In Paris, 5 free exhibitions in galleries where art stars shine

Unpublished works (in photos) by Bernard Veneta rich dialogue between the contemporary artist Adel Abdessemed and the master Giorgio Morandibut also Soulages before the beyond… What a program! There are particularly many Parisian galleries that are part of the excitement of this art week from Wed-October 2024.

The American James Turrell gives you two dazzling appointments in galleries, while big names in 20th century art^e century accompany with dignity the hundred years of the Larock-Granoff gallery. This is the opportunity to admire, without paying anything, the sure values ​​exhibited in the greatest museums in the world.

1. Monet, Gauguin, Chagall… The Larock-Granoff gallery celebrates its hundred years with big names from the 20th century^e century

Dean of art galleries, founded a hundred years ago by Katia Granoffthe Larock-Granoff gallery – installed at 13 quai de Conti since 1937 – tells its story in an exhibition bringing together around thirty big names in modern artas well as in a beautiful book. Born near Kherson, in what is now Ukraine, Katia Granoff studied in Switzerland before settling in France where she was a secretary at the Salon des Tuileries. Opening her gallery in 1924 with the support of her friends, Marc Chagall, Émile Othon Friesz and Foujita, she focused on those that no one wanted… Her finest remaining move Claude Monet and 50 “Water Lilies” the scope of which no one had realized in the 1950s! Looted during the Second World War, this art dealer with an unshakeable faith started from nothing, defending in particular the Russian exiles of the School of Parissuch as Chaïm Soutine or Chana Orloff, but also Amédée Ozenfant, co-founder of purism with Le Corbusier… She will end up opening a second Parisian gallery and two others, one in Honfleur and the other in Cannes. Such a life was worth a book! What Mare & Martin editions offer with a beautiful work (to be published in November 2024). A tribute initiated by great-grandnephews by Katia Granoff, who today take care of this centenary of art on the banks of the Seine by continuing to share their favorites.

2. Rare Soulages from the 1950s at the Pascal Lansberg gallery

It has been two years now since one of the French’s favorite artists died. Pierre Soulages, who died at the age of 102, returns to the Pascal Lansberg gallery which defended him for more than 30 years. For this posthumous tributethe gallery invites us to rediscover the artist by shining the spotlight on his historical works from the 1950sa period particularly popular with collectors and which precedes the well-known “outrenoir”, which began in 1979. Around ten emblematic paintings are brought together including an exceptional “walnut shell” where we sense the artist in search of opacity and light.

3. Spotlight on the dazzling James Turrell at Gagosian at Le Bourget

And there was light! If you want to be dazzled, treat yourself to a detour beyond the ring road in Gagosian Le Bourget spacewhich is the setting, from October 14 and until the summer of 2025, for the largest James Turrell exhibition in Europe for more than 25 years. Watch out for your eyes: more than 35 works are exhibited in « At One »including two new monumental installations, historic and new light wall works, holograms, models, photographs, prints; a rapture completed with plans and archives of Roden Craterhis extraordinary work of land art and sky observatory.

The American born in 1943 in Los Angeles has made light his medium since the 1960s: “We generally use light to illuminate objects. What interests me is the “materiality” of light. Light does not reveal so much as it is itself the revelation,” he asserts. In Paris intramuros, we can also enjoy this radiant experience with James Turrell avenue Matignon at Almine Rech who exhibits for the 12^e time the artist for three decades.

4. Adel Abdessemed dialogues with Giorgio Morandi in a new space at the Galleria Continua

Already with a beautiful address in the Marais and a site in the countryside a few kilometers from Paris, the Galleria Continua has just opened, at the beginning of October 2024, a new 70 m space² in the heart of the Matignon Saint-Honoré district. To inaugurate the place in style, the first hanging offers an unexpected and transhistorical dialogue between the explosive contemporary artist Adel Abdessemed (born in 1971) and Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964), who reinvented still life in the modern era. Two names that a priori everything opposite but who pursue a similar impulse towards radicality : rigor and purity of forms in Morandi, while Adel Abdessemed twists reality in large charcoal compositions. Still lifes ready to explode…

5. Bernar Venet revealed as a photographer at Bigaignon

We know him for his large sculptures in Corten steel – his “Lines” or his “Arcs” – exhibited around the world, and which sat majestically in 2011 in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles… Pioneer of conceptual artBernar Venet (born in 1941) has led since 1963 a rather unknown photographic work. Here it is currently highlighted by Bigaignon, which reveals the “Macadam Noir” series. We immerse ourselves in close-ups in a tarmac ground, a sort of photographic double of the black monochrome paintings and the emblematic “Tars” of Bernar Venet. All the prints from “Macadam Noir” are collected at Bigaignon, and will be visible both during Art Basel Paris and Paris Photo.