This exhibition, the result of a collaboration between the Musée d'Archéologie nationale (MAN), the Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (Inrap) and the Association pour la promotion des recherches sur l'âge du Bronze (APRAB) show how the evolution of metallurgy accompanied, both symbolically and culturally, the profound upheavals of Western European society. This period transformed the French territory into a crossroads of cultures.

Suited to all audiences, this exhibition will offer an experience of the Bronze Age through experiments, workshops, lectures and events in the museum and on the national estate.

Discover Bruno Decharme's exceptional collection, the fruit of 45 years of discoveries and encounters with art brut. More than 400 works reveal the creative power of art brut.

Produced on the margins of society, sometimes in secrecy, most works of art brut come to us only through the chance of a discovery or the action of someone close to the artist. For forty-five years, through encounters and providential finds, collector Bruno Decharme has worked to bring together these creations, born outside the recognized art world, but which today constitute an important part of art history.

Featuring over 400 works, Art Brut. In the intimacy of a collection. Donation Bruno Decharme at the Centre Pompidou explores the history of Art Brut. These works come from Bruno Decharme's donation to the Musée national d'art moderne at the Centre Pompidou.

Organized like a jigsaw puzzle, reflecting the kaleidoscope of themes and viewpoints brought together by research into art brut, the exhibition bears witness to the unsuspected creative wealth that the human mind can unleash when it is alienated from the norm.

A virtual reality experience inspired by the work of American art brut artist Henry Darger, with music by Philippe Cohen Solal, is available as part of the exhibition. Make sure you book in advance to take advantage of it (time-stamped ticket + "Insider/Outsider" immersive and musical experience).

Curator:
Bruno Decharme - Collector and director
Barbara Safarova - Teacher at the Ecole du Louvre and researcher

Associate curators:
Cristina Agostinelli - Curatorial assistant and program manager, Contemporary Collections Department, Musée national d'art moderne - Centre Pompidou
Céline Gazzoletti - Art historian
Valérie Loth - Curatorial assistant, Graphic Art Department, Musée national d'art moderne - Centre Pompidou
Diane Toubert - Archivist, Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Musée national d'art moderne - Centre Pompidou

Scenography:
Corinne MarchandLighting for part of the exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of lighting manufacturer Sammode.

This exhibition accompanies the restoration work underway in the Salon de Diane since October 2021, aimed at restoring the splendour of the painted and sculpted decoration on the ceiling, voussoirs and overdoors. This salon offers a setting designed to fully reveal the link between the artist's genius and the majesty of his bust of Louis XIV.

Organised in the flat of the Dauphine, this exhibition features one of the most emblematic masterpieces in the château's collections: the Bust of Louis XIV, sculpted in marble by Bernini during his stay in Paris in 1665.

The first room presents the main protagonists of Bernini's trip to France, which gave rise to what some art historians have described as 'the most grandiose Baroque portrait'. The second room focuses on Bernini's work and the reactions it provoked among French artists. This dialogue between Italian Baroque and French Classicism heralded an artistic rivalry that would last until the reign of Louis XV.

The Bust of Louis XIV, which has been on display in the Salon de Diane since 1684, will now be accessible up close, offering a unique opportunity to admire this masterpiece of 17th-century sculpture in detail. It will be exhibited at human height, in a setting that allows visitors to rediscover it in conditions similar to those in which it was first presented to the King in 1665.

Curator: Lionel Arsac, heritage curator at the Château de Versailles Scenography: Antoine Fontaine

A relatively little-known fact: Chinese art can be found at the Louvre. The Department of Decorative Arts holds more than 600 Chinese works, most of which come from the collections of Adolphe Thiers and Adèle de Rothschild and from the royal collections. Among them, some veritable treasures are to be found. A number of these were highlighted by recent research among the collection of Adolphe Thiers, who was a journalist, historian, and a major political figure in the 19th century (as deputy, minister, president of the council and, ultimately, president of the French Republic).

The exhibition aims to reveal these exceptional works to the general public, putting them in the historical, diplomatic and cultural context of their creation and their acquisition by Thiers for his collection. It explores Thiers's little-known passion for China. The exhibition will present over 170 works dating mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries: scrolls, album pages, engravings, prints, porcelains, jades, lacquers, and precious objets d'art in ivory, bronze, or wood inlaid with gems and mother-of-pearl.