LES CHOSES ,
UNE HISTOIRE DE LA NATURE MORTE
au Louvre Paris
EN VILLE - In TOWN
Although Christo is missing, "Les Choses" presented at the Louvre this winter, is an exciting exhibition!
by Philippe Renaud*
Things, "which say a lot when they say something else (Michaux)" hold their revenge until January 23, 2023 in a basement crowded with visitors delighted to discover nature in its simplicity these everyday or transformed and industrial objects that encourage meditation and, more or less loaded with symbolism over time esoteric, moral or Freudian to express wealth, power, restrained and outrageous consumption the overflow of garbage cans when it is not the slow disaster of decay and the destruction of things. The vanity of beings before the fascinating mystery of eternity which is present as the favorite cousin of the theme of inner lives.
With brilliance and culture, this exhibition recounts the passing of time on things, nature and men and asks with a somewhat fabricated modernity the question of the poet of yesteryear: Do inanimate things have a soul? …..
The theme of these still lifes, silent lives, "Natures Mortes" has been so fruitful in the history of art that it is easy to get lost in the opulence of the subject, and the forest of symbols that are hidden there and in the charms that these things offer to our personal memories.
The art of the curators was to play on the echoes between the periods which inspired these works of which they are notorious scholars, to stuff their words with provocations found in the all-round inspiration (cinema, video, installation, etc.) of 20th century artists through the movements that shaped art at that time. We remain unsatisfied (during my visit, the heap of sweets in Gonzales Torres' installation had melted like greedy snow in the sun...) because the uncurious choices concerning art in the making are almost an admission of incomprehension by the continuity of the theme.
Zabriskie Point d'Antonioni's quote ends besides by serving stupidly, like a , lively and hectic wallpaper mural in the overly large Salle des Pas Perdus at the end of the hanging when it should have asserted itself as a strong questioning “because things and being have a great dialogue (Victor Hugo)” which is still alive.
Small nuance, The Louvre in Paris remains The Louvre even when it pretends to be in on it. The prestige of the place has certainly facilitated the quality of the loans of the works presented, we are pleased about this, but we regret that an even more informed and disturbing breath on the contemporary part did not come to disturb this brilliant pileup….
* Philippe Renaud est directeur-artiste, scénographe, auteur. Il a crée la Galerie Travers avec William Wheeler et "Lieux " maison d'édition de mobilier dans les années 90 avec Patrice Gruffaz.
CREDITS PHOTOS ©estheteplace
1- Att à Hieronymus Francken II Les richesses de l'Avare et sa mort, vers 1600
2- Vue de l'exposition
3- Édouard Manet, asperges
4- Anne Vallayer-Coster Panaches de mer, 1769
5- Frans Snyders, Nature morte aux légumes, vers 1610
6- Louise Moillon Coupe de cerises, prunes, melon, vers 1933
7- Daniel SPOERRI, le repas Hongrois, tableau piège, 1963
8- Adriaen Coorte, six coquillages sur une tables de pierre, 1696
9- François Desportes, Nature morte de gibier prêt à mettre en broche, 1716
10- Erró, paysage de nourritures, 1964
11- Christian Boltanski Les habits de François C, 1971-1972
12- François Desportes, Nature morte de gibier prêt à mettre en broche, 1716
13 - Jake et Dinos Chapman Crâne en bronze (jaune et rongé par les vers), 2004
14 - Sébastien Bonnecroy Vanité, vers 1650
15- Gerhard Richter, Crâne, 1983
16- Marcel Duchamp
17- Jean Siméon Chardin
18- Pompeï, mosaique
19- Andres Serrano
20- Francisco de Goya, Nature morte à la tête de mouton, 1808-1812
21- Le Monogrammiste JVR, vers 1630
22- JoelPeter Witkin, Harvest 1983
23- « L’Automne » (1573) par Giuseppe Arcimboldo
24 - Att à Juan de Arellano Guirlande de fleurs, oiseaux et papillon, vers 1650-1670
25- Andreï Tartkovshi Stalker, 1979
26- « Étude de bras et de jambes coupés » (1818-1819) par Théodore Géricault
27- Rembrandt, "Le Bœuf écorché", 1655, Paris, musée du Louvre, département des Peintures © RMN - Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre) / Tony Querrec
28- Ron Mueck, Still Life, 2009
29- Barthélémy Toguo Le ilier des migrants disparus, 2022