June 12–13, 2015
Auditorium of the Fondation Louis Vuitton
8, avenue du Mahatma Gandhi – Bois de Boulogne
75116 Paris
T +33 1 40 69 96 00
In conjunction with the exhibition Keys to a Passion we are pleased to invite you to an international symposium which will focus on a number of current crucial questions: What are the challenges facing public and private museum collections today? Who really makes art history now? What is the impact of the growing role played by the art market in this field?
Over the last 15 years the art world has effectively undergone a profound mutation characterised by the global multiplication of public and private institutions and a proliferation of biennials and art fairs around the world that have opened up new fields to artists, and by intensification of media coverage that has radically changed the way art is apprehended and assessed, as well as by an inflation of the commercial value of artworks. A great deal is at stake in this new situation—for artists, for museums and foundations, for collectors, for art historians, and for the public itself.
Three sessions will consider these themes, with panels comprising directors of public and private institutions, curators, artists, international critics, collectors, experts, and market players.
Suzanne Pagé, Artistic Director
Friday June 12, 3–6pm
“What are the challenges facing public and private museum collections today?”
The first session will question the meaning, issues and missions of contemporary art collections at a time when multiple initiatives are bringing about a diversification of the structures for showing art and an unprecedented diversification of its audience. What are the principles in these different contexts guiding the elaboration of collections, seen as narratives of our era? What is the impact of sociological, media and economic constraints on their constitution?
With: Bernard Blistène (Director, Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris); Hervé Chandès (General Director, Fondation Cartier, Paris); Chris Dercon (Director, Tate Modern, London); Nancy Spector (Chief Curator, Deputy Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim, New York) and Philippe Vergne (Director, Museum of Contemporary Art, MoCA, Los Angeles).
Moderator: Alain Cueff (art historian, Professor at Ecole supérieure nationale des Arts Décoratifs, ENSAD, Paris)
Saturday June 13, 10am–1pm
“Who makes art history now?”
The second session will consider the respective roles of art historians, museum curators, artists, art critics, collectors, experts and other professionals in the process whereby art works gain recognition in the short, medium and long term. It will open a debate about the shaping and communication of aesthetic, judgement and taste, about the commonly accepted systems of interpretation and other, emergent ones, and about the cultural value and iconicity of the artwork.
With: Hoor Al Qasimi (Director, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah); Tobia Bezzola (Director, Folkwang Museum, Essen); Patricia Falguières (art historian, Professor at Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, EHESS, Paris); Mark Francis (art historian and Director, Gagosian gallery, London); Bertrand Lavier (artist, France); Joachim Pissaro (art historian, Director, Hunter College Galleries, New York) and Donna de Salvo (Chief Curator, Deputy Director of Programs, Whitney Museum, New York).
Moderator: Jean-Pierre Criqui (art historian and critic; in charge of Service de la parole and editor-in-chief of Les Cahiers du Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris)
Saturday June 13, 3–6pm
“What is the impact of the growing role played by the art market in this field?”
The third session will consider the effects of the art market, which has developed significantly in recent years and remains effervescent. Multinational galleries, spectacular auction sales, speculative collections, private and public museum collections, and the emergence of new scenes, notably in the Middle East and Asia—all these aspects of art’s global rise naturally have an impact on the art world and raise many questions.
With: Judith Benhamou-Huet (journalist specialized in art and art market, curator, Paris); Francesco Bonami (Curator, Honorary Director, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino); Guillaume Cerutti (Deputy Chairman Europe and Chief Executive Officer Sotheby’s France, Paris); Jennifer Flay (Artistic Director, Foire internationale d’art contemporain, FIAC, Paris); Philip Tinari (Director, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, UCCA, Beijing) and Sarah Thornton (journalist, writer and sociologist of culture, San Francisco).
Moderator: Harry Bellet (journalist for Le Monde newspaper, Paris).
Registration on our website
Conception and organization: Suzanne Pagé – Béatrice Parent with Ludovic Delalande and the collaboration of Alain Cueff.
*View of Keys to a passion. Piet Mondrian, Constantin Brancusi, Mark Rothko. Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, April– July 2015. Left: Piet Mondrian, Composition in line, second state (Compositie in lijn, tweede staat), 1916–1917. Oil on canvas, 108 × 108 cm. Otterlo, Collection Kröller-Müller Museum, The Netherlands. Center: Constantin Brancusi, Endless Column, Version 1, 1918. Oak, 203,2 × 25,1 × 24,5 cm. New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Don de / Gift of Mary Sisler, 1983. Right: Mark Rothko, No. 46 (Black, Ochre, Red Over Red), 1957. Oil on canvas, 252.73 × 207.01 × 4.45 cm. Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art, The Panza Collection.© The Museum of Modern Art, New-York; Adagp, Paris 2015; Collection Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko – Adagp, Paris, 2015; Photo Fondation Louis Vuitton / Martin Argyroglo.
