France Travel: 4 Must-See Paris Art Exhibitions To Take In This Fall

In the wake of an uplifting Olympic and Paralympic Games, there are still lots of ways to explore Paris, as if for the very first time. Much like the Games, you can still discover new cultural events in the most regal of settings.

Ranging from the 19th century paintings of Caillebotte and Liljefors to the 20th century work of Jackson Pollock and Asterix, here’s the very best that the City of Lights has to offer for fall 2024 in the world of art.

Jackson Pollock At The Picasso-Paris Museum

This exhibition covers Les Premières Années (the first years) of Pollock’s work from 1937 to 1947. Pollock lived in New York during World War Two mixing with many French surrealist artists fleeing Occupation, combining the influence of native American arts with that of the European avant-gardes. The artist later became emblematic of the triumph of American art following the Second World War and Picasso was a huge influence on Pollock’s work.

By focusing on his early works, the chosen paintings highlight key moments in the American artist’s life, when he experimented with various dimensions such as prints and sculpture too.

The Jackson Pollock exhibition will run from 15 October to 19 January, 2025.

Gustave Caillebotte At The Musée D’Orsay

What’s not to love at the Musée D’Orsay? On the banks of the river Seine, in the most divine building. Just being there feels good.

The new exhibition—Gustave Caillebotte. Peindre les hommes—though, is something special for Autumn. It’s 130 years since the painter died, and the museum has collected his favorite topic, men, to show off his talent. It’s a particularly good way to understand how 19th century men were understood and captured—Caillebotte loved painting sailors, and workers, both on balconies and even getting out of the bath.

In collaboration with the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Art Institute of Chicago, the exhibition will show pastels, drawings and photos. It came about because of the recent acquisition of new paintings by the Getty, d’Orsay and the loan of one from Chicago.

Caillebotte was seen as young, virile, republican, and rich but his take on the sexual and social changes taking place at the time are admired in his paintings and he offered a voice to urban workers.

The Caillebotte exhibition will run at the Musée D’Orsay from 8 October to 19 January, 2025.

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Bruno Liljefors At The Petit Palais

Home to the Beaux Arts in one of the most beautiful buildings in Paris, this exhibition called Wild Sweden, La Suède sauvage, will show off 100 works of the Swedish artist (paintings, drawings and photographs) that portray Swedish nature but with a distinctive Japanese and Far Eastern vibe.

While he is less well-known, particularly in France, than his contemporaries, Liljefors, born in Uppsala in 1860 and dying not far away in Stockholm in 1939, was essential to Swedish art at the end of the 19th century, and considered to be the best in the country as an animal artist, according to the museum.

He captured wild geese in flight, eagle owls, hares in the snow, grouse, butterflies and chaffinches, often setting up a studio in a hunting cabin. He would paint his subjects often scouting them out, hiding up trees, armed only with a pencil and a camera.

The Liljefors exhibition will run from 1 October to 16 February, 2025.

Asterix At The Atelier Des Lumières

One of the most famous moustached heros in literature is getting a new outing in 50 B.C. Created by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny 65 years ago, Asterix the Gaul is still as popular as ever.

In this immersive exhibition, we follow the Gauls, Asterix and Obelisk, on a quest to find the Druid Panoramix (called Getafix in English) who has been kidnapped by Julius Caesar, traveling through the comic strips of Hispania, Great Britain, Rome and Egypt to find him.

The Atelier des Lumières is really one of the most stunning ways to see your favorite artists—just like many other great immersive art spaces in the Carrières des Lumières in Baux-de-Provence, the Bassin des Lumières in Bordeaux, and the Hall des Lumières in New York.

All of these sites are in immense cavernous spaces, where spectators experience the art as it flashes up on the 3,000 square feet of walls, ceilings and floors, accompanied to a playlist especially created for the show. The Paris site is in an impressive 11th arrondissement in a former 19th iron foundry.

The Asterix exhibition will run from 18 October to 5 January, 2025.

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