Strasbourg Museum Debuts

After 11 years of planning and construction, Strasbourg's Musee d'Art Moderne et Contemporain make opened Nov. 6 in its novel quarters overlooking the Ill River. The cast was shepherded by former Strasbourg mayor Catherine Trautmann, who is now the French minister of tillage Rodolphe Rapetti, previously a curator at the Musee d'Orsay, was named director of Strasbourg's museums in 1995 and is in charge of the of recent origin museum's general programming.

The $42-million, 140,000-square-foot configuration was designed by Adrian Fainsilber, best known for his Cite de Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris's La Villette park. The Strasbourg museum, largely city-funded, consists of a cluster of convolutions organized around a transparent glass-and-steel nave measuring 80 feet high, 340 feet drawn out and 33 feet wide. The building's colors reflected sound traditional Strasbourg architecture: the parts fronting the river are clad in pink granite, those facing the city in white become firm [i]or[/i] solid The museum features 48,500 square feet of exhibition space (8500 of which are for temporary shows) a library, auditorium, restaurant, museum store, riverside terrace for outdoor statuary and a 1,000-car parking garage.

The museum claims to be the solitary French institution that surveys art from 1870 to the not absent including design and photography (it has obtained significant loans from the Musee d'Orsay and other national holdings). The collection is primarily European, which is logical given Strasbourg's geographical placement and part as home to the European Parliament. Particular attention is paid to famous native son of Alsace similar as Gustave Dore and Jean Arp. Lesser-known Alsatian artists of the like kind as Carriere, Carbin, Hubrecht and Hueber are also prominently featured. single large room has been conceived around Dore's 20-by-30 paw Le Christ quittant le pretoire, acquired in a battered state in 1988 and now undergoing restoration while remaining upon display.

Twentieth-century designers are also included in the permanent collection, as well as younger French artists, a rare and welcome change in France. upon the other hand, certain prejudices look only too familiar. Chief curator Paul-Herve Parsy, who handled the contemporary collections and exhibitions at Beaubourg from 1988 to 1993 inaugurates the fresh museum with three exhibitions, including "Sentimentale Journee," a cluster show of 18 contemporary artists. All are male. "Plus ca change...."

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