars saw a clear “return to order” in art. Members of different generations, André

Derain and Balthus both developed a realist style that explicitly referred to the Old Masters, far from the

naturalism of the 19th century. Lofty, detached figures who received no-one but a few initiates in their

studios, both were loyal to the tradition of painting and favoured sensation over analysis. Like Renoir,

Derain adopted a truism as his motto: “I like good painting”. He dazzled a public happy to have found

an authority in him, and painted many fashionable portraits. On the margins of Surrealism and close to

Giacometti, Balthus populated his large canvases with figures in puppet-like attitudes, creating a body of

work charged with an inhuman mystery, full, like that of his brother Pierre Klossowski, of an obscure and

troubling eroticism. In 1934, in praising the painter’s show at the Galerie Pierre, Antonin Artaud wrote

that “It makes sex inviting, but does not disguise its dangers.”

12

ROOM 33 - LETTRISM

Isidore ISOU (GOLDSTEIN Jean, known as)Traité de bave et d’éternité, 1951Photo : service do la documentation photographie du Mnam/Cci

Born in Romania, Isidore Isou arrived in Paris in 1945, where his encounter with Gabriel Pomerand

sparked the creation of Lettrism. Soon joined by Maurice Lemaître, they burst onto Saint-Germain-

des-Prés, their declamations and dramatic interventions recalling the days of the Dadaists. Published

by the NRF in 1947, Isou’s Introduction à une nouvelle poésie et à une nouvelle musique laid out the

principles of Lettrism, “avant-garde of the avant-gardes”, a total project simultaneously theoretical

and practical, aesthetic and political, aimed at the formal revitalisation of art through the power of the

letter, considered the basic material of all expression. That same year, Isou wrote: “It is a Name and

not a master that I wish to be … the Name of Names: Isidore Isou.” In fact, he gathered around himself

many artists, such as Roberto Altmann, Jean-Louis Brau, Roland Sabatiero or Jacques Spacagna, while

influencing many others, including Guy Debord, François Dufrêne, Paul-Armand Gette and Gil J Wolman.

13

ROOM 37 - ARCHITECTUREJEAN PROUVÉ, 1901-1984

Photo : Philippe Migeat, Centre Pompidou

“We need machine-made houses”, declared Jean Prouvé in 1945, facing up to the tasks of post-

War reconstruction. Given the industrial methods he developed, his projects relied on a number of

constructional principles that are key in his practice: the post and beam framework for the “Métropole”

and “Tropicale” houses; the shell for the roof of the Mame printworks; the crutch for the school in

Villejuif. Whether load-bearing structures or façade elements, all components were of metal (steel

or aluminium), generally implemented from folded sheet of metal. Prouvé applied his notions of

architectural prefabrication to the design of furniture, exploiting his technical know-how and mastery of

metal. Certain items were put into mass production thanks to large orders for schools and for student

residencies, such as the one in Anthony.

14

ROOM 38 - DESIGNSPATIALISM

SottsassMaquette spatiale, c. 1946 photo : Georges Meguerditchian, Centre Pompidou,

In the 1940s a certain “spatialist” approach tended to the dematerialisation of architecture, painting

and sculpture. Form was shot through with the energy of matter. Many theoretical texts were written in

support of such ideas, among them Gyula Kosice’s Manifiesto Madi and Lucio Fontana’s Manifesto Bianco

of 1946. A series of art movements offered different understandings of the spatiality of the artwork in

relation to its environment: Arte Concreta (1948), Groupe Espace (1951), Arte Nucleare (1952), spatio-

dynamism (1952) and the groups ZERO (1958) and NUL (1961). Sculptures were defined as “spatial

constructions” (Constant) and the city as “spatial urbanism”. Ettore Sottsass’s Maquette spatiale (1946),

the vertical cities of Aldo Loris Rossi and the archaic, primitive forms of Hans Hollein all partake in this

organic articulation of forms to their environment.

