Dear Shaded Viewers,
Following Ten Thousand Years of Luxury, designed in partnership with the Louvre Abu Dhabi in 2019, the Museum of Decorative Arts presents Luxes from 23 April to 6 September 2020. The exhibition offers a journey through time and geography, combining moments of contemplation with more monumental scans, 100 works will be presented.
The chronological and thematic itinerary opens two emblematic places that are usually closed to visitors: the 1900 exhibition, the living memory of the Paris Universal Exhibition, an order of the museum to celebrate Art Nouveau and French decorative arts, and the salon des Boiseries, unveiling other masterpieces of the European decor, including an incredible Venini chandelier exhibited in Paris in 1925. The scenography was entrusted to Nathalie Crinière and her agency.
It is clear that the very word luxury is now part of the daily environment of our contemporary societies, for better or for worse, whether we venerate it and aspire to it, reject it or criticize it. By putting it back into a historical, cultural and artistic perspective, the Luxes exhibition aims to give both ancient and contemporary keys, in order to understand what makes luxury the most singular and symbolic embodiment of great civilizational achievements across millennia and continents. At a time when luxury houses seem to have so much to say about art, culture and museums, no doubt museums have something to say about luxury and its place in art.
Musée des Arts Décoratifs
107 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
