Fondation Louis Vuitton And MoMA Present A Historic Manifesto-Exhibition

With inputs by Jon Pagels

From landmark paintings to mechanical works, the exhibition goes beyond the definition of contemporary

New York and Paris come together to pay homage to what makes modern art modern. At the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris’ Bois de Boulogne, a magical exhibit comes alive through four levels of a Frank Gehry-designed building in Paris, a multidisciplinary selection of 200 works from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and six of the museum’s curatorial departments. Tracing the museum’s major historical stages through trends that have emerged in the digital age, the exhibit also displays an inventive selection of artworks that challenge the established concepts of politics, society and, of course, art.

From landmark paintings to mechanical works, the exhibition goes beyond the definition of contemporary. It follows post-war as well as the avant-garde movements of the inter-war period, visual pop culture of 1960s’ America, new forms of artistic expression that appeared in the turbulent political context of the 1970s’ protest movements in Europe and America, and contemporary digital imagery combined with painting, performance and video.

In addition to remarkable creations like the 176 emojis by Shigetaka Kurita and the interactive performance work by Roman Ondak where the artist measures the height of visitors and alongside writes their names and the dates of their visit, the pièce de résistance of this show is undoubtedly Janet Cardiff’s The Forty-Part Motet, an installation wherein each audio speaker represents one of the 40 voices for which the original 16th-century composition of Renaissance musician Thomas Tallis’ motet was written.

Bernard Arnault, President of Fondation Louis Vuitton explains, ‘I wanted Being Modern: MoMA in Paris to fall within the tradition of our previous major exhibitions such as Keys to a Passion which took place in 2015, and Icons of Modern Art, from The Shchukin Collection in 2016. All three have been organised in close collaboration with some of the world’s most prestigious international modern art museums. This exhibition marks, once again, our desire to provide the widest possible audience with the opportunity to engage with some of the world’s most remarkable works of art.’

The reach of the exhibition goes beyond the groundbreaking artworks. It also likes in the physical journey through the mind of Ghery that climatically finishes on the open-air rooftop composed of organic stairways and a garden overlooking the historical Parisian landscape and the modern district of La Défense – and it is sure to leave a lasting impact.

Being Modern: MoMA in Paris is on display until March 5, 2018 at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.