Laurence des Cars

An exclusive look into the preparations behind the Naples in Paris exhibition at the Louvre, beautifully captured by the renowned photographer Robert Polidori. From June 2023 to January 2024, the Musée du Louvre in Paris welcomed sixty major masterpieces from the Museo di Capodimonte, on loan for the exhibition Naples in Paris: The Louvre Hosts the Museo di Capodimonte. The former Italian royal palace, which once served as a hunting lodge for Bourbon monarchs, is now one of the largest museums in Italy holding one of the continent’s most important collections of Italian paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Among the artworks featured are the famously enigmatic Antea by Parmigianino, a poignant painting of the Crucifixion by Masaccio, The Transfiguration of Christ by Giovanni Bellini, and preparatory cartoons by Raphael and Michelangelo. On the occasion of this historic artistic exchange, acclaimed photographer Robert Polidori was granted exclusive access to the preparations of the exhibition in the Louvre’s prestigious Grand Galerie. Known for his unique images of architecture and interiors, Polidori exquisitely captures the process and inner workings of the arrival, set-up, and display of the artworks. Part photography monograph, part art history book, this unique publication reveals the hidden workings behind one of the most significant collaborative efforts among major museums in recent years.

Known for installations exploring science, natural phenomena, and contemporary mythologies, French artist Laurent Grasso presents a visual journey of his avant-garde, conceptual work. Drawing on the visual possibilities of electromagnetic energy, radio waves, and natural phenomena, French conceptual artist Laurent Grasso explores their effect on our perception via immersive videos, sculptures, paintings, and drawings that resort to images or techniques borrowed from cinema or art history. At the crossroads of heterogeneous temporalities, geographies, and realities, his installations play with shifting viewpoints, boundaries between fiction and reality, and unusual perspectives. This tome explores the artist’s manipulations of what we perceive to be time’s consistency, showcasing artworks merging a wide range of interests, including scientific speculations and fictions; natural catastrophes; and representations of power and authority. This questioning of time appears in Grasso’s Studies into the Past paintings, created using historically accurate techniques, which reconstruct our perception of the reality of another era to create a “false historical memory.” Vibrant photographs display his unique pieces, while astute observations from some of the world’s foremost art critics offer insight into Grasso’s approach.

The world's greatest museum takes readers inside its unparalleled art collection to understand the keys to the history of art. The Louvre's art collection is a training ground for the eye. In this book, readers will discover more than four hundred of the museum's masterpieces, dating from before the invention of writing (7000 BCE) up to the mid-nineteenth century, including romantic or realist works. The richly illustrated guide is organized chronologically and features milestone events in world history, such as the fall of Babylon, the invention of the printing press, and the abolition of slavery in France. Punctuated with focused entries that explore themes like cultural exchange, humanity, power, beauty, the sky, and nature, this compact reference offers readers the keys to understanding art from a global perspective. Demonstrating a cross-disciplinary approach, this accessible guide brings together works from throughout the museum, spanning continents, civilizations, and historical periods. Insightful and informative texts accompany the reproductions of artworks, placing them in their artistic and historical context. This didactic art guide is the ideal companion for the art-loving student, twenty-first-century visitor to the Louvre--as well as the art-loving student or armchair traveler--and extends an invitation to discover (or rediscover) the wealth and diversity of the artworks held at the greatest museum in the world.

A chronological history of art that assembles chef d’oeuvres from all artistic disciplines around the globe and throughout the ages. The Louvre Abu Dhabi, which has aroused great curiosity since plans were first announced for the groundbreaking museum in 2007, will unveil a selected part of its nascent collection in April 2013. While the building that will house the museum collection, designed by architect Jean Nouvel, is already well- known, this book —the first to be dedicated to the museum’s collection — allows the reader to discover the universal spirit that permeates and incarnates the birth of this new museum. The growing collection, presented here for the first time, best captures and expresses the essence and spirit of the museum itself. These 300 works, reproduced in exceptionally high-quality photographs commissioned for the publication, open a dialogue between the diverse world cultures and their artistic expressions, from the most antiquated to the ultra contemporary, ranging from archaeological treasures to groundbreaking works of contemporary art. All artistic traditions are present, from Ancient Egypt and Greco-Roman art to Islamic art and grand Asian statuary, from works by Bellini and Murillo to Manet or Mondrian, and masterpieces from the European Renaissance or an Art Deco ensemble, to Indian miniatures or paintings by Yan Pei-Ming. The works are analyzed in their cultural context, highlighting their particularities, while simultaneously placing them at the crossroads of the great cultures that comprise the museum’s collections.