Museums in Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou #1 (Part 1 of 3)

Recently, we visited the Centre Georges Pompidou (pictured below).

The Pompidou is a cultural center in Paris with a public library, a center for music and acoustic research, and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, the largest modern art museum in Europe.  

The Pompidou opened in 1977 and is named for former French President Georges Pompidou who commissioned the building.   

Portrait of Georges Pompidou in the foyer of the building 

The building, designed by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, is unique, which is an understatement.  The architectural style is "Structural Expressionism".  According to enacademic.com, "Structural Expressionism is a style of modernist architecture in which the core structural elements of the building are expressed in the building's appearance.  * * *  Like Brutalism, Structural Expressionists reveal their structure on the outside as well as the inside, but with visual emphasis placed on the internal steel and/or concrete skeletal structure as opposed to exterior concrete walls."   

In the photos below, you can see for yourself what Structural Expressionism looks like.  It's sort of like a building turned inside out--with all the structural elements and systems moved to the exterior, allowing for very large interior spaces without any obstructions.

Photo from centrepompidou.fr

In the photo above, the different colored pipes represent different functions: blue for air conditioning, yellow for electricity, green for water and red for escalators and elevators.  (July 2019)

Even inside, the building's systems are visible and colorful.

The Pompidou's Musée National d'Art Moderne  has a large collection of modern art.  Since opening, the museum has also hosted important exhibitions of art by Pollock, Warhol, Matisse, Picasso, Hockney, Calder, Dali, Lichtenstein and Derain, to name a few.  A few years ago, we visited a Lucien Freud exhibition at the museum.  (Learning that Lucien was the grandson of Sigmund, we understood why Lucien's paintings were avant garde.)

Susan read that the museum was hosting a Cubism exhibit.  So, we visited on a recent afternoon.

Next Up:  Le Cubisme