Autumn Highlights: what to watch out for in Paris

More autumn highlights in London, New York, Los Angeles and Berlin

The Louis Vuitton Foundation will open its doors to the public on 27 October. Tucked away in the Bois de Boulogne on the city’s western edge, Frank Gehry’s latest creation does not alter the Paris skyline but offers new perspectives on the city from its more remote location. Inside the fantastical glass cloud, gallery spaces will be dedicated to the permanent collection, temporary exhibitions and artists’ projects. The opening exhibitions will be confirmed this autumn, one of which will explore the genesis of Gehry’s architectural feat, timed to coincide with the architect’s first European retrospective, which opens at the Centre Pompidou on 8 October.

Louis Vuitton Foundation, opening 27 October

‘Frank Gehry’, Centre Pompidou, 8 October–5 January

Another major opening on the autumn calendar is the Picasso Museum. The museum was closed for renovation in 2009 and has been plagued by delays and scandal (culminating in the dismissal in May of Anne Baldassari, the museum’s president) but now looks to be back on track. The collection includes over 5,000 works by the late great, spanning the artist’s career and including paintings and sculptures as well as drawings and prints. The museum also boasts two new additions to its collection, a cubist drawing from 1908 and a sketchbook of 38 nude studies from 1960, donated in July by Maya Widmaier Picasso, Picasso’s oldest daughter.

Picasso Museum, opening 25 October

‘Les Borgia et leur temps’ at the Musée Maillol introduces us to the infamous Borgias. The Italian family with Spanish roots are the inspiration for fictions and adaptations, from Victor Hugo’s play Lucrezia Borgia to the popular 2011 TV series. The exhibition will include portraits of the Borgias by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Giovanni Bellini, Raphael, Titian and Perugino, as well as armour and jewellery.

‘Les Borgia et leur temps’, Musée Maillol, 17 September–15 February

The work of the Impressionists will be seen in a new light at the Musée du Luxembourg. ‘Paul Durand-Ruel, the gamble of the Impressionists’, opening on 9 October, is the first major show  devoted to Durand-Ruel, dedicated supporter and dealer of the Impressionists. Durand-Ruel practically bankrupted himself during the early days of Impressionism but history has proved him right. The show includes over 70 paintings by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Morisot, Cassatt, Degas and Cézanne that passed through Durand-Ruel’s gallery.

‘Paul Durand-Ruel, the gamble of the Impressionists’, Musée du Luxembourg, 9 October–8 February

‘Sonia Delaunay, les couleurs de l’abstraction’ opens at the Musée d’art moderne on 17 October. Delaunay’s explorations into abstraction began, modestly, with a patchwork quilt made for her newborn son in 1911 (now in the Musée National d’Art Moderne’s collection). This first retrospective in France since 1967 will include over 400 works including painting, murals, textiles and three reconstructed ‘environments’, exploring her key role in articulating abstraction and colour theory throughout her 60 year career.

Sonia Delauney, Musée d’art moderne, 17 October–22 February

The Paris autumn art-scape would not be complete without the Fiac (Foire international d’art contemporain). Over 184 galleries will be represented at the art fair, which takes place under the glass canopy of the Grand Palais. The whole city will be a-buzz with contemporary art fever, with outdoor sculptures and installations planned for the Tuileries gardens, the Place Vendôme, the Jardins des Plantes and the Berges de Seine. A satellite fair of young and upcoming galleries, (OFF)ICIELLE, is also being held at Les Docks, Cité de la Mode et du design.

Fiac runs from 23–26 October.

Lead image: used under Creative Commons licence (CC BY 2.0)