15

DOSSIER DISPLAYS

A major innovation introduced with this new hang, intended to offer the opportunity for closer study,

these displays are left to the initiative and imagination of departmental staff, with a view to closer

collaboration on shared research topics with university colleagues. Punctuating the principal narrative,

each will offer a contribution on a set theme; and in changing every six months they will bring a new

vitality to the display of the collection.

Introducing a new dynamic to the museum spaceSet at regular intervals along the path through the exhibition, these displays of varying format are

directly accessible from it and identified by distinctive features, including their pale grey colour scheme,

central entrance and exit and extended wall-text. Thanks to this arrangement, these dossier displays can

enrich visitors’ experience of the main collection while offering a thematic exhibition in themselves when

taken as a whole.

They combine works of art with printed materials and archival documents from the holdings of the

Bibliothèque Kandinsky, the library that forms a crucial part of the Museum, whose exceptional holdings

guide the choice of themes and their treatment.

The fruit of the collaborative labour of teams in different disciplines, the dossier displays will be

accompanied by publications and live events, with a special number of the Cahiers du musée national d’art

moderne matching each bi-annual presentation, with contributions by the departmental staffs’ academic

colleagues, young researchers prominent among them, while extensive facilities of the Centre Pompidou

will also allow the organisation of talks and other opportunities for discussion.

The great communicatorsThe two first series of dossier displays, programmed for the second semester of 2015 and the first

semester of 2016, take as their theme the great “communicators” who have championed modern art,

conveying its importance and making it accessible to a wider public: art critics and art historians, writers

and thinkers engaged with their times, or self-educated lovers of art and life. These are the influential

figures whose grasp and taste and friendship with artists allowed them to make decisive contributions to

the history of art in the 20th century.

Each of the displays combines publications and archival documents with the works of artists these

figures were close too, revealing the diverse impulsions and enthusiasms of both, beyond questions

of school, style or dogma. With their wealth of materials, the self-contained displays devoted to these

champions of modern art introduce the dimensions of impact and personal engagement into the

unfolding story of modern art, allowing the visitor a visual insight into the writing of art history.

The first series of dossier displays, running from May to November, looks at Georges Duthuit, Blaise

Cendrars, Guillaume Apollinaire, Jean Cocteau, Will Grohmann, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Georges

Bataille, Jean Paulhan, Michel Ragon, Pierre Restany, Carla Lonzi and André Bloc.

December 2015 will see new figures take the stage: Gertrude and Leo Stein, Wilhelm Uhde, Oswald de

Andrade, Aimé Césaire, Robert Lebel, Sigfried and Carola Giedion, Francis Ponge, Bernard Gheerbrant,

Alain Jouffroy and Reyner Banham.

The third series will look at more political issues, taking these as the theme for an exploration of the

Museum’s collections and of the documentary holdings of the Bibliothèque Kandinsky.

16

A SELECTION OF DOSSIER DISPLAYS

Georges Duthuit, 1891-1973Portrait of Georges Duthuit

Art critic, poet, ethnographer and Byzantinist, Georges Duthuit carved out a distinctive niche for himself

at the intersection of different disciplines and historical periods. In his writings on art – from Inuit to

Byzantine to 1950s Abstraction – he sought to identify a work’s distinctive poetics. Developing a radical

critique of the mimesis of Western art, he saw post-War abstraction and the painting of Matisse as the

culmination of an aesthetic of the decorative originating in oriental art. Like Georges Bataille, Roger

Caillois and Michel Leiris, he thus combined interests in contemporary art and ethnography, producing

a series of works like Une fête en Cimmérie (1947-50), in which Duthuit’s poetical text on the Inuits is

accompanied by lithographs by Matisse. Exiled in New York during the Occupation, he became a conduit

between the New York and Paris art scenes, editing the Paris-based English-language magazine

Transition between 1948 and 1950, assisted in this by his friend Samuel Beckett. He championed many

Paris-based artists, among them Bram Van Velde, Sam Francis, Jean-Paul Riopelle and Giacometti, and

was close to the poets André du Bouchet, René Char and Yves Bonnefoy.

