PARIS — France is in political turmoil ahead of national elections next month. Francois Fillon, the nominee of the center-right Republicans, and until two months ago the leading candidate to win the French election, now faces a formal investigation into allegations he misused public funds. His attack of the judiciary prompted campaign staff to defect last week and calls for him to drop out of the race.
Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate who is widely tipped to win the first round of voting on April 23, faces her own misuse-of-public-funds scandal and was summoned by investigators last month. She’s refused that request.
By any measure, the French election looks set to be the most volatile in decades. And yet, ahead of what is sure to be a stormy week in politics, the talk of the town was a museum exhibit featuring 19 th-century artists.
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Elections couldn’t be further away from people’s minds at the Fondation Louis Vuitton on the outskirts of Paris this past weekend. It was the final weekend of the “Icons of Modern Art: The Shchukin Collection” exhibition. The artworks drew an estimated 1.2 million visitors from last October to this past weekend’s closing — more than any other exhibit in recent French history — a notable record even for a cultural capital like Paris.
It’s testament to the love of art in France, and Western Europe more broadly, where locals often catch up over the latest exhibits at museums.
To cater for the clamor to see the collection of Russian collector Sergei Shchukin, the exhibition dates were extended and the museum was kept open for longer hours. Visitors began to shuffle along waiting lines at the crack of dawn to see the landscapes of Henri Matisse and Georges Braque.
Inside the museum, designed in the shape of a ship by Canadian-born American Frank Gehry, art-lovers jostled to get a better look at a draft painting of Claude Monet’s 1866 “Luncheon in the Grass” portraying a lazy siesta with the nervous anticipation of watching a soccer match.
After more landscapes, up a flight of stairs the works increasingly depicted people, including Matisse’s frolicking nudes.
“Matisse made the link at this time between music and painting,” said Mickael Pierson, a guide for the exhibit, in front of Matisse’s “The Pink Studio” from 1911. “The idea for Matisse is that music is maybe the most direct art, the most emotional in fact.”
The prevailing sounds, however, were the snapping of pictures as visitors arched their backs, pinched their screens and tapped their thumbs on their iPhones and iPads.
There was little to be heard of France’s political scandals that could topple the leading presidential candidates or a potential overhaul of the economy or France possibly cutting its membership to the eurozone. Instead, the talk focused on the friendship and rivalry between Matisse and Pablo Picasso as museum guides in black turtleneck sweaters and blazers herded curious visitors through the galleries.
Adrien Nachury, 38, a freelance film scriptwriter visiting the museum, shrugged off the scandals as politics as usual but said he would take to the streets if Le Pen were president.
“Maybe we could make a little more of an effort to change stuff rather than waiting.”
Pierson, the guide, is looking forward to the museum growing quiet after the exhibit ends. How did it manage to draw so many people?
“You know,” Pierson responded. “Picasso, Matisse, Gauguin, Monet.”
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Ignoring Political Turmoil, French Turn Out in Record Crowds for Art Exhibit originally appeared on usnews.com
