Events and things to do this week in Paris: August 21 – August 27, 2017

Exhibition

David Hockney Retrospective at Centre Pompidou

A retrospective of artist David Hockney’s work is currently on view at Centre Pompidou. This comprehensive exhibition includes more that 200 works by the artist who just celebrated his 80th birthday. These include his iconic paintings of swimming pools and double portraits as well as the more recent Yorkshire landscapes. While you are at the Centre Pompidou, do visit the free exhibition of Steven Pippin‘s work in the basement Gallery of Photographs.

Ending Soon

Karel Appel Retrospective

If you love the madness of free-flowing paint on canvas, the Karel Appel retrospective exhibition at Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris should be on your list of things to do this weekend in Paris. We were enchanted by the brutal beauty of Appel’s canvases and the childlike innocence of his sculptures. Karel Appel, who died in 2006 at the age of 86, produced a prolific body of work in his six-decade long artistic career. He was the co-founder of the celebrated avant-garde group CoBrA and took inspiration from the art of children and the mentally ill. This retrospective exhibition presents a wide array of sculptures and paintings that bear witness to Appel’s incessant creativity and stylistic development over the course of his career.

Beachy in Paris

Make the most of summers in Paris

Head over to the Bassin de la Villette for L’été du canal or sunbathe along the Seine at the Paris Plages. A series of animations, events and concerts accompany pop-up food and drink bars.

Free art and photography shows in Paris

Steven Pippin at Centre Pompidou

Steven Pippin transformed everyday objects and spaces into cameras. Wardrobes, refrigerators, washing machines, bathtubs, train lavatories and even a photo booth were converted into improvised all-in-one versions of pinhole cameras, studios and darkrooms. For instance, in his work Laundromat Locomotion, a tribute to Eadweard Muybridge’s experiment The Horse in Locomotion (1878), he transformed a row of 12 washing machines in a laundromat into makeshift cameras triggered by trip wires and rode past them on a horse. Pippin’s laundromat experiment and much of his other work are as much science as they are performance, creating imagery that is surreal and dramatic. A must-see retrospective of Steven Pippin’s work is presently being shown at the Galerie de photographies, Centre Pompidou.

Fashion

Christian Dior exhibition 

Check out the lavish Christian Dior exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the creation of the House of Dior, this stunning exhibition follows the illustrious universe of the House of Dior’s founder and the couturiers who succeeded him: Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons and, most recently, Maria Grazia Chiuri.