The Best Paris Exhibitions on View During Paris+ par Art Basel
Between visits to Paris+ par Art Basel, Design Miami/ Paris, and Paris Internationale, you’ll want to save time for visiting some of the best exhibitions the city has to offer. Here, we’re sharing details on the best Paris exhibitions at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Palais de Tokyo, Musée d’Orsay, Mariane Ibrahim, Maison Guerlain, and Mennour.
Mark Rothko, “Green on Blue (Earth-Green and White),” 1956, oil on canvas, 228.6 x 161.3 cm, Collection of The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson; Gift of Edward Joseph Gallagher, Jr. Artist Credit: © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko – ADAGP, Paris, 2023.
Fondation Louis Vuitton Presents France’s First Rothko Retrospective in 20+ Years
Mark Rothko
October 18, 2023—April 2, 2024
Debuting during the occasion of Paris Art Week is France’s first retrospective of Mark Rothko since 1999 at Fondation Louis Vuitton. Featuring 115 works sourced from the world’s top collections, the Paris exhibition poses a chronological look at Rothko’s famed career. The show takes visitors from the urban landscapes prevalent in the artist’s earlier practice in the 1930s through his evolution towards abstraction and his later work. Featured are prominent and noteworthy pieces like Multiforms from 1946, marking a definite change towards abstraction, the set of murals commissioned for the Philip Johnson-designed Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram building, in 1958, which the artist never delivered, and some of the artist’s last work from the 1969-1970 Black and Gray series.
Peter Doig, “Two trees,” 2017, oil on canvas, 240 × 355 cm; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Don de George Economou, en célébration du 150e anniversaire du musée, 2018, © Peter Doig. All Rights Reserved, DACS/ ADAGP, Paris, 2023.
One of the Best Paris Exhibitions at Musée d’Orsay
Peter Doig: “Reflections of the Century”
October 17, 2023—February 21, 2024
Peter Doig’s work is renowned for his singular style, with a practice rooted in art history and the work of masters that forged the path to the present, pulling from romanticism, postimpressionism, colorism, and more. Doig is both the featured artist and curator of his Paris exhibition “Reflections of the Century” at the Musée d’Orsay. Divided into two conceptual sections, the first features a selection of major large-format paintings, while the second includes Doig’s works in conversation with those from the museum’s collections that have lent the most inspiration to the artist—like Edouard Manet’s Berthe Morisot in the Shadow, Henri Rousseau’s The War, and Little Peasant in Blue by Georges Seurat.
Lili Reynaud Dewar, “Paul-Alexandre, chambre 502, hôtel Relais du Pré, Paris, 24 avril,” 2023, courtesy of Galerie Emanuel Layr, Vienne.
Don’t Miss This Show at the Palais de Tokyo
Lili Reynaud-Dewar: “Hello, my name is Lili and we are many”
October 19, 2023—July 1, 2024
Curated by François Piron, Lili Reynaud-Deward’s “Hello, my name is Lili and we are many” at Palais de Tokyo features two bodies of work creating a whole. First, “Gruppo Petrolio” is a series of 19 episodes combining documentary and fiction with a comedic twist, inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s examination of the evils of the oil industry in his book Pétrole. Joining the episodes for the exhibition’s second part is a sort of diary detailing happenings inside and outside of the museum around the time of the show. Working from a goal of making aesthetic representations of social and political questions, the multifaceted artist is known for a practice that encompasses, dance, object-making, writing, films, journals, video installations, and more.
Oda Jaune, “Fleurs,” 2015, courtesy of the artist and TEMPLON – Paris, Brussels, New York.
Maison Guerlain Partners with Paris+ par Art Basel for a Special Exhibition
“Flowers of Evil”
October 18—November 13, 2023
In partnership with Paris+ par Art Basel, Maison Guerlain’s space at 68 Avenue des Champs-Elysées is hosting the group exhibition “Flowers of Evil,” or “Les Fleurs du Mal.” The show was named in homage to Charles Baudelaire’s collection of poetry, first published in 1857 and likens flowers to concepts of sensuality. It was a matter that was met with much resistance and resulted in the Empress Eugènie de Montijo becoming a champion of the poet and his work. Coinciding with the 170th anniversary of the maison’s iconic bee bottle, created especially for the Empress, the Paris exhibition draws ties between Baudelaire’s notorious flora-centered prose and the Empress’s love for arts.Curator Hervé Mikaeloff selected work by 26 artists who present their own interpretation of the titular theme. The resulting presentation offers ponderings on topics like the fragility of our existence, life and death, and transcendence by names like Anselm Kiefer, Oda Jaune, Francesco Clemente, Thandiwe Muriu, Jiang Zhi, Robert Mapplethorpe, Alina Bliumis, Jean-Marie Appriou, Mimosa Echard, and Jean-Philippe Delhomme.
Peter Uka, “Elbow Room,” 2023, photo by Fabrice Gousset, courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim.
Mariane Ibrahim Paris Presents a Must-See Exhibition by Peter Uka
Peter Uka: “The Triumph of Being”
October 13—December 2
Debuting new work by Peter Uka, “The Triumph of Being” features a suite of large, photorealistic paintings that capture the tension present when a conversation is interrupted. Having previously sourced imagery from his memories of Benue, Nigeria, in the 1970s, for this show Uka pulled from familiar visuals selectively. Paired with faces and scenarios that have been fabricated entirely from the artist’s mind, this combination of memory and fiction is suggestive of the way our memories morph over time. Uka’s act of painting as a means of healing yields portraits loaded with evidence of the subconscious (telling stances, pensive gazes), causing the viewer to stop and consider their own perception and what they might be interrupting.
Daniel Buren, exhibition view, “Plis contre plan, hauts-reliefs, travaux situés,” Mennour (5 & 6 rue du Pont de Lodi, Paris 6), 2023; © DB Adagp, Paris, 2023, photo Archives Mennour, courtesy of the artist and Mennour, Paris.
Experience Mennour Through the Eyes of Daniel Buren
Daniel Buren: “Plis contre plan, hauts-reliefs, travaux situés”
September 12—November 25
Daniel Buren’s Paris exhibition “Plis contre plan, hauts-reliefs, travaux situés” (“Folds against plane, high reliefs, situated works”) considers the situation as “borrowing” Mennour’s rue du Pont de Lodi space in order to showcase it in a new light. The transformation involves around 20 pieces made over the last two years—variations on Buren’s Pyramidal. High reliefs, situated and in situ works—which are installed along the walls atop large mirrors. The works are groupings of triangular prisms, which have been painted in stripes of different bright colors and are situated into various formations and configurations. Installed with a set of rules that create vertical columns blurring the difference between mirror and object, the effect causes those inhabiting the gallery to perceive its rooms in a new way than ever before as they navigate actuality and illusion.
