Becca Humphrey explores the artwork displayed in the Centre Pompidou during her visit to Paris.
The Centre Georges Pompidou, named after the former Prime Minister of France, houses some of the most controversial artwork in Paris. At this point in my stay I had just visited the Louvre and was longing to see artwork that was more contemporary, colourful and daring.
The exterior of the building is a work of art in itself; it was designed by architects Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers and Gianfranco Franchini and is a complex structure which was designed to look ‘inside out’. The building looks like it is mid-construction because of its skeletal appearance and the huge ventilation pipes. The centre is modern and characterless next to the typical neoclassical style houses which line the square. However, the design shows that even the necessary features of the building are as intricate as the art inside. The centre contains within it the influential voices of the 20th century who embraced modern architecture and never looked back.
Image courtesy of Becca Humphrey
Eileen Gray’s temporary exhibition dominates the front of the building and, because of its insistence, it was this I first went to see. Admittedly, I did not manage to see all of her work but what I did left me feeling nothing short of a philistine. Walking into rooms that are filled with uncomfortable looking furniture leaves you quietly wondering what it is you’ve missed. I took the English student approach and racked my brain for meaning but my only thought was that you could probably find something pretty similar in IKEA. But with respect, Eileen Gray was a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture who succeeded in an artistic world which is, even now, largely dominated by men.
Jesus Rafael Soto’s current exhibition demonstrates a body of work which responds to abstract art and its founders, such as Piet Mondrian. Soto uses straight lines and angles but rarely curved lines, showing his insistence on mathematic precision. I imagine his late work has been influenced by the modern creative scene and technology in particular. Soto’s exhibition is like walking through Radiohead’s OK Computer, where every piece is as experimental as each song’s lyrics and sound. A painting like ‘Spiral’ is more than a series of circular shapes; it captures notions of isolation and madness. Moreover, Soto’s pieces can be described as geometrically perfect, by managing to achieve a series of optical illusions as you walk by.
Image courtesy of Becca Humphrey
Another memorable exhibition belonged to Pierre Soulages; the French painter, engraver and sculptor who is hailed as one of the most influential artists of post-war abstraction. Soulages is also known as “the painter of black” as, unlike most artists, he uses it as the base for most of his pieces, a concept called “ultra black” or “outrenoir”. He says “when light is reflected on black, it transforms and transmutes it. It opens up a mental field all of its own”. Most of his works have no titles and so, are hard to identify but there was one piece in particular which was completely black, flat and lacking in texture. It represented a number of things to me, space, the absence of time and whether “nothing” can ever really exist. It felt like looking into a small black hole in the centre of the white museum space. Maybe that was Soulages’s point; you realise that such a simplistic expression can often say more than an over complicated piece by offering space to reflect.
There are selections by more familiar artists covering a period from 1905 to date; Picasso, Dali, Matisse, Modigliani and Hopper, including my personal favourite Nighthawks. The center is located close to Hôtel de Ville station on Metro lines 1 and 11. It is definitely worth visiting if you find yourself in Paris with a free afternoon; you won’t be able to cover everything even, as the center has so much to offer. For book lovers there is an impressive library collection of over 450,000 books, a movie theatre and of course, its remarkable panoramic view across the whole city.
Becca Humphrey
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