‘The 2023 exhibition in the museum spaces of the Palais d’Iéna brings together two artists with exceptional careers and their creations: Daniel Buren (Boulogne-Billancourt, France, 1938): Allegro, ma non troppo, travail in situ, 2023 and Michelangelo Pistoletto (Biella, Italy, 1933): Divisione – Moltiplicazione, 2023. Since the early 1960s, their work has been exhibited in major museums, institutions, and galleries around the world. The project, commissioned by the art historian Matthieu Poirier and supported by Galleria Continua, will be revealed at the public opening on October 17. An unprecedented dialog between the two artists, the exhibition will respond to the unique architecture of the Palais d’Iéna, designed by Auguste Perret in 1937. The art will play with the building’s angles, its large-scale spaces, the subtle polychrome of its exposed concrete, its exceptional luminosity, its urban surroundings, the interplay of perspectives and levels, and its complex symmetry. The particularities of these two artists’ approach lend themselves to this invitation.’
– Matthieu Poirier
The project is supported by Galleria Continua (San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana, Rome, São Paulo, Paris, Dubai).
Audioguide
Click here to listen to our audioguide and learn more about Daniel Buren and Michelangelo Pistoletto’s joint exhibition.
Notice des Élèves de l’École du Louvre
The Notice des Élèves de l’École du Louvre is currently only available in French. Please change language if you would like to read it.
Daniel Buren
About the artist
Born in 1938 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Daniel Buren lives and works in situ. In the 1960s, he developed a radical type of painting which plays simultaneously on an economy of means and the relationship between the work and where it is exhibited. In 1986, he made the in situ work Les Deux Plateaux for the main courtyard of Paris’s Palais Royal. The same year, he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. He is one of the most active and well-known artists on the international art scene. In 2007, Buren received the Praemium Imperiale for painting.
Photo-souvenir: Daniel Buren ©️ DB-ADAGP Paris - Photo by Lorenzo Fiaschi.
Michelangelo Pistoletto
About the artist
Born in 1933 in Biella, Italy
Michelangelo Pistoletto is one of the most influential contemporary artists of his generation. His interest in self-portraits can be seen in his Quadri Specchianti (Mirror Paintings) which directly include the viewer and real time in the work. In the 1990s, with the creation of the Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto, he fostered an active relationship between art and different spheres of society, with the aim of inspiring social and cultural change. In 2004, the artist announced the latest phase of his work, « Terzo Paradiso » (‘The Third Paradise’).
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Galleria Continua, Beijing, 2018 - Photo by: Oak Taylor-Smith
Matthieu Poirier
About the curator
Matthieu Poirier, Dr. Pr. (1976) is an art historian. A specialist in abstract art, he holds a doctorate from the University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) where he also qualified to be a Senior Lecturer.
Poirier is a former visiting scholar at the German Center for the History of Art; he has taught at the University of Paris - Sorbonne and has been Professor of modern art history at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris-Cergy and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris.
An author and editor-in-chief of numerous publications, he has curated many exhibitions, such as ‘Lucia Koch’, ‘Suspension. A History of Abstract Hanging Sculpture. 1918-2018’, ‘Artur Lescher’, ‘Carlos Cruz-Diez’ (Palais d’Iéna), ‘Dynamo. A Century of Light and Movement in Art. 1913-2013’ (Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais), ‘Hans Hartung’ (Perrotin New-York), ‘Soto. A Retrospective’ (Musée Soulages), ‘Spectres’ (Roesler Hotel, São Paulo), and ‘Sous le motif’ (Collection d’Art Société Générale, Paris-La Défense).
He has been the scientific advisor for exhibitions at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Museo Reina Sofia, Louisiana Museum, Tate Modern, Palais de Tokyo and Palazzo del Monte di Pièta in Padua. He is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT).
Portrait by Marion Berrin for Art Basel.