17

Guillaume Apollinaire, 1880-1918Poet of modernity and champion of the avant-gardes

Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire

Poet of modernity and champion of the avant-gardes, Guillaume Apollinaire was a great communicator

of ideas whose verve and intelligence lit up early-20th-century Paris. Looking for novelty in artistic

expression, he experimented with the calligram, a visual poem whose typographic composition forms

an image. Friends with many artists, among them Henri Matisse, Raoul Dufy, Douanier Rousseau and

Marie Laurencin, Apollinaire shared in the artistic ferment that characterized the Paris scene. A prolific

art critic in L’Intransigeant and founder of the magazine Les Soirées de Paris, he reported on current

developments in art, the emergence of Fauvism, Futurism and Cubism, writing too on the art of Africa

and Oceania that interested him as much as it did the artists of the time. Faced with a generally hostile

public, Apollinaire rose to the defence of the young painters. Close to Braque and Picasso, he promoted

Cubism, publishing his pioneering Les Peintres cubistes as early as 1913. It was he who coined the word

Orphism for the Delaunays’ coloristic Cubism, and the “Surrealism” that Breton took from him. Polish by

birth, in 1915 Apollinaire enlisted in the French army and died in 1918, at the age of 38, two days before

the end of hostilities.

18

Georges Bataille, 1897-1962

Erwin Blumenfeld, Le dictateur, 1937

From Acéphale to Grand Transparent: Surrealism and Modern Myth.

The creation of modern myth was an integral part of the Surrealist project, set at the heart of its agenda

in the Thirties by the thinking of the ethnologists who made up most of the editorial committee of the

journal Documents, founded by Georges Bataille in 1929. And it was Bataille’s idea to reinvent the social

rituals that Marcel Mauss and his disciples had seen as ensuring the cohesion of primitive societies.

Practices of sacrifice and the mythical narratives that undergirded them were the subject of the most

memorable articles published in Documents.

Founded in 1933, the journal Minotaure brought together the two tendencies of the Surrealist movement

represented by André Breton and Bataille, becoming the crucible for new Surrealist thinking about myth.

In 1937, Bataille and André Masson created Acéphale, the first Surrealist myth, promulgated through a

journal that was twinned with a “secret society” bound together by a “sacrificial” rite.

Surrealism’s American exile during the Second World War saw the movement’s public conversion to

myth. The exhibition Breton organised in New York in 1942 was subtitled: “On the Survival of Certain

Myths and on Some Other Myths in Growth or Formation”.

“Le surréalisme en 1947”, the exhibition that marked Breton’s reappearance on the Paris scene, was

entirely devoted to the question of myth, and at the heart of the exhibition designed by Marcel Duchamp

was Le Grand Transparent, a monumental figure sculpted by Jacques Hérold, a rendering of a mythic

figure that Breton had introduced into Surrealism in 1938.

19

Michel Ragon /1924/,

Portrait of Michel Ragon

How speak of the vast achievement of Michel Ragon, poet, historian, essayist, novelist and critic of art

and architecture? After turning to anarchism and devoting himself to the cause of proletarian literature

the young Ragon also took up art criticism, publishing his first critical essay, on Gaston Chaissac. in

1946. As quickly as they emerged, he then championed CoBRA, Abstract Art, Informal Art, Kinetic Art

and Art Brut. The room here devoted to him has been designed in consultation with the subject and

his wife Françoise. It brings together a number key works in the history of art, linked to his friendships

with such artists as Chaissac, Dubuffet, Atlan, Appel, Hartung, Barré, Soulages, Schneider, Agam and

Etienne-Martin. Hung so as to suggest creative proliferation, these works testify to the humanism of

Ragon’s thought. Like a cabinet of curiosities, the room provides a kaleidoscopic portrait of the man

and his many-sided theoretical and literary work, a series of publications being displayed in conjunction

with the artworks. Architecture is represented in models and drawings by members of the GIAP (Groupe

International d’Architecture Prospective), which he founded in 1965. With Yona Friedman, Paul Maymont

and Guy Rottier, Ragon championed an architecture of the future while denouncing the functionalist

urban planning of the post-war years. A combative visionary, a tireless explorer of new art, both

learned and popularising, Michel Ragon has lived many lives, echoed in the paintings, sculptures and

architectural projects gathered in this multi-disciplinary display.

