Important Exhibitions in Paris, Second Half of 2010

Summer has ended, Parisians have returned, and French society is back to normal. Commuters return to work and school; the subway is crowded again with waves of people. On weekends, green spaces and parks are filled with leisure crowds, and more people stroll along the Seine to clear their minds. Museums and art galleries see many visitors. Last Saturday, a Paris gallery opened with an unusual crowd resembling a vegetable market, while urban backpackers became scarce. Schools reopened, and the bustling metropolis of Paris came alive again. New cultural activities for the year have started, ranging from literature, theater, and opera to exhibitions. After summer, Paris’s annual literary awards begin, major exhibitions open, and large theaters and concerts resume. Here I focus on contemporary art exhibitions, providing important exhibition news for the second half of the year.

Currently, Japanese pop culture artist Takashi Murakami holds a solo exhibition, "Jelly fish Eyes -Saki" (135x66x66cm, 2004), displayed grandly at the Palace of Versailles from September 14 to December 12. French Nouveau Réalisme artist Arman (1928-2005), known for his accumulations, has a memorial exhibition at the Centre Pompidou’s sixth-floor Contemporary Art Gallery from September 22 to January 10, 2011. Mexican-born New York-based contemporary artist Gabriel Orozco has a retrospective at the Centre Pompidou’s first-floor South Gallery from September 15 to January 3, 2011. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s "Art of Freedom" exhibition runs from October 15 to January 30, 2011, at the Musée municipal d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris.

The 39th edition of the Paris Autumn Carnival visual arts exhibition specially invited Lebanese artist Walid Raad, living in New York, to exhibit at Espace 104 in northern Paris from September 9 to December 31. Hungarian master photographer André Kertész has a retrospective at the Musée du Jeu de Paume from September 28 to February 6, 2011. A grand exhibition of Impressionist master Monet opens at the Grand Palais from September 22 to January 24, 2011. Do not forget that September 18–19 are European Heritage Days, September 25–26 are the Paris Horticultural Festival, followed by a week of Paris Contemporary Art’s big celebration—La Nuit Blanche. These cultural events provide Parisians with fuller imaginative spaces and poetry.