At the Musée d’Orsay, the revenge of contemporary painters

An unusual event will take place at the Musée d’Orsay this Thursday, September 19: 80 French painters will exhibit their works among those of their illustrious colleagues in the museum galleries. Each artist will be present in front of their canvas to interact and answer questions from the public. Beyond the event aspect of this day, it is a manifesto, almost a claim that pushes these artists of all ages to come together to show everyone that contemporary painting is more than ever at the heart of contemporary art. Because the French scene is still too little known to the general public while it is dynamic, prolific, becoming more feminine, crossing generations and styles, with both a return of the figurative and a renewal of abstract forms. The painter Thomas Lévy-Lasne at the origin of this event is thus campaigning for this recognition:

“What’s funny is that at the moment, at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, 40% of students are painting and the school doesn’t have enough space or teachers to take care of them and tends to push them to stop painting to go do photography, installations… If there is an incredibly generous and quality scene in painting in France today, it needs to be relayed by the institutions and not the other way around. It’s a real political question. And here I’m trying to show that what’s happening in France in terms of the quality of the works and the quality of the words of these artists is really huge.”

Today’s news:

• The standoff between Egypt and Germany over the bust of Nefertiti continues. For several decades, the Egyptian government has been asking Germany to return this famous sculpture discovered during German archaeological excavations in 1912. An absolute rarity, it has been exhibited in Berlin ever since. Despite the failure of previous restitution attempts, the archaeologist and former Egyptian minister Zahi Hawass has just published a petition to once again request the repatriation of the bust.

• A delegation from Guyana arrived in Paris to request the return of Native American remains. In 1892, the French explorer François Laveau had brought 33 Native Americans to Europe in exchange for a promise of money that they would never receive. Exhibited in the Jardin d’Acclimatation in Paris, eight died of diseases without being able to return to America. The bodies of six of them have been in the reserves of the Musée de l’Homme for over 130 years, stored in a simple cardboard box.

• The Centre Pompidou has just received an exceptional donation from French gallery owner Emmanuel Perrotin and 17 artists they represent. The latter have just donated 23 works to the Parisian museum, which will therefore receive, among other things, a sculpture by Maurizio Cattelan, two works by Takashi Murakami and a triptych by French photographer JR.

• World-renowned Estonian composer Arvo Pärt has been awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, a prestigious award created in 1870 that recognizes an artist’s career. A renowned composer whose music is tinged with minimalism and religiosity and is often used in film and theater, Pärt joins a prestigious list of award winners that includes Richard Strauss, Pierre Boulez, and Benjamin Britten.