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Where: Pinacothèque de Paris
When: February 19 2010 to July 18 2010

Description: “Edvard Munch or the Anti-Scream” is a retrospective of the work of Edvard Munch, the pioneering Expressionist painter best known for his celebrated painting “The Scream”. The exhibition displays around one hundred works (paintings and sketches) covering the artist’s rich and singular oeuvre.

With this exhibition from 19 February to 18 July 2010, the Pinacothèque de Paris is offering a fresh insight into the work of Edvard Munch, one of the most legendary and paradoxically least-known artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is the first time in 20 years that his work is being shown in Paris, and indeed in France; the Pinacothèque de Paris is therefore providing art lovers in France with a wonderful opportunity to discover the vision of this great artist, using a simple approach that allows all visitors to understand why he occupies such a significant place in art history.

Where: GRAND PALAIS
When: March 18 2010 to March 22 2010

Description: The great cultural rendezvous for spring, Art Paris, the modern and contemporary art fair is proposing a new exhibition format: Art Paris + Guests. Art Paris + Guests gives gallery owners the possibility to “create an event within the event” in association with partners “guests” from other international galleries and either foundations, collectors or even designers, writers, film-makers, architects, fashion designers, musicians, big names in gastronomy, etc.

Modern and Contemporary Art Fair

The exhibition Crime and Punishment looks at a period of some two hundred years: from 1791, when Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau called for the abolition of the death penalty, to 30 September 1981, the date the bill was passed to abolish it in France. Throughout these years, literature created many criminal characters. The title of the exhibition is itself taken from a work by Dostoyevsky. In the press, particularly the illustrated daily newspapers, the powerful fantasy of violent crime was greatly increased through novels.

At the same time, the criminal theme came into the visual arts. In the work of the greatest painters, Goya, Géricault, Picasso and Magritte, images of crime or capital punishment resulted in the most striking works. The cinema too was not slow to assimilate the equivocal charms of extreme violence, transformed by its representation into something pleasurable, perhaps even into sensual pleasure.

It was at the end of the 19th century that a new theory appeared purporting to establish a scientific approach to the criminal mind. This tried to demonstrate that the character traits claimed to be found in all criminals, could also be found in their physiological features. Theories like these had a great influence on painting, sculpture and photography. Finally, the violence of the crime was answered by the violence of the punishment: how can we forget the ever-present themes of the gibbet, the garrotte, the guillotine and the electric chair?

Beyond crime, there is still the perpetual problem of Evil, and beyond social circumstances, metaphysical anxiety. Art brings a spectacular answer to these questions. The aesthetic of violence and the violence of the aesthetic – this exhibition aims to bring them together through music, literature and a wide range of images.

Please note that some of the pieces presented in the exhibition may be shocking to some visitors (particularly children).

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