(A review of a place:)

The Maillol Museum (Le Musée Maillol) (Musee Maillol (official site))

A remark on the Maillol Museum as a museum for contemporary art exhibitions.

The Maillol museum carries the name of the French (Catalan) sculptor (and painter) Aristide Maillol who is argued by some to be a precursor of Moore and Giacometti. It is located in the seventh district of Paris in the old Bouchardon residence.

Truely contemporary exhibitions are rare in the Maillol Museum, but when they do have a retrospective of an artist that had a profound influence on contemporary art or photography, a visit to the grand old residence is worthwhile.

Some sample exhibitions (see Maillol Museum(official site) for all practical information and present exhibitions):

Weegee (2007) was a beautiful retrospective of the photo-journalism of Weegee before the second world war. The large collection of black and white photographs was exhibited on the ground and first floor in one large room, and several smaller ones. The low ceilings and the crowd made for a claustrophobic feeling in comparison to the feeling several monumental museums of Paris can convey. The Maillol museum is quaint, gives a feeling of providing entry to a private collection, and it chooses popular and fun subject matter.

Copyright 2007, by Jan Troost