1977 Centre Pompidou Opening Divided Critics with Radical Architecture and Duchamp Retrospective

The Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou opened in Paris in 1977, sparking immediate controversy. Designed by architects Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, and Gianfranco Franchini, the building's industrial aesthetic divided opinion. Critics Marina Vaizey and Kevin Power published contrasting reviews in Arts Review (now ArtReview) that March and July. Vaizey noted its innovative design with exterior service pipes, a glass escalator, and vast interior spaces equivalent to two football fields per floor. She highlighted its diverse offerings: the expanded National Museum of Modern Art, a public library, workshops, and performance spaces. Power condemned it as a dystopian "art supermarket" with temporary partitions that disrupted viewing of works by Braque and Matisse. The complex hosted a major Marcel Duchamp retrospective, his first in France, which Power argued suited the building's chaotic environment. Located on the plateau Beaubourg, the center was built on a former parking lot and aimed to concentrate urban cultural activities. Its opening attracted galleries to the area and offered affordable public access, with an annual ticket priced around £6. The structure's roof line matched surrounding buildings, avoiding visual dominance. Vaizey compared initial public resistance to that faced by the Eiffel Tower, while Power likened the center to a nuclear plant or Eurotechnocratic package.