Art at the Pompidou Centre

As the Pompidou didn’t open until 11am I had time to revisit St Chapelle on the way. Astonishing stained glass and detailed craftsmanship impressed as before.

There is a carving of a woman with distaff and spindle in almost the same pose as the woman spinning in the tapestry in the Cluny.

The Pompidou has extensive art collections. Here are some which caught my eye.

A Matisse.

A woman in a Swanndri!

A Picasso sculpture: Young Girl on a Swing. I liked the weighting of this, particularly the clumpy feet.

This is called “Table” but there is more to it than furniture.

This is 3D: a deconstructed piano.

The exhibitions are organised by time periods. You drift from room to room with glimpses into other spaces or to courtyards with sculptures and water and over the rooftops of Paris.

The contemporary art was extensive and challenging. I was pleased I hung in for the top gallery of furniture, art and objects from art nouveau to about the 60s.

This was made for a house in 1911.

A blue car with a crank handle, and leather straps securing the bonnet.

Book covers – Art Deco, perhaps.

A wooden carving, distinctly phallic, and very French in the eccentric, cartoon-like figures and expressions.

Furniture with a view.

And posters.

I walked 17kms today and I imagine much of that was inside this massive complex.

It doesn’t have the colourful exterior with colour-coded pipes that I remember when I visited in 1981. It’s been toned down. Not in content and scope, however.