Controversial 'Force de l'Art' exhibition opens in Paris

Philippe Mathonnet is disappointed by the exhibition, 'La Force de l'Art', ['The Strength of Art'] inaugurated in Paris on May 10. "It was a good idea: to shine a spotlight on artistic creation in France, give it 'a new visibility'. It was first broached by the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, during a visit to the Paris Art Fair last October. All the same, from the outset there was an unseemly, somewhat nationalistic tone to the whole thing - all done on the pretext that the Anglo-Saxons, Britons and Americans, have no qualms about promoting their own art. The title of the presentation, 'La Force de l'Art', heightens this presumption without adding anything dazzling. On the contrary. The project, thrown together in a rush, is poorly thought through. And the vanity of the intention merely echoes the grandiloquence of the chosen site, Paris's Grand Palais."  

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