Born in or around 1431 in the small town of Isola di Carturo, near Padua, Andrea Mantegna is one of the greatest and most famous Italian Renaissance painters. French museums are home to a number of masterpieces by Mantegna, by far the largest grouping of his works outside Italy. The exhibition of some 190 works by Mantegna and contemporary artists, whose highlights also include loans from public and private collections worldwide, attempts to trace the major phases in Mantegna’s career as an artist, his influence on his contemporaries and the early dissemination of his works throughout Europe.


Andrea Mantegna, La Résurrection, 1457-1459. Bois. H. 71, 1 ; l. 94 cm. Tours, musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. 803-1-25
© Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours
Photo courtesy of Musée du Louvre

Renowned for his indomitable personality, Mantegna was an avid antiquarian who moved in sophisticated humanist circles, for whom he embodied the Renaissance ideal in northern Italy as early as the mid-15th century. Mantegna’s characteristically severe style, which applied a rigor and consistency never seen before his time, emerged from an enthusiastic admiration for classical antiquity, the artist’s vast ornamental vocabulary and his cherished ideal of virtue, the scrupulous reproduction of nature by way of an exacting—and often bold—use of perspective, but also found inspiration in Flemish painting and evinced a genuine fascination with sculpture.

The key phases of the show are:

I - Padua in Artistic Ferment (1440–1460)

II - Giovanni Bellini and Mantegna

III - On the San Zeno Altarpiece

IV - Mantegna in Mantua between 1460 and 1470

V - On the Aigueperse Saint Sebastian (1478–1490)

VI - Mantegna “invenit”

VII - The Madonna della Vittoria and the Painted Reliefs (1490s)

VIII - The Studiolo of Isabella d’Este (1491–1502)

IX - The Triumphs of Caesar (1486–1506)

X - Advent of the “Maniera Moderna”

Born in Los Angeles in 1957, David Seidner died from AIDS in 1999 at the age of 42. A collaborator with the fashion world's most prestigious magazines (Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, Italian Vogue, French Vogue and Harper's Bazaar), Seidner was responsible for Yves Saint Laurent's photographic campaigns over several seasons. In addition to the first fragmentary works influenced by his encounter with John Cage and the better known fashion photography, the show features classical nudes, artists' portraits and a sequence of orchids.

"Ah, there he is, the king of the indiscreet!" exclaimed Aristide Briand as he pointed to Erich Salomon in the salons of the Quai d'Orsay, where he had been caught by surprise. The words would become famous, especially since the French Foreign Minister spoke them just as Salomon had pressed his shutter release. It was August 1931, and for three years now the German photographer had been finding his way into conferences and other international meetings, bringing back surprising photographs of the most prominent political figures. Paradoxically, however, if there was one word that described Salomon's practice it was discretion.


Erich Salomon: Aristide Briand montre du doigt Erich Salomon et s’écrie : "Ah ! le voilà ! le roi des indiscrets !".
Paris, quai d’Orsay, août 1931.
Archives Erich Salomon / Berlinische Galerie
Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur,
© Bildarchiv Preußisher Kulturbesitz
Photo courtesy of Jeu de Paume

The king of the indiscreet

Born into a rich Berlin banking family, Erich Salomon studied zoology and architecture and went on to gain a doctorate in law. When the Salomons were ruined by the rampant inflation of the postwar years, he was forced to find work. In 1925, the advertising department at Ullstein Verlag took him on. He began working with photography, and developed special methods for discreetly taking photographs in the law courts. His career as a photojournalist took off in 1928, when his report on the much discussed Krantz trial appeared in the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung. Salomon specialized in covering major international conferences and political or social events. He took numerous portraits of figures from the worlds of politics, finance and industry, but also from the press, the sciences and the arts.


Erich Salomon: Réunion de stars du cinéma
À gauche de la console : Carmen Del Rio et Ernst Lubitsch
à droite : Maurice Chevalier, Yvonne Vallée [sa femme],
Paul Kohner [producteur], Vilma Banky et Carl Laemmle. Hollywood, 1930.
Archives Erich Salomon / Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, © Bildarchiv Preußisher Kulturbesitz
Photo courtesy of Jeu de Paume

Famous contemporaries in unguarded moments

Erich Salomon's group and individual portraits can be viewed as studies of different milieus, forming an inventory of the psychological and behavioural tendencies of people, captured unawares. In this sense, his approach belongs to the German tradition of encyclopaedic investigation. In 1931, Salomon published Famous Contemporaries in Unguarded Moments, by Engelhorn Verlag, Stuttgart, presenting himself as a hunter tracking down the true face of personalities, and detailing the exact circumstances in which the photographs were taken.

With this project, the Jeu de Paume is inaugurating a cycle of three exhibitions at the Hôtel de Sully on the subject of European photography between the wars. The series covers three main areas: German photojournalism, as represented by Erich Salomon, avant-garde photography in Paris from 1920 to 1940, in the Christian Bouqueret collection, and, finally, war photography, through the work of Agustí Centelles during the Spanish Civil War.

"Ah, there he is, the king of the indiscreet!" exclaimed Aristide Briand as he pointed to Erich Salomon in the salons of the Quai d'Orsay, where he had been caught by surprise. The words would become famous, especially since the French Foreign Minister spoke them just as Salomon had pressed his shutter release. It was August 1931, and for three years now the German photographer had been finding his way into conferences and other international meetings, bringing back surprising photographs of the most prominent political figures. Paradoxically, however, if there was one word that described Salomon's practice it was discretion.


