In the Nave

Portrait de Jean-Paul Goude, 2011

© Jean-Paul Goude

Goudemalion. Jean-Paul Goude une rétrospective
11 November 2011–18 March 2012

Les Arts Décoratifs is organising the first exhibition of Jean-Paul Goude’s work in Paris. One of the most brilliant ‘image makers’ of contemporary creation is proposing a retrospective and creative vision of his oeuvre encompassing all his areas of activity, from fashion and photography to advertising and the live event. His entire forty-year career will be retraced in the nave at Les Arts Décoratifs, featuring his drawings, objects, music, films and photographs.
Conceived as a large installation, the exhibition will of course evoke the Bicentenary of the French Revolution. Visitors will be welcomed in the reception hall by one of the gigantic waltzing ladies that caused such a sensation in the 1989 parade, then discover the monumental locomotive in the middle of the nave, installed on conveyor belt surrounded by numerous drawings. In the Tuileries gallery, an ‘introspective’ evocation of Goude’s work will take the public on a chronological journey from his débuts at Saint-Mandé to his most recent work. Evoking his decisive encounters, collaborations, influences and souvenirs, this journey will be punctuated with the artist’s original creations, while in the alcoves on the rue de Rivoli side six theatrical yet intimate installations will reactivate the highpoints of his life and work.

For further information (available in French only)

Buy your ticket on-line
 On our website
 On Fnac.com

In the Study Gallery

Trompe-l’œil. Imitations, pastiches et autres illusions
2 Feburary 2012–November 2013

Plaque murale en forme de cage à oiseau recouverte d’une tente verte, Delft, vers 1780

Faïence de grand feu
© Les Arts Décoratifs / Photo : Jean Tholance

In the Musée des Arts Décoratifs’ Study Gallery the public can discover the wealth of its collections via selections of rarely or never previously shown works from its storerooms, shown for an 18-month period. Trompe-l’oeil, as its name indicates, is meant to trick the eye, and originated in painting, in which the illusion created by a painted object relies heavily on perspective and chiaroscuro.

In decorative art, this ‘trickery of the eye’ took very diverse forms. Wallpapers, for instance, proved ideal for this form of expression. From the most modest to the most sumptuous, they all imitate materials: wood, lacquer, tiles, straw, velvet, and even framed pictures. Many imitations were of course done for economic reasons, and in this game of substitutes, one sees that for centuries many materials have been imitated by others: marbled ceramics imitating jasper, glazed ceramics imitating porphyry or gold, paste imitating the diamond, linoleum floorboards, and so on. This game of illusions evolved in the 19^th century, when, historicism oblige, it was not only materials that were imitated but motifs too. Owen Jones’ famous The Grammar of Ornament, like its French equivalent, Albert Racinet’s l’Ornement polychrome, provided numerous medieval and Moorish motifs for 19^th-century creators.
Fashion was no exception and became the theatre of the most outrageous illusions. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, wigs, tournures and faux-cul were worn to give false impressions. In the 20^th century, illusion focussed less on form than on the fabric itself, with the appearance of false wears and tears, false pockets, false buttons, etc. Like a treasure hunt traversing centuries and materials, this exhibition invites us into the great game of illusion or the ‘vertigo of imitation’.

For further information (available in French only)

Buy your ticket on-line
 On our website
 On Fnac.com

In the Toy Gallery

Les histoires de Babar
8 December 2011–2 September 2012

Babar, now king of the elephants and still wearing his ‘nice green suit’, has remained one of the most popular heroes of children’s literature, with children and of course their nostalgic parents and grandparents. The Arts Décoratifs’ Toy Gallery is celebrating the eightieth anniversary of Babar. The exhibition retraces the adventures of this hero of children’s literature since his creation in 1931. All the Babar books will be shown, with a selection of a hundred original drawings lent by prestigious French and foreign institutions such as the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Morgan Library and the Mary Ryan Gallery in New York, and also private collectors. Visitors will be able to see Babar adventures taking shape before their eyes, from the initial sketches through to the final coloured pages with text. Soft toys, board games, figurines, wheeled toys will be set in Babar decors including one from the famous Normandie liner, interspersed with archive photographs, present-day Babar products, cartoons and 3D films. This anniversary also pays tribute to Babar’s creators, Jean de Brunhoff and his son Laurent de Brunhoff who continued his father’s work from 1941.

For further information (available in French only)

Buy your ticket on-line
 On our website
 On Fnac.com

In the Contemporary Space

Hey Chair, be a bookshelf, 2006

© DR

Hey Chair, be a bookshelf, 2006

© DR

Maarten Baas, les curiosités d’un designer
7 October 2011–12 February 2012

Born in Arnsberg in Germany in 1978, Maarten Baas graduated from the prestigious Design Academy in Eindhoven in 2002. He is famous for his iconoclast and fanciful creations, ranging from the Smoke series of burnt furniture and the Clay Furniture collection, whose apparently unstable pieces seem to defy the rules of functional design, to the Sculpt series of mirror-distorted wardrobes, tables and chests of drawers and Real Time, a twelve-hour film of actors indicating the time. In his controversial experimental work, Maarten Baas merrily challenges design’s limits to reveal a strange, playful reality of optical effects and illusion. For his first exhibition in a Parisian museum, he has imagined a universe inspired by 14^th-century curiosity cabinets, a theatrical environment composed of a series of Surrealist interiors in which he mixes anonymous pieces and his own works.

For further information (available in French only)

Buy your ticket on-line
 On our website
 On Fnac.com

Advertising

Affiche de l’exposition

© Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagmeister, Another exhibit about promotion and sales material
13 October–19 February 2011

The Austrian artist Stefan Sagmeister, who has lived in New York for the last seventeen years, is one of the most original graphic designers of his generation. Considering that there is no distinction between so-called “cultural” and commercial graphic design, he has worked for several of the great names in music (Talking Heads, Lou Reed, Rolling Stones), also executing numerous commissions for companies and institutions (Levi’s, BMW, Casa da Musica de Porto, etc.).

For this exhibition, he has decided to focus on his commercial work over the last seven years. Divided into four sections, it focuses on the distinct typologies that Stefan Sagmeister distinguishes in his work: Selling culture, Selling corporations, Selling friends, Selling myself. The exhibition design by Big Game highlights the breadth of his graphic language, characterised by his subtle combination of the applied and fine arts: technology, intimist drawings and gigantic installations illustrate his disc jackets, commercial catalogues, exhibition catalogues, posters, visual identities, logos, etc.

For further information (available in French only)

Buy your ticket on-line
 On our website
 On Fnac.com