Ferdinand Hodler until February 3rd, 2008 at Musée d'Orsay

Ferdinand Hodler was considered during his lifetime as a leading artist in the Modernist movement. Born in Berne in 1853, he lived in Geneva until his death in 1918, but this was a European career marked by both success and scandal. He was a member of the great Secessions and saw his work acclaimed in Vienna, Berlin and Munich. His triumph in Paris came in 1891 when his seminal painting Night (Berne, Kunstmuseum), was banned by the city of Geneva for reasons of obscenity. But at the same time, he was receiving major public commissions from Zürich, Geneva, Iena and Frankfurt. These produced many opportunities for the artist to indulge his taste for simplified, monumental or decorative paintings. Holdler is also an uncompromising portrait painter and unequalled landscape painter.


At the end of the nineteenth century Hodler was one of the leading Symbolist painters. His creative force, his taste for decoration and his simplified painting are reminiscent of Rodin and Puvis de Chavannes, the undisputed masters with whom he is often compared. However, Hodler remains relatively unknown in France, whereas in Switzerland he is considered their great painter, and in Germany and Austria he is regarded as one of the founders of modern art.
This exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay offers a real opportunity to rediscover Hodler, with eighty paintings, many on show in France for the first time, and about thirty paintings and photographs.


Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918)
13 November 2007 - 3 February 2008

Musée d'Orsay
www.musee-orsay.fr
62, rue de Lille
75343 Paris Cedex 07

Information +33 (0)1 40 49 48 14

Musée d'Orsay entrance: 1, rue de la Légion d'Honneur, 75007 Paris.

9.30am to 6pm
9.30am to 9.45pm on Thursdays
Closed on mondays

Full rate: € 7.50
Concessions: € 5.50 €
Under 18s and members: free

Christian Lacroix, fashion stories Until April 20, 2008 at the Musée de la Mode et du Textile

For over a year, Christian Lacroix has been immersed in the collections of costumes and accessories from the museum. The result is an atypical exhibition in which the designer delivers his vison of fashion, subjective and creative ...

The Musée de la Mode et du Textile prompt fashion designer Christian Lacroix to become the curator and fashion historian he never was, when as student of art history at the Ecole du Louvre he decided to commit himself in a creative work now globally recognized and appreciated. For over a year, Christian Lacroix has been immersed in the collections of costumes and accessories from the museum. The result is an atypical exhibition in which the designer delivers his vison of fashion, subjective and creative... The models he selected from a century rich heritage will meet for a few months haute-couture creations of one of the greatest names in French fashion.


The exhibition is a unique adventure, a story of fashion from the eighteenth century to the present day freely and subjectively told by Christian Lacroix himself.
More than 400 clothes, carefully chosen according to themes or techniques the fashion designer loves and that have marked the history of fashion, are set against his own creations, creating a game of echoes and crossing between the present and the past.

Christian Lacroix, fashion stories
Until April 20, 2008

Musée de la Mode et du Textile
http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/
109-111, Rue de Rivoli
75001 Paris Plan d'accès
Tel : 01 44 55 57 50

Hours and dates :
from 08/11/07 to 06/04/08 from 10am to 06pm : Sunday, Saturday
from 08/11/07 to 06/04/08 from 11am to 06pm : Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday
from 08/11/07 to 06/04/08 from 11am to 09pm : Thursday

Entrance fee:
Full rate: 8.00 €
Reduced rate : 6.50 €

ANIMAL at the Dapper museum until march 30th, 2008

In Africa, animals take the lead role in the myths, legends, tales, proverbs and riddles that are perpetuated and kept alive by the spoken arts. They are often depicted in the plastic arts, especially sculpture, but these visible representations are subtended by a complex and powerful symbolism. This can be seen at work in initiation ceremonies, propitiatory rituals, medical practices and acts of divination and witchcraft.

Sometimes combined with human features, the animal form provides a means of representing spirits that are theoretically invisible. Sculpture “gives flesh” to the presence that is being invoked. Depending on the highly diverse cultural and aesthetic canons to which we owe the exceptional wealth of African arts, this figuration may either be clearly naturalistic or more allusive, if not metaphorical. Composite, hybrid forms are frequent, sometimes stylised to the point of abstraction. No supernatural metamorphosis can be operated, however, unless complex rituals are performed, in which the sacrifice of a real animal plays a vital role.

In some societies, the members of a clan, who are all descended from a common ancestor, are forbidden to eat the meat of the animal whose name they bear and which is mentioned in their motto. This special relationship, cursorily dismissed as “totemic”, derives from the primordial role attributed to an emblematic animal – the role of apical ancestor of the lineage in mythical times and its subsequent perpetuator and protector. A fragment of this animal’s body, such as the tail, skin, claws, fangs or feathers, may be worn as an amulet or part of a costume, providing a tangible symbol of this link.

Drawing from the collections of major European museums and private citizens, as well as from its own holdings, the Musée Dapper has brought together some one hundred and forty works, including masks, statuettes, insignia and jewellery, in order to show how animals permeate the arts of sub-Saharan Africa in different forms, codes, symbols and metaphors.

Monkey
A wild animal pest, the monkey is regarded as a brush spirit and belongs to the pantheon of the Baule people of Côte d’Ivoire.

Anthropomorphic representations show it in the posture of receiving offerings. It puts in a more discreet appearance in the Kuyu culture (Congo) where, like other animals, it can be seen atop polychrome sculptures.

Crocodile
Lord of the aquatic world, the crocodile is particularly venerated by the Akan in the lagoon region of Côte d’Ivoire. Their famous goldsmiths often depict it in their gold filigree jewellery.


ANIMAL
From October 11th 2007 to march 30th 2008

Musée Dapper
www.dapper.com.fr
35 bis, rue Paul Valéry
75116 Paris

Tel. : 01 45 00 91 75
E-mail : dapper@dapper.com.fr

Open from 11am to 7pm
Closed on Tuesdays
Admission : 6 €
Metro
Line 2 - Victor Hugo metro station
Line 6 - Charles de Gaulle - Étoile or Kléber metro station
Line 1 - Argentine metro station

RER
Line A - Charles de Gaulle-Étoile station

Bus
Line 52 - Paul Valéry bus stop
Line 82 - Victor Hugo bus stop

Car parks
Avenue Foch : entrance at 8 avenue Foch
Place Victor Hugo : entrance at 80 avenue Victor Hugo