Musée d'Art Moderne Set to Reopen in Paris

In 1998, the home of the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris in the Palais de Tokyo was condemned as unsafe for the public, and the following year, the museum was closed for renovation. Since then the museum has continued to host a series of exhibits in other locations, called Les Intrus (for example, the Annette Messager installation at the Couvent des Cordeliers, which I saw in Paris last summer). An article (Le «MAM» revient dans ses murs, February 8) by Éric Biétry-Rivierre for Le Figaro says that the plan is to open the museum by the end of 2005, with no changes whatsoever in the arrangement of exhibit space or the collection on display (my translation):

At the heart of the MAM-VP, La Fée Électricité (1937), the Raoul Dufy room composed of 250 wood panels with oil paint, will be lit from the floor as the artist wanted [the piece was cleaned of asbestos fibers in 2001]. In 2002, 800,000 € [US$1.06 million] of the 15 million € [US$19.8 million] of the total budget were devoted to the dismantling of the ceiling and back wall of this masterpiece. Other novelties: a black room of 290 square meters [3121.6 square feet] for contemporary video works, and 100 square meters [1076.4 square feet] consecrated to Christian Boltanski [see my post on his most recent show]. In the lower floors, the reserve space situated in flood zones has been condemned. The collection of 10,000 pieces, however, has been placed in warehouses in the northern neighborhoods of the capital. This is not the case for Matisse's La Danse, which will regain its exalted place after a Russian trip that brought it to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

Among the exciting news is the announcement that the reopening will be celebrated with a major Pierre Bonnard retrospective, including around 100 paintings from all around the world, unheard of in Paris since the show at the Centre Pompidou in 1976. (I'm not sure how this exhibit is or is not related to the big Bonnard show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1998.) The goal is "to show that this great colorist can be considered as the equal of his friend Matisse and Picasso."

UPDATE:
Thanks to Tyler for sending some of you here. Here are a few recent posts you might also find interesting:

• A new library of film footage of artists in their studios and at work
  
• Baltimore Clayworks
  
• Zao Wou-Ki retrospective in France
  
• Srihadi Soedarsano retrospective in Singapore
  
• Joseph Beuys and Anthony Caro exhibits in London
  
• Mario Giacomelli photographs in Paris
  
• Death of French painter Paul Rebeyrolle

Make yourself comfortable and come back soon!