12 exhibitions not to be missed in 2023

He is a leading artist in the history of modern sculpture. The work of Germaine Richier (1902-1959), supported by a wide range of themes (man, woman, animal, myth), has a great formal singularity. The use of rope and tow in particular contributes to the strangeness of his “insectimorphic” figures. Others emerge from the silent depths of the masses. But they are all the result of the “long tortured material” (Mandiargues) that reflects the sculptures of his friend Giacometti.

Paris “Neo-romantic. The Forgotten Moment of Modern Art 1926-1972”, Marmottan Monet Museum, March 8 to June 18. Photo: Sir Francis Rose (1909-1979), Ensemble 1938, England & Co. Gallery © Property of Sir Francis Rose © England & Co

The homonymous work of the exhibition’s curator Patrick Maurice revealed to us a forgotten aspect of 20th century art, a “neo-romantic” movement that opposed the dominant abstraction, claiming to belong to the old masters, and a more humanistic or poetic movement. concept of plastic art. The exhibition will allow us to appreciate the works of these artists who are little known today. Indeed, how many Pavel Tchelitchew, Francis Rose or Christopher Wood must be (re)discovered for a famous Christian Berard!

Paris “Living in Painting, Corinne Deville (1930-2021)”, Sainte-Anne Hospital Museum of Art and History, until January 29. Photo: Corinne Deville, untitled, January 2010, private collection © Yvon Meyer

This is the first time that this artist’s work is the subject of a monograph. Because he never wanted to exhibit during his life. He worked for himself, finding an outlet for the vagaries and sufferings of existence in constant creation. This prolific body of work is somewhere between Art Nouveau and Art Brut, resembling a child’s creation and with very specific themes, related to the native Ardennes, the figure of Rimbaud, or even an idealized Switzerland.

Paris “Baya. Women in their gardens. Artifacts and Archives, 1944-1998”, Institute of the Arab World, until March 26, then Marseille, Old Charity Center, from May 11 to September 24. Photo: Baya, tale 1: The lady in her beautiful home, 1947. Aix-en-Provence, National Archives of Foreign Affairs (France), © National Archives of Foreign Affairs, Aix-en-Provence

Baya, whose real name was Fatma Haddad (1931-1998), was born under a lucky star. Orphaned at an early age, a young Algerian was taken under the wing of an adopted “mother” who gave her school and art education. Aimé Maeght, a gallery owner passing through Algeria, fell in love with his paintings and exhibited them in a Paris gallery in 1947. At the age of 16, Baya entered the artistic scene. His naive and colorful style was a great success in Paris as well as in his country where he became one of the most prominent and influential artists.

Henri Matisse, Veiled Woman, 1927, oil on canvas © 2022 Succession H. Matisse/Copyright Digital image, Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence

Organized with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Matisse Museum in Nice (where it runs from June 23 to September 24), the exhibition focuses on the decade following Henri Matisse’s visit to Tahiti in 1930. During this period, the artist sought purity, simplified his lines, stylized his figures, and was honored by the avant-garde magazine Cahiers d’art, which highlighted the richness of his production between the two wars. The hanging combines about thirty paintings, drawings and engravings.

Paris “Manet/Degas”, Musée d’Orsay, March 28 – July 23. Photo: Edgar Degas, Women on the Café Terrace in the evening in 1877, Gustave Caillebotte © Musée d’Orsay / Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

Sometimes partners, often rivals, Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas, each in their own way, marked the arrival of modern painting in the 1860s and 1880s. Here, great masterpieces of both come together, emphasizing common themes (horse races, shows, cafe scenes, etc.) and contrasting personalities. This unprecedented face-to-face meeting of the two giants will then join the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from September 2023 to January 2024.

Paris “Nice runs. Feminine Surrealism”, Musée Montmartre, March 31 – September 10. Photo: © Wikimedia Commons / Kathleen Tyler Conklin

When you think of Surrealism, few women’s names come to mind. However, women artists played a leading role in this movement in France as well as in Belgium, Great Britain, Mexico and the United States. In this exhibition, Lee Miller, Valentin Hugo, Vera Pagava, Mary Reynolds, Meret Oppenheim, Dora Maar, Toyen, Claude Cahun, Unica Zürn, Dorothea Tanning…

Paris “Basquiat X Warhol: with four hands”, Fondation Louis Vuitton, April 5 – August 25. Photo: Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, untitled, 1984-1985, private collection, property of Jean-Michel Basquiat, License Artestar, New York © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / License ADAGP, Paris 2023

Jean-Michel Basquiat, the face of the 1980s New York subway scene, will receive a double honor this spring. The Louis Vuitton Foundation brings together nearly a hundred paintings he made in 1984 and 1985 with Andy Warhol. At the same time, the exhibition “Basquiat Soundtracks” (from April 6 to 30) is presented at the Paris Philharmonic. July), around the artist’s musical influences, from Beethoven to Madonna through Louis Armstrong and John Cage.

Paris “Sarah Bernhardt”, Petit Palais, April 14 – August 27. Photo: Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt by Georges Clairin, 1876 © Paris musée / Petit Palais

If it is true that each of us knows two deaths, the day she died and the moment we even forget her name, Sarah Bernhardt is eternal. A hundred years have passed since the divine Sarah (1844-1923) left the stage, and she is still this holy monster, adored by her time, especially Cocteau, Mucha, Sacha Guitry, Reynaldo Hahn and even Victor Hugo! Five hundred works, photographs, costumes and paintings reflect the life of a star.

Metz “Suzanne Valadoon. A World of Her Own”, Center Pompidou-Metz, 15 April – 11 September. Photo: The Blue Room by Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938), Limoges, Musée des Beaux-Arts, on deposit at the Center Pompidou © Grand Palais / Jacqueline Hyde

“You are one of us,” said Degas, looking at his paintings. Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938), an independent and courageous woman, after becoming an artist, model, painted a painting in her own image, bold, without self-satisfaction and without compromising her sexuality. His portraits allow neither sentimentality nor decoration. Two hundred works have finally come together to rediscover this often-overemphasized, even misunderstood, talent and provide a new spotlight on women, the other half of humanity, in painting.

Aix-en-Provence “Max Ernst”, Hôtel de Caumont, May 4 – October 8. Image: Bird Monument, Max Ernst (1891-1976), 1927, Cantini Museum, Marseille © Jean Bernard. All rights reserved 2022 Bridgeman Images © Adagp, Paris, 2022

Max Ernst (1891-1976) is a great phoenix painter, whose production is constantly renewed in terms of form and technique: collage, frottage, decalcomania, etching, nature and magic, are used to explore fantastic and mysterious themes. The Hôtel de Caumont brings together eighty works from private and public collections to allow you to penetrate this strange, poetic and almost always disturbing universe, whose gaze invested in Dadaism and Surrealism, but above all shaped the art of “Maxernst”. .

Madrid “Picasso-El Greco”, Prado National Museum, June 13 – September 17. Photo: Pablo Picasso, Mme Canals (Benedetta Bianco), 1905, Picasso Museum, Barcelona © Succession Picasso, 2022 ProLitteris, Zurich

Two great artists, two innovators side by side to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). A breathtaking formal study of how Malaguene was influenced, inspired, cradled by El Greco (1541-1614), the power of his compositions, the boldness of his line… A path from the burial of Count Orgaz to Guernica. high, full of prospects, absolutely fascinating.