Musée des Années Trente
Espace Paul Landowski
28 Ave André‑Morizet, Boulogne‑Billancourt
Metro Marcel‑Sembat (line 9) or Boulogne‑Jean‑Jaurès (line 10)
This little-known museum within the elegant Parisian suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt homes a powerful assortment of Nineteen Thirties artwork. However neglect in regards to the standard Surrealist works of Picasso, Chagall, Pollock, or Duchamp. This inter-war assortment is much less avant-garde, much less “anti-establishment” than what you would possibly discover within the Centre Pompidou. It’s extra classical and figurative, but nonetheless displays the altering instances in French society with the start of paid holidays for the working class, colonial politics, the financial disaster, and the premonitions of one other struggle.
Origins of the Museum: Why Boulogne, not Montparnasse?
Whereas many iconic artists of the Nineteen Thirties lived and labored in Montparnasse, even again then the rents in Paris have been sky excessive (plus ça change…). Many painters, sculptors and designers moved to Boulogne-Billancourt, a fast-growing west suburban city on the Seine the place newly-established movie studios and the Renault manufacturing plant had already attracted many new residents. Lipchitz, Landowski, Souverbie and different heavyweights of figurative artwork in addition to fashionable design have been amongst them. The town started shopping for up their works as early as 1939 with the opening of the Boulogne Municipal Museum on the fourth ground of the city corridor. The gathering — which grew through the years to round 800 work, 1500 sculptures and 20,000 drawings — was moved subsequent door to the up to date, glass-walled Espace Landowski in 1998.
What to Anticipate: The Collections
The museum’s collections are laid out thematically throughout 4 flooring (I like to recommend taking the elevator to the 4th ground and dealing your manner down).
The highest ground focuses on Nineteen Thirties structure and Artwork Deco design, with scale fashions of modernist houses like Le Corbusier’s Villa Cook dinner and iconic furnishings by Robert Mallet‑Stevens, Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Charlotte Perriand, and Jean Prouvé.
The third ground options a number of rooms devoted to colonial artwork, with sculptures, drawings and work depicting the fascinating folks and landscapes of sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghreb (north Africa), and Indochina. The Colonial Exhibition was held in Paris in 1931, and for a lot of French folks it was the primary time they found the inhabitants and life of the colonial empire (for these desirous about a deeper take a look at France’s difficult colonial previous, I like to recommend visiting the Historical past of Immigration Museum within the Palais de la Porte Dorée within the twelfth arrondissement). The third ground additionally homes the museum’s assortment of spiritual artworks and a skylit “animalier” room with a collection of lovely or dramatic animal sculptures (Paul Simon’s L’Orang-Outan is a favourite).
The second ground (the place the exhibit “formally” begins) options portraits and sculptures, together with these by the “Ecole de Paris” artists of Montparnasse (resembling Ossip Zadkine). Artists of the Forces Nouvelles motion depicted tragic scenes within the aftermath of World Battle I, whereas different artists depicted figures from excessive society or the brand new leisure class (together with girls in bathing fits on the seashore, a stunning scene on the time). You’ll additionally discover Nineteen Thirties promoting graphics, the standard preponderance of feminine nudes, and scenes of Parisian nightlife because the Jazz age takes maintain.
Again down on the bottom ground, the go to ends with monumental sculptures from the World’s Festivals of 1925, 1931, and 1937—outsized, idealized figures that have been by no means simply ornament. They have been constructed to impress, persuade, and promote a imaginative and prescient of French energy and progress. For instance, Trinity, that includes the fashionable “perfect household” of man, lady, and baby, is a 4-meter tall sculpture by the Martel twins, Jan and Joël (who have been founders of the Union of Trendy Artists). And no, that tall, skinny sculpture isn’t a Giacometti, however reasonably Robert Couturier’s monument to the French martyr of the Inquisition, humanist Etienne Dolet.
If you happen to’re curious, one other museum house in the identical constructing honors the French sculptor (and Boulogne-Billancourt artist) Paul Landowski. You may not acknowledge his title, however you definitely know his most well-known work, Christ the Redeemer—the colossal statue overlooking Rio de Janeiro. He additionally created the sculpture of the patron saint of Paris, Saint Geneviève, overlooking the Seine from the Pont de la Tournelle.
Why it’s Price Crossing the Périph’
If you need a break from modernist abstraction and Surrealist shock ways, the Musée des Années Trente gives a bit extra of a mainstream take a look at the Nineteen Thirties — extra nice than provocative — with out ignoring the social and political upheavals of the period. It additionally doesn’t damage that the crowds are skinny (even on a Saturday afternoon), and that it’s solely a 5-minute stroll from the metro station Marcel-Sembat (line 9). If you happen to’re nonetheless not satisfied you’ll be able to half with the modest €7 entrance charge, go on the primary Sunday of the month, when it’s free.
The one problem shall be for many who don’t learn French, since there aren’t any indicators in English. However you’ll be able to obtain a translation app that works together with your telephone’s digicam (like Google lens) or borrow one of many free audio guides on the entrance desk which supplies you among the highlights.
Sensible information
Opening Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-6pm (final admission 5:30pm). Closed Mondays and holidays.
Tickets: €7 for adults; free for college kids beneath 26, and everybody the primary Sunday of the month. No must buy tickets prematurely or reserve, there are by no means traces right here.
Information and Companies: The giftshop gives a big small of books and postcards. Free lockers on the entrance.
Some recommendation: This museum is massive, however not overwhelming nor crowded. Permit about an hour to browse all 4 flooring. If you happen to’d like to increase your go to, contemplate following this self-guided strolling tour by Un Jour de Plus à Paris of Nineteen Thirties structure in Boulogne-Billancourt, together with Le Corbusier’s UNESCO‑listed Molitor condo block and half a dozen Artwork‑Deco façades.
Final weekend, Heather and Fred joined the Secrets and techniques of Paris Group members in Boulogne-Billancourt for lunch and a personal tour of the Musée des Années Trente led by native tour information extraordinaire, Jean Manuel Traimond. Benefit from the 5-minute highlights reel!
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