L'art en guerre: France 1938-1947

12 Oct - 17 Feb 2013. With almost 400 works by over 100 artists, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris reconstructs a wartime exhibition that it held in 1942, in occupied Paris.

This important show reveals the realities for the many artists who worked in fear of a repressive Nazi regime, which was described at the time as "stifling" and sombre" by artists such as André Breton and Marcel Duchamp.

Other artists such as Brauner, Ernst and Rosenthal adapted their artwork to the prevailing circumstances, using material such as wax, string, stone, music paper and packaging. Picasso was banned from exhibiting but continued to work frenetically from his Paris studio.

This diverse and wide-ranging exhibition comprises wartime masterpieces by Picasso as well as art produced secretly in concentration camps, and its documentary material helps visitors to examine how the face of art changed in France between 1938 and 1947. 

Tues–Sun 10.00-18.00. Thurs until 22.00.