Gideon Appah, The Confidant, 2021
Kerry James Marshall, Beauty Examined, 1993
There could not be a better moment for this new exhibition. The Bourse de Commerce, in Paris, has just opened a remarkable show called Corps & Âmes - Body & Soul. With the works of 40 artists from its collection, the Pinault Collection is exploring, through painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, the connection between both in contemporary art at a moment where both are challenged by social media and the times we live in. The selection of artists is exceptional: Avedon, Brancusi, Miriam Cahn, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Philip Guston, Duane Hanson, Kerry James Marshall, Arthur Jafa, among many others. Room after room of extraordinary works.
Visitors are welcomed by a giant whimsical wood sculpture by Georg Baselitz of a child, his hands behind his back. When visitors leave the Bourse de Commerce, they discover the child is holding a skull.
In the salon, after going through the metal detectors, we are confronted with a video from Ana Mendieta and large paintings by Gidéon Appah evoking Matisse or Gauguin through the color and the characters on the canvas.
Irving Penn, Hand of Miles Davis, New York, 1996
As we walk upstairs, under the huge mural covering the entire top space of the rotunda, we are confronted with bodies from across the world - fur traders, cowboys, sailors, etc., painted by 5 different artists, bodies which resonate with the exhibition. Push the door to Galerie 4 and you’re faced with 2 life size bodies, sculptures by Duane Hanson.
The exhibition is divided into several themes: The Body as Witness, The Body Exposed, showing new representation of the body, following in Manet’s Olympia’s footsteps, with works from Allan & Diane Arbus, Avedon, Kerry James Marshall, Latoya Ruby Frazier or Claude Cahun. There’s a slow evolution where representation of the body becomes more symbolic and spiritual, like in Mira Schor’s work. The exhibition then moves to the Body and Soul rooms with Miriam Cahn, Michael Armitage, Peter Doig and Ana Mendieta. On the 1st floor, the Bourse de Commerce is presenting the first ever exhibition in France of Deana Lawson’s work. The new star of American photography blends images of friends with staged images all set in the characters’ real living spaces. Deana Lawson images get their power through the tension between the mise en scène and real life. Emma Lavigne, the brilliant curator of the exhibition, compares Deana Lawson’s images to Emile Zola’s novels which got into the tiniest details of the life of his books’ characters.
Deana Lawson, Bendy, 2019
The exhibition ends with a stunning room filled with 8 monumental paintings by Georg Baselitz, a naked self representation, called Avignon (2014).
Three videos by Los Angeles based Arthur Jafa, celebrating African American culture as well as the violence woven into the Black experience in America, complement the exhibition. In the magnificent rotunda, Love is the Message, the Message is Death, Jafa’s work is a thrilling collage of videos and music. 2 other videos, AGHDRA and a final film in the Studio, downstairs.
Arthur Jafa, Love is the Message, the Message is Death, 2016
All around the rotonde, the artist Ali Cherri has set up, in the 24 vitrines, evoking the magic of cinema and its 24 images per second. The sculptures, artefacts, are like a series of delightful and poetic miniature scenes, a Lilliputian display, but their power is nonetheless real.
Corps & Âmes is a monumentally powerful exhibition which speaks literally to our soul and to our body. It can only be fully apprehended with multiple visits to the Bourse de Commerce.
~Jean-Sébastien Stehli
Zanele Muholi, Lishonile, Bellcourt, Seattle, 2019.
Pinault Collection - Bourse de Commerce. Corps & Âmes. Until 08.25.25
Miriam Cahn, Ritual, 2002
