If you happen to be in Paris, don’t forget to visit Birth of a Museum, an exhibition celebrating the cultural relationship between France and Abu Dhabi, at the Musée du Louvre.
The exhibition showcases the permanent collection of the Louvre Abu Dhabi in the Musée du Louvre’s Napoleon Hall—a collection that was already put on display at Manarat Al Saadiyat last year from April 22nd to July 20th, and that was supplemented with 30 newly acquired works for the occasion.
Featuring an in-depth analysis of the first Birth of a Museum exhibition, the Parisian exhibit, to be held until July 28th, includes a larger art selection than the one exhibited in Abu Dhabi, with more than 160 pieces from Louvre Abu Dhabi’s permanent collection—a collection which is still being extended, step by step.
The exhibition therefore includes various artworks and artifacts that comprise key historical pieces from ancient times, next to modern and contemporary artworks. The exhibited pieces include figures of lions made in Iran nearly 3,000 years ago and a Cypriot idol-statuette, next to paintings by Édouard Manet, René Magritte, and Paul Klee, previously unseen collages by Picasso, and Piet Mondrian’s famous Composition with Blue, Red, Yellow, and Black, which previously belonged to fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent.
In this sense, Birth of a Museum embodies the 30-year cultural agreement that was signed between the United Arab Emirates and France back in 2007 in order to reinforce the cultural relationship between Europe and the Middle East. The agreement seeks to help with building a national art collection in the UAE with the intention of helping to establish the Louvre Abu Dhabi as the 21st century’s first universal museum in the Arab world.
After some notable construction delays, the Louvre Abu Dhabi designed by Jean Nouvel announced its official opening date to be the UAE’s National Day in 2015.
Image: Osman Hamdi Bey, Jeune Émir à l’étude, Istanbul, 1878, © Louvre Abu Dhabi/Agence photo F
