Give your heart to lose your mind. This is literally what the artist Françoise Pétrovitch paints with her young daughter with the face excluded from the frame, who holds a heart in her hands like an offering. It is light and deep, sweet and melancholy, modern and eternal. One of the works that melt and reflect at the same time in the exhibition "Hearts, romanticism in contemporary art" at the Museum of Romantic Life in Paris.
The regulars of this mansion with an interior courtyard and garden open even in winter for tea, may be surprised by this forty works by thirty contemporary artists, including stars of the genre like Pierre and Gilles, Sophie Calle or Jim Dine in this peaceful 19th century temple. Audacity signed by Gaëlle Rio, new director, from the Petit Palais, another Parisian building where we love the surprises and clashes of cultures.
Speaking of surprises, for Valentine's Day, the museum remains open all Friday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and the exhibition is exceptionally free, with entertainment, evening ballet, and concerts, songs by love necessarily. And even a DJ in the courtyard of a place more accustomed to the consumption of herbal teas in a cozy atmosphere of film in period costumes.
Fishing nets
We are charmed by these hearts served with all sauces, sometimes very salty. Not always as sweet as those of Pierre and Gilles, singers of a naive and trendy sentimentality at the same time, of which we discover here the self-portrait celebrating their forty years of work and love. With Annette Messager, one of the living artists most recognized on the international scene, there is already a less sweet heart, which has the salt of the sea, made up in fishing nets, stranded like a boat, but very alive.
The strongest beating heart is that of Niki de Saint Phalle, "My Heart", a huge painting and collage on wood on which monsters and figures exalt the intensity of life, love, and monsters hidden at the corner of the wood.
"Many couples take pictures of themselves outside the entrance to the Museum of Romantic Life, without necessarily entering," smiles the director. "Romantic love, in reality, is very upset or even tormented," recalls the one who also spiced up the permanent collections of recent works but also jewelry - in the literal sense - of the house that we no longer saw in majesty: like this collection of little hearts that belonged to George Sand, one containing locks of children's hair. It looks like contemporary art. Like what…
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Museum of Romantic Life (Paris IX), until July 12, free this Friday, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., € 6, closed on Monday.