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The Bourse de commerce is so close to the Center Pompidou that, from its large windows, you can see the big blue pipes of the “refinery” of Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. From the sixth floor of Beaubourg, which offers a breathtaking view of Paris, the dome which now houses the Pinault collection also seems within reach. The two museums, one private, the other public, could have looked at each other from a distance. They have instead chosen to unite to show the 69-year-old American artist Charles Ray, in a diptych exhibition which begins on February 16.
An unprecedented operation in more ways than one. Never in the past had a public institution and a private museum pushed collaboration to such an extent. Never before had France paid so much attention to this falsely figurative sculptor who plays with questions of scale and mass. To the point that Charles Ray does not appear in any French public collection. So why the sudden interest? “To make up for the fact of not having shown it”, answers Jean-Pierre Criqui, curator at the Center Pompidou.
The colossal weight of works
The two institutions claim to have each worked on the subject since 2014. Before realizing that they were programming the same artist at the same time. Playing the referees, Charles Ray would have asked them in person to tune their violins in a two-part operation. “We weren’t going to tell Charles Ray, it’s here and not elsewhere”, explains Jean-Pierre Criqui. “The dialogue was fluid, no one fought over who was showing what,” adds Caroline Bourgeois, commissioner at the Bourse de commerce.
“One would have thought that a public institution would be keen to show the uniqueness of its programming compared to an important private place, rather than agreeing with it. » Stéphane Corréard, art dealer
However, the two museums do not start on an equal footing. Beaubourg has no work by the artist, when François Pinault owns 22, 4 of which will be exhibited on the Bourse de commerce. But, to please his neighbor, the billionaire lent Family Romance, a 1993 sculpture representing the four members of a family at the same scale, as well as a photo. A common practice for François Pinault, a major Beaubourg lender.
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