GEORGES BRAQUE EXHIBITION

Georges Braque was one of the twentieth century's major artists and leading figures in the avant-garde, belonging to a generation of artists which, in the opening years of the 20th century, invented modern art as we know it.  The Braque exhibition at the Grand Palais opened my eyes to the huge variety of his works, from across many disciplines - paintings, engravings and sculptures - various movements and styles, including Cubism - which he founded in 1908 with solid, timeless landscapes - Impressionism, Fauvism and pasted papers and exploring various themes, over many years.

L’oiseau noir et l’oiseau blanc,1960

The French artist challenged colour and line, reflected on space and changed between adventure and method, rigour and emotion before focusing on methodical series of still life and landscape painting, including the large scale series of studios and the famous birds.

In 1953 the Louvre invited a modern artist to add to its collections for the first time ever, for which Braques created three majestic paintings of flying birds for the ceiling of the museum. This retrospective features the birds series and showcases all the periods from across his vast career, gathering the artist's key works and features unpublished works, documents and photographs.

Georges Braque at the Grand Palais, 18 September 2013 – 6 January 2014