More art to see in Paris this fall

Paris has no shortage of treats for the culturally curious visitor, including gorgeous architecture and a wealth of museum and gallery exhibitions. Here is a selection of shows that are open this fall.

 

 

Still lifes were long considered a lesser genre in the art academies of Europe. How could fruits, flowers, candles and motley objects compete with sweeping landscapes and epic mythological scenes? Today, they are among the preferred genres in art history, and Paris is paying homage to them in a major Louvre Museum exhibition on the subject that examines the human attachment to “things.” There are around 170 objects — paintings, sculptures, photographs, films and videos — lent by about 70 museums and private collections from around the world. Expect to see a prehistoric ax, a magnificent painting of pipes and a pitcher by the still-life master Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin, ready-mades by Marcel Duchamp, and works by the contemporary photographer Nan Goldin and the sculptor Ron Mueck. Commissioned specially for the exhibition is a towering installation by the Cameroonian artist Barthélémy Toguo called “The Pillar of Missing Migrants,” that nearly reaches the top of the Louvre’s glass Pyramid.