Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Jeu de Paume
Arts Centre
DirectorQuentin Bajac
Websitewww.jeudepaume.org

Jeu de Paume (English: Real Tennis Court) is an arts centre for modern and postmodern photography and media. It is located in the north corner (west side) of the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. In 2004, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Centre national de la photographie and Patrimoine Photographique merged to form the Association Jeu de Paume.[1]

History

The rectangular building was constructed in 1861 at the request of

Napoleon III. Napoleon III tasked Charles Delahaye to oversee the construction of the building and he commissioned Hector-Martin Lefuel as the architect. It was designed for jeu de paume, which nowadays is known as real tennis, court tennis or royal tennis, but it's exterior complemented the already-existing Orangerie
building. In 1877, Delahaye commissioned Virant to design a second court on the East side of the building. However, as tennis supplanted jeu de paume as a sport, the Jeu de Paume proved an inadequate space and was transformed into a gallery in 1909.

When the

Picasso and Léger.[3]

Nazi sorting house

Jeu de Paume was used from 1940 to 1944 to store Nazi plunder looted by the regime's Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce (ERR) in France (see Rose Valland). These works included masterpieces from the collections of French Jewish families like the Rothschilds, the David-Weills, the Bernheims,[4][5] and noted dealers including Paul Rosenberg who specialised in impressionist and post-impressionist works.[6]

Hermann Göring commanded that the loot would first be divided between Adolf Hitler and himself. For this reason, from the end of 1940 to the end of 1942 he traveled twenty times to Paris. At Jeu de Paume, art dealer Bruno Lohse staged 20 expositions of the newly looted art objects, especially for Göring, from which Göring selected at least 594 pieces for his own collection; the rest was destined for the Führermuseum in Linz.

So called degenerate art (modern art "unworthy" in the eyes of the Nazis) was legally banned from entering Germany, and so once designated was held in what was called the Martyr's Room at the Jeu de Paume. Much of Paul Rosenberg's professional dealership and personal collection were subsequently so designated by the Nazis. Following Joseph Goebbels's earlier private decree to sell these degenerate works for foreign currency to fund the building of the Führermuseum and the wider war effort, Goering personally appointed a series of ERR-approved dealers including Hildebrand Gurlitt to liquidate these assets and then pass the funds to swell his personal art collection. With much of the looted degenerate art sold onwards via Switzerland, Rosenberg's collection was scattered across Europe. Unsold art (including works by Picasso and Dalí) was destroyed on a bonfire in the grounds of the Jeu de Paume on the night of 27 July 1942, an act of almost unparalleled vandalism. However, the Nazis had burned nearly 4000 works of German "degenerate" art in Berlin in 1939.

Degas.[6][7]

Post-war museum

Between 1947 and 1986, it contained the Musée du Jeu de Paume, an offshoot of the Louvre[8] that held many important impressionist works now housed in the Musée d'Orsay. Widely considered as the "most famous museum of impressionist painting in the world",[9] the rooms bore names such as Salle Degas, Salle Cézanne or Salle Monet.[10]

From 1989, as part of the

Tuileries Gardens, Place de la Concorde, and Eiffel Tower.[4] The top floor features a series of galleries lit by skylights.[11]

Present

In 1991, the Jeu de Paume reopened as "France's first national gallery of contemporary art",

Helio Oiticica (1992), and Eva Hesse (1993). In 1999, the museum chose American architect Richard Meier as the subject of its first-ever architectural exhibition.[14]

In 2004, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Centre National de la Photographie and Patrimoine Photographique merged to form the Association de Préfiguration for the Etablissement Public (EPIC) Jeu de Paume.

Ed Ruscha (2006), Cindy Sherman (2006), Martin Parr (2009), William Kentridge (2010), Claude Cahun (2011), Lorna Simpson (2013), Valérie Jouve (2015) among others. In 2016, it received the anthological solo exhibition of contemporary photograph Helena Almeida
.

On 27 April 2005, a plaque honoring the work of Rose Valland to catalogue looted art during the Nazi occupation was placed on the south wall of the Jeu de Paume.

On 1 December 2018 the museum was torched in politically related mob violence as the Tuileries Gardens were stormed by protestors.[15]

Today, the Jeu de Paume is subsidised by the

French Ministry of Culture and Communication. Attendance increased from 200,000 visitors in 2006 to over 320,000 visitors in 2008.[16]

In popular culture

The museum's wartime history has been depicted, heavily fictionalized, several times on film. In

The Night of the Generals
, Peter O'Toole's character General Tanz visits the museum and is transfixed by a self-portrait of Vincent van Gogh, referenced as "Vincent In Flames".

In Sara Houghteling's novel Pictures at an Exhibition (2009), the character of Rose Clément is based on Rose Valland.

Architecture

The Jeu de Paume was designed by architect Melchior Viraut in the Second Empire style and has many classical architectural features, such as semi-fluted ionic columns and a decorative tympanum with Napoleon’s coat of arms. Unique to the Jeu De Paume is the letter “N” above the entrance of the building. Along the sides of the building are large arched windows to allow for light to enter the court areas.

The interior was completely renovated in 1989 by Antoine Stinco to make the space more ideal for exhibiting art. Stinco said his goal was to create a space that would not compete with the artwork, but that would allow at least a glimpse of the magnificent view of the gardens and beyond.

See also

References

  1. ^ paume (France), Musée du jeu de (1909). Exposition de cent portraits de femmes des écoles anglaise et française du XVIIIe siècle: ouverte du 23 avril au 1er juillet 1909 (in French). L'art et les artists.
  2. ^ Origines et développement de l'art international indépendant: Exposition organisée par le Musée du Jeu de Paume du 30 juillet au 31 octobre 1937 (in French). Le Musée. 1937.
  3. ^ a b c d Hector Feliciano (10 July 1991), New Flair for Two Old Museums Los Angeles Times.
  4. New York Times
    .
  5. ^ a b "The Lost Museum". bonjourparis.com. 25 January 2018. Archived from the original on 25 January 2018.
  6. ^ "The Jeu de Paume and the Looting of France". The Project for the Documentation of Wartime Losses. Cultural Property Research Foundation, Inc. 1998. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  7. ^ "Le Jeu de Paume en 10 dates". Jeu de Paume.
  8. ^ a b Eunice Lipton (4 January 2005), The youth of today The Guardian.
  9. ^
    New York Times
    .
  10. New York Times
    .
  11. ^ Suzanne Muchnich (17 November 1991), An American Foot in the Door Los Angeles Times.
  12. New York Times
    .
  13. New York Times
    .
  14. ^ McCahill, Elaine (1 December 2018). "Historic art gallery on fire in Paris as 'mob storm Tuileries Garden'". mirror.
  15. ^ About the Jeu de Paume Official Website.

External links

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