"Chagall, Modigliani, Soutine & cie. The school of Paris (1900-1939)" al Museu de Ceret

After the exhibition dedicated to Jaume Plensa with which the modern art museum of Ceret reopened its doors once the remodeling commissioned to the architect Pierre-Louis Faloci was completed, this center, directed by Nathalie Gallissot, offers us the exhibition Chagall, Modigliani, Soutine & cie. The School of Paris (1900-1939 ).

Curated by Christian Briend, the exhibition invites viewers to delve into the universe of that group of foreign artists who, during the period 1915-1940, moved to Paris and from there shared the defense of the idea of art as a universal language. André Warnod named them "École de Paris" in 1925.

The new space, designed by Louis Faloci to host temporary exhibitions and which he wanted to imagine as "a clean extension, with an irregular, divisible and modular geometry, with immaculate white walls, illuminated with filtered zenithal light and sifted", acts as a perfect container for this sample.

Structured in six areas, the exhibition welcomes the viewer with a first section entitled From Fauvisme to Abstraction . The works of Sonia Delaunay, F. Kupka, A. de Souza-Cardoso, Kee Van Dongen make it clear how from the fascination for color that led them to cubism they soon drifted towards abstraction.

The second area is entitled Foreign Cubists . The selection of pieces by Spanish artists, such as Picasso, Joan Gris, Maria Blanchard; Russians, such as Serge Fert and Leopold Survage; the Polish Louis Marcoussis, and the Hungarian Alfred Reeth is an excellent choice and the piece Premonitory Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire by Giorgio de Chirico (1914) favors the indirect presence of this poet and theoretician of the Cubist movement.

Centered on the group of Russian and Belarusian authors such as Marc Chagall, Michel Kikoïne, Soutine, and the sculptors Joseph Csaky, Lipchitz and Zadkine, the Foyer de la Ruche area recognizes the importance of this former pavilion of the Universal Exhibition of the 1900, moved to the Vaugirard neighborhood and where these artists located their studio.

The area entitled Modigliani and the artists of Montparnasse collects a remarkable set of portraits of Amadeo Modigliani, accompanied by works by the Japanese Léonard Foujita and the Poles Kisling and Eugène Zak.

Paris seen by... is the title of a section dedicated entirely to photography. Images that represent a new interpretation of the urban landscape and contribute to spreading the myth of Paris. The photos of Brassaï, André Kertesz and Man Ray coexist with those of numerous women artists such as Rogi André, Ilse Bing, Marianne Breslauer, Florence Henri, Ergy Landau and Germaine Krull.

The last section, Parisian Portraits , is structured around a series of portraits made by Soutine, pieces that share space with the works of the Bulgarian Julius Pascin and the Czech George Kars with a style full of strong expressiveness.

An opportunity to see live a collection of masterpieces lent by the Pompidou Center and which make a visit to this exhibition highly recommended.

In the image: Chaïm Soutine. Le Groom , 1925. Photo: Center Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Philippe Migeat/Dist. NMR-GP © ADAGP, Paris