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Fragile Beauty

Photographs from the collection of
Sir Elton John and David Furnish

“Just as when writing a song, when taking a photograph there is a bit of luck and chance – something happens at the right time and you have to be smart enough to press the shutter release.”

Sir Elton John

Célébrant plus de 30 ans de collection, l’exposition rend hommage à la passion de Sir Elton John et David Furnish pour la photographie reflétant à la fois leur goût personnel et leur regard unique en tant que collectionneurs. Sélectionnées parmi leur collection de plus de 7000 images, les photographies présentées sont des images emblématiques qui explorent la connexion entre la force et la vulnérabilité inhérentes à la condition humaine.

A history of modern and contemporary photography, this exhibition brings together an exceptional selection of the world’s most important photographers with works dating from 1950 to the present day. Adapted from the exhibition presented at the Victoria and Albert Museum between May 2024 and January 2025, the exhibition explores, through five thematic sections, subjects such as desire, fashion, celebrities, the assertion of identities, and photojournalism.

Parmi les artistes présentés, on retrouve Robert Mapplethorpe, Harley Weir, Irving Penn, Diane Arbus, Ai Weiwei, Herbert List, et bien d’autres, ainsi qu’une installation monumentale de 149 tirages de Nan Goldin tirés de sa série Thanksgiving.

June 12 – September 27, 2026

JEU DE PAUME

1 place de la Concorde 75001 Paris

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Luca Ceccherini

Grammelot

First solo exhibition in France by the Italian painter Luca Ceccherini (born in 1993). Grammar is among the languages ​​that precede grammar. Popularized by Dario Fo (1926–2016), winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature, in his masterpiece Mistero Buffo, it is a mixture of sounds, rhythms, and gestures—drawn from the tradition of the giullari, the jester-jugglers of medieval Italy—that says everything without naming anything, without rules, without a dictionary. No rules, no dictionary, and yet immediate comprehension. Luca Ceccherini’s painting functions in the same way.

Grammelot brings together a collection of previously unseen works in which Ceccherini evokes the world of the giullari, the figures of the commedia dell’arte, and the landscapes of his Tuscan childhood. Acrobats, jesters, tightrope walkers, silhouettes emerging from the popular imagination: these figures inhabit the canvas like archetypes, familiar without being identifiable, anchored in a long time that overflows into the present.

Ceccherini trained in theater before dedicating himself to painting—and this initial tension is evident in every canvas. His figures do not seek to illustrate: they occupy space with the physical presence of the actor, inhabiting the surface with the same density as the tree trunks and forest edges that surround them. Just as Fo drew upon medieval folk tales to give voice to those ignored by official history, Ceccherini works with a silent collective memory—not to preserve it as in a museum, but to breathe new life into it through painting.

June 5 – August 1, 2026

GALERIE DINA VIERNY

53 rue de Seine 75006 Paris

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Salon Sonia

Galerie Zlotowski continues its in-depth work dedicated to Sonia Delaunay with Salon Sonia. The exhibition highlights the artist’s essential role in shaping an entire generation of creators and recreates the spirit of her artists’ salons in situ. A mentor to young artists and a loyal friend to writers, poets, and publishers, Sonia Delaunay spent her life hosting salons, notably at 16 rue Saint-Simon in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, where she lived and worked after the 1930s. The exhibition thus presents a unique dialogue, spanning the years, between Sonia Delaunay and six contemporary artists: Cécile Bart, Karina Bisch, Audrey Guttman, Sheila Hicks, Josselin Vidalenc, and Raphaël Zarka.

MOLNAR – Hommage-a-Sonia-Delaunay – 1947

Sonia Delaunay had an exceptionally long and varied career, beginning at the start of the 20th century and continuing tirelessly until her death in 1979. Her independent spirit and the multifaceted nature of her practice seem to resonate powerfully in contemporary art. She practiced a form of abstraction that was both conceptual, with an ultra-simple and recognizable vocabulary, and at the same time sensitive and vibrant, with an embrace of imperfection. The extraordinary number of media she explored and projects she participated in illustrates her rejection of hierarchies between artistic and craft practices. She always championed art “in life,” founding with Robert Delaunay the concept of “simultaneism” in action, which was notably exemplified in the 1920s by her entrepreneurial ventures in fashion, resulting in a prolific output of textile design.

AUBLET – Train-va-vite – 1937

Sonia Delaunay’s artistic life was also marked by collaborations and encounters that gave rise to numerous projects guided by an emotional connection. These included, in chronological order, Blaise Cendrars, Amedeo de Souza Cardoso, Tristan Tzara, Felix Aublet, the Arp couple, and, in the 1960s, Jacques Damase, who brought a new energy to her work. The works in the “Salon Sonia” exhibition seem to follow these threads, each in their own way: unexpected and playful mediums, and pieces that place color at the heart of the composition—a principle to which Sonia Delaunay remained faithful throughout her life. This is not a solemn and devout tribute, but rather an informal salon celebrating a dynamic, vibrant, and sensitive artistic practice.

