At the Petit Palais, street art makes a sensational entrance

This is the bomb! Signed D*FaceEnglish star of urban art, a giant aerosol can flanked by a pair of ears (the artist’s trademark) sits at the entrance to the permanent collections: “We Are Here” we read it in full. Translate (this is the title of the exhibition): “We are here! » Located just opposite the Grand Palais, where the fencing and judo events of the Paris 2024 Olympic Gamesbut also very close to the Urban Park also installed for the occasion at Place de la Concorde, the Petit Palais promises to be a spot a must-see in the capital this summer.

Immediately captivated, the visitor validates: Banksy, Obey (Shepard Fairey), Seth, Cleon Peterson, Vhils, Invader… These invaders of art did well to invite themselves. There are around sixty of them, from different countries and with various aestheticsto invest for the first time the Petit Palais with the complicity of the Roaming gallery : “History is written here and now,” enthuses Mehdi Ben Cheikh, director of this gallery on 13^e district of Paris, where numerous works of street art have emerged on the facades of buildings year after year. Within the Petit Palais collections, more than 200 pieces mingle with classical paintings and sculptures.

An exploration of urban art in the collections

In the gallery of large formats, we pass, dazzled, by The feminine divinity in gold (2024) by Hush, with its 24-carat gold details reminiscent of the touch of Gustav Klimt. The Chilean artist Inti wows us with his portrait of a woman inspired by Latin American muralism.

D*Face has spread pretty much everywhere, with his stuffed butterflies placed in hand-decorated Victorian display cases, or when he places his discreet winged sculptures among others. While Invader “aliases”, a replica of his “space invaders”, have left the world of galleries to travel above a setting sun by Claude Monet. As for Seth, he presents an installation of books with dreaming children – mind-blowing.

Marianne d’Obey, quite a symbol

Among the romantics (room 7), the time has come for revolutions and the triumph of the Republic, with the heroine Marianne in tears by the American Obey (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) imagined after the Bataclan attacks – quite a symbol in these troubled times… Just behind, eL Seed responds by writing “To arms et cetera » with the calligraphic lettering of which he is a master.

A breathtaking Salon of the refused today

The highlight of this free artistic walk lies in the extraordinary Concorde room which ends this stroll. The old canvases were removed to make way for 161 works by 60 artists hung at tête-touche as we did in the 19th century^e century.

It’s a remakeXXI style^e century, from the Salon des Refusés of 1863, where painters such as Édouard Manet defied the official conventions of the Palais de l’Industrie, installed in place of the Grand and Petit Palais. Today, the avant-garde has its revenge!