Frac Île-de-France Presents Exhibition of Copies and Fictional Art History
The exhibition titled 'Les Fleurs américaines' is hosted at Frac île-de-France-Le Plateau in Paris from December 12, 2012, to January 13, 2013. It showcases replicas of contemporary artworks created by art students, with fictitious dates set a century later. Curators Elodie Royer and Yoann Gourmel collaborated with the Salon de Fleurus and the Museum of American Art, established by anonymous founders. Historical figures such as Gertrude Stein and Alfred Barr provide commentary on art history. The show examines fifty years of artistic development between Paris and New York, challenging notions of originality and authorship. It features a reconstruction of Stein's salon, nods to the 1913 Armory Show, and a model of MoMA, with black-and-white reproductions of De Kooning, Still, and Pollock illustrating the art world's transition from Paris to New York.
Key facts
- Exhibition 'Les Fleurs américaines' at Frac île-de-France-Le Plateau, Paris, from December 12, 2012 to January 13, 2013.
- No original artworks or named artists are presented; only copies made by art students.
- Curated by Elodie Royer and Yoann Gourmel.
- Invited institutions: Salon de Fleurus (New York, 1992) and Museum of American Art (Berlin, 2004), founders anonymous.
- Historical figures reincarnated: Gertrude Stein, Alfred Barr, Dorothy Miller, Walter Benjamin.
- Copies of modern paintings are fictitiously dated one hundred years after their creation.
- Reconstruction of Gertrude Stein's salon with multiple sepia copies of Picasso's 'Portrait of Gertrude Stein'.
- 1/10 scale model of MoMA's spaces is included.
- Exhibition references the 1913 Armory Show, the founding of MoMA, and the 1936 'Cubism and Abstract Art' exhibition.
- Post-war art market development evoked through a reconstructed corporate waiting room and black-and-white reproductions of De Kooning, Clyfford Still, and Pollock.
Entities
Artists
- Gertrude Stein
- Alfred Barr
- Dorothy Miller
- Walter Benjamin
- Pablo Picasso
- Paul Cézanne
- Henri Matisse
- Kees van Dongen
- Emil Nolde
- Raoul Dufy
- Piet Mondrian
- Kazimir Malevich
- Wassily Kandinsky
- Marcel Duchamp
- Willem de Kooning
- Clyfford Still
- Jackson Pollock
- Elodie Royer
- Yoann Gourmel
Institutions
- Frac île-de-France-Le Plateau
- Salon de Fleurus
- Museum of American Art
- Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Locations
- Paris
- France
- New York
- United States
- Berlin
- Germany
- 27 rue de Fleurus
Sources
- artpress —