Robert DELAUNAY – Portrait de Louis Aragon

May 29 – June 25, 2026

GALERIE ZLOTOWSKI


20 rue de Seine – 75006 Paris

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Crossed perspectives

Kenia Almaraz Murillo · Peter Blake · Yves Dana · Jean Dubuffet · Hans Hartung · Sheila Hicks · Serge Poliakoff · François Réau · Pierre Soulages · Sophia Vari · Bernar Venet · Maria Helena Vieira da Silva

At the crossroads of vision, the tension of line gives way to the serenity of color. Serge Poliakoff’s balanced planes of color, with their simple forms and understated hues, contrast with Maria Helena Vieira da Silva’s vibrant grids, which play with space and perspective. Sheila Hicks continues this sensitive exploration of colored matter through textiles, which she transforms into living sculptures.

Her work resonates with the works of Kenia Almaraz Murillo, which blend weavings of natural fibers and urban elements (embroidery from Bolivian carnival costumes or LED neon lights), deploying a dimension that is both traditional and contemporary.

La figure humaine et ses représentations s’installent dans cet ensemble. Le personnage de Jean Dubuffet, issu des débuts de L’Hourloupe, en déploie les couleurs typiques : bleu, rouge, blanc et noir, tout en conservant des éléments de la période Paris Circus. Il côtoie celui de Peter Blake et de sa série Girl with a Disney Tattoo, qui convoque l’imaginaire populaire et l’appropriation d’icônes de la pop culture comme Blanche-Neige ou Daisy. Le volume parachève cette présentation. Les bronzes de François Réau, comme des bas-reliefs, conservent l’aspect et la délicatesse de ses dessins à la mine de plomb et au graphite, tout en explorant la notion du temps qui passe, tandis que les œuvres de Sophia Vari, en marbre ou en bronze, jouent elles aussi sur les relations entre la forme et la surface, entre les pleins et les vides.

June 11 – September 26, 2026

GALERIE CUSTOT – WADDINGTON

36 rue de Seine 75006 Paris

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Michel Ange / Rodin

Corps vivants

A legendary Florentine sculptor and painter of the Renaissance, Michelangelo is an artist whose legend began to take shape during his lifetime. Nicknamed “Il Divino” (The Divine One), he notably created the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel in Rome and the sculpture of David in Florence.

Auguste Rodin, one of the greatest French sculptors, was also recognized during his lifetime with iconic works such as The Thinker and The Gates of Hell. By prioritizing expression, movement, and the truth of the body rather than idealized perfection, he paved the way for modern sculpture.

Bringing out the soul, infusing vital energy, is what guided the research of Michelangelo and Rodin. Their goal was to give life to inert matter: marble for Michelangelo, clay and plaster for Rodin. Both artists, who shared a passion for anatomy, sometimes distorted bodies to accentuate inner emotions. With his powerful figures, imbued with intense life, Michelangelo sought to breathe a soul into marble. Rodin, on the other hand, abolished the realistic aspect of the bodies, focusing instead on their vitality.

The presence of contemporary works in the exhibition testifies to the enduring relevance of the questions posed by these two masters. Their research continues to inspire contemporary artists and even the use of certain practices, such as non finito: the aesthetics of the unfinished. Michelangelo left behind numerous unfinished works. Was this intentional, or did he simply not pursue his creative vision to its fullest extent? In contrast, Rodin made non finito a fundamental principle of creation.

The exhibition continues outdoors with the flowering of the Tuileries garden inspired by the works of Michelangelo and Rodin.

April 15 – July 20, 2026

MUSEE du LOUVRE

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Martin Schongauer

Le bel immortel

Martin Schongauer is one of the most important and popular German artists of the late Middle Ages. Born in Colmar around 1445 and died in Breisach in 1491, he established himself as a painter but owed his fame, even during his lifetime, to his work as an engraver. The son and brother of goldsmiths, he did not practice this trade himself but certainly learned the delicate handling of the burin in his father’s workshop, which he brought to a high degree of perfection.

 

The exhibition presents a wide selection of his engraved and drawn works and, for the first time, almost all of his easel paintings and altarpieces, including the Virgin of the Rose Bush of 1473, his only dated painted panel. Schongauer reveals himself as a keen observer of nature, an inventive and delicate storyteller, but also as a learned artist.

Martin Schongauer’s widely circulated engravings captivated several generations of artists. Drawing on all the arts, the works presented in the second part of the exhibition, originating from a large part of the European continent and created up to the very beginning of the 17th century, allow us to appreciate this broad artistic reception of the works of “Beautiful Martin”.

