Voicing the artworks
Twice a month, an artwork from the Foundation is narrated in pictures. A curator reveals in a short video clip the pecularities of a painting, a sculpture, an artefact, or a group of works from one of the Foundation's five collections. A feast for the eyes and the ears.
Portrait de famille 7 by Ana Silva
In her works, the artist Ana Silva weaves strong and delicate links between the characters depicted. In her series of family portraits, the family and intergenerational attachment is particularly highlighted.
Predynastic black-topped vessel
Manufactured in the middle of the IVth millennium BC in Upper Egypt, this vessel has a surprisingly modern appearance, with a shiny red body and black rim.
Floater 29 (Lemon Slice) by Derrick Adams
In the form of an apparent rest – a young woman on an inflatable mattress shaped like a slice of lemon, relaxing in a swimming pool – , American artist Derrick Adams represents a political act of resistance.
Commesso box
Combining precious materials with a marked colour contrast, this small box depicts various birds and plants with an economy of means typical of the creations of the Galleria dei Lavori, ancestor to the current-day Opificio delle Pietre dure, founded in Florence in 1588 by Ferdinando I de’ Medici. These productions perpetuate and transpose, on small objects, the Roman technique of opus sectile, used for polychrome marble paving.
A Laconian fish bowl
Twice a month, an artwork from the Foundation is narrated in pictures. This week, Isabelle Tassignon, curator of the Classical Archaeology collection, presents an assortment of fishes on an archaic Greek vase.
Les Huns ou Surgissement d'une horde sauvage, différent d'une armée qui est organisée by Judit Reigl
As early as 1959, Judit Reigl explored a new process of creation with her Écritures en masse. Represented by this canvas dating from 1964, the series evokes the technique of automatic writing with large and powerful lines, where the paint is placed in clumps on the canvas. The forms are born from the automatism of the gesture and take shape in the material. Through this, the artist expresses the powerful energy that drives her, akin to the forces that govern the Universe.
Tahar et Nadia by Aïcha Filali
Between photomontage, embroidery, a marriage portrait and an original take on traditional wedding photography, Aïcha Filali produces an irreverent work that presents a bride and groom with all their stereotypical attributes without celebrating them altogether.
Who is afraid of the mourner ?
Twice a month, an artwork from the Foundation is narrated in pictures. This week, Isabelle Tassignon, curator of the Ethnology collection, presents an Apouema costume and mourning mask, from New Caledonia.
Froissage by André-Pierre Arnal
Produced in 1968, André-Pierre Arnal’s Froissage is part of the experimentation of the Supports/Surfaces group of which he was a member. Deconstructing the traditional painting was at the heart of their thinking and the artists of the group did not hesitate to fold, cut or crumple the canvas, often separated from the stretcher, in order to rethink the codes of painting.
Venus and Minerva
Sculpted in a finely polished and chiselled boxwood, these two female statuettes, with their complex poses and fluid folds of fabric, evoke the culture and tastes of Renaissance art lovers.
Funerary stela of the priestess Henut
This stela is of very fine quality and most likely comes from the vast necropolis of Saqqara, located to the south of modern-day Cairo. It was carved toward the end of the Old Kingdom, during the sixth dynasty, a time when famous kings Pepi and Teti ruled.
The Book Shelf 2 by Kirubel Melke Alemu
Using recycled and embroidered fabrics, artist Kirubel Melke Alemu creates works with a strong narrative potential that question the use of clothing, textiles and their connotations
Ritual scene depicting a volador
Looking for a thrill? Not suitable for people prone to vertigo! This object is a scale model displaying a ritual game which was very famous in pre-Columbian Mexico: the dance of the volador.
Le Guerrier, la Colombe et la Chouette [The Warrior, the Dove and the Owl] by Alfonso Ossorio
An American expressionist painter of Filipino origin, Alfonso Ossorio stands out from the other artists of the era through his completely new colourist and matterist dual dimension. Le Guerrier, la Colombe et la Chouette [The Warrior, the Dove and the Owl], painted in the mid-1950s, highlights his talent as an established painter by the chromatic energy that emanates from it.
The Great Whore of Babylon
A veritable technical tour de force typical of Limousin production during the Renaissance, this large polychrome enamel plate stages a highly symbolic biblical episode, loaded here with satirical connotations.
Panel from a Dionysian sarcophagus
What if death were not the end? Dionysus and his followers invite viewers to share in a joyous celebration in the afterlife...
Polders enneigés [Snow-covered polders] by Alfred Manessier
This major work by Alfred Manessier, who contributed to the revival of landscape painting in the 20th century, immerses us in a winter landscape by means of shapes and colours.
Passage 8 by Mohau Modisakeng
Featuring a woman embarked on a journey with an uncertain outcome, South African artist Mohau Modisakeng's work evokes, among other things, the sinking of the SS Mendi in 1917.
Mask of a spirit of the forest (kavat)
Have you ever seen the spirit of the mosquito? Here it is!
Ivory Pietà
Sculpted by a 15th-century Rhenish-Mosan ivory-maker, this Pietà invites us to explore the sensitivity of a pivotal era that placed increasing importance on human emotions and their representation.
Arbre by Martial Raysse
Produced at the turn of the 1960s, Martial Raysse's Arbre echoes the society of plenty specific to the period. The assembly of everyday objects brings the artist closer to the New Realists such as Arman, Daniel Spoerri and Gérard Deschamps, some of whose works are in our collection.
Book of the Dead papyrus
This papyrus was discovered by the renowned French archaeologist Gaston Maspéro in 1883-1884. It centres on the funerary belief of the Last Judgement, a concept « invented » by the ancient Egyptians.
