Exhibitions on the agenda until summer

The exhibitions not to be missed during the year are, as usual, on the front page of all the art magazines in January. Like the good resolutions in so-called women's magazines (I have always wondered why press houses have a section called "women's magazines" to present magazines that do not fit into a box... And I have a few elements answer but that is not the point). L’Oeil magazine therefore announces in its January issue “the 40 exhibitions not to be missed in 2024”. I picked carefully to make my selection of their selection, only going up to this summer (inclusive). Here are “The 12 exhibitions where Valibri will display its Roulotte until the end of August 2024”. Handpicked, especially for you!

I just returned from “Lacan, the exhibition. When art meets psychoanalysis”, visible at the Center Pompidou-Metz until May 27. And I tell myself that it would be in my interest to go back several times if I want to hope to one day get to the bottom of the question! But don't panic: as I always tell my readers when inviting them to enter the museum doors, there is no exam upon exit. So there, same thing. I actually relaxed as soon as my brain told me that it was a bit difficult. I confidently told him (my brain) that I didn't need to understand everything to learn and have fun. No but.

It’s true that on the floor below, I had just enjoyed myself without any difficulty with “Bonne Chance”, the first solo exhibition in a French institution by the artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset, to be seen until the 1st april. So certainly, the contrast was a little striking, but no less interesting. I therefore advise you to have a little coffee on the ground floor between the two exhibitions... The fact remains that this Lacan, even if he gave me food for thought about the criminal association that he ultimately might have -being well constituted for Dora Maar with her dear friend Picasso, offers us here to see The Origin of the World by Gustave Courbet, the False Mirror by René Magritte, the Narcissus by Caravaggio, the Artist's Shit by Piero Manzoni, the Portrait by Infanta Marguerite Thérèse by Diego Velasquez, Mes Vœux, by Annette Messager, Dormeuse, invisible horse, lion, by Salvador Dali… and inevitably to think in abundance! Small detail that isn't one: I discovered on the way out that I had done the route in reverse... so maybe it's a little simpler right side up?

I will also try not to miss the 100 years of Surrealism celebrated in Belgian fashion. With “A History of Not Laughing.” Surrealism in Belgium", from February 21 to June 16, the Bozar, or Palace of Fine Arts in Brussels, honors the movement in the form of an artistic and political utopia, born in France, certainly, but to which Belgium provided some very fine specimens like René Magritte, Paul Delvaux, Jane Graverol or Paul Nougé, to name but a few.

In Pont-Aven, I will go with the same greed to feast on the pancakes of the Crêperie d'Armelle as I will on the consecration of Anna Boch (1848-1936) at the museum, with the exhibition “Anna Boch. An impressionist journey”, from February 3 to May 26. It was indeed time that justice was done to this Belgian pioneer, neo-impressionist painter but also avant-garde patron and reckless traveler, so unjustly forgotten in France! Whether it’s his work or his story: it’s fascinating! So after the exhibition devoted to it in 2023 by the Mu-ZEE in Ostend, let's enjoy it in French. And let's reserve two passages through Pont Aven in 2024: the museum will then offer, from June 22 to September 29, “Women among the Nabis, one thing leading to another”. My mouth is already watering...

At the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, from March 26 to July 14, there will inevitably be a rush on the Impressionist factory with “Paris 1874. Inventing Impressionism”. I'm not drawing you a picture: the works of art by Monet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot, Pissaro, Sisley, Cézanne... will obviously make it the flagship event of spring, and of course we will have the opportunity to talk about it again . Note, however, that the anniversary of the famous exhibition of 1874 bringing together in the studio of the photographer Nadar all the cream of those who would become the Impressionists will be celebrated almost everywhere in France, so keep your eyes peeled: it could well be that Prestigious works from the Musée d'Orsay are loaned to a museum near you!

As long as we are in Paris, I also recommend “Jean Hélion.” The prose of the world”, at the Museum of Modern Art from March 22 to August 18. A great opportunity to focus on something other than the very well-known abstract period of the painter who, from the 1920s until his death in 1987, ultimately never stopped evolving as he saw fit, until to devote himself to figurative art and writing. Personally, I really like this important figure of modern art.

I will spare you, regarding Paris but also all of France, the details of the countless exhibitions which this year will have sport in general and the Olympic Games in particular as their theme.

For my part, I will not resist the call of the fabulous royal monastery of Brou, which will propose to question, in collaboration with the contemporary art space H2M, in Bourg-en-Bresse, the fascination that the future has always exerted on artists. From March 30 to June 23, the exhibition “Predictions. Artists facing the future" will offer the opportunity to see works of art by Gustave Doré, Chagall, Rodin, Dürer, Foujita... And in any case, if you don't yet know this flamboyant Gothic monument which amazed me one day when I accidentally parked my caravan in Bourg-en-Bresse… go for it!

I will also soon tell you about “Color, glory and beauty”, a three-headed exhibition which, from May 4 to September 23, will roll out the red carpet for German art at the Unterlinden museum in Colmar, but also in Besançon and Dijon. . What's more, only splendid museums to visit one day! The initiative to map Germanic paintings kept in French collections comes from the National Institute of Art History, and we are delighted.

I definitely cannot close this very subjective selection without also drawing your attention to “Turner, the sublime heritage” at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco from July 6 to September 1, and to “James Abott McNeill Whistler. The butterfly effect” at the Rouen Museum of Fine Arts from May 24 to September 22. The American painter who inspired Proust's character Eltis in In Search of Lost Time could well inspire you too...

Article written by Valibri in Roulotte

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