A Museum with a View: The Pompidou Center with Yves Klein and Benetton

I love taking Friday afternoons off, and yesterday I went to The Pompidou Center to see the Yves Klein retrospective and an exhibit sponsored by Benetton.Going there brought back fond memories of visiting The Brooklyn Museum for a treasure hunt every Friday afternoon when I was 12, where I would win a prize if I uncovered all the clues in the hunt.

The Fabrica: Les Yeux Ouverts exhibit is a showcase of multi -media images from the communication lab Fabrica started by Luciano Benetton and Oliviero Toscani in 1994. The lab has an international team that hand picks photography, graphic design and cinema submissions from young artists and encourages their creative output. Although the images were striking and the show cleverly curated, I felt something was missing that I couldn’t put my finger on.

Benetton Exhibit
Slightly disappointed by the Fabrica show, I went to the fifth floor to see the soothing Yves Klein show. As I was taking in the stunning cobalt blue paintings and sculptures, I was wonderfully distracted by the view out the window of Paris wrapped around a band of dramatic black clouds. The colors, patterns, light, and textures of the city were as affecting as the art on the walls. As an insider, I think the Pompidou has the best panoramic views of Paris. Bringing myself back to the show, I saw an amusing video where Yves Klein, elegantly dressed in a tuxedo smoking a cigarette, is directing a naked woman slathered in paint to roll around on a blank canvas, so that her body impressions create a painting. My other favorite things in he exhibition were the gold leaf paintings and the beautiful series of fire drawings. Afterwards I went to Café Beauborg for a coffee and enjoyed another favorite view: the outside of the Pompidou Center, a marvelous industrial sculpture of glass, metal, and white fluorescent lights.

Do you have a favorite view of Paris you want to tell us about? Click on the comment icon below and please share.
 

Pompidou Center View

Comments

[michelle]

Sounds like you are having a great time! I just moved to paris this month, but still looking for work, meanwhile enjoying myself none the less! Your pics and info is great

[reslifedan]

I am enjoying your blog, after finding it through Rue Rude and your "swap." Your "favorite Paris view" (Pompidou Centre) is mine, too! I was lucky enough to take a tour of the musee with an archtecture professor who taught the two original Pompidou designers (Richard Rogers and Lorenzo Piano) at Cambridge. We had tea on the roof (in Georges) and he made me sit at a specifc table to take in what he called "the last view of medieval Paris." He then pointed out all of the amazing buildings, gardens, etc., to been seen from there! Thanks for rekindling such a wonderful memory!