Erich Salomon: Aristide Briand montre du doigt Erich Salomon et s’écrie : "Ah ! le voilà ! le roi des indiscrets !".
Paris, quai d’Orsay, août 1931.
Archives Erich Salomon / Berlinische Galerie
Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur,
© Bildarchiv Preußisher Kulturbesitz
Photo courtesy of Jeu de Paume

The king of the indiscreet

Born into a rich Berlin banking family, Erich Salomon studied zoology and architecture and went on to gain a doctorate in law. When the Salomons were ruined by the rampant inflation of the postwar years, he was forced to find work. In 1925, the advertising department at Ullstein Verlag took him on. He began working with photography, and developed special methods for discreetly taking photographs in the law courts. His career as a photojournalist took off in 1928, when his report on the much discussed Krantz trial appeared in the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung. Salomon specialized in covering major international conferences and political or social events. He took numerous portraits of figures from the worlds of politics, finance and industry, but also from the press, the sciences and the arts.


Erich Salomon: Réunion de stars du cinéma
À gauche de la console : Carmen Del Rio et Ernst Lubitsch
à droite : Maurice Chevalier, Yvonne Vallée [sa femme],
Paul Kohner [producteur], Vilma Banky et Carl Laemmle. Hollywood, 1930.
Archives Erich Salomon / Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, © Bildarchiv Preußisher Kulturbesitz
Photo courtesy of Jeu de Paume

Famous contemporaries in unguarded moments

Erich Salomon's group and individual portraits can be viewed as studies of different milieus, forming an inventory of the psychological and behavioural tendencies of people, captured unawares. In this sense, his approach belongs to the German tradition of encyclopaedic investigation. In 1931, Salomon published Famous Contemporaries in Unguarded Moments, by Engelhorn Verlag, Stuttgart, presenting himself as a hunter tracking down the true face of personalities, and detailing the exact circumstances in which the photographs were taken.

With this project, the Jeu de Paume is inaugurating a cycle of three exhibitions at the Hôtel de Sully on the subject of European photography between the wars. The series covers three main areas: German photojournalism, as represented by Erich Salomon, avant-garde photography in Paris from 1920 to 1940, in the Christian Bouqueret collection, and, finally, war photography, through the work of Agustí Centelles during the Spanish Civil War.

The first major French retrospective of the work of Jacques Villeglé, 82, an artist who since 1949 used one single material, the torn poster. Bringing together some one hundred works dating from the 1940s to the present, the exhibition adopts a thematic approach to the artist’s work, from the typographical explosions and colored abstract compositions of his early work to the recent rhythmical juxtapositions derived from concert posters.

Villeglé is not a creator of readymades, even if he does nothing (except lend the occasional “helping hand”) to the posters he finds in the streets and then mounts on canvas. He sees himself rather as a flâneur, and his work is to reveal among the urban chaos the beauties hidden in the layered paper torn and sometimes written on or otherwise marked by anonymous hands.

Each autumn, Le Petit Palais hosts within its permanent collection, works by contempory artists (painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and video-artists) in order to advance its philosophy. The art of photography, considered until recently a lesser art, has finally been recognized as a fine art. This season, Le Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris, presents a comprehensive selection of 400 photographs by the French fashion and celebrity photographer Patrick Demarchelier (b. 1943).

Robert de Niro, Tom Cruise, Paul Newman, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Elton John, Lenny Kravitz, Gianni Versace,  Naomi Campbell, Warren Beatty, Madonna, Quincy Jones, Oprah Winfrey, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Marc Jacobs, Janet Jackson, Karl Lagerfeld, Ralph Lauren, Laura Bush, Président Bill Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Susan Sarandon, Linda Evangelista, Ronald Reagan, Diana Princess of Wales are among those who have posed for Demarchelier.

Based in New York since 1975 and the official photographer of the Condé Nast group, Demarchelier has shot advertising campaigns for Louis Vuitton, Céline, Tag Heuer, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Lacoste Lancôme, Guerlain, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Versace, Giorgio Armani, Gianfranco Ferre, Anne Klein, Valentino, Prada, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Salvatore Ferragamo, Donna Karan, and Michael Kors.

Grupo Corpo,  Brazil’s foremost contemporary dance troupe ensemble, combines the technique of classical ballet with modern and African dance. The 21-member company, founded by Paulo Pederneiras in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1975, has received widespread acclaim for its vibrant dances in which choreography, lighting, sets, and costumes interplay. Brothers Paulo and Rodrigo Pederneiras (artistic director and choreographer, respectively), Fernando Velloso (set designer), Freusa Zechmeister (costume designer) strive to produce work that is unmistakebly Brazilian.

Choreography such as Benguelê (1998) draws heavily on Brazil’s African roots. Set to a commissioned score by João Bosco, Pederneiras blends Capoeira, Brazilian folklore, and the dances of the Congado—a religious ritual developed by African slaves in Brazil.

Another work, Breu, which recently received its New York premiere, features a dark score by multiple Latin Grammy-winner Lenine. The dance work showcases some of Pederneiras’ most aggressive and confrontational choreography to date with sudden falls and low earth-bound crouches and repetitions. Set within a stark, colorless environment, Pederneiras evokes extreme isolation, deathly inertia, and devastation.