22 years after the entrepreneur and art collector François-Henri Pinault’s plans, his contemporary art museum has been finally inaugurated at the Bourse de Commerce, the former Paris stock exchange building.
The new exhibition gallery, restored through the intervention of the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, will house the entire collection of François-Henri Pinault who for over 50 years has collected contemporary works by artists from all over the world. “The idea was to design a lively space that would foster a dynamic dialogue between the new and the old, which is what a site dedicated to contemporary art should be”, said Tadao Ando. “It was a challenging construction project, but the team has created a remarkable structure”.
François-Henri Pinault, current President and CEO of the famous Kering group (formerly known as Pinault-Printemps-Redoute – PPR and which includes luxury brands such as Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga) developed a keen interest in art at the beginning of the seventies: in 1972 he bought a painting by Paul Sérusier which, according to him, became the “talisman” of an increasingly emerging collection.
François-Henri Pinault after more than two decades, at the age of 84, managed to complete his project: to open to the public a museum that could house part of the works belonging to his private collection that today has a total of over 10 thousand works created by about 350 artists.
In addition to some works by Pinault, the inaugural exhibition “Ouverture” offered visitors about 200 masterpieces by 32 artists: Tarek Atoui, Miriam Cahn, Maurizio Cattelan, Xinyi Cheng, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Urs Fischer, Ryan Gander, David Hammons , Pierre Huyghe, Michel Journiac, Martin Kippenberger, Florian Krewer, Bertrand Lavier, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Kerry James Marshall, Paulo Nazareth, Antonio Oba, Philippe Parreno, Richard Prince, Martial Raysse, Lili Reynaud Dewar, Thomas Schütte, Ser Serpas , Cindy Sherman, Rudolf Stingel, Claire Tabouret, Tatiana Trouvé, Luc Tuymans, Martha Wilson and Linette Yiadom-Boakye.
The Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection houses different works of art: paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, videos and performances. With its 10 exhibition galleries Pinault’s museum will become the reference point for contemporary art not only in Europe, but throughout the world.
“The opening of the Bourse de Commerce, a new site in the heart of Paris to display my collection, marks a new phase in the execution of my cultural project, which is to share my passion for contemporary art with the widest possible audience”, said François-Henri Pinault.
