Art Review: Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection

In the past month, I’ve been hither and yon, two or three days here and then two or three days there, and have two meaty Paris topics left. Today I’ll write about the Bourse de Commerce, or the Bourse, for the sake of economy. It’s the new museum of contemporary art in Paris’s impressively renovated and repurposed old commodities-exchange hub. It’s now the Paris home for the collection of luxury mogul François Pinault (b. 1936). It’s bleeding-edge and very good. Originally from rural Brittany, Pinault moved from his father’s timber business to owning prestige vineyards, Gucci, high-end cruise lines, and Hollywood talent agencies. His holding company bought Christie’s in 1998. He’s a billionaire many times over.

Pinault first collected blue-chip French modern artists such as Picasso, Rothko, Miro, and Mondrian but soon went now, first with Jeff Koons and then to Richard Serra, Cy Twombly, Donald Judd, Cindy Sherman, and many more big names as well as many new artists I didn’t know.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

Featured Tags

Manage following

Art

In the past month, I’ve been hither and yon, two or three days here and then two or three days there, and have two meaty Paris topics left. Today I’ll write about the Bourse de Commerce, or the Bourse, for the sake of economy. It’s the new museum of contemporary art in Paris’s impressively renovated and repurposed old commodities-exchange hub. It’s now the Paris home for the collection of luxury mogul François Pinault (b. 1936). It’s bleeding-edge and very good. Originally from rural Brittany, Pinault moved from his father’s timber business to owning prestige vineyards, Gucci, high-end cruise lines, and Hollywood talent agencies. His holding company bought Christie’s in 1998. He’s a billionaire many times over.

Pinault first collected blue-chip French modern artists such as Picasso, Rothko, Miro, and Mondrian but soon went now, first with Jeff Koons and then to Richard Serra, Cy Twombly, Donald Judd, Cindy Sherman, and many more big names as well as many new artists I didn’t know.