From David to Delacroix, Cézanne to Matisse, Ellsworth Kelly to Gina Pane and Hélène Delprat, Souvenirs de jeunesse is a journey back in time over two centuries, between 1780 and 1980, during which the Beaux-Arts de Paris welcomed tens of thousands of aspiring artists. Through more than 260 works and documents from the Beaux-Arts de Paris collections and from some thirty private and institutional lenders, the exhibition reveals the singular careers of these students, famous or not.

The exhibition begins a few years before the abolition of the Académie de peinture et de sculpture (1793), with the figure of David, who challenged the prescriptive nature of its teaching, and ends a decade after the events of May 1968, which renewed pedagogy with the abolition of the Prix de Rome and the competitions that had made the school's reputation.

By evoking figures as diverse as Stendhal and Hélène Delprat, Gina Pane, Matisse and Farid Belkahia, it highlights the diversity of the students who attended the rue Bonaparte, whether male or female, French or foreign, famous or not, traditional or modern, and the different ways in which the school's ecosystem nurtured their desire to become artists. By presenting not only works of art (paintings, sculptures, medals, drawings) but also documents (archives, manuscripts, publications), the exhibition makes their social, political and economic situation visible, allowing visitors to enter into their intimacy, hopes and doubts. Each object presented is the bearer of a memory, a story or an anecdote emblematic of a moment in the history of teaching or a diachronic pedagogical practice.

For the first time, this exhibition presents two centuries of the history of the Beaux-Arts in Paris. It takes the perspective of youth, of young men and women on the threshold of their artistic vocation. By bringing together works that preceded their careers and eventual stardom, Souvenirs de jeunesse leads us to reconsider a whole area of art history that has never been looked at, if at all, and that is often preserved in incomplete form, but which is now being re-evaluated thanks to the development of work devoted to the history of the pedagogy of artistic creation.

This project is an important contribution to the scientific project of the Beaux-Arts de Paris: it enables us to reconsider an important part of its collections, the school works that have organically grown out of its teaching, as well as to take a critical look at its history. It is closely linked to the Reg-Arts database project, the online publication of entry registers for the Beaux-Arts de Paris (1813-1968), carried out jointly with the Institut national d'histoire de l'art and the CNRS, thanks to support from the Fondation Malatier-Jacquet.

Souvenirs de jeunesse interroge l’histoire au présent grâce aux interventions de huit étudiant·es des Beaux-Arts qui ont été saisi·es par la permanence des sentiments que suscitent toujours l’entrée dans le monde artistique : joies, compétitivité, incertitude et solidarité. Artiste associé au projet, Franck Leibovici relit de manière contemporaine, comme des instructions de performance, les conditions dans lesquelles les jeunes artistes d’autrefois ont réalisé les oeuvres conçues dans le cadre de ces concours en présentant les énoncés qui leur étaient donnés, ainsi que le temps ou les dimensions qui leur étaient imposés.

The exhibition benefits from the exceptional loan of 30 documents from the French National Archives, including Cézanne's recommendation bill and Georges Seurat's copy of History. It also features loans from numerous French institutions: Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France, Musée de l'Armée, Musée Bourdelle, Musée Carnavalet-Histoire de Paris, Musée Gustave Moreau, Musée national d'art moderne (center Pompidou), Musée du Petit-Palais in Paris, Musée des Augustins (Toulouse), Musée de Grenoble, Musée Henri-Martin (Cahors), Musée Soulages (Rodez). The Ellsworth Kelly studio graciously financed the presentation of an early work by the great American artist; the Farid Belkahia foundation made possible the arrival of a work by this founding artist of Moroccan modern art.

In a spirit of economy and eco-responsibility, Souvenirs de jeunesse presents a large number of high-quality reproductions, respecting the dimensions of the original, which will be glued directly to the wall so that there is no possible confusion with the originals. The aim is to preserve the quality of the visitor's experience without misleading them.

For the same reasons, the scenography will serve an annual program, offering new uses for each exhibition. It was designed collectively by students from the École d'architecture Paris-Malaquais, with which the Beaux-Arts de Paris share the Saint-Germain-des-Prés site. Dialoguing with the richly decorated spaces of the Palais des Beaux-arts, it creates a continuous chronological journey thanks to the fluidity of spaces and colors, with numerous openings giving concrete expression to the effects of diachrony.

Curator: Alice Thomine-Berrada, General Curator of Heritage, responsible for the Beaux-Arts de Paris collections.

Associate artists: Franck Leibovici, associate artist; Mickael Berdugo, Margot Bernard, Pierre Guihard, Ruoxi Jin, Lisa Lecuivre, Caroline Rambaud, Nassim Sarni, Emmanuel van der Elst, associate students.

Scenography designed in partnership with the École d'architecture Paris-Malaquais, under the direction of Yann Rocher, with the participation of Carol Vasques and Lilian Marchand.

Lighting design: Virginie Nicolas (Concepto)

Practical information

Wednesday, October 16, 2024 - Sunday, January 12, 2025
Beaux-Arts de Paris
Palais des beaux-arts, 13 quai Malaquais, Paris 6e
Wednesday to Sunday, 1pm-7pm
Nocturne Thursday until 9pm

5€, 10€ or 15€, the choice is yours!

Detailed program of upcoming nocturnes on beauxartsparis.fr
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