This controversial modern art centre, which recently celebrated its 20th
birthday, houses under one roof all forms of contemporary art. With 25,000
visitors a day, the Centre Georges Pompidou is now one of Paris's top sights.
Yet at the time it was built, close to the historic Marais which is famous
for its elegant architecture, the 'refinery', as Rogers' and Piano's post-modern
building was nicknamed, deeply shocked French people. In fact, the revolutionary
concept of this open-plan 'house of culture for all' ensured its success
and brought life back to the district The centre has had its first major
face-lift and been completely refurbished inside: its main asset, the Musee
National d'Art Moderne, reached by the external escalator, gained extra
exhibition space in the process. The museum is dedicated to the main trends
of 20th-century art from 1905 to the present day. Modern art is displayed
on level 5. Particularly well represented are Fauvism (Duly, Derain, Matisse),
Cubism (Braque, Picasso, Leger), Dadaism, Surrealism (Dali, Miro), Expressionism
(Soutine, Kirchner, Modigliani and to a lesser extent Chagall), various
forms of abstract art (Kandinsky, Klee, but also Poliakoff, Dubuffet and
the Cobra movement), and pre-1960 American painting. The collections of
contem-porary art (level 4) include exponents of the new realism (Arman,
Cesar), of Pop Art (Warhol), of Minimalist art (Sol Lewitt, Buren) and
of monochromes (Manzoni, Klein).
The centre also houses a library, the Institute for Acoustic and Musical
Research, the Centre for Industrial Creation, a large exhibition hall,
a children's workshop and a reconstruction of Brancusi's workshop.
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