April 8 – July 20, 2026

MUSEE du LOUVRE

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Leonora Carrington

An artist, avant-garde feminist and environmentalist, woman, mother, migrant, survivor of mental illness, and constantly evolving spiritual seeker, Leonora Carrington left behind an extraordinary and radical legacy. Born in 1917 in Lancashire, England, Leonora Carrington forged her identity through travel, both internal and external. From Florence to Paris, from the South of France to Spain, and finally to Mexico where she became a cult figure, her exceptional journey fueled a body of work at the crossroads of surrealism, mythology, and esotericism.

This exhibition, bringing together 126 works, is the first major one in France devoted solely to Carrington’s work. It presents Carrington as a “Vitruvian Woman”: a complete artist, representing a model of harmony and innovation. Her creations fuse human and animal, masculine and feminine, giving form to a world where metamorphoses and symbols resonate with one another.

Through a chronological and thematic approach, as well as a unique presentation of her diverse visionary creations, the exhibition explores the artist’s main themes and areas of interest: her discovery of classical Italian art in Florence during her adolescence, her fascination with the Renaissance, her Celtic and post-Victorian origins, and her involvement with Surrealism during her time in France. The exhibition thus highlights the exceptional legacy of this perpetual traveler, always in search of self-knowledge.

February 18 – July 19, 2026

MUSEE du LUXEMBOURG

19 rue de Vaugirard 75006 Paris

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Renoir et l’amour

Auguste Renoir’s colorful and joyful paintings, his iconography of open-air cafes and public dances, have earned him the title of “painter of happiness.” This reputation has sometimes led to his marginalization among the great painters of modernity, on the grounds that modernity can only be melancholic or ironic, disillusioned or disenchanted. Yet his work offers an original reflection on modernity, placed under the sign of love, understood both as a force governing human relationships and as a feeling guiding the artist’s gaze upon his models, the world, and painting itself.

“I know very well that it is difficult to convince people that a painting can be truly great while remaining joyful” (Auguste Renoir).

To mark the 150th anniversary of Bal du Moulin de la Galette (1876), a masterpiece in the Musée d’Orsay’s Impressionist collection, this exhibition brings together for the first time this major body of “scenes of modern life”—multi-figure paintings depicting contemporary subjects (distinct from portraits and landscapes)—created by Renoir during the first twenty years of his career (1865–1885). During this period, he participated in the collective invention of a “New Painting” alongside Manet, Monet, Morisot, Degas, and Caillebotte. He distinguished himself from his Impressionist friends, however, by his singular sense of empathy and his capacity for wonder, choosing only joyful subjects and always highlighting his models. This “loving” gaze is manifested by a pronounced taste for connections – in his motifs (conversations, meals, dancing…) as well as in his way of painting, attentive to everything that can contribute to a feeling of unity (gestures of the characters, enveloping light, balance of colors, fluid and sketched touches that blend the objects into one another).

The exhibition also highlights Renoir’s predilection for depicting young couples but aims to deconstruct the common misconception that his painting is “sentimental.” On the contrary, he avoids overly direct expressions of emotion, romantic narratives, and erotic scenes. An admirer of 18th-century French painters (Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard), Renoir revived the atmosphere of “fêtes galantes” and promoted a form of sexual freedom and gender equality in Paris during the late Second Empire and early Third Republic. This choice must be understood in light of the Impressionist artist’s biography, which revealed his bohemian lifestyle marked by relationships considered “illegitimate” at the time, and placed within the context of the 19th century, characterized by marriage and bourgeois norms, religious morality, the prevalence of prostitution, and stark inequalities between men and women. In this context, Renoir’s large-format works devoted to the happy couple, to “camaraderie” (in the words of his friend Rivière) and to conviviality, appear as so many manifestos against the violence of relations between the sexes, class antagonisms and the growing solitude of urban life.

Co-organized with the National Gallery in London and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, this exhibition offers a fresh perspective on paintings so famous that it has become difficult to perceive their full novelty today. For the first time since 1985 – the date of the last Renoir retrospective organized in Paris – an exhibition brings together a focused but significant group of works (approximately fifty paintings) from the first part of the artist’s career, including his greatest masterpieces: from La Grenouillère (1869, Stockholm, Nationalmuseum) to The Umbrellas (1881-1885, London, The National Gallery), by way of La Promenade (1870, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum), Danse à Bouvigal (1883, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts) and Le Déjeuner des canotiers (1880-1881), very exceptionally loaned by the Phillips Collection in Washington.

March 17 – July 5, 2026

MUSEE D’ORSAY

Esplanade Valéry Giscard d’Estaing 75007 Paris

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