Art in France From Celtic & Roman periods to 19th century

To say that the French revere their time spent soaking up arts and culture is an understatement. Particularly in Paris — where an abundance of venues is concentrated within a few square miles — it is common to find that those who live in Paris devoting their weekends to exploring the wealth of Paris museums and cultural havens; many of the provincial areas are likewise blessed with impressive monuments to art and architecture.

Not surprisingly, one can attribute both the people’s pride in their heritage, as well as the sheer extent of France’s artistic wealth, to a long, colorful and often tumultuous history. Much of the French thirst for cultural enrichment and education dates back to the Crusades, when books, artistic influences, mathematics, and philosophical thought were carried back to the Gallic people from distant, advanced civilizations. Though relatively few artifacts remain from earlier eras, art in ancient Gaul may be traced back through the Merovingian period (beginning in the late fifth century), to the Roman Empire (starting in the first century B.C.), the ancient Celts (fifth century B.C.), and even to the Cro-Magnons of Paleolithic times (10,000 to 32,000 years ago).

THE 20TH CENTURY ART

Painting and Sculpture

In the early 20th century Paris was the center of the art world, but art in France – not French art – must be considered when describing the international influence of the Parisian avant-garde, because many expatriate artists worked in the city.

The course of 20th-century art was shaped from Paris by the Spaniard Pablo Picasso, the Russian Wassily Kandinsky, the Romanian Constantin Brancusi, and many lesser figures. The history of 20th-century expressionist art descends from van Gogh and other post-impressionists through the Fauve group that formed around Henri Matisse, one of the most influential French artists of the 20th century. Picasso and Georges Braque changed the direction of painting through their cubist experiments with the pictorial values of composition, color, and form. The last influential Parisian artistic movement was surrealism, a literary and artistic movement devoted to the exploration of irrational and subconscious states of mind.

Architecture

In architecture, France was at the forefront of the creation of a new 20th-century aesthetic. At the turn of the century, the experiments of Art Nouveau led to the creation of graceful decorative motifs based on natural forms. The Swiss-French architect Charles Edouard Jeanneret, called Le Corbusier, pioneered a philosophy of functionalism in architecture that can be summarized by this famous dictum: “Buildings are machines to live in.” The theory and practices of Le Corbusier, reinforced by those of the Bauhaus, in Germany, became the fundamental principles of the International Style, typified by Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye (1929-31; Poissy-sur-Seine).

Major achievements of French art since World War II include the paintings of Jean Dubuffet, and the Hungarian-born Victor Vasarely, the brilliantly colored paper cutouts of Matisse, and Le Corbusier’s Pilgrim Church of Notre Dame at Ronchamp (1950-55).

Philosophy

France has produced a large number of leading philosophers in the European humanist tradition. One of the first was Montaigne, in the 16th century, an inspired moralist who established the essay as an art form. Then came Descartes, the master of logic, and the philosopher Pascal.

The 18th century produced two great figures -Voltaire, the supreme liberal, and Rousseau, who preached the harmonizing influence of living close to nature. In the 20th century, an element of philosophy entered the French novel in the work of Sartre, de Beauvoir and Camus.

Sartre led the existentialist movement in Paris in the early 1940s with his novel Nausea and his treatise Being and Nothingness. Camus’ novel about alienation, The Outsider was equally influential. Barthes and Foucault were among the structuralists who followed. Their radical ideas dominated the Paris intellectual scene in the 1970s and 1980s.

Theatre

The Three classic playwrights of French literature, Racine, Molière and Corneille, lived in the 17th century. Molière’s comedies satirized the vanities and foibles of human nature. Corneilleand Racine wrote noble verse tragedies.

They were followed in the 18th century by Marivaux, writer of romantic comedies, and Beaumarchais whose Barber of Seville and Marriage of Figaro later became operas. Victor Hugo’s dramas were the most vigorous product of the 19th century. The exceptional dramatists of the 20th century range from Jean Anoulih, author of urbane philosophical comedies, to Jean Genet, ex-convict critic of the establishment.

In the 1960s, Eugene Ionesco from Romania and Samuel Beckett from Ireland were among the pioneers of a new genre, the “theatre of the absurd”. Since then, no major playwrights have emerged but experimental work flourishes in state-subsidized theatre companies.

Paris Culture Events – also in Art in Paris

The French government takes culture and art very seriously, pumping money into the arts, supporting French cinema against Hollywood imports, and embarking on grandiose grands projets, such as the new Bibliothèque Nationale de France, now hampered by an inefficient computer system. The Opera Bastille opened in Paris in 1989 on the bicentennial of Bastille Day, but the merit of its architecture and the quality of its productions have been questioned.

Major venues, in addition to those detailed below, include the Palais des Congres, place de la Porte-Maillot, 17th (tel: (01) 4068 2222), for opera, ballet, pop stars and the enormous Palais des Sports, Porte de Versailles, 15th (tel: (01) 4828 4048). For information about sports see Sport in France.

Tickets for concerts of all kinds can be purchased at FNAC Forum des Halles, 1-5 rue Pierre Lescot, 1st (tel: (01) 4041 4000), or FNAC Musique at 4 place de la Bastille, 12th (tel: (01) 4342 0404), and 24 boulevard des Italiens, 9th (tel: (01) 4801 0203), the Carrousel du Louvre directly beneath the Louvre, 1st, or at Virgin Megastore, 56-60 avenue des Champs-Élysees, 8th (tel: (01) 4953 5000). However long the queue, ticket touts at the Paris Opera and concert venues are to be avoided.

