Portraits. Masterpieces. Centre Pompidou

The exhibition Portraits. Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou brought together eighty masterpieces from, among others, Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon, Henri Matisse, Robert Delaunay, Antonio Saura, Jean Dubuffet, Joan Miró and Amedeo Modigliani, in order to delve into the importance of portraiture throughout the 20^th and 21^st century.

The exhibition

The exhibition Portraits. Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou sought to exhibit masterpieces from some of the major artists in the collections of the Musée National d’Art Moderne-Centre Pompidou (MNAM-CP) in Paris in order to consider how the portrait genre formed part of the different artistic movements of the 20^th and 21^st century. The chronological period covered begins with Suzanne Valadon’s portrait of Erik Satie from 1892-1893 and ends with The Moroccan, by John Currin, in 2001.

Portraiture constitutes one of the cross-sectional lines of art history, where tradition and new formal contributions converge following the onset of modernity towards the end of the 19^th century. As well as highlighting some of the quintessential icons of contemporary art, this genre has been receptive to the formal discoveries of the historic avant-garde movements and has served as a method of reflecting on the human condition and one’s view of the other, as well as a way of exploring the essence of the artist himself.

The exhibition, curated by Jean-Michel Bouhours, curator of MNAM-CP, brought together outstandings works from Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon, Henri Matisse, Robert Delaunay, Antonio Saura, Jean Dubuffet, Joan Miró and Amedeo Modigliani, as well as a curated collection of sculptures and oil paintings and was organized into five sections: The mysteries of the soul, Self-portraits, Looking to formalism, Chaos and disorder or the impossible permanence of being and After photography.

Press Kit (256 KB)