20

Pierre Restany, 1930-2003

Alain JacquetLe déjeuner sur l’herbe, 1964Photo : Jacques Faujour - Centre Pompidou

Pierre Restany is so closely associated with the French New Realism, the important Sixties art movement

he helped to crystallize, that one tends to forget the very varied other activities of this highly significant

if controversial figure. It was in Fifties Paris that Restany emerged as an acerbic but generous critic,

offering a fresh perspective on the debates over abstraction. Passionate observer of a world rapidly

changing on both sides of the Atlantic, through his writings and the exhibitions he organised he brought

forward and championed talents whose place in their time he articulated. A crusading author of articles,

essays and manifestos, he wrote on Jean Fautrier as much as on Yves Klein and Alain Jacquet – whose

work here pays indirect tribute to him – and also on sociological art and on “integral naturalism”, climax

of his reflections on art, an exploration of the relations between nature and culture.

21

A SPACE FOR SPECIAL TRIBUTES AND AD HOC EXHIBITIONS

Barnett Newman Shining Forth (to George), 1961Photo : Philippe Migeat, Centre Pompidou

Housing quickly changing short-term displays (usually of some 2 months duration), a space of 120

square metres has been set aside at a key location – the point of transition between the modern and

contemporary collections – for tributes to great figures in the creative arts, or closer looks at works of

particular contemporary interest.

The first such tribute will be devoted to Barnett Newman, represented by the four major works in the

Centre Pompidou’s collection, among them the emblematic and majestic Shining Force (1961) whose

recent restoration is the Museum’s pride and joy. This offered an opportunity not to be missed to

celebrate a great artist and his work while highlighting the work of the Centre’s curators and restorers.

This will be followed by tributes to Gil J Wolman, Hubert Damisch and Vittorio Gregotti.

Recent acquisitions will also have their place in this space of discovery and rediscovery, notably the

work of Chen Zhen recently acquired thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Musée National d’Art

Moderne.

22

3. VISUALS FOR THE PRESS

Some or all of the works reproduced in this press pack are protected by copyright. Works copyrighted to ADAGP (www.adagp.fr) may be published on the following conditions:

FOR PERIODICALS THAT HAVE AN AGREEMENT WITH ADAGPsee the terms there provided.

FOR OTHER PERIODICALS:• Two images no larger than a quarter page may be reproduced free of charge to illustrate an article on a current event to which they are directly related;• For images in excess of two or reproduction in a larger format, royalty may be payable;• Reproduction on the cover or front page requires permission from the Press Department of the ADAGP;• Any reproduction will be accompanied by a copyright notice in the form: artist’s name, title of the work, followed by “© Adagp, Paris 2015”.

except for notices for the copyright-holders below, to be given in the forms here indicated:• Fontana: © Fondation Lucio Fontana, Milano / by SIAE / ADAGP, Paris, 2015;• Duchamp: © The Estate of Marcel Duchamp / ADAGP, Paris 2015;• Giacometti: © The Estate of Alberto Giacometti (Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Paris + ADAGP, Paris) 2015;• Rothko: for works on canvas, © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko - ADAGP, Paris, 2015; and for works on paper, © 2000 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko - ADAGP, Paris, 2015;• Warhol: © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / ADAGP, Paris 2015;• Nay: © Elisabeth Nay-Scheibler, Köln / ADAGP, Paris 2015;• Francis: © 2015 Sam Francis Foundation, California / ADAGP, Paris;• Newman: © 2015 The Barnett Newman Foundation / ADAGP, Paris;whatever may be the origin of the image or the person or institution that holds the work.