Music

The Paris Opera performs ballet and opera at the Opera Garnier, place de l’Opera, 9th (tel: (08) 3669 7868) and Opera Bastille, Paris, place de la Bastille, 12th (tel: (08) 3669 7868 (box office); tel: (01) 4343 9696 (information); tickets FFr30-590). Large opera productions are also performed at the Theatre Musical de Paris . The varied program at the Cite de la Musique at La Villette is strongest in contemporary music and home to the internationally renowned Ensemble Intercontemporain, but also features ancient music, jazz, chansons and world music. It has two important venues: the Conservatoire, 209 avenue Jean Jaures, 19th (tel: (01) 4040 4646), and the ealle des Concerts, 221 avenue Jean Jaures, 19th (tel: (01) 4484 4484). Big names in French contemporary and experimental music to listen out for are Pierre Boulez, Pascal Dusapin and Luc Ferrarie.

A series of orchestras, including the Orchestre Colonne, Orcheste Lamoureux and Orchestre de Paris are based at Salle Pleyel, 252 rue du Faubourg-St-Honore, 8th (tel: (01) 4561 5300). Other prestigious venues for classical music include the Salle Gaveau, 45 rue de la Boetie, 8th (tel: (01) 4953 0507); Theatre des Champs-Élysees, 15 avenue Montaigne, 8th (tel: (01) 4952 5050), and the Theatre Musical de Paris, 1 place du Chatelet, 1st (tel: (01) 4028 2840).

Theatre: The Comedie Fran?aise, 2 rue de Richelieu, 1st (tel: (01) 4458 1515), is the national theatre, renowned for its production of the classics. Theatre National de la Colline, 15 rue Malte-Brun, 20th (tel: (01) 4462 5252), plays contemporary French drama. New talent is sought out at fringe theatres such as Guichet-Montparnasse, 15 rue du Maine, 14th (tel: (01) 4327 8861). Peter Brook is based at the Bouffes du Nord, 37bis boulevard de la Chapelle, 10th (tel: (01) 4607 3450). The Odeon, Theatre de l’Europe, 1 place de l’Odeon, 6th (tel: (01) 4441 3636), hosts foreign-language productions.

Dance

The main ballet venue is at the Opera Garnier, place de l’Opera, 9th (tel: (08) 3669 7868). Major productions are also held at the prestigious Theatre de la Ville, 2 place du Chatelet, 4th (tel: (01) 4274 2277), where works by high-profile choreographers such as Karine Saporta, Maguy Marin and Pina Bausch, are frequently shown. The Theatre Musical de Paris, 1 place du Chatelet, 4th (tel: (01) 4028 2840) hosts ballet companies from abroad.

Film

The first public screening ever (‘Le train entrant en gare‘) was shown in Paris by the Lumiere brothers in 1895. Today, Paris remains an important cinema capital – in any given week, over 300 films are shown. The city’s largest (18-screen) cinema is UGC Cine Cite Bercy, 2 cour St-Emilion, 12th (tel: (08) 3668 6858), with a 16-screen UGC Cine Cite Les Halles at place de la Rotonde, Nouveau Forum des Halles, 1st (tel: (01) 3668 6858). Although the multi-screen UGC s and Gaumont s are on the increase (many based on the Champs-Élysees and in Montparnasse), Paris is still teeming with small art cinemas, clustered in the 5th and 6th Paris arrondissements. Among these are Le Champo, 51 rue des Ecoles, 5th (tel: (01) 4354 5160), near the Sorbonne and Racine Odeon, 6 rue de l’Ecole-de-Medicine, 6th (tel: (01) 4326 1968), known for its all-night showings. Some cinemas are worth seeing just for their decor – one such is kitsch Le Grand Rex, 1 boulevard Poisssonniare, 2nd.
Cultural Paris events: Paris offers plenty of choice and a wide variety of lively festivals. Among these are the free, city-wide Festival de la Musique (21 June), the Festival du Film de Paris (early April) and the biennial Festival d’Automne (Sep-Dec) contemporary dance event. Free concerts are held within the city’s churches, during the Festival d’Art Sacre in the weeks preceding Christmas. Listings are to be found in Pariscope and L’Officiel des Spectacles; classical concerts are listed in the monthly Le Monde de la Musique and Diapason.
To learn more, look through Paris Events and Festivals.
Literary Notes

The written word and words uttered during long cafe discussions on the Left Bank, have done much to create the mythical Paris which visitors still hunt out today. Victor Hugo’s historical novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) Notre Dame de Paris is set in fifteenth-century Paris, Les Miserables (1862) in the poverty-stricken Parisian underworld. Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, (1964) depicts the bohemian Paris of the inter-war years, while Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer (1934) and Tropic of Capricorn (1939) portray a sexy city. A more reflective image is portrayed in Anais Nin’s interlocking works. For Nin, Paris allows the development of her sexuality and, equally sinful, creativity. George Orwell describes the poverty of the 1920s in Down and Out in Paris and London (1933).
Traces of literary heroes and heroines and their fictional creations, are sought throughout the city: in the lingering smoke of the Cafe de Flore and Les Deux Magots, boulevard St-Germain, where the existential discussions between Jean-Paul Sartre, Camus and Simone de Beauvoir used to rage. Joyce used to drink at the recently renovated Le Bullier, Port Royal, on the fringes of Montparnasse. Hemingway dined at the Closerie des Lilas, still popular with the publishing world. Samuel Beckett’s favorite haunt was Le Select.
The place of pilgrimage par excellence is the P?re Lachaise cemetery, presumed resting place of medieval lovers Abelard and Helo?se. The great seventeenth-century playwright Moliere and fable-teller La Fontaine lie in good company with Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Champollion, Delacroix, Ingres, Gericault, Bizet, Balzac, Proust, Colette and Piaf. Jim Morrison was famously buried here in 1971. It is yet to be seen whether the ultra-Parisian work Au bonheur des Ogres (The Scapegoat) by Daniel Pennac will redefine the Parisian myth.