Classic and new art shows at Grand Palais, Paris

Grand Palais in Paris is currently hosting a few interesting shows, namely ‘Dynamo: A century of Light and Motion Art: 1913-2013); Chagall: Between War and peace; and From Cézanne to Matisse, From Van Gogh to Bonnard

A century of Light and Motion Art:

Notions of space, vision and light run through the abstract art of the 20th century and interest many world renowned contemporary artists such as Ann Veronica Janssens, Anish Kapoor, John Armleder, Carsten Höller, Philippe Decrauzat, Jeppe Hein, Felice Varini and Xavier Veilhan. By putting vibration along with the spectator’s perception in the centre of their works, they set up multiple resonances with optical and kinetic art, which first emerged at the Movement exhibition in Denise René’s Paris gallery in 1955, but also, more broadly, with what was later called "perceptual art" at the exhibition The Responsive Eye at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1965.

Chagall: Between War and peace

Chagall was nearly a hundred when he died in 1985. He had crossed most of the 20th century, living through one revolution, two wars and a period of exile, and rubbing shoulders with some of its most avant garde artists. His personal experience of History, the memory of people he knew, his travels and his homeland shine through in his work.

From Cézanne to Matisse and From Van Gogh to Bonnard

The exhibition Le Grand Atelier du Midi is a crucial part of Marseilles-Provence 2013, European Capital of Culture and undeniably one of the flagship events in the 2013 cultural program. Designed as a diptych–showing at the Palais Longchamp in Marseilles and the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence–it presents over 200 masterpieces painted between 1880 and 1950-1960. Starting from two tutelary figures of the modern movement, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cézanne, it seeks to show how the South of France, in a broad sense, going from the north of Spain to the Italian Riviera, with a few sallies into North Africa, was an extraordinary laboratory for experimenting with modern ideas in painting.