These conditions apply to internet sites with an on line press status, the image size being restricted to 1600 pixels (height and lengh added up) except for Andy Warhol’s work which is limited to a 300 x 300 pixels format.It is prohibited to crop or superimpose the work buy Marcel Duchamp.

FOR TELEVISION REPORTS: • For broadcasters that have a general agreement with ADAGP:images may be used for free on condition that the obligatory copyright notices following appear as overlays or in the credits in the form: artist’s name, title of the work, followed by “© Adagp, Paris 2015” – whatever may be the origin of the image or the person or institution that holds the work, except in the case of the copyright-holders below, where more specific terms apply. The date of broadcast should be notified to the ADAGP by e-mail to audiovisuel@adagp.• For broadcasters that have no general agreement with the ADAGP:Images of no more than two works illustrating a broadcast on a current event to which they are directly related may be used for free. For any further images, royalty may be payable; a request for permission must be submitted in advance to the ADAGP at audiovisuel@adagp.fr

BREEDING CONDITIONS • Conditions of use for images of Femme nue couché, 1936, by Pablo Picasso. Use permitted in the context of an article solely devoted to presenting the exhibition, on an inside page in quarter-page format, this before the opening date of the exhibition or within three months after it. For any other use (e.g. on the cover) a request for permission must be submitted to cpinault@picasso.fr. In the case of use for broadcasting or on the web, the images may not be copied, shared or redirected to, nor reproduced via social networks.• Conditions of use for the installation view of the work Luxe, calme et volupté, 1904, by Henri Matisse. The images must not be cropped, and must be accompanied by the following copyright notice: © The Estate of H. Matisse for the artist’s work and © Philippe Migeat, Centre Pompidou for the photograph. • Conditions of use for the image of Jean Cocteau, Paris, 1939 by Gisèle Freund. Use permitted in the context of promotion of the exhibition, on an inside page, the reproduction not exceeding a quarter page.• For any work featured in this press pack, specific permission must be requested for reproduction on a cover or front page. Use is permitted only during the period of the exhibition.

Raoul Hausmann Portrait de Hannah Höch, 1916, Watercolour on paper – 55.2 x 40 cmCollection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderneMNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© Adagp, Paris 2015

Lucio FONTANAConcetto spaziale, La fine di Dio,1963Oil on canvas, perforations and drawing178 x 123 cmDonated in lieu of tax, 1997Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderneMNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© Adagp, Paris 2015

23

Pablo PicassoFemme nue couché, 1936known as “Nu étoilé”Oil on canvas - 130.6 x 162.5 cmLouise and Michel Leiris Donation, 1984Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderneMNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© Estate of Pablo Picasso

Installation viewHenri MatisseLuxe, calme et volupté, 1904 photo: Philippe Migeat, Centre PompidouOil on canvas - 98.5 x 118.5 cmDonated in lieu of tax, 1982On long-term loan to the Etablissement public des musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie (Paris), since 25 March 1985Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderneMNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© Estate of H. Matisse

24

Bart van der LECKCompositie n°3, 1916Casein and pencil on Eternit fibre cement tile69.9 x 109.3 cmGift of the Clarence Westbury Foundation, in honour of Alfred Pacquement, 2013Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderneMNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GPPhoto: Philippe Migeat, Centre Pompidou© Adagp, Paris 2015

Wassily KANDINSKYMit dem schwarzen Bogen(With the Black Arch) 1912Painted in Munich, autumn 1912Oil on canvas - 189 x 198 cmMme Nina Kandinsky Donation, 1976Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderneMNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GPPhoto: Philippe Migeat, Centre Pompidou© Public domain

Alberto GIACOMETTI Table, 1933known as “La table surréaliste”Created for the Exposition surréaliste, Galerie Pierre Colle, Paris, June 1933Original plaster sculpture - 148.5 x 103 x 43 cmGift of the Vicomte Charles de Noailles, 1951Photo credit: © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Service de la documentation photographique du MNAM/Dist. RMN-GP© Estate of Alberto Giacometti (Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Paris and Adagp, Paris 2015)

Man Ray Marcel Duchamp, Obligation pour la Roulette de Monte-Carlo, 1924Photograph - 8.9 x 11.9 cmDonated in lieu of tax, 1994 Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderne © Man Ray Trust / Adagp, Paris 2015

25

ROTHKOUntitled (Black, Red over Black on Red),1964Oil on canvas205 x 193 cmDonated in lieu of tax, 2007from the collection of M. and Mme Jean-Pierre Moueix Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderne / Centre de création industrielleMNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP Photo: Philippe Migeat, Centre Pompidou© Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher / Adagp, Paris 2015

Jean DubuffetDhôtel nuancé d’abricot, 1947 Oil on canvas - 116 x 89 cmPurchased with the assistance of the Scaler Foundation, 1981Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderneMNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GPPhoto: Bertrand Prévost, Centre Pompidou© Adagp, Paris 2015

Warhol AndyTen Lizes, 1963Screen-printing ink and spray paint on canvas - 201 x 564.5 cmPurchased 1986Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderne/MNAM-CCI /Dist. RMN-GPPhoto: Adam Rzepka, Centre Pompidou© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Adagp, Paris 2015

DADAMAINOVolume, 1959Elliptical holes cut in canvas,water-based paint on canvas, 100 x 80 cmGift of the Archivio Opera Dadamaino, 2014Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderne / Centre de création industrielleMNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP © courtesy Archivio Dadamaino

26

Michel ParmentierPeinture n°6, 1963Household paint - 162 x 130 cmPurchased 2015Collection Centre Pompidou,musée national d’art moderne Photo: Philippe Migeat - Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© Adagp, Paris 2015

Frank StellaMas o Menos, 1964Metallic powder in acrylic medium on canvas - 300 x 418 cmPurchased with the assistance of the Scaler Foundation, 1983Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderneMNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© Adagp, Paris 2015

André BRETONObjet à fonctionnement symbolique, 1931Assemblage of various objects on wooden board24.5 x 41.5 x 32 cmPrivate collectionOn long-term loan to the Musée national d’art moderne / Centre de création industrielle since 03/04/2014Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderneMNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GPPhoto: Georges Meguerditchian, Centre Pompidou© Adagp, Paris 2015

Ettore Sottsass Maquette spatiale, circa 1946DesignObjet/Design - 53.3 x 17 x 18.5 cmCollection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderne - Centre de création industriellephoto: Georges Meguerditchian - Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© Adagp, Paris 2015

27

Ernst Wilhelm NayInferno Halleluja, 1964Oil on canvas, 200 x 160 cmPurchased in 2014Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderneMNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© Adagp, Paris 2015

Jean ProuvéLa Maison Tropicale, 1951 Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderneMNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© Adagp, Paris 2015

Sam FRANCISUntitled, 1960Gouache on paper - 65.2 x 50 cmPurchased from Galerie Jean Fournier, 1984Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art modernePhoto: Georges Meguerditchian/Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© Sam Francis Foundation, California / Adagp, Paris 2015

Giorgio DE CHIRICOPortrait [prémonitoire] de Guillaume Apollinaire, Spring 1914Oil and charcoal on canvas - 81.5 x 65 cmPurchased 1975Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art modernePhoto: Adam Rzepka/Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© Adagp, Paris2015

28

Hans HARTUNG T. 1956-14, 1956Oil on canvas - 180 x 136 cmGift of the Galerie de France, 1976Photo: Service de la documentation photographique du MNAM/Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© Adagp, Paris2015

Gisèle FreundJean Cocteau, Paris, 1939Photograph - 19 x 14.2 cmDonated by the artist, 1992Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderne © Estate Gisèle Freund/ RMN gestion droit d’auteur/Fonds MCC/IMEC Photo: Philippe Migeat, Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Gisèle Freund, reproductionPress Department/Centre Pompidou

Jacques ROUGERIEMaquette d’une cellule, 1971 – 1972 Metal, fabric reinforced resin, plastic, 30 x 40 x 40 cmGift of the artist, 2010Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art modernePhoto: Philippe Migeat/Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© Jacques Rougerie Architecte

Alain JacquetLe déjeuner sur l’herbe, 1964Purchased at auction, 1996Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art moderne Photo: Jacques Faujour - Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© Adagp, Paris 2015

29

Barnett NEWMANShining Forth (to George), 1961Oil on canvas - 290 x 442 cmGift of the Scaler Foundation, 1978Collection Centre Pompidou, musée national d’art modernePhoto: Philippe Migeat/Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP© 2015The Barnett Newman Foundation / Adagp, Paris 2015

30

5. PRACTICAL INFORMATION

PRACTICAL INFORMATION AT THE SAME TIME AT THE CENTRE CURATION

Centre Pompidou75191 Paris cedex 04telephone00 33 (0)1 44 78 12 33métro Hôtel de Ville, Rambuteau

HoursExhibition open 11am – 9pm every day ex. Tuesdays and 1st May

Admission14 €concessions: 11 €Valid the same day forthe musée national d’art moderne and all exhibitionsFree admission for membersof the Centre Pompidou (holders of the annual pass)

Admission to the Centre Pompidouis free for under-18s.Young people under 26,* teachers and students at schoolsart, drama, dance and music, andmembers of the Maison des artistesmay visit the Museum for free andbuy tickets for exhibitions at theconcessionary rate. Admissionto the Museum and to childrens’workshops is free on the first Sunday of each month.

Tickets can be purchased atwww.centrepompidou.fr and printed at home.

With these, visitors can enter thegalleries directly without queuingat the ticket office.

* nationals of Member States of theEU or the European Economic Areaaged 18-25.

UNE HISTOIRE. ART, ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN FROM 1980 UNTIL TODAYÀ PARTIR DU 2 JUILLET 2014 FROM 2 JULY 2014 press officerDorothée Mireux+33 (0)1 44 78 46 60dorothee.mireux@centrepompidou.fr

LE NOUVEAU FESTIVAL 6E ÉDITION: AIR DE JEU15 APRIL - 20 JULY 2015 (NEW FORMAT)press officerElodie Vincent+ 33 (0)1 44 78 48 56elodie.vincent@centrepompidou.fr

LE CORBUSIER, MESURES DE L’HOMME29 APRIL - 3 AUGUST 2015press officerDorothée Mireux+33 (0)1 44 78 46 60dorothee.mireux@centrepompidou.fr

MONA HATOUM24 JUNE - 28 SEPTEMBER 2015press officerCéline Janvier+33 (0)1 44 78 48 56celine.janvier@centrepompidou.fr

GOTTFRIED HONEGGER24 JUNE - 7 SEPTEMBER 2015press officerElodie Vincent+33 (0)1 44 78 48 56elodie.vincent@centrepompidou.fr

VALÉRIE BELIN24 JUNE - 7 SEPTEMBER 2015press officerDorothée Mireux+33 (0)1 44 78 46 60dorothee.mireux@centrepompidou.fr

ANNA AND BERNHARD BLUME1 JULY - 28 SEPTEMBER 2015press officerDorothée Mireux+33 (0)1 44 78 46 60dorothee.mireux@centrepompidou.fr

Curatorial staff of the musée national d’art moderne /centre de création industrielle

Exhibition designKatia Lafitte and Valentina Dodi, assisted by Charline Bilesimo ProductionThe staffs of theCentre Pompidou’s Collections Department,Architecture Department,Production Department,Registrar’s Department, Technical Department andAudiovisual Department.