by Jon Lackman | 1 March 2010 | Museums
From The Independent:
There is a new star rising in the Paris art world, still relatively little known to tourists but already a favourite with Parisians. The Pinacothèque, a privately run, wholly unsubsidised exhibition space has come from nowhere to lead the field in just over two years. In the last 12 months, it has outdone all other Parisian exhibition halls in the number of visitors attracted to temporary art shows … How has the fearsome, and much-feared, French state cultural bureaucracy reacted to the competition? Rather badly. The director and founder of the Pinacothèque, Marc Restellini, 45, told The Independent … “When we announced the Munch exhibition, someone very senior from the Centre Pompidou rang the Munch museum in Norway and said ‘Don’t work with this man.’ How do I know that? Because the Munch museum rang me and said: ‘What’s the matter with you French? Why do you behave like this?’ Something very similar happened with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam which agreed to loan us most of the paintings for the Dutch [17th-century] exhibition. Someone very senior in the Paris museums world rang them to say: ‘Don’t do it’.” Mr Restellini is disliked by the French state cultural establishment for several reasons. He is an art historian (and an expert on Modigliani) but he has never taken the official French examination for museum curators. He is young and brash and speaks his mind publicly in a world that prefers discreetly poisonous intrigue … Above all, Mr Restellini believes, he has broken down the walls which fence off different genres and periods of art in Paris (pre-19th century at the Louvre; 19th century in the Musée d’Orsay; modern art in the Pompidou, etc) … “[A]rt does not fall into neat periods. Artists don’t think that way. The public doesn’t think that way.”
The Pinacothèque has showed great exhibitions over the past 12 or even 18 months. It is not surprising its owner has ruffled (is still ruffling) a few feathers…
Can you imagine someone opening this sort of space in London? The reactions would fe FAR worse! In Europe, a private, commercial, and wholly unsubsididsed exhibition space could only happen in Paris – the only city which art scene is dynamic enough for that!
I have absolutely no worries: the Paris art scene will accept the presence of the Pinacothèque – even if it takes some time. In a sense, these events are good for the owner! It means the English Press can talk about him. Since British newspapers never write anything positive about France, they would not even mention his name if things were running smoothly!