La Culture: Botticelli, Georgia O’Keeffe in Paris

Culture correspondent Sylvia Edwards Davis picks a selection of top exhibitions at Paris museums this season.

Botticelli as Boss

Early Renaissance painter Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, known as Sandro Botticelli, excelled in all aspects of Florentine art. From altarpieces, both in fresco and on panel, tondi (round paintings), panel pictures and small devotional triptychs, his hand created some of the most emblematic art of the Quattrocento. The Jacquemart-André Museum celebrates Botticelli’s creative genius with an exhibition of some 40 works, alongside some paintings by the contemporaries on whom Botticelli had a particular influence.

Botticelli alternated between unique works and mass production with the help of his assistants, a workshop practice that was typical of the Italian Renaissance. The exhibition shows the importance of this ‘laboratory of ideas’, presenting Botticelli not only in his role as artist but also as a skilful entrepreneur, manager and mentor. The event benefits from important loans from the Louvre Museum, the National Gallery in London, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Vatican museum and library, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

September 10 – January 24 www.musee-jacquemart-andre.com

Don’t Miss Georgia O’Keeffe

The Centre Pompidou presents Georgia O’Keeffe’s first retrospective in France. One of the main figures of 20th-century art in North America, O’Keeffe constantly reinvented herself through her life which spanned almost a century. The exhibition explores her creative adventures from the influence of Gallery 29, to modernism in the 20s, her search for identity in the 30s, and her emergence as a pioneer of ‘hard edge’ abstract painting from her base in New Mexico in the 60s.

Beyond the paintings of flowers tinged with eroticism that made her famous, the exhibition highlights the complexity of her work and its rich iconography. This exceptional gathering of works is possible with the support of international private and public institutions such as the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum of Santa Fe, MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of New York, to name a few.

September 8 – December 6 www.centrepompidou.fr

Also See:

The Morozov Collection
The Foundation Louis Vuitton presents masterpieces from the collection of the brothers Morozov, early 20th-century patrons who put together an exceptional grouping of modern art, with works by Matisse, Bonnard, Picasso and many others. September 22-February 22. Read the full review here.

Vivian Maier Retrospective
The Musée du Luxembourg features never before seen images by American photographer Vivian Maier, only discovered in 2007. A fascinating observation of the urban fabric of Chicago and New York in the 1950s. September 15-January 16

Greece at the Louvre
Marking the bicentenary of Greece’s independence, the exhibition Paris-Athens shines a light on the diplomatic and artistic ties with France in the 19th century, highlighting the impact of the rediscovery of Greek antiquity. September 30-February 7.

Thierry Mugler, Couturissime
A large-scale exhibition at MAD, designed by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, retraces the work of the man who revolutionised the world of fashion and fragrance. September 30- April 24

From France Today Magazine

Lead photo credit : La bella Simonetta, © CC-BY-SA-4.0 Städel Museum Frankfurt