Paris Day 6 - Part 2

We were ready to go into the Georges Pompidou Centre. Georges Pompidou, the French president, dreamed of Paris having a "cultural centre that was both a museum and a creative centre, where the visual arts would rub shoulders with music, film, books and audio-visual studies." His premature death in office in 1974 meant he never saw his dream completed.

The huge tube you can see at the front of the building is what conveys people by elevator or steps to the various floors. It is an inside out sort of building and works really well. As you go up and down the various elevators there are open windows enabling you to see Paris from a very good vantage point. You can see the Eiffel Tower in the background in the above photo.

In this one you can see the Sacre Coeur.

As you entered the museum there was an exhibit which looked like a tapestried blanket. On closer inspection it was made up of recycled bottle tops etc.

A closer look at the exhibit.

There were hundreds of artworks on display - many works by Henri Matisse.  He was one of my favourites.

There were sculptures as well as works of art. I liked the reflection in the water.

I also liked the fact that there is a shadow as well as a reflection.

Rather than bore you with all the artists names I have selected my personal favourites.

I thought that it was brilliant that you could take photographs of any of the artworks as long as you didn't use flash photography. There was sufficient light in the building anyway and all the walls were white so there was no need at all for a flash.

I think that the main reason that you aren't allowed to use a camera in other museums is because they don't

want people loitering and wasting time taking photos. There was no problem here, the building was vast and everybody respected one another - no-one taking too long at any artwork or blocking anybody's view for an undue length of time. A museum which really seemed to understand people's needs.

There were some lovely works here.

The Other Half on the other hand wasn't too keen on most of the artwork!

The above artwork and the one below are the work of Henri Matisse.

The subject matter of each couldn't be more different.

We saw abstract works by Vassily Kandinsky and Sonia and Robert Delaunay.

The Other Half was in his element here - "A child could paint something like that!"

I know what he meant but he was being very over simplistic.

What I liked about the centre was that it was innovative. There were groups of children aged 8 - 12 years old sat in groups copying the artworks. They were clearly enjoying themselves and some were very good - I had a quick peek at their work every now and again! This led the Other Half to comment "See what I mean about children being able to do the artwork as good, if not better!"

I liked this one.

The above is by Christian Schad.

The work of Otto Dix. I'm not sure whether I like the above two but they stood out.

The Other Half said, "I wouldn't have them on my wall!"

I liked this one. I didn't ask the Other Half for his opinion!

Also on display were the front covers of Annabelle Magazine.

I photographed my favourites.

I think this one was the best.

Some more abstract works - this one is by Kandinsky.

Is she scratching her bottom!

There was so much to see here.

Our Daughter in what appeared to be a sort of large sculptured cave! The artist called it a Winter Garden in three dimensions! It is by Jean Dubuffet.

This is an artwork by Yacoov Agam and is the interior to private apartments of the Elysee Palace for President Georges Pompidou. The Other Half said "If you had a room like that you'd have a headache!"

Easily recognisable - Andy Warhol does Elizabeth Taylor.

We spent over five hours here and it was thoroughly enjoyable. The Other Half said he'd enjoyed it too despite his negative comments - he has a very dry sense of humour!

By the time we left it was gone 6.00 p.m. and time to go in search of a cafe / restaurant for some food.

Hope you haven't been too bored with all the artwork as I will be showing more when we went to the Musee d'Orsay - although you weren't supposed to take any photos there I managed to sneak a few shots when there was no-one looking - I wasn't the only one doing it!

I still have a few more photos from Day 6 and will do another quick post before moving on to Day 7!

Until next time,

June.