Centre Pompidou's 'Modernités plurielles' Rethinks Modern Art History

The Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou in Paris presents 'Modernités plurielles de 1905 à 1970,' a major rehang of its permanent collection running from October 23, 2013 to January 26, 2014. Curated by Catherine Grenier, the exhibition features over 1,000 works by 400 artists from 47 countries, drawing on the museum's vast holdings to challenge the Western-centric narrative of modernism. The chronological display begins with a monumental painting by Amédée Ozenfant, never before exhibited, alongside a wall of magazine covers and a prophetic 1935 work by Ismael de la Serna. Sculptures by Alicia Penalba (Argentina), Agustín Cárdenas (Cuba), and a Cameroonian wooden totem highlight women artists and the presence of foreign artists in France. The exhibition includes sections on Fauvism, the Blaue Reiter almanac, Futurism, and a tribute to Michel Leiris, featuring both canonical figures like Klee, Miró, and Picasso and lesser-known artists such as Suzanne Roger and Javier Vilató. Brazilian anthropophagy is represented by Tarsila do Amaral. Later sections on architecture, magical realism (Felice Casorati, Ivan Babij), social realism (Tadé Makowski), and abstraction (Gyula Kosice, Kumi Sugaï) are noted, though the density and inclusion of lesser works draw criticism. Grenier acknowledges the exhibition is a first draft, not a canonical statement, and a conference is